As companies continue to harness the power of globalization to improve performance, the role of sourcing goods and services from suppliers becomes inevitable. Procurement is also evolving into a more strategic function that is more aligned with organizational goals and objectives. In addition, factors such as economic and political volatility and technological turmoil have made the market extremely competitive. As a result, it is important for organizations to seek collaborative sourcing agencies to maximize business performance and efficiencies and gain a competitive edge over their peers.
CMS Sourcing As one such institution in the geophysical and hydrographic industry, it has the most diverse pool of people with specialized local knowledge that is well suited to the needs of the organization. The agency provides convenient global services to businesses and contractors alike.
in an exclusive interview with Insight Success, Mike McLean, Director of OperationsAnd founder In ~ CMS SourcingHe details the company’s comprehensive offerings and services, and shares some valuable insights from niche industries.
Tell your audience about CMSourcing, its beginnings and the journey it’s made to date.
In 2012 my business partner Dave Cullen and I were working as contractors and were working on the same project off the coast of Greenland. A common problem with contracts in the research industry at the time was the lack of quality options to represent agents.
One day, over a few drinks, we started to discuss the possibility of using our personal knowledge of contracts to build an agency from scratch, with the well-being of our contractors at our core. We decided to build an agency that supports contractors rather than shareholders. Over the next 10 years, we have built our company on our own ethos of working as ethically as possible, always putting the needs of our contractors and project execution as our top priorities.
For the first five years, Dave and I continued to work abroad, growing the core team at CMSourcing. We’ve always felt that seeing and working with contractors was the key to understanding the best place within a client’s project.
Since 2017, our business growth has outpaced our ability to effectively operate our company remotely, so we gave up working abroad and hired the small team that is with us today. We believe that customer service is more important than growth, so we have grown organically over the next few years, always achieving significant growth while maintaining a high level of customer service.
Tell us about the services and offers you facilitate for your customers. What services differentiate CMSourcing in the survey workforce market?
Our primary service is contracting manpower supply for the marine renewable energy market with a focus on hydrographic and UXO surveys. What sets us apart from our competitors is that we don’t hire recruiters in the traditional sense. Our senior staff are all from the industry and offer our clients the unique ability to place the right candidates in their ideal roles to ensure project success.
Expanding our services, we recently opened CMGeomatics, a sister company that works with customers and end-customers to process and interpret waterway data using its own staff and CMSourcing’s staff pool.
Please tell us about the mission, vision, and core values of CMS Sourcing.
Our mission is to become the institution of choice for our customers and contractors through efficiency, quality, integrity, transparency and education. We develop relationships by sharing knowledge gained from decades of industry experience with contractors and surveying companies.
What is USP? Tell us about your decision to become a 100% renewable energy company.
Our unique selling point is that most of our senior staff come from the industry. What we say to our customers is, ‘Ask yourself who you want to turn to for support. Whether you’re a recruiting expert who understands survey buzzwords, or a survey expert who understands complex requests accurately and can easily determine who’s best suited to fulfill your needs.
With the rise of renewable energy in Europe, Dave and I became more and more interested in renewable energy projects, and by the end of our offshore careers, most of our experience was in offshore wind farms. We also felt we had a strong moral obligation to move away from fossil fuels.
We think it will definitely make the world a better place if more companies start doing this. Moreover, many of the oil-rich countries have a poor track record for human rights, and we have never felt comfortable benefiting from or helping others to benefit from such countries.
Mike, tell your audience how you and your company have helped improve the Survey Contract Workers industry.
From day one we have always been very open and honest with everyone involved in our business, from our customers to our contractors. Unfortunately, it took a long time for this message to take root, based on a general distrust of historically legitimate institutions. But for now, I think it’s fair to say that we are recognized worldwide as the most trusted institution in this field.
We are delighted to report that our ethics and reputation for honesty are beginning to change the relationship between contractors and agencies, and that that view is closer to the supplier the contractor chooses to pay, not the agency’s ‘boss’. For the professional expression it should be.
Please tell us about your expansion in Boston and other expansion plans.
Our US client base grew steadily throughout 2019, and we felt it was important to have a local base to fully understand cultural as well as regional differences. The industry is changing rapidly and the five-hour time lag makes it very difficult for customers and contractors to provide a reasonable level of customer service.
The obvious choice was Houston, where many research companies are based, but we really wanted to focus on renewable energy based in the Northeast. After visiting several cities in the Northeast, we felt at home in Boston. Since we decided that Boston was our US base, we found a local manager there who was currently trying to put together a team. This is clearly a challenge in today’s market.
With regard to expansion, as the wind industry moves to the west coast, taking into account time zones and regional differences, having offices on the west coast would be a natural next step. Our future in America is very exciting for us, and I think it is the future of the company.
Given the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the global economy, what challenges are you facing at your doorstep and how have you transitioned from them?
Undoubtedly, COVID-19 poses a whole new set of challenges for the global survey industry, as well as the recruitment industry as a whole, as people travel around the world to join ships based on specific skills.
As every country has unique entry requirements, compliance with the current law has become a full-time job. Our resolve was to create robust procedures for each step from testing to travel to border control. With our rapid response to our ever-changing environment, we were ahead of the worst pandemic and in fact saw a 40% increase in revenue after COVID-19.
What advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs and hobbyists eager to challenge the survey workforce space?
Here are two main tips for anyone wanting to become a survey employee. First, get to know the inside and outside of the industry. No one would be happy to work for someone who doesn’t fully understand the role. We are dealing with highly qualified professionals, who see through who works hard to make quick profits.
Second, don’t overthink everything. Starting a business is a learning curve and it definitely gets harder before it gets easier. The key is not to try to do it alone. You need a partner to spark your ideas, get a second opinion on business decisions, and support you when it’s physically impossible.
How do you see CMSourcing’s operations and business expansion in 2022 and beyond?
Scaling is sometimes a challenge because we are reluctant to be like our competitors and hire recruiters straight from our recruiting schools. Our reputation has grown faster than expected, and while historically we have been lagging behind at the workforce level, we are now well positioned to build very strong teams in the UK and USA. With this team, we are aiming for record 2022 and beyond.
showing true excellence
- “I worked full time for 9 years in an offshore company where I built my career. Since starting my freelance career, I’ve come across a lot of companies that fill up emails asking for my credentials and documents for job openings that haven’t happened, and I didn’t know why until I met CMSourcing. The job offer with them has gained value for me. I understand that the email address you receive from CMSourcing is not another email address on your receipt. The transparency of our contracts through CMSourcing gave us a better understanding of how the offshore market works and we appreciate that.” – Robert Ayan
- “I have been working with CMSourcing for quite some time and have found it to be the best fit for the job. When I have work, they give me a good day rate and a little hassle.” – Chris Wood
- “I have been working freelance with CM Sourcing for over a year and have found them to be a very professional and capable company. They provided me with regular and good quality work. The staff are friendly, courteous and hardworking. I highly recommend CM Sourcing to anyone looking to work as a freelancer in the marine energy sector.” – Chris Murdoch
