COMPANY

Cheops provides consulting services to both large companies and SMEs, but is not comparable to a temporary employment agency or a recruitment and selection agency. So how is the Cheops approach different? And what does the company mean by 'managed consulting’? The consulting team, consisting of Patrick Muylaert, Anke Crauwels and Alain van den Aarssen, provides the answers to these questions.

Managed consulting?
Patrick Muylaert, Sales & Marketing Director and Operations Director, clarifies the distinction between ‘consulting’ and ‘managed consulting': “Cheops aims to go much further with its consulting services than merely placing a few IT specialists at companies. We want to provide the closest possible match to the ambition and vision of the company in question, and we try to do that in various ways. For example by outsourcing our own staff. Employees are carefully selected according to strict criteria. Obviously they must have the required technical knowledge, but soft skills are equally important. We ask ourselves whether the person in question is versatile, to what extent he can contribute ideas to the customer's business, and so on. Over the years, we have developed a pool of consultants from which we select the best possible match for the company.”

Tailored to the needs of SMEs
In terms of continuity, managed consulting offers clear added value to SMEs. HR manager Anke Crauwels explains: “Cheops has a fast response time and great flexibility in the field of consulting. Through our intensive resource capacity planning, we are quickly able to fill temporary staff shortages, for example, if an employee is sick or taking a career break. We also provide temporary solutions for vacancies that are difficult to fill. Of course, a comprehensive competence intake interview is a precursor to a consulting assignment, to make sure we are bringing the right skills on board. Cheops knows better than anyone the IT needs of SMEs, and this managed consulting formula is unique in the marketplace.” 

Virtual teams
The fast response time and great flexibility of the consulting services are intrinsically linked to Cheops' virtual teams. Patrick Muylaert: “Within Cheops we have so-called 'virtual teams' that work together closely. For example, someone from the Managed Services team can also be deployed for a consulting assignment. The advantage of this synergy is that we have a large pool of deployable consultants, enabling us to respond quickly if required. In addition, we can assign our consultants both for short periods and longer term, anything from one day to 10 years, as it were.”

Cheops' corporate values
Cheops' values are crucial in managed consulting. Alain van den Aarssen, Business Development Manager, says: “Our company attaches great importance to new consultants buying into the values of Cheops: innovation, results, teamwork and trust. Someone with a 9-to-5 mentality is not suitable as a Cheops employee. Cheops aims not only to supply companies with the right IT consultants, we want to assist our consulting clients with the right advice, contribute to their process of reflection and help develop their business. Depending on the needs of the company, we also provide custom training for our employees.”

22 years' know-how
Companies that opt for Cheops managed consulting services can also count on the know-how of the whole team, says Anke Crauwels: “Our consultants are backed up by all the know-how at Cheops, which has been built up over 22 years. If there is a particular problem for which the consultant does not have an immediate solution, then he can always seek the advice of his colleagues. This is what we call our 'competence centre'.”

Added value
Patrick Muylaert concludes: “The separate components of our consulting services may not be earth-shattering, but the strength of Cheops lies in the combination of all these factors. That is what generates the added value of our managed consulting services.”