85+ hard-to-fill roles covered
50% reduction in staffing turnover
2x increase in data processing
Scaling to keep up with rapid growth
In December 2021, Colmore was approaching the end of another year of incredible growth. The previous years had seen figures of 20, 50, and even 100% increase in demand for its data insights services for private equity investors. This caused the problem every company longs for: how do we scale our operations to meet skyrocketing demand?
Finding employees with the right skills, within their budget, and available at their Dallas, USA and Birmingham, UK offices was taking too long. When Colmore did find suitable candidates, there was the added challenge of retaining their staff in a highly competitive job market.
Fortunately, they received a recommendation from their parent company to check out The Scalers.
- Location: Dallas, USA
- Industry: Banking & Finance
- Number of employees: 200+
- Partnership since: 2021
I couldn’t find the talent I needed in Dallas as everyone was racing after the few candidates. The team in Bangalore has solved that hiring headache. Everyone in Bangalore is just as good and frankly, some of my best accountants sit in Bangalore.
Building the team
Traditional offshoring wouldn’t cut it
Colmore had looked at other offshore partners but the traditional approach from hiring from a bench wouldn’t work for them. They needed highly specialised roles in not only development but data and legal analysis that most partner’s can’t supply. The Scalers unique approach of finding and hiring candidates for each partner to their exact specifications meant they could get the profiles Colmore needed. With the additional benefit of no upfront commitments, Colmore accepted The Scalers’ proposal to see if they could fill ten open vacancies in several Colmore had struggled to fill and retain.
A team of 27 in 6 months
The Scalers leveraged their established talent networks to fill the initial front-end developer requirements in a month. The roles in Colmore’s research teams took longer while new talent networks were established to gain high-quality candidates. Colmore was immediately impressed by the quality of the candidates in specialised data analyst roles. Within six months Colmore had a team of 27 junior and mid-level members of staff fulfilling roles across the company.
Positions hired:
- Senior Fund Accounting Associates
- Fund Accounting Associates
- Front-end developer
- Data Analysts
- Insights Analysts
- Legal Data Analysts
- Legal Data Associate
- Client Support Analysts
Technologies:
- React
- PowerBI
- Selenium
Running operations
Handling all the headaches
Building a new team involves more than just finding the right candidates. There’s onboarding, provisioning equipment and office space, and all the local HR and legal requirements. The Scalers handled all these headaches (and more) for Colmore. With all the setup and legal requirements out of the way, the first hired stepped into their dedicated workspace in The Scaler’s IT campus to begin their onboarding.
Keeping Colmore’s culture central
The difference between individuals who work together and a team is culture. With Colmore’s new hires joining existing teams across the company, it was vital to establish the right ways of working from day one. The Scalers’ support team made sure each new hire was welcomed warmly, issued with the right equipment, and instilled them with Colmore’s values and processes. They also coordinated onboarding sessions with existing team members from Colmore to ensure proper knowledge transfer. This process meant that from the first day, each new hire was a part of Colmore global family.
Security without compromise
Financial data is priceless which is why Colmore enforces the most rigorous IT security. Their team in Bangalore is no expectation and required access to the same systems and processes as the US and UK teams. The Scalers has a wealth of experience cooperating with other fintech companies abiding by the same regulations and requirements so only minor adjustments were required to establish and maintain Colmore’s.
The Scalers has given us a sense of belonging, moving from their IT hub to our own building. They help us with each and everything we do; HR, technology, admin, everywhere. I’ve never seen anyone else provide this in the industry.
Scaling without limits
A model that proves its worth
By the end of 2022, Colmore was convinced of the value of its Bangalore centre. The quality and breath of candidates in a wide variety of roles had provided both an increase in services and a reduction on the hiring strain on other locations. The extra timezone coverage provided an additional benefit allowing Colmore to process client data and have it ready for when they woke the next day. All of which made plan for their future expansion.
A home made in their image
Colmore’s ambitious goals for Bangalore meant they required a dedicated space of their own. The Scalers found a suitable location in the heart of Bangalore and led the project of equipping their dedicated office with the facilities their team needed including meeting rooms, isolation booths, training rooms, and even a catering area.
Growing to 85 and beyond
The constant engagement activities and periodic satisfaction surveys and workshops from Colmore’s dedicated Chief Happiness Officer have lead to exceptional retention rates. With employee wellbeing taken care of, senior staff are able to focus on business matters with highly engaged employees. By the end of 2022, the various teams passed 50 members including senior staff. As of the date of writing, Colmore has 17 positions open to reach their target of 85 position by the end of 2023 and the vision for over 100 positions at the end of the 2024.
The Scalers took the time to understand our needs and acted on them. We really needed good talent and The Scalers got us just that. From day one we’ve had real collaboration and constant engagement. It’s been a game-changer.
Scaling beyond their limits
Colmore’s Bangalore operations has quickly risen to be a core part of their business. The ability to find talent fast and then keep them longer than in western locations has made Bangalore the go-to location for their continued expansion. Plus, the difference in timezone has both created additional productivity gains by completing task for western clients as they sleep and means Colmore is ready to support additional clients in new APAC markets. The offshore strategy to keep up with growth is now driving further growth.
Long-term wins
First choice location for new hires
Expansion to APAC market
Productivity boost in processing data
