Year End Report - 2000
SBR at Year-End 2000
In 2000, recognition of the company began to spread. The national media featured the business’ InfoSec Practice, and Profit Magazine ranked the company as the 22nd fastest growing firm in Canada.
Y2K saw the Sales Unit expand with the addition of six new staff. The unit set records in key process metrics, which included 9,000 mailings, over 1,000 appointments, and 20 new blue chip accounts landed. The unit now tracks over 17,000 GTA business leaders and managers.
In one month alone, the company booked over $1M in sales. SBR made significant inroads in the utilities and health sciences sectors. At the same time, the company entrenched its presence in the telecom, high tech and manufacturing sectors – this despite a widely anticipated period of economic deceleration.
All of SBR’s business units experienced increases in revenue, with a significant amount of work deriving from project extensions. Most units also reported higher rates of revenue per employee.
The Marketing & Proposal Unit bid on $16M in prospective business with an average monthly win rate of 1:2. The unit set records in proposal volume bid, with 3 months exceeding $2M each. Team members also streamlined and documented their unit’s processes. These measures decreased the average proposal turnaround time to under 72 hours.
The HR Department doubled in size and landed one new staff member each week. The company received almost 8,000 applications for postings, and HR closed over 85% of all offers extended. In addition to spearheading SBR’s own training and hiring initiatives, the HR practice delivered over 40 positions for various pharma, banking, and software engineering interests. Several of these engagements have carried over into the new year.
The Administrative Unit reclaimed 30% of its operating costs as project support with this amount representing less than 10% of all contract expense. The unit also launched a series of business audit programs related to security, production station and facility use. It also began arrangements to move major operating blocks into top-secret clearances. The team also ensured the ongoing rationalization of SG&A expenses. Complete documentation of all company policies and procedures reached conclusion in preparation for ISO certification.
Facilities Management added 20% more space to the company’s portfolio with the renovation of the 1st and 5th floors of the Graeme Building headquarters. Over 50K sf. of space is now under management.
Financial Services Group/FSG
FSG continued its focus on the banking and insurance sectors where it generated 80% of its revenue. The unit accounted for roughly 35% of company revenues. Services included project management, high-end financial modeling and forecasting, database applications, and lobby support.
During Y2K, FSG added several blue chip clients to its roster. FSG increased its strength at the project management level and enhanced its experience and expertise in the telecom sector. The unit also reported a higher rate of revenue per staff compared to the prior year. Over 35% of FSG’s revenues was derived from project extensions.
Decision Support Services/DSS
The company reset DSS in Q4; the unit finished the year delivering over 10% of company revenue for December. DSS entered the year with a robust project portfolio focused on strategy, business planning, research, and risk management. DSS is active in all sectors with a heavy emphasis in telecommunications.
DSS developed an excellent upstream penetration rate with clients. While the team had time to complete just one project prior to year-end, they scored an impressive customer assessment rating.
Operations Support Services/OSS
OSS delivered 35% of business revenue. Two SBUs were spun-out of its operations in Q3 and Q4. OSS’s business focus remained outsourced project management, enterprise systems solutions, supply chain services, and process engineering. Throughout the year, OSS was active in the food processing, utilities, and retail sectors.
OSS revenues grew by 62% over the previous year, exceeding targets by 127%. Part of the reason for this growth was the unit’s ability to mine existing and past customer relationships. Almost 90% of its accounts were derived from existing clients who extended their contracts or from previous clients with new projects.
Industrial Engineering and Technical Services/IETS
Industrial engineering engagements carried out by this unit focused on the metals, pharma, and high-tech sectors. SBR launched the unit in Q4, and by year-end it was delivering 20% of all corporate revenues with only 10% of the company’s head-count.
As one of SBR’s newest business units, IETS ended the year with morale improving among its members and a healthy backlog. IETS also achieved one of the highest customer assessment ratings of any unit.
Competitive Productivity Services/CPS
CPS developed a multi-leveled network security risk assessment tool. The unit also created two leading-edge courses in network security risk and e-business professional network security. These courses represent initial courseware offerings aimed at information technology managers and senior executives. CPS ended the year by completing a nine-month contract that saw the production of innovative tools and resources enabling the global launch of an information security business for one of the world’s largest security providers. New business accounted for 89% of the unit’s revenues for 2000 while project extensions made up the remainder.
Key Objectives for 2001
- $12M revenue
- 135 FTE, or 50 additional staff
- 10% churn, preferred staff, all positional heads
- $250K uncompensated overruns
- $14M sales with $5M in new business
- 8.75 audit level
- 9+ customer assessments – all categories
- $2M YE backlog
- 12 special infrastructure projects
- 70%+ utilization rate
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