Pá·ros

noun (pair-os: Greek)

What is “Paros?”

A Greek island in the Aegean Sea, noted for thousands of years for producing outstanding thinkers, scholars and artists.

Also, one of the Midwest's most respected software consulting companies, noted industry-wide for its outstanding thinkers, scholars, consultants and usage of best practices in providing our services.

Paros

Paros

Why we chose the name “Paros” and what it will mean to your

organization

• Initially we wanted to quickly be known by the quality of our consultants –

much like the tradition associated with the Greek Island of Paros – the

place where the likes of Socrates, Plato and many others sought their

wisdom and inspiration

• We wanted clients to understand that from the beginning (and still today)

we recruit a different kind of IT professional – one that is better educated

than the average person, has a demonstrated history for critically thinking

about their work, someone who has demonstrated they can combine the

best of both the scholarly world with practical use of best-practices

• We chose “Business Partners” rather than something about IT because it

is really all about satisfying the Business Units and User requests

Why our consultants are different

• We require a bachelors degree and STRONGLY prefer advanced degrees

(including some PhD's over the years)

• We like for individuals to be academically diverse – we have majors in business,

philosophy, music, the sciences, cognitive sciences/problem solving, as well as IT

• We mandate ongoing professional development while at Paros

• We encourage community involvement at all levels within our corporation

• We perform the most exhaustive and comprehensive reference and background

checks in our industry

• We are known for and proud of our low turnover track record

• The client receives; “….critical thinkers….” just like the old scholars from the

island of Paros. Our consultants always provide what the client wants, but you

receive often much needed and wanted different thinking and perspectives to all

projects

The Paros DNA

• Columbus, Ohio based

• Founded in 1995

• Primarily serve the Fortune 500 client

• OUR BUSINESS:OUR BUSINESS:

– Specialize in application software consulting services (services span entire project life cycle: concept through deployment)

We Keep Good CompanySome of Our Clients

The Application Services Marketplace

Project-Based

Solution Services

Staff SupplementationStaff Supplementation

(Time & Materials)(Time & Materials)

“Big 6”, High-End Consulting, Outsourcing

Paros Business Partners

Markets Served

Differentiation in a Flattened Marketplace

If you think all service providers are the same, consider this:

Take two businesses, both of which do exactly the same thing; fly you from point “A” to point “B”. Nothing more, nothing less.

Those two companies?

Barney’s Transport Services (fictitious)

NetJets

The “differences”?

No one knowing anything about NetJets would dare to compare the experiences of the two, yet, “technically” they do the same thing – fly you from “A” to “B”

The difference in the “experience” is massive however.

Is there REALLY that much difference in software service

providers?

ABSOLUTELY!

The problem is that the difference is difficult to identify early in a sales cycle for the buyer.In the software consulting/contracting industry, companies can either be primarily:

• Sales – Oriented (vs.)

• Service/Operations Oriented

The “Sales-Oriented” Firm

• Focuses on how many resumes can be sent your way• Focuses on how fast they can respond• Takes your orders quickly• Minimizes time with consultants (in order to close more

sales)• Provides little to no stability long term for consultants (thus

attracting a different kind of candidate – one who is temporary or “migrant”)

• Pays attention to key “buzzwords” in your requirements• Perform little or no in-depth analysis and screening (usually

left up to the client to do)• Often spend little or no time understanding your business,

your projects and what drives your projects• Assume they will have a given number of contractors

returned (just a cost of doing business in today’s world in their minds)

• Primary interest is in closing the sale

The “Service/operations” Firm (Paros)

• Learns the details of your business – both IT and nature of the firm• Takes time to understand “all” aspects of a consulting/contracting

requirement;– Technical skills– Life cycle skills– Nature of the project– Soft skills sought (people and trait issues)– How software products are going to be used– Key issues at stake with the project– Other factors that make for a great “fit”– The consultants roles

• Is solely concerned about finding and matching the “right” consultant for your needs

• Realizes “buzzwords” are just one part of your requirement• Spends regular time with both the consultant and the client after the

project begins to insure quality service delivery and support for the consultant

• Provides significant stability long term for consultants (thus attracting a different kind of candidate – one who is more fully committed to each client and remaining in Paros’ employment)

• Our interest, first and foremost, is how we can help you achieve the best outcomes of your project and employee satisfaction

Advantages to Anchor using a “Service/Operations” Firm like

Paros• Delivers much higher value to the client for virtually the same pricing schedule due to:

– higher quality individuals– less management time spent evaluating resumes and candidates – Far less turnover of contractor employees – team turnover is acknowledged to be a major risk factor in

software development– Less time spent by client management in “tending to the needs” of consultants while on assignment since this

is a routine service performed by Paros and is INCLUDED in the pricing structure• Significantly increased amount of management time available for related work

– Less time spent interviewing, selecting/evaluating BOTH resumes and candidates– Actual working partnership develops which allows Paros to much better understand the TOTAL environment

that is unique to your company – (over time) much more efficient use of client time• Overall quality and satisfaction is greatly improved for the same or less price

– Understanding each unique client’s environment and steadfastly refusing to compromise the background our candidates is one of the biggest reasons for long term success

– Highly experienced in worked in “managed-vendor” programs, Paros continually receives the highest (or one of the highest) rating for vendor satisfaction, overall

– Paros highly emphasizes using our own “employees” first brokering independents and/or 1099 personnel. Independents/1099’s tend to attach their loyalties to contracts and the highest bidders. This often makes for a tentative situation where the loyalty to clients often ends up in last place – the client becomes the biggest loser in the transaction by having higher turnover, higher prices and “hired guns” brought in just to do a job, rather than seeing the customer as the sole reason we exist, and acting accordingly

• Service/Operations oriented firms like Paros deliver additional value via ongoing service delivery

– Each of our Account Manager’s has an extensive background in managing on-going projects and service delivery – as such, they often bring unexpected value in the course of service reviews that normally are paid for services in higher cycle service providers such as Accenture, etc.

Four Areas of Service(all services are based upon “Paros

Best Practices”)

1. Provide high quality, technical staffing solutions

2. Full Project Responsibility

3. Project Management Consulting

4. Software Process Improvement

Staffing SolutionsThe BEST of “Best Practices” – doing it RIGHT the

first time

Software Staffing Services: Doing it Right– Best Practices for repeatable success – the keys:

• Starts with a comprehensive needs analysis (which is

operations oriented vs. sales oriented)

• Each consultant (and client) receives on-site management

support once a project begin

• Long term relationship with career development programs

and community involvement

• Utilizes a Four Piece MatrixFour Piece Matrix approach to selection

and evaluation

Our Unique

Four-Piece MatrixFour-Piece Matrix

Technology & Life-Cycle Skills

Suitability for Consulting

Services Career

Individual Analysis for

Personal/Psychological

Match with Client

Comprehensive Behavioral Based Interviewing

Analysis

Core Competencies and Values

• J2EE, C” and other object-oriented technologies

• IBM Mainframe (no, we are not kidding)

• Microsoft (.NET and DNA/COM) (Microsoft Partner since 1995)

• Advanced degrees and ongoing professional education

• Noted in our industry for performing the most extensive review and

analysis of candidates before hiring

• Advocates for advanced certifications: Microsoft, JAVA, PMI, PMLG,

Mercury, etc.

• Agile, Iterative, RUP, Waterfall, Scrum, etc.

• Staff profiles include: Program Manager, Project Manager, Project

Leader/Coordinator, Business Analyst, Technical Architect, Lead

Developer, Developer, QA/Tester, Technical Writer

Full Project Responsibility w/deliverables

Provide Software Consulting Services– Assist clients implement application software projects

– Project-basis • Take partial or total responsibility for a project and its deliverables

• We provide a comprehensive project team

• Typically a “proposed” formal solution

• Use of our Proprietary SDLC and Project Management Framework

Full Project Responsibility w/deliverables

(actual case study) American Health Holdings (AHH) – i-Suite

ASSEMBLED A COMPLETE PROJECT TEAM AND UTILIZED OUR ASSEMBLED A COMPLETE PROJECT TEAM AND UTILIZED OUR

OWN BEST PRACTICES IN SDLC AND PMLCOWN BEST PRACTICES IN SDLC AND PMLC

– THE PROBLEM:

• Project had completely failed and was scraped two times previously

• This third time was based upon a commitment to deliver the software and have it scale

properly for a new Fortune 500 client – failure on this project might have sent the

relatively young client into bankruptcy

– THE SOLUTION

• Paros assembled a comprehensive team from PM & BA’s through developers and

testers – most experienced with our own proprietary Paros Framework

• Created and delivered for pre-approval a complete Project Workplan with estimates,

staffing levels, standards, time and capability deliverables, etc. for pre-project approval

• Project was initiated and delivered on time and budget with enhanced functionality.

• The Fortune 500 was signed and turned into a major contract

Workload Distributions Software Development:

Work Distribution Comparison by Project Life-cycle Phase

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9S10%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Level of Post Implementation Maint.

Trouble

Common

Paros

Time

Eff

ort

(or

$$’s

)

Project Management Consulting

Providing Highly Qualified Project Managers to Lead Your Initiatives

– Services • Utilize and train in commonly accepted best practices

• All PM’s have one or more certifications

• Have lead multiple enterprise initiatives

• We can use our own proprietary SDLC and Project Management

Framework when managing your projects

• Train and mentor in both the HOW and WHY of Project

Management

Project Management Consulting – (actual case study) Highlights for Children –

outsourcing subscription fulfillment

Assigned Paros’ Assigned Paros’ Director of ProjectsDirector of Projects to Lead the to Lead the

Enterprise Initiative (for all parties)Enterprise Initiative (for all parties) – THE PROBLEM:

• Need to manage Highlights, vendor and key personnel (IT and users) for all parties

• Was the largest project undertaken by Highlights at the time

• Highlights had failed on every project of similar size in their past

– THE SOLUTION

• Paros assigned our Director of Projects & Process Improvement Services

• He utilized all of our standard/proprietary SDLC and PMLC tools and principals – the same

taught and used for our SPI (Software Process Improvement Practice)

• Project was delivered on time and within budget, commencing earlier savings than projected

and avoiding stiff vendor penalties

Software Process Improvement

Assist clients implement application software projects– SPI Services

• Estimation and Project Planning

• Project Management

• Software Life Cycle Methodology

• Quality Improvement

• Metrics Program

• SEI Assessment & Improvement

Software Process Improvement –

JP Morgan Chase (Bank 1)/Investment Management

Services

IMPLEMENTED REPEATABLE PROCESS FOR IMPLEMENTED REPEATABLE PROCESS FOR

ESTIMATING AND PROJECT-INITIATION ESTIMATING AND PROJECT-INITIATION – THE PROBLEM:

• IT consistently hit about 35-38% of original time/cost estimates

• Problems and inconsistencies in Requirements Analysis

– THE SOLUTION

• Paros introduced/taught/used (on a live project) our proprietary Project Estimating

& Planning practices

• After 14 months client was realizing about 85% on time/budget original estimates

» Confidence greatly improved with IT, LOB, Finance

» Better business decisions were being made earlier greatly improving ROI

» Faster implementation of approved initiatives

Summary

• Extensive experience with large, enterprise-scale applications

• Diverse service capabilities (staff supplementation, Statement

of Work, etc.)

• Application Services

• Project Management and Consulting Services

• Unique qualifying process

• Technology capabilities that match Anchor needs/profile

• Extensive banking and investment experience

• Extensive experience with conversions and integrations, as

well as new development & maintenance