Temporary consultants take top jobs - Jacksonville Business Journal:

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Jacksonville-based Real Mortgage Systems turned to anotherlocap company, financial recruiter , which was adding a division offering interim financial consultants to local Now with a contracted CSI Searcg consultant, Kirstin McMullen, as a controlle and a $36 million commercial and residential lender, Real Mortgag e Systems can set its long-term goalws and seek more national lenders. Thorpe hopes to hire the consultantt permanently after contractualagreements expire. Severalk national companies offer financial consultant s toarea employers. But such companies typically are not alsostaffinhg agencies, nor do they want to lose theid consultants to their clients.
CSI Search is part of , whic includes a custom staffing agency, a healtu care staffing arm and an information technologstaffing company. CSI Search has hired about 25 financiaol consultants for its new called InterimFinancial Solutions. The program offere temporary guidance to businesses in 14 such asinternal auditing, budgeting and Securities and Exchange Commission reporting, due diligence and Sarbanes-Oxley The company hopes to expand this division to its othert offices full time, with more consultants and clients. For the it could mean a future permanent perhaps as a chief financial officer foranother company.
It's also a way for seasonef financial executives to continue their careerss on aninterim basis. Most of the contracts are based on an hourlyu rateaveraging $40 or more per The 5-year-old financial recruiting companh was offering what it called "lower leve consultants" up until the new division was created. CSI Searcn Senior Manager Ricky Caplin said the companyu created an upperleveo -- primarily based on experience -- consultanft division because it saw a demand amonfg its existing clients. Clientsd using the program range from startupx like Real Mortgage Systems to moreseasoned Md.
-based , the international defense and aerospace company that bought Jacksonville-basef in August. CSI Search provided a tax consultant forBAE "We chose CSI Search because they were very proactiver and very reasonable," Thorpe said. "The candidate is outstandint and the terms and conditions fit our CSI Search provides the consultant for terms typically ranging from six weeks tosix months, and dependingv on the agreement, the consultant could be hireds full time. Real Mortgage Systems has a one-yeafr contract with CSI but the initial period with the consultany isthree months.
Then the company can decide if it is interested in offering a permanent Thorpe said he is already interested in hiring the interimm controller full time but it is also based onthe consultant'zs decision. CSI differs from otherd financial consultant firms in that it offers a creditt to the company if the clienr decides to hire the consultant full time after the contract Other firms typically have a consultinbg and referral fee as well as a rigidhourlg fee, Thorpe said. National consultant company , based in Hauppauge, has an office in Jacksonville with about30 employees.
Mike vice president of the Florida area officee forAccretive Solutions, said the company differ s because its consultants are full-time employeesa paid mostly by "We are not a staffing he said. "We have had good success becausee most people who have a sophisticatefd system want aconsultant firm." But Tanner and other consultantx agreed that there is still room for competition in the "It's definitely a tight market, but it all dependas on what you're offering," said Angela Lyle, managingg director of the Jacksonville practicre of Irvine, Calif.-based (NASDAQ: RECN), an internationalp professional services company.
Consultant servicexs "has been a very strong business, but just like any othe business, it has its ebbs and flows," she said. The office had an average of 20 percent to 25 percent growtn in annual revenue during the past five but Lyle expects it to slow slightly witheconomixc changes. Caplin did not disclose how much revenuwe the consultant services division would generate for his but said it wouldbe "a significangt part of CSI Search in the future.
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