Terry Soot MG

Please describe your company and your position there.

My experience lays in the field of financial services & consulting in top financial services companies. My current responsibilities include coordinating a team of delivery leads who are focused on end-to-end projects within EMEA and US.

I am overseeing roll-outs for new projects/launches, budget, human resources, implementation and stakeholders coordination.

For what projects/services did your company hire Terry Soot MG?

I started my communication with Terry Soot MG when we had a new project coming to UK market. The main challenge was to quickly find a supplier able to roll out quickly on the market. The client had a gap in flexibility and certain issue connected with continuous recruitment and training.

What were your goals for this engagement?

Successful rollout to the new market under time pressure as well as continuous support once the set up is done.

How did you select Terry Soot MG?

Terry Soot MG was referred to me by one of my ex colleagues, for whom they were doing field data collection in Europe.

Describe the engagement in detail.

We were working with one client of ours, who had issues with keeping stable headcount and sourcing rare positions in Europe. First, we audited their HR processes and understood that too much time and in-house resources were wasted on inefficient sourcing.

Using an external solution for such needs was one of the options to explore. Terry Soot MG was referred to me by one of my colleagues as a sourcing partner. They were helping them on other Field Data Collection project and their primary task was to actually keep the headcount stable across several countries at the same time. So we decided to reach out to them with this case.

Their team set up the sourcing very quickly and the results were also quick.

What was the team composition?

1 Project Manager, who was the primary contact person after the audit ; 4 Recruiters

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

The client became much more flexible and saved money on this engagement. Currently Terry Soot MG is still sourcing people for my client and they are happy with this collaboration.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was set up great. We had one point of contact from their side, she was quick in responding and proactive. There was an issue in finding several specific positions for the client, that profile was quite rare.

Their PM made a research on other unconventional profiles that might suits the job, which was an unusual but definitely effective choice.

What did you find most impressive about this vendor?

Terry Soot MG used not ordinary approaches. And what is important, they really dive deep into the project. As a result they can quickly find suitable profiles and they try to make it as cost-efficient as possible, without decreasing the quality sacrifice.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not really, we are happy working with them. However, it would be beneficial if they could add some side services to their portfolio (e.g. equipment investment).

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director or CEO of Service Measure, Ltd. We were founded in 2005 in Scotland, and we were strictly a mystery shopping company for many years. We would send shoppers to hotels, restaurants, banks, auto dealers, retailers, and any other B2C business to analyze their services. The mystery shoppers would pose as normal customers, use the product or service, then fill out a comprehensive report. The reports would be used by our clients to help with training, to incentivize their staff, and ultimately increase their profitability. 

This was our main offering in the first ten years, after which we started branching into other areas, including logistics and project management. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Terry Soot MG?

In addition to focusing on more services, we also wanted to branch out into the rest of Europe. We needed a partner to facilitate that. 

The first opportunity that came about was for a retail client that had a big presence throughout Europe. We were already working with them in the UK, and they asked for help with certain areas in Europe. We had to find a partner company that could recruit and train people in those areas, that spoke the native languages and could translate the work done back into English.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Terry Soot MG was involved in finding and recruiting people throughout Europe. They recruited people every month to visit spas and clubs, and fill out reports in our system.

We also worked with them on the account of a big multinational client working with some of the biggest IT companies in the world. This was a much bigger project than mystery shopping, involving several fulltime team members that needed to be managed and who had objectives. There was much more at stake.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with two people from Terry Soot MG: Taras Kopot (Chairman of the Supervisory Board) who is essentially the managing director, and his junior partner Taras Yavorskyy (CEO and Co-Owner). They ultimately oversee every project we do with them, some directly and some more indirectly. They have a wonderful, young, dynamic team.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve had a bit of extra downtime over the last couple of months. Not including those, our investment with Terry Soot MG has been about €75,000–€160,000 (approximately $88,000–$187,905 USD) per month since February 2018, when we started working with our larger client. Our spend before that was around €2,000 (approximately $2,350 USD) per month. A total estimate for the past two years working with them is over $2.16 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our first project with Terry Soot in July 2017, and our relationship is ongoing.

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

There are going to be ups and downs, challenges, and mistakes working on a big project, but I can’t speak highly enough of Terry Soot MG in terms of their work ethic. When something doesn’t go as planned, they do everything they can to fix it and improve it for the future. I really couldn’t ask for more. 

I couldn’t say any company in the world is perfect, including our own, but they really do work extremely hard, they care, and they’re fair. We’ve worked together long enough now for me to know that they’re trustworthy and competent. They’ve allowed us to work well with this bigger client, and they’ve had a huge positive impact.

How did Terry Soot MG perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a handful of projects with them at a time, and, whenever a new one is given the green light, they’ll assign a project manager. There’s only one occasion that I can think of where the project manager wasn’t up to the task. They knew that as well from early on, and they very quickly replaced that person. Other than that example, every project manager they’ve recruited for our projects has been great. They’re all hardworking. They’ll happily work extra hours if necessary. They’re very talented and ambitious. I can’t think of anything else we’d want in a partner company.

In terms of budget, we were very straightforward about what needed to be done and how much it should cost. Given how we’re set up, they’re not really in a position to say that we’ve gone over budget. We’ve always agreed on fair pricing with them and the client, and they’ve always made it work within the budget.

We communicate through phone calls, Webex, Skype, and a WhatsApp group.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They will not rest until the job is done. The client we’re working with can be extremely demanding, and Terry Soot MG understands that. They will work extra hours to deliver ASAP, and that’s ultimately what I admire about them. 

I’m located seven hours behind them, and I’ll often get a request from the client in Europe to deliver something by the next day. It will already be 10 o’clock at night for Terry Soot MG, and I’m always amazed that I’ll get a response right away, saying that it’ll be there the first thing the next morning. They have many great qualities, but their work ethic is the number one thing that stands out.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve learned together on every single project we’ve done, and Terry Soot MG is constantly improving. We’re always reviewing what went well and what didn’t go so well, and, for the most part, they improve each time.

The thing we’ve talked about the most over the last couple of years is probably communication. It’s a very natural thing, but they’ll sometimes promise something because they want to please us, but they won’t keep us updated and will wait until the last minute to say that it’s not going to be ready when planned. We’ve talked about the occasional lack of communication, and they’re improving on it. It’s by no means a weakness, but, if I had to say what the one thing they could improve on is, I’d mention communication and keeping more on top of updating the client.