BluWater and Endeavor Merger

I am pleased to announce that two of the Northwest’s top consulting firms, BluWater Consulting, Inc. http://www.bluwater.com and Endeavor Consulting, LLC, http://www.endvr.net have agreed to a merger effective March 1, 2009. Both firms have a long standing history of providing excellent Information Technology Solutions for their respective clients. Combined, the firms produced over $17MM in consulting services revenue in 2008 and a projected growth of 20% for 2009. Together, the companies provide a solid platform of fiscal stability, client diversity and future growth. The merger will allow the companies to leverage their respective strengths in client delivery, technology solutions and employee relations. The benefits of the merger will be evident to our clients fairly quickly in the larger scale and capabilities of the new organization. The addition of significant consulting resources and the client management team joining us from Endeavor will further strengthen the valuable services we provide our clients. And for our consultants, the greater number of projects and customers serviced by the combined organization will result in even greater career opportunities going forward.

Since the combined firm now owns both the Endeavor Consulting and BluWater Consulting brands, we are in the process of determining which name will serve us better in the marketplace. Early indications are that the BluWater Consulting brand may have greater potential, so you may be seeing a brand update shortly.

In the meantime, with all the news about the economy, I am excited to share this information with you and affirm that the future is bright for BluWater, Endeavor and its clients. We will never sit back and wait for the business climate to improve. We are taking aggressive action to continue to best serve our valuable clients and staff.

Feel free to contact any of us at BluWater with any questions. Thank you for your business and support over the past 10 years, we are looking forward to the next 10 years!

Merger In The Works

Well it’s been a long road and we are down to 24 hours to complete a significant merger between two successful consulting services companies here in the Seattle area. The combination of the two firms will be significant and challenging for our competitors.

I’ve been hammering away at the endless agreements and schedules required to put the merger together. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The company will need to remain vigilant and continue to drive costs out of the organization.  This year and next will be a very trying for all of the services firms in the area.  I would like to think there are a few niche players that will continue to grow, but given the budget constraints and the availability of talent, the only growth will come from those niche players that are concentrated with one client.  My hat is off to them, but that concentration is a risk Iwill not take. 

There will be other mergers and consolidations as the year goes on.  And, we’ll continue to see companies close down.  On my white board in my office I am tracking the number of services firms gone out of business so far this year…7 and it is only February.  The other day Bearing Point filed for BK…times are changing.

Hang in there all!

Off The Front For 2009

Well, we are off to a good start for 2009. The budgets for our top tier clients are beginning to thaw. The conversations with a lot of our clients are positive and we should begin to see some movement on the project front by the middle of January. There has been enough early activity that I am more optimistic about Q1 than in years past. I tend to be more pessimistic early on because I am often told what I want to hear and rarely told the truth. How sad is that? Over the years I’ve learned to filter out the noise and look at what matters to the company. This year, more than others, the sales team has committed to some significant growth in both our project and staffing business. We closed the year just a scoosh off of 2007’s revenue number. And given our year, I am very satisfied with that. What’s more important is that our margins and net numbers have really improved. If the sales team performs to their potential this year, our firm will improve over the last two years quite nicely.

Perhaps 2009 is a year recommitment. I can only speak for myself, but I am recommitting my work and our firms’ work to providing the best in class project and staffing solutions in Seattle. On the surface this sounds trite and superficial. But it has a much deeper meaning for me. In each case of success for BWC over the 9 years we’ve been in business, it’s come down to one simple, undisputable fact; personal and meaningful relationships with our clients.

When involved and truly engaged, we do well with taking care of our clients and assisting with their ideas and their missions. We also do well when we understand that our purpose is to provide a temporary means of accomplishing a goal and we should never be disappointed with the idea of being temporary. After all, we are a necessary part of the Seattle economy. I love that, I really do.