Shamrock Consulting Group: Advising Clients in a Changing Environment

Finding an IT consulting firm who guarantees to provide the best mix of price, reliability and service is a challenge to any business. Fortunately, Shamrock Consulting Group can bridge the gap between communications carriers and customers. Shamrock is a full service telecommunications and IT consulting firm with access to over 150 carriers in the telecom, data center, fiber, cloud, phone system/PBX and WAN industries. Formed to provide clients with a neutral and ongoing evaluation and sourcing of all communications requirements, Shamrock’s “free extension of your team” approach has saved client’s countless hours of wasted time and over $250 million in billing since its inception in 2008. Shamrock manages $80 million in annual telecom revenue, has 20 employees and is headquartered in El Segundo, California.
Core Consulting
Shamrock has core consulting in telecommunications, data center, phone system, cloud & fiber optic solutions. Shamrock does everything from writing and running complex RFP’s for large enterprise companies, to simple ‘common demand set’ shopping for smaller clients. They analyze billing to come up with an accurate ROI for the project with total cost of ownership taken into account, get the best pricing and contract language possible, make sure that everything is installed in a timely manner, and project manage the deal until the client is 100% satisfied.
Building a Company that Focuses on Clients
Paul Cooney, founder and CEO of Shamrock Consulting Group, ran the Los Angeles sales team at AT&T before starting Shamrock. “Shamrock was started out of a basic market need,” says Paul. “I found that clients didn’t like endless meetings with sales reps from different carriers and they were frustrated with the high turnover rate of their representatives. There was clearly a gap in the market for a ‘one stop shop’. I wanted a company who was there to do the best thing for the client- to provide multiple options, designs, and pricing scenarios with multiple providers so they can make the most informed decision with consistent representation. With Shamrock’s approach, the client gets the best design and pricing with the least amount of time and effort.”
Right People with the Right Qualities
By hiring the right people with the right qualities, Shamrock was able to grow in a tight-knit environment where everyone’s work and input is valuable. “I have always focused on knowing as much about technology as possible so I can do the right thing for our clients,” Says Ben Ferguson, Shamrock’s Senior Network Architect. “It’s not only about having choices, it’s about how to look at a client’s needs from a fresh perspective and recommending a solution that impacts how they run their business.” From providing technical guidance to client support, Shamrock has the right people in place.
Adaptation
Communications is changing, and Shamrock is in the right place at the right time. These constant changes allow Shamrock to grow by shifting its design and provider focus. 15 years ago customers were just moving away from ATM and Frame relay to MPLS for their Wide Area Network. Now those same customers are looking at SD WAN (Software Defined Wide Area Network) to mix and match internet carriers for “best of breed” at each site. A year ago, nobody was talking about SD WAN and now it comes up in just about every meeting. “It’s great to run a company that will never be a dinosaur – as things change, we can adapt immediately and endlessly,” says Paul.