Celerant needed a better way to serve its U.S. government clients, and found the best answer was to simply launch a new company, Celerant Government Services Inc. "We're working on a project for the Army that requires security clearances," explains John Dunnaback, president of the new company. "So in order to do that, being a foreign entity [the firm is headquartered in London], we had to establish a U.S. entity that was really completely separate. So that is why we initiated a new company."
That new company currently has about 20 people working on various projects. "But as our business expands—we hope to expand—we'll have more people." And that's likely since the public sector is a targeted area of expansion for Celerant. "Our CEO, along with the board of directors in London decided to strategically invest in two areas—the private equity sector and the government sector," he says. "So this was a conscious decision they made a couple of years ago to try to get into these two markets."
The firm will work with public sector clients to create realistic and sustainable new processes and strategies that account for the needs of employees at all levels. Dunnaback says the firm's commitment to seeing a project through the implementation phase separates Celerant Government Services from other firms. "Our engagements tend to be somewhat longer than [those of] our competitors," he says, explaining that in the public sector "it's a little harder to achieve change [than in the commercial sector]" because of challenges like accountability. "It's very easy to identify the true decision maker in the group in the commercial sector; it's not so easy in the public sector."
But Dunnaback is optimistic about Celerant Government Services' future. "We think we have our sights set realistically, but I think our board of directors is hoping that we can achieve 16 to 20 million in revenue per year." However, he knows there is a great deal of competition in the space, including BearingPoint, Deloitte and IBM. "Some of our toughest competitors are in the several hundreds of millions or billions."
Dunnaback also stresses that Celerant and its new subsidiary will continue to have a strong relationship. "We're very closely aligned, particularly in our values and mission. That won't be any different." —Jacqueline Durett
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