How SkillStorm Met F500’s 100-Resource Deficit in 6 Months Through Customized Training

Faced with a critical deficit in Developer Technologists necessary to fulfill their current projects, one of the largest international professional system integrators could not provide the dependable services they were known for.

After exhausting time and resources on internal graduate placement recruiting, offshoring jobs and training, and still lacking the necessary talent for its current projects, this large integrator faced its worst complication yet: an urgent demand for 100 resources with specialized Developer training who could begin working within the year. With this unsolvable dilemma, the integrator was contacted by SkillStorm.

SkillStorm offered an extremely structured, rigorous 10-12 week program specially tailored to the tech needs of the integrator’s projects. We guaranteed an output of 100 Developer technologists without any delivery delays. Within 6 months, we delivered 100 Stormer resources at 2,000 billable hours from day one, for a total of 200,000 billable hours annually.

Project Scope

SkillStorm had piqued the interest of the company with preliminary resources offered for a ServiceNow initiative, and then again with two more pilot program requests. Once these pilots achieved 100% success in 8–12 weeks without any rejected resources, the integrator eagerly accepted SkillStorm’s offer to expand the training curriculum to meet their 100-resource dearth.

SkillStorm developed two staggered training program timelines for 84 participants total, finding candidates from veteran association partnerships and mid-tier colleges in 4-6 weeks, and training them in 10–12 weeks in a wide range of crucial specialties requested by the integrator.

• SkillStorm sparked the integrator’s interest with preliminary resources provided in July 2021 for a ServiceNow initiative. A Senior Director had requested the development of 10 resources for a trial run of the Appian Developer SkillStorm program, a necessary tech that is not taught in colleges. In the end, he employed every one of the provided resources, and after they were successful, he ordered more from SkillStorm.
  
  

• In January 2022, SkillStorm developed another team to support additional areas that were short-staffed to complete its early 2022 project deadlines, with 8 resources custom trained in Java Full Stack and Azure DevOps, and another 8 resources custom trained in a MERN stack with Azure DevOps. These pilots proved 100% successful in 8-12 weeks with no rejected resources.
  
  

• SkillStorm further built up the training program to 40 resources, sourcing in 4-6 weeks and training them in 10-12 weeks with a broad range of essential specialties lacking in the company’s current projects: 10 in .Net, 10 in MERN stack, 10 in Java development, and 10 in Microsoft Azure Cloud Engineers.

• Then, with 7–20 resources per specialty, we delivered the integrator a comprehensive combination of resources specializing in Full Stack Java, JavaScript, and .NET.

Technologies

SkillStorm tailors our accelerated tech programs so closely to our client’s needs that our Stormers immediately add value on day one. We met weekly to closely collaborate with this large integrator to ensure that our resources would be trained with the exact technologies they needed to fulfill their current projects. Based on the tech needs of the managers and directors of this integrator, Skillstorm built the following customized programs throughout 2021-2022.

• 10 resources
• 12-week Customized Program
• A Senior Director asked for 10 resources to be developed in a pilot Appian Developer SkillStorm program. He accepted 100% of the resources, and their success led him to order more resources from SkillStorm.
  
  

• 16 resources
• 12-week Customized Program
• Developed 8 resources in Java Full Stack and Azure DevOps, and 8 resources in a MERN stack with Azure DevOps
  
  

• 40 resources
• 12-week Customized Program
• A Partner/managing director asked for a variety of needed resources: 10 .Net, 10 MERN stack (JavaScript), 10 Java developers, 10 Microsoft Azure
  
  

• 14 resources per role
• 3 Tech Specialities: Full Stack Java, JavaScript, and .NET
• Java: Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, Angular, Azure, DevOps
• JavaScript: MongoDB, Express, React, NodeJS, Azure, DevOps
• .NET: Web API, Entity Framework, .NET Core, Angular, Azure, DevOps

Our Approach

SkillStorm has developed a unique process in order to deliver resources in 12 weeks equivalent to two years of experience, and we follow a precise timeline to guarantee resources. Our goal is always to close the skills gap; we offer experiential, project-based training with real-time scenarios in specific technologies not taught in colleges. 

Our SkillStorm Engineers design and implement active, in-person training specifically to fulfill the unique tech requirements of the integrator’s projects. Resource candidates train 40 hours per week, for a total of 480 hours. We are confident in our thorough resource training, with the guarantee that our clients can send back any unwanted resources to be deployed elsewhere.

What skillsets did we look for when sourcing candidates?

We do not replace the college-hire program, which is part of a company’s DNA; we offer an alternative. SkillStorm sources candidates from mid-tier colleges and veteran association partnerships. We scope high-achieving tech talent throughout the US by starting with two prerequisites: STEM Bachelors in Science degrees and coding experience. Then, through our interview process, we verify they have the soft skills and technical skills needed to be billable and client facing day one. Later, we conduct weekly status checks on our cohort training programs. This includes screening, vetting, and sometimes even removing resources as needed.

What questions did we ask the client before scoping the project?

We always have a discussion with our clients before we scope a project to make sure the proper technical engineers are creating and instructing a completely unique curriculum for their requirements. We want to meet their most immediate needs, and ramp up our Stormers for the most difficult elements of the awaiting job requirements. 

We ask general questions like, What specific frameworks and technology are you using on your projects? What are the most important things that these resources need to know? We also ask technical questions such as, Which features within Oracle Cloud do your developers use the most? 

Our specific questions allow us to determine the exact stack each project requires. We then have our engineers tailor training programs to that exact stack.

How did we structure the training to ensure that the exact requirements were met?

Prior to developing our training program, we delivered a complete technology mock-up. If the tech looks correct, we develop a proposed curriculum and timetable. Based on a final technical requirements analysis, SkillStorm redrafts the curriculum, finalizes it, and the client signs off on it.

With this project, we met with this large integrator every week during the development phase to present the progress and make sure our training was continuing to align with their project needs. As a result of this communication, we were sure that our Stormers had the exact specifications they needed to become billable on day one.

Results

SkillStorm generated and deployed a total of 100 custom-built talent within six months. We followed a 4-6 week recruiting timeline and a rigorous 10-12-week project-based advanced curriculum for each cohort. All resources were delivered on time, totaling 100 Stormers at 2,000 billable hours from day 1, for a grand total of 200,000 billable hours per year. This highly disciplined program resulted in nearly half of the resources going to end clients on day one and the other half working on internal products.