Since my update in March, the United States has announced worldwide tariffs and also reined itself in such that the economic outlook is as clear as mud. As a result, businesses are uncertain about the economy and therefore are reticent to make commitments to invest. As such, recruiting activity has slowed down and some capital investments have been put on hold. But, as you will read below, we have made additional progress with our existing customer base. The primary challenge now is about onboarding new clients; but we will remain focused on customer growth as we head into the summer.
Augment at a Glance
In the past 2 months, we did not sign any new clients but 8 team members were extended and we added 2 new consultants at existing clients! Most importantly, we had only one consultant wrap up an engagement following the completion of an M&A transaction the consultant supported. We have also added 11 consultants to the platform, and, today the platform of available consultants stands at 101.
New, Existing, and Prospective Clients
Our two new engagements include credit analytics support for an existing Top 30 bank as well as an FP&A role for a publicly traded fintech where we have several other consultants.
As I mentioned above, we did not sign any new clients during this update window. We did have introductory calls with several clients including a mid-sized home warranty company that is seeking alternatives to full-time hiring. We continue to discuss opportunities to fill program management and collections analytics & operations roles at existing clients.
We’ve also been informed that our large tax prep client is ending its relationship with a 3rd party managed services provider and will now manage its contractor workforce internally. We’ll be meeting with them soon to discuss other needs that Augment can help fulfill!
Why Extensions Are the Metric That Matters
In the past 90 days, we have also extended 5 consultants. Our success rate in client extensions remains at 96%. Impressively, 73% of our “ever” customer base is currently an active client. We’ve been at this for 4 years (as of June) so it is quite a testament to the value we provide when almost 3 in 4 of our customers continue to leverage our services!
In-Demand Job Families
Regarding our highest priority resource needs, I would appreciate it if you would please pass along available individuals with the following areas of expertise. Our main focus is people who want to be consultants, not seeking full-time jobs, but we are happy to speak to anyone with the right skillsets:
- Marketing Analytics
- Data Analytics, both coding and business intelligence
Looking Ahead
While the outcome for business is mired in uncertainty, I remain optimistic about our business. Augment is built to help clients during times of uncertainty and difficulty.
