Ampersand, Inc. - Commercial Markets

Commercial Markets

Ampersand works with commercial clients in a variety of ways, providing a broad range of services:

requirements analysis
system and application design
documentation
project implementation
testing and QA
development of automated regression tests
training course development
training course delivery
pre-and-post sales support
product support

We find it useful to model our interaction with clients into four engagement profiles:

Profile 1: Individual Consultant
An individual Ampersand engineer is contracted for a specified period of time to assist the client in some aspect of software or system development. The engineer is typically managed and directed by the client's management team, and adheres to the client's software development processes. Assignments of this type vary from a few weeks to many months, and depending on circumstances work may be performed at Ampersand or at the client site. Clients will often contract an Individual Consultant to augment in-house development efforts, and while this approach can bring in an expert, the client does not benefit from the diverse experience represented by Ampersand as a whole.

Profile 2: Project
A client outsources an entire project to Ampersand. We assign a project manager and oversee all aspects of the project. We schedule staff onto the project efficiently, tapping the right skills at the right time to ensure effective project completion. Ampersand utilizes an internally developed software development process to facilitate achievement of project objectives. Periodic project review meetings are held with the client to review current status, schedule, and issues. In this profile clients benefit fully from Ampersand's experience as well as from our experienced project managers and proven development processes.

Profile 3: Consulting Partnership
In this profile a client enters into a long-term contract with Ampersand for consulting services. The client purchases an aggregate amount of consulting time rather than the services of any one individual. Ampersand assigns a relationship manager who regularly meets with the client to identify how our expert staff can be utilized to maximum client benefit. As needs are identified, specific projects or consulting assignments are initiated. Paperwork and contract are set up once, optimizing the business relationship to allow rapid application of Ampersand resources as needed.

There are numerous benefits to a Consulting Partnership, including: the ability to tap complete sets of skills represented by Ampersand as a whole; reduced overhead by managing a single consulting relationship; shorter learning curves as Ampersand staff become familiar with the client's technology and apply that to recurring assignments; and focused attention from a dedicated relationship manager. In addition, for long-term relationships Ampersand can recruit for specific skills needed by the client as well as assign a portion of the corporate training budget to ramping up staff in specific areas.

Profile 4: Joint Venture
Joint Ventures can take many forms, from new corporate entities controlled by founding partner organizations, to royalty or reseller agreements, to marketing partnership programs, to informal referral networks. Though successful joint ventures are characterized by a win-win relationship for all parties, they should not be entered into without careful thought on all sides.

Ampersand is always open to exploring ways we can team with our clients, including a variety of possible joint ventures. For example, the opportunity often exists for marketing a custom system or software application that Ampersand developed on a client's behalf.

Profile 5: Our Preferred Engagement Profile
With new clients we often are initially engaged in Profile 1 or 2; our goal is to do our work so well that we become integral to our client's business and the relationship moves to Profile 3 or 4.