Amid Restructuring, Ciber Opens Global Sales And Development Center

Ciber cut the ribbon Friday on a new sales and training center aimed at better serving Fortune 100 clients with operations around the globe.

The Greenwood Village, Colo.-based company, No. 38 on the 2014 CRN Solution Provider 500, said its new Global Strategic Sales Center and Learning and Development Facility will allow it to take advantage of being one of the only large IT service companies with major operations in the U.S., Europe and other parts of the world.

The facility will help the company win new business, Michael Boustridge, Ciber's president and CEO, told CRN. Boustridge, who joined Ciber in June, said the company has survived for four decades due to its willingness to embrace innovation.

[RELATED: Ciber To Lay Off 4 Percent Of Workforce As Sales, Earnings Fall Again]

id
unit-1659132512259
type
Sponsored post

The opening of the global development center comes as Ciber makes efforts to cut costs, unveiling a $27 million restructuring plan in July and revealing 280 layoffs in October.

The company struggled in its most recent quarter, recording a $1.9 million loss on a year-over-year revenue drop of 3 percent.

Boustridge said in October that part of the restructuring effort will entail realigning sales and operations into global teams to create a single point of accountability for each unit.

The facility will make it easier for Ciber to operate in a truly global manner, Boustridge said, with a centralized team knowledgeable about labor laws and legal requirements across the world rather than having to rely on local sales representatives who might not know the legal environment outside their own country or region.

Ciber also will be able to more quickly and accurately serve customers and make it easier to incorporate feedback to improve future interactions with the company, according to Boustridge. In addition, the center enables sales operations to be structured in a way that facilitates more standardized and repeatable processes.

"The engine becomes very efficient," he said.

NEXT: Why Ciber Selected Texas For the New Facility

A unique feature of the new facility is the ability for customers to co-locate and work alongside their representatives from Ciber, which Boustridge said is expected to create greater intimacy and lead to more teamwork and idea creation.

"We get to know them better, we get to understand them better," Boustridge said.

Ciber plans to house at least 100 of its 6,500 employees at the Plano, Texas, facility, along with at least two of its Dallas-area clients, according to Tina Piermarini, the company's executive vice president and chief administrative officer.

Ciber scored its first Dallas-area customer in 1981 and is interested in growing its operations there as it increasingly becomes a hub for automotive and tech companies.

"Because we're already in the Plano area, this is a great extension of where we want to go," Boustridge said.

Ciber will retain its core infrastructure in the Dallas area, even as it adds the new global infrastructure facility, Piermarini said. She added that it's part of an effort by Ciber to utilize real estate strategically and make it more effective in servicing new clients.

Boustridge characterized the facility as a net new investment. At the same time, however, Ciber is carrying out a global real estate consolidation expected to yield roughly $7 million in savings.

The center also will aid with the rapid-scale training of as many of 1,000 consultants, which Boustridge said is the backbone of Ciber's success. The efforts will span the gamut, covering everything from continuing education to personalizing consulting efforts for particular clients.

The facility will offer classrooms, a collaborative center and strategic war rooms, Piermarini said, as well as telepresence and videoconferencing capabilities.

PUBLISHED JAN. 21, 2015