Alcor

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a product company that develops hardware wallet technology to provide the highest level of security for crypto assets

For what projects/services did your company hire Alcor?

We needed help with recruiting initiatives because we don't have any internal recruiters in Ukraine and help in Human Resources activities was appreciated.

What were your goals for this engagement?

There are many candidates out there, and it’s difficult to find the right one, especially for specialized roles and complicated domain. Aside from receiving help with recruitment efforts, we wanted to find the best candidates for the roles we desperately needed to fill.

How did you select Alcor?

We looked at multiple recruiting firms we found online. As a smaller company, we’re cautious not to squander profits on expenses that don’t provide a return on investment. As a result, the reasonable cost was in our top criteria.

After evaluating firms on their experience with our industry, their communication style, cost, and ideas to help us be successful, we came down to this firm. These factors have made a professional relationship possible in which they have now become our single-source firm for recruiting services.

Describe the engagement in detail.

I send them a job description after highlighting a few factors like compensation, location, requirements, and responsibilities. A recruiter receives it and calls me to ask more questions about any details.

They take their own notes and begin their process. They provide first precheck interviews, select decent candidates, and send to us resumes that meet our skillset and salary requirements within 3–4 days. I look at the candidates and the company helps to set interviews, gathers feedbacks, provides weekly reports.

What was the team composition?

The team consists of several hr managers and recruitment specialists, an account manager. I have direct contact with all of them on a daily basis, which is very suitable and convenient.

Can you share any outcomes from the engagement that demonstrate progress or success?

This vendor's large network and process of prescreening candidates allows me to receive only 4–5 resumes that truly meet the requirements as there are a substantial amount of unqualified resumes and profiles on different websites and LinkedIn, and I don’t have the time to review that volume.

It really cuts down on my normal workload. Open positions are also filled quickly and the quality of the candidates we’re sent has been great. The fact that I receive a small handful of candidates who are hard to choose from is a great measure of success. We’ve filled around 4 positions within a month or so and the candidates meet the job requirements.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They are very open to and timely in terms of feedback. They really do listen and care. Whenever we have questions, I can ask their team for help and they’ll reliably find a solution.

Every resume was sent with brief comments after their prescreening interview of candidates. Team's ability to meet the goals they set for themselves is also very consistent. The team that we’re working with is fast and great with finding candidates and supporting the whole recruitment process from start till the offer.

What did you find most impressive about this vendor?

Recruiters and managers have all been great. Recruiters I've worked with have truly tried to understand our needs and job specifics and ensured the resumes we receive are more than well aligned. I really value their ability to listen.

Also, every feedback and candidate's comments were passed to me and discussed together with the team how to make the process easier and fulfill everyone's needs and expectations.

Are there any areas for improvement?

As we were working together on filling about 6-7 positions, there were times when some candidates were sent to me with a lower level of expectations described in Job Description. On the other hand, the team was reacting quickly with a professional attitude to any of our changes or wishes, holding a position or opening a completely new one.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CTO of Tonic Health, a data collection company in the healthcare space. We replace the manual processes that exist in healthcare. When patients fill out forms in a doctor's office, that's typically on paper, but with our system, patients complete those forms on an iPad or another mobile device before the appointment.

What challenge were you trying to address with Alcor?

Traditional outsourcing firms work well for certain projects, but we wanted to build our own R&D center in Ukraine and align it with our values and business processes. We wanted to have more control than is typically usually afforded in an outsourced engagement. We engaged with Alcor to serve as a business process outsourcer to help us accelerate how quickly we build out the R&D center.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Alcor has been instrumental in our business growth in Ukraine. First and foremost, their team helped us find an office and negotiate a lease for our facility. We worked with the recruitment team to build a staff of engineers that would work for our company. This included building different Facebook and LinkedIn pages to foster more brand awareness in the developer community. In conjunction with that process, Alcor’s legal team provided consultation and development of a legal structure for the operation. It can be a rather cumbersome process for citizens to register themselves and find the appropriate legal and tax forms, so we relied on Alcor to guide us in that regard. Further, Alcor initially arranged and continues to manage our accounting and human resources processes. For instance, instead of us paying individual developers each month, we send one large sum to Alcor, and they distribute the payments to the staff.

What is the team composition?

We work with various members of their legal, recruiting, accounting, and business development teams.

How did you come to work with Alcor?

We were probably one of their earliest customers. They were separating from one of the larger outsourcing firms in Ukraine that they had provided accounting services for. Alcor was starting on its own and looking for more commercial clients at the same time we were looking to streamline our accounting services. We learned that we could count on them to properly shepherd us through the complexities of our venture. They started with our accounting services, but we soon expanded our relationship to include every service offering they have.  

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve paid in the range of $100,000–$250,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in 2011 and remains ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Ultimately, the quality of what we produce in our R&D center depends on the people we hire and the culture we create. Alcor has never led us astray in that regard. We’ve never had a headache stem from any of the services they provide.

We hope to focus on building our products and not be concerned about legal problems, on-time payments, or tax liabilities. The real value of working with Alcor is never having to worry about those problems in all the years we’ve worked together.

How did Alcor perform from a project management standpoint?

I value their transparency in the kind of service they will provide, and they deliver what they say they will deliver. We haven’t had any complications with our projects.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They provide white-glove service, and they put a lot of creativity into solving problems. We’ve explored opening an R&D center in a different geographical location than one they traditionally serve, and we’ve asked if they’re willing and able to handle it. They’re looking into it and determining their options. They’ve been a very strategic partner in that sense.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing stands out as needing improvement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Alcor is the best out there for those that need the tools to create an extension of their business that is deeply linked to how they want to work.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former CEO of a software development company with locations in Poland and Ukraine.

What challenge were you trying to address with Alcor?

We were in a complicated situation regarding the legal relationships and unbalanced business interests between our company and our US intermediary as well as several key customers. Some unusual (or non-typical) requests required an in-depth review and analysis of existing agreements.

We hired Alcor to work with us to find a solution because we felt that we would likely end up at a dead end due to legal complications and significant differences in business interests. Companies usually deal with bilateral agreements, but, in our case, there were four sides involved, which complicated things.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Alcor provided consulting services. We began the engagement by discussing our situation, then did a deep dive into particular legal and negotiation aspects, and key interests of the parties. Their team wanted to understand our company’s history. We worked with them to understand the key benefits of all parties involved.

The process contained a level of risk. If something wasn’t completed properly, relationships could’ve been damaged with customers and partners. Our reputation and relationships will well-known companies would be affected as well.

We met regularly to document artifacts and create a negotiation map. Their team was also involved in several of our calls with other parties.

What is the team composition?

We initially worked with Dmitry (CEO, Alcor). A majority of the legal work was completed by Sergey (Head of International Law Development, Alcor). Others were involved, but not as directly.

How did you come to work with Alcor?

We knew of each other from the IT Ukraine Association. Before engaging with them, we met with Dmitry, and he promoted his services. We didn’t have any particular needs at the time, so their team helped with small business-related issues. Since we had a positive experience previously, we decided to go with Alcor when we needed legal consulting.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Alcor in 2017, and their team is still providing services for the company.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Alcor helped our company avoid complicated business risks. Our intermediary introduced some complications, and there were issues from a legal perspective. Because of Alcor, we renewed and continued contracts with several major customers.

How did Alcor perform from a project management standpoint?

Alcor’s project management was effective. Our situation wasn’t typical, and the stakes were high. The speed of negotiations and discussions were sometimes done extremely quickly because of the locations of some of our counterparts. Sometimes we were working 24/7 because of time zone differences. The process got intense.

Alcor’s team of professionals works hard to understand core business needs. That isn’t easy to find. Rather than focusing on the hypothetical aspects, their team concentrated on what was most important.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team understands business interests and priorities. I’ve worked with several legal companies. Not all of them realized what was important and had issues identifying the core interest. Alcor’s business focus is one of their strongest qualities. They have the proper balance of competence and performance. Even in tougher negotiations, Alcor found a creative solution, providing our team with leverage in the argument for negotations. They never made our business look helpless.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Due to time differences, there were small issues with connectivity and scheduling. The entire process was an intense situation, and we were pushing hard.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My suggestion would be to work with their senior lawyers. Working with Dmitry and Sergey was quite responsive.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of the Ukrainian office of a global software company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Alcor?

We hired Alcor to replace an in-house accounting resource we lacked legal and accounting best practices. The transition required legal assistance, which became a supplemental requirement for the team.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Alcor handles all of our accounting work and the legal side of our reports and documentation. The team helps us obtain work permits on behalf of our foreign resources.

What is the team composition?

The team includes a chief accountant and a legal services lead. Alcor scales the team as necessary. We also interact with the CEO and the director of the legal department.

How did you come to work with Alcor?

Our team researched multiple companies. We knew the head of Alcor and discussed our needs with him during our search.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2016 and the partnership is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Alcor’s expertise and implementations have enabled us to run our company in the way and at the level we want. We don’t always have a solution in mind, but Alcor has answered all of our questions. We couldn’t have implemented those best practices without them.

How did Alcor perform from a project management standpoint?

We are satisfied with the team’s performance because they communicate regularly, met deadlines, and support their answers with substantive information. The teams are in touch daily.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Alcor’s knowledge of the Ukrainian IT and business sectors is comprehensive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s always something that can be done better, but I can’t point to any specific issues.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should remember that they're still responsible for their own business even if they're using an external service. Clients should communicate expectations clearly at the start of the project.