Consulting Magazine - September 2016

Collaborative Solutions
The Best Firms to Work For list has a tendency to look pretty
familiar year after year. For the most part, a handful of usual
suspects populate the rankings. But every once in a while, a
new firm emerges from seemingly nowhere to shake up the
upper echelons of the rankings. This year, that firm is Reston,
Va.-based Collaborative Solutions.

“We have been privileged to win a number of company awards, but being one of the Best Firms to Work For truly provides that validation of what we have always believed— that Collaborative Solutions is truly a great place to work,” says Carroll Ross, CEO of Collaborative Solutions.

“We believe in the simple but proven formula that happy employees translate to happy customers.

Happy employees stay with a com-
pany and less turnover means our
projects are stable. Receiving this
award further reinforces this point to
both our existing customers and pro-
spective customers about working
with Collaborative Solutions.”
The last time we saw
Collaborative Solutions on the list
was back in 2013 when the firm was
ranked as the No. 10 firm on the Best
Small Firms to Work For list. At that
time, Collaborative Solutions had
only 120 billable consultants. Plenty’s
changed in just three years. For start-
ers, the firm has grown significantly.

“From an external or client-fac-ing perspective, we anticipate the growth not only of our core cloud deployment services, but also of both our Strategic Implementation Planning and Organizational Change Management services,” Ross says.

“We firmly believe these two areas
will continue to be key in driving the
success of our customers.”
Collaborative Solutions operates
in the very dynamic and evolving
market of consulting services for
cloud-based solutions. As such,
Ross says, the firm must be nimble,
flexible and innovative in its ap-
proaches to both customer delivery
and employee engagement.

“It’s not a coincidence that our name has ‘collaborative’ in it. We pride ourselves on being a truly collaborative team, and we are well known for our open communication style across the company,” he says.

“We strive to make each customer
experience unique and each out-
come for our customers consistently
successful. Our leadership remains
grounded and engaged at all levels
in the company.”
Speaking of engaged leadership,
the firm’s President also holds the
role of Chief Culture Officer and is
focused on the continual development
of the firm’s employee programs and
company cultural initiatives. “We be-
lieve this role is unique in our indus-
try segment and is one of the key rea-
sons we continue to have a strongly
committed employee population,”
Ross says. “Everyone is willing to
roll-up their sleeves and support their
co-workers and their customers.”

WHAT’S THE TOP PRIORITY OVER THE NEXT 12 MONTHS?

ROSS: “As we move forward over the next 12 months, we will be focused on key initiatives that further grow and develop our employee experience, while further expanding the services we provide to our customers. From an internal perspective, we will continue to build out our world-class Learning & Development function, known as Collaborative University, to support the continued personal growth and skill development of our employees.”