1. Affirma is a Seattle-based consulting firm founded in 2002 that employs over 250 people across several states and countries. It provides services such as custom software development, managed IT, digital marketing, and talent recruitment.
2. As part of its managed services offerings, Affirma can take over entire business processes or applications for clients through business process outsourcing and application development teams. This reduces the need for clients to hire full-time internal teams.
3. Affirma prides itself on strong customer satisfaction and communication. It aims to deliver dependable solutions that meet and exceed client expectations through dedicated project managers and a focus on transparency
2. Company Overview
Affirma Consulting
Our Mission: Become the best at applying solutions and services to positively impact people.
Affirma is a Seattle-based consulting firm founded in 2002. As a response to common project failures in the
consulting industry, Affirma was founded on the principle of delivering dependable and reliable solutions that
meet client needs and exceed expectations.
Currently Affirma employs over 250 people and is continuing to grow. Our most recent award was ranking #43
in Washington’s top 100 fastest growing private companies of 2014. Affirma has been recognized by the Puget
Sound Business Journal two years in a row for being a “Top 50 Fastest Growing Private Company on the
Eastside” as well as a “Top 100 Fastest Growing Private Company in Washington.” These awards are a testament
to Affirma’s ability to provide impactful solutions to their clients and reflect the company’s exponential growth
in both revenue and number of employees. Since 2009, Affirma has nearly quadrupled its full-time staff, hiring
over 125 team members across several states and countries.
HQ - Bellevue, WA Los Angeles, CA Ahmedabad, India
4. Business Units & Services
Technology
Custom Software Development
Portals & Collaboration
Systems Integration
Project Management
Web Development
Business Intelligence Reporting
Big Data & Analytics
Mobile Development
CRM (Salesforce & Dynamics)
Digital Agency
User Experience Design
Visual Design
Marketing & Brand Strategy
Marketing Automation
Campaign Execution
Copywriting
SEO / SEM
IT Infrastructure
Office 365
Cloud Infrastructure
Mobile Device Management
Managed IT
Exchange
Active Directory
Unified Communications
Windows Infrastructure
System Center
Talent Agency
Managed Services
Business Process Outsourcing
Recruitment Outsourcing
Contingent Staff
Contract-to-Hire
Permanent Placement
5. www.affirma.com
Business Process
Outsourcing
Our BPO services help enterprise
customers identify repeatable business
processes that can be outsourced and
completely owned by Affirma. BPO
engagements provide a ROI by scaling
up and down the level of support
according to demand. BPO reduces
the need to hire full time teams.
Application
Development
Put together the perfect team
from Affirma’s software
development and creative
design teams to take ownership
of critical business applications.
Managed teams can execute
routine maintenance tasks or
add additional value by making
recommendations to improve
and innovate existing
technologies. Outsource
product development, line of
business applications, project
management or even marketing
strategy & execution.
Managed IT
Services
IT Managed Services are a great
option for clients growing rapidly
and wanting to focus on needs
of the business over the
necessary IT infrastructure
needed to support the change.
Optimize the existing IT team
members by alleviating hours
spent on infrastructure
management, end user support
and help desk items. Affirma can
provide 24/7 Tier 1-3 help desk
support or just fill in the gaps
during a given month.
Managed Service Offerings
Outsourced
Marketing
Refocus and prioritize your
marketing and design team
members by handing off
deliverables to Affirma’s
outsourced marketing team.
Affirma’s Creative Design team
can work alongside your existing
team, provide creative services as
needed or take ownership of an
work stream.
6. Why Affirma
Customer Satisfaction
Affirma is built around customer satisfaction. We believe it is the lifeblood of a sustainable software services
business. In 2014, 167 out of 169 project customers survey responded that they were "Likely" or "Very Likely" to
work with Affirma again. That's a 98.8% satisfaction rating! This ultra-high customer satisfaction rate is only possible
because we have an organization that is zealously dedicated to customer satisfaction. Our CEO, executives, project
managers, developers, testers, account managers all have customer satisfaction as the #1 metric on their scorecard.
Strong Communication
We believe in proactive communication with our customers. Frequent check-ins, project status updates, and early
demonstrations create true transparency. Constant communication ensures the project stays on course and
continues to be well aligned with expectations.
Experience
Affirma has launched many managed teams, enabling our clients to outsource entire business processes . We
strongly encourage you to reach out to our references. We have consistently exceeded expectations for our clients.
Repeatable Process
Affirma has a tried and true model for BPO (business process outsourcing)/ Managed Services engagements and
has all the tools and expertise necessary to implement it.
Employee Retention
Affirma has been awarded the Top 100 Workplaces in WA award 4 years in a row. This is very important in managed
services engagements as it increases retention and reduces training costs.
8. Team High Level Execution
• Affirma assigns a Client Primary Point of Contact (POC),
who is the Primary Point of Contact responsible for overall
team deliverables, metric and status reporting, strategy and
process improvement.
• POC works with internal recruiting team to recruit, screen,
interview and on-board team members.
• Team Lead manages team members on an hourly basis.
• POC manages and resolves any team or individual related
issues.
• Affirma provides employee-based incentives/rewards,
performs bi-annual Performance and Career building
Reviews and Annual Performance Reviews.
• Team leverages Internally-built custom tools for project
tracking and scorecard reporting.
• Quarterly morale-events for team members to maintain
retention rates, and high productivity levels.
Key Elements
8
Client
Team Members -
Tier 2
Team Members -
Tier 1
Affirma Client POC Team Lead
9. Recurring Reviews
A common question is what the overall BPO engagement looks like from a rhythm perspective. The following is the
typical structure Affirma has seen be successful in past engagements.
Status & Reporting
Event Participants Meeting Objective
Weekly Status Meeting
Client Primary POC, Affirma
Program Manager
• Review weeks KPIs
• General status updates
• Review any projected weekly activities
• Discuss any client or Affirma concerns
Monthly Business Review (MBR)
Client Primary POC
Affirma Program Manager
Affirma Engagement Manager
• Review prior month KPIs actuals
• Discuss any proposed team changes
• Discuss strategies for process improvement
• Discuss KPI targets
• Discuss concerns not resolved in weekly meeting
• Discuss any performance remediation plans (described
below)
Quarterly Business Review (QBR)
MBR Attendees plus
Affirma General Manager
Client Program Sponsor
• Review Quarter KPI actuals
• Approve any proposed target changes
• Review progress toward cost savings goals
• Discuss concerns not resolved in MBR
• Review and approve action items from Continuous
Improvement Committee
10. Continuous Improvement Plan
As part of every BPO engagement, Affirma creates a “Continuous Improvement Committee”. The committee includes
the Program Lead and 2 to 3 Subject Matter Experts from the team. This team will meet monthly and brainstorm
opportunities for process improvements. Promising ideas will be beta tested in small batches to determine
effectiveness. Those that pass the beta test will be presented to Clients for approval and then be implemented. The
ideas are then presented for approval to any necessary stakeholders/sponsors. The following flow diagram illustrates
this process:
Improvement Process
Individual
Contributor
Improvement
Committee
Client
11. Performance Monitoring Plan
Clearly adhering to service levels is the most critical success criteria for any Managed Service engagement. A clear
plan for monitoring performance is necessary. Affirma typically monitors performance on a daily, weekly, monthly and
quarterly basis. A scorecard is created for the client to review.
Team Performance
Frequency Description
Daily Affirma Program Manager will review team performance at the end of each day to see if there is any deviation
from plan. If there is a severe deviation, engagement manager and client manager will be notified and an ad-hoc
meeting will be scheduled for the following day.
Weekly Affirma Program Manager will meet with individual team members Monday morning to review prior week’s
performance. Any goals or remediation plans will be established. Affirma PM will also meet with Client PM for
weekly status review. Client will review prior week performance in a PowerPoint format exported from appropriate
systems and compiled by Affirma PM.
Monthly Affirma PM, Engagement Manager and Client PM will review months numbers. If any thresholds are negatively
crossed, a separate mitigation meeting will scheduled.
Quarterly Quarterly performance is reviewed in PowerPoint format. Any deviation from SLA will be discussed. Status of
remediation efforts will be reviewed as well as targets for improvement.
12. Knowledge Retention Documentation
The Affirma will team create the following documents and continually update on a regular basis. Knowledge base
documentation is always available to the client for review and feedback.
Continuity of Service
Document Description
Job Descriptions Roles in the project will change over time. Job descriptions will be maintained for all roles
in the project. This will assist whoever takes over the work in hiring appropriate team
members.
Knowledge Base A SharePoint knowledge base site is typically created in BPO engagements that contains
an FAQ, wiki, system diagrams, resource list, etc.
Process Diagrams For each task, a detailed process map is created and referenced from both the Knowledge
base and training manuals. This diagram should be well annotated and contain all the
“tribal knowledge” that frequently only exists informally.
Training Manuals A training manual per tool supported will be developed. This will include an FAQ,
resolution plans on each common issue links to the knowledge base.
Onboarding Plan A document will be written that outlines the training tasks necessary for team member
onboarding.
Exit Plan Detailed plan for transitioning workload to worldwide scale vendor (if applicable).
Resourcing Plan Plan that outlines the number of resources required, hours of work, peak capacity plan,
etc.
14. Solution Creation
Through pre-sales discovery, Affirma and the Client will
map out the major projects to be worked towards during
the contract term, identify the primary skill sets required
and determine the optimal monthly level of involvement.
Monthly Retainer
Team member’s availability is reserved in advance with a
monthly retainer to ensure availability and continuity of
team members. Clients may use Reserved Time for any of
the scope items listed on this page. These hours will be
billed against this reserved time until it is depleted. After
the retainer is depleted in a given month, hours are billed
on a Time & Materials basis per Affirma’s rate card. Affirma
can also provide individual estimates and statement’s of
work for work above the monthly retainer.
Support
Our support team will provide a central point of contact to
escalate issues for application and engineering support,
resulting in quicker resolution times and streamlined
service. We support enterprise environments with proven
teams. Every managed support model is tailored to meet
specific needs of the Client.
How It Works
Managed Services
Scope of Work - Development
• Team works towards project plan or prioritized
work items as designated by Client
• Team creates a back log of client needs and wants
to be carried out over time
• Ad-hoc customizations and enhancements
• Requirements gathering and planning for
upcoming projects and initiatives
• Training sessions and system documentation
• Further value-added recommendations when
monthly retainer allows
Scope of Work - Ongoing Support
• Recurring maintenance tasks approved by Client
• Quality Assurance team for any breaks & bugs
• Ticket and support request resolution
• SLA’s in place
• Solution Health Monitoring and Patching
15. Service Level Agreement
Affirma provides centralized outsourced service support to clients by adhering to a mutually agreed upon SLA.
This establishes the response expectations of the Affirma team and drive accountability. Each team is put
together with the optimal skill sets based on the primary service needed. We can also provide custom tailored
support outside of the standard SLA to meet your business needs.
Client Impact Definitions
Service Levels
15
Client Impact Response Time Availability
Critical 30 Minutes 24x7x365
High 2 Hours
10x5 [7:30 AM – 5:30 PM], Monday – Friday, excluding standard U.S.
holidays
Medium 4 Hours 10x5 [7:30 AM – 5:30 PM], Monday – Friday, excluding standard U.S.
holidaysNext Next Business Day
Contact
Email Dedicated address provided by Affirma
Phone Dedicated phone number provided by Affirma
Impact Description
Critical Users are experiencing a loss of functionality or service for critical systems and are not able to establish a workload
Large percentage of users or every department is affected
High Users are experiences a loss of functionality or service, but a workaround is established
Small percentage of users or subset of departments is affected
Medium Users are able to function with minimal impact to business operations
Next Add/modify user accounts
Non-urgent question for technical team
Development or QA environments
16. Application Development Team
Roles
Technical Roles
• Senior Principal Consultant
• Software Architect
• Development Lead
• Software Engineer (Senior, Mid, Junior)
• Offshore Software Engineer (Sr, Mid, Jr.)
• Quality Assurance Lead
• QA Tester
• Offshore QA Tester
Supporting Roles
• Technical Project Manager
• Senior Project Manager
• Business Analyst
• Industry Business Analyst
Technical Skills
Primary Competencies
• Custom Applications
• ASP .NET / MVC
• Java
• SharePoint
• Mobile, iOS, Android, Windows Phone
• Web Technologies (PHP, HTML5, CSS, Java Script,
CMS)
• Salesforce & Dynamics CRM
• SQL Server (SSRS, SSAS, etc)
• Tablaeu, Qlik
• Big Data, Hadoop, data lakes
• Data Warehousing, ETLs
Development Methodologies
• Agile/Srum
• Sprint based
• Waterfall
Here are the current roles and skill sets that Managed Service clients can choose from:
17. IT Infrastructure Team
Affirma Roles
Infrastructure Roles
• Infrastructure Consultant
• Senior Infrastructure Consultant
• Tier 1 – 3 Support Analyst
• Network Admin
• Systems Admin
Technical Skills
Primary Competencies
• Cloud Planning & Migrations
• Hybrid environments
• Office 365
• Windows Infrastructure & Virtualization
• Microsoft Exchange
• Active Directory
• System Center
• Skype for Business
• Amazon Web Services
• Mobile Device Management
• Windows Intune, Microsoft EMS
• Airwatch
• Jasper
• IT Help Desk
• Zen Desk
• JIRA
Here are the current roles and skill sets that Managed Service clients can choose from:
Partner Capabilities
Strategic Partner Channel
• Disaster Recovery Solutions
• Datacenter Services
• Cloud Hosting (Public, Private, Managed Hosting,
Bare metal)
• Cyber Security Consulting
• Hardware and Software licensing, Software Asset
Management
• Technology Learning & Training Services
*All of Affirma’s strategic partners have gone through a vetting process and have partner agreements in place. Any
engagement with a partner is subcontracted through Affirma to ensure quality of service.
18. Digital Marketing Agency
Affirma Roles
Agency Roles
• Marketing Expert
• Creative Lead
• Designer
• Senior Designer
• Usability/UX Designer
Creative Skill Sets
Primary Competencies
• User Experience Design
• Usability Testing & User Research
• Information Architecture & Tree Testing
• Wireframes
• Rapid Clickable Prototyping
• Visual/Graphic Design
• High fidelity compositions
• Web design
• Custom & Mobile app design
• BI Dashboard/Scorecard design
• Marketing Automation
• Email Design, Nurture Email, campaign
execution
• Content Creation
• Copywriting
• SEO / SEM Strategy and Execution
• Branding
• Social Media Marketing
• Motion Graphics
Here are the current roles and skill sets that Managed Service clients can choose from:
Partner Capabilities
Strategic Partner Channel
• 3D Animation
• Marketing Automation Platforms (Hubspot,
Marketo, Pardot)
• High end Marketing Strategy
20. Business Need
The Xbox Support team at Microsoft intakes
thousands of customer support requests per
day through multiple digital platforms. The
twitter account for Xbox Support needed a
team of support analysts to respond to and
resolve clients support requests. Affirma
familiarized themselves with the existing
process, put together a team of analysts and
made process recommendations to improve
overall response time.
Xbox Customer Support Team
What We Did
• Affirma took ownership of the Xbox Support twitter account, establishing an
agreed upon SLA with Microsoft.
• Xbox Support’s Twitter account set the Guinness world record as “Most
Responsive Brand” on social media with the help of Affirma’s managed
team.
• The Affirma XCS team manages and responds to over 3,000 customer
tweets a day.
• Twitter engagement increased drastically among Xbox live users, including
non-support social engagement.
• Affirma also made improvements to the public facing Xbox Support website
that is build on the SharePoint platform.
21. Business Need
The Cloud and Enterprise team at Microsoft
was overwhelmed with design requests from
internal stakeholders. They needed to identify
recurring creative deliverables to be outsourced
in order to focus on mission critical items.
Microsoft Outsourced Marketing
What We Did
• Affirma worked with the Microsoft team to create various marketing
materials as needed including webinars, power point presentations,
promotional signage and other design deliverables.
• As client satisfaction increased, Affirma gradually took ownership of multiple
recurring deliverables for the internal design team.
• Affirma’s team is now an integrated part of the Microsoft team, providing
value on a monthly basis across multiple related assets. The outsourced
team can scale up and scale down accordingly.
24. Business Need
Quatum was looking for general guidance on their
existing brand and positioning in the market. The
public facing sites and informational materials
including news, brochures and datasheets were the
main areas in need. There was also a large expo
coming up and Quantum wanted to optimize
customer engagement create custom branding and
focused engagement.
Quantum Branding
What We Did
• Affirma evaluated Quantum’s existing digital brand
presence and made recommendations to increase
attendee engagement at the NAB 2015 expo.
• We created custom branding and focused marketing
materials for the public facing website and a
promotional site for the expo. The expo website had
specific calls to action including a lead capture form.
• The Affirma team designed new brochures and
datasheets.
• The Quantum design team was able to focus on other
strategic initiatives with Affirma’s outsourced creative
design team.
28. Business Need
Microsoft significantly changed the incentives around how
Channel Partners are compensated. This caused significant
churn and confusion with partners which created significant
partner satisfaction issues. Getting this resolved was one of
Kevin Turner’s 5 main commits for FY13.
What We Did
Affirma was engaged to create and manage a support team
whose responsibility was to manage partner onboarding
and program incentives for several major incentive
programs (SIP, Online, etc…)
Outcome
The primary KPI was Issue Resolution in 72 Hours. When
Affirma started, this was at 17%. It is currently over 90%.
We are now striving to change that metric to Issue
Resolution in 24 hours.
Microsoft Ops Data Support Team
Reference Contact: Fred Jordan – GM of Channel Incentives
fredj@microsoft.com
29. Business Need
In FY13 – it was discovered that Microsoft Partners – who were
owed payment – were not getting paid on time, or at all in recent
years. The list included hundreds of thousands of Partners and
the overall experience and Partner satisfaction was continuing to
decline.
What We Did
Affirma built a team of Data and Support Analysts to ensure:
• Incentive payment calculations were completed accurately and
on time each month
• Payment amounts and distribution were compiled, validated
and released on time and accurately each month
• Partner addresses, forms and other information were up to
date and accurate to ensure Partners were getting paid on
time and accurately
Outcome
This team was a major success for the CI organization as it cleared
large amounts of partner payments increasing partner satisfaction
significantly.
Microsoft Online Execution Team
Reference Contact: Fred Jordan – GM of Channel Incentives
fredj@microsoft.com
30. Business Need
In FY13 – it was discovered that Microsoft Partners – who were
owed payment – were not getting paid on time, or at all in recent
years. The list included hundreds of thousands of Partners and
the overall experience and Partner satisfaction was continuing to
decline.
What We Did
Affirma built a team of Data and Support Analysts to ensure:
• Incentive payment calculations were completed accurately and
on time each month
• Payment amounts and distribution were compiled, validated
and released on time and accurately each month
• Partner addresses, forms and other information were up to
date and accurate to ensure Partners were getting paid on
time and accurately
Outcome
This team was a major success for the CI organization as it cleared
large amounts of partner payments increasing partner satisfaction
significantly.
Microsoft Online Execution Team
Reference Contact: Fred Jordan – GM of Channel Incentives
fredj@microsoft.com
31. Business Need
Microsoft was developing a tented cutting edge application that is
based on machine learning and natural language components
similar to Cortana. The client needed to spin up a managed team
to take on a large amount of repeatable task driven work with raw
data.
What We Did
Affirma built a team of Data and Support Analysts to execute on
data tagging and data processing activities. This team is elastic,
being able to scale up and scale down according to monthly
variance in work load.
This was a brand new initiative so Affirma brought in a team of
Business Analysts and Developers to create processes and custom
tools to streamline and automated the repeatable work processes.
Affirma documented these processes that are now used as
knowledge base and facilitate on-boarding of new team members
Outcome
Affirma was able to spin up a team within a month and execute on
monthly deliverables. We are continuing to manage and refine this
process.
Machine Learning Team
33. Business Need
Snap-on is a leading global developer, manufacturer and
marketer of tool and equipment solutions for professional tool
users. Snap-on has more than 22,000 products, operates in more
than 130 countries and employs approximately 11,000 people
worldwide. Snap-on also has a franchise network of more than
4,200 franchises. After working unsuccessfully with a separate
vendor on their collaboration platform, Snap-on engaged with
Affirma. It became apparent, they were not receiving a
consultative approach to the platform as well as ongoing
oversight and support.
What We Did
Affirma evaluated their existing SharePoint Environment and
delivered findings and recommendations. We proposed an
ongoing support engagement model that better met their long
term goals and strategy around collaboration.
The Result
We delivered a managed collaboration platform meeting core
business requirements.
Overseeing their environment ongoing allows them to focus on
their business while ensuring their business critical collaboration
platform is running and meeting the business needs.
Snap-On Application Services
34. www.affirma.com
Business Need
Ossur Americas, a global leader in orthopedics, had a
critical medical billing application that was failing for
key customers. The current engaged team could not
solve the complex business problems and there was
no continuity for how to support and maintain the
application going forward.
What We Did
We rebuilt the failing medical billing application that
was critical to the business. We evaluated their most
critical business problems, bringing in expertise in
Business, Finance, and Technology to reconcile
complex billing algorithms. We assessed the overall
architecture and provided findings and
recommendations to stabilize the system. We also
provided a comprehensive plan for maintaining the
application going forward.
Results
We delivered an enterprise scale, market viable
medical billing system that is exceeding customer
expectations. The system is stable and maintained,
monitored and improved by our team.
Ossur Application Services
35. Business Need
Advantage WayPoint, a national food service sales and marketing
agency, came to Affirma with a request to transfer their business
function web portal to a mobile application. The app needed to include
their large database of information for distributors, operators, and sales
associates and adapt the processes into Android and iOS formatting to
empower the sales staff and drive business decisions with the
information they provide. We took their existing enterprise customer
relationship management program and created a mobile version that
went above and beyond the current web functionalities.
What We Did
Built an application that runs natively on Android and iOS platforms to
give both user types the unique interactive experience they expect from
their phone interface. Using Xamarin, we were able to find synergies
between the two platforms and create two separate experiences with
similar coding, optimizing resources and minimizing time spent.
Created a feature called Sample Express that allows sales associates to
order samples for their clients on the fly.
Enabled two unique barcode scanners that access Advantage
WayPoint’s large database, which contains hundreds of thousands of
products and gives a user full image and information, and can run a
search on competitors’ products as an associate comes across them in
the field, comparing them to the database and giving information for
further assessment.
Affirma ensured a successful deployment of the application and
Advantage WayPoint is very happy with the results. The project ended
under budget and the application is fully launched and currently in use.
AWP Outsourced Dev Team
36. Business Need
Stonehenge Capital deployed Office 365 and
needed a 24/7 IT support solution for all of
their users.
What We Did
• Affirma set up a 24/7 Help Desk Support
engagement to meet all of Stonehenge’s
needs.
• All IT tickets are handled via phone, email
and IM chat.
• Provided a 3 Tier support team, including
Tier 1 Support Technicians, Tier 2 Support
Engineers and Tier 3 Office 365 Architects.
Stonehenge Capital 24/7 Support
38. Advantage Waypoint
“What started as a “we need help now” has turned into a continuing
relationship with Advantage Waypoint and Affirma.” “Working with a great
partner such as Affirma has allowed us to be a leader in our industry.”
Harry Folloder | CIO
Client Testimonials
Spectralux Avionics
”I think it would be unrealistic for me to expect this level of customer
service from everybody because I’ve been in IT for many years and
Affirma’s very unique in that regard.”
Gordon Sun | IT Director
Advanced Integration Technology
”Affirma allowed me to work with them to come up with the exact solution that
we needed. It was very evident after interviewing other software companies
that Affirma was the one that had the most creative solution in mind.”
Noah Anderson | PM/Mechanical Engineer
39. Microsoft
Good afternoon, my name is Chris Bacich and I am a
Microsoft employee based out of Bellevue Washington.
I personally manage and work with Affirma Consulting.
If there is anything I can answer for you regarding
Affirma’s skills, competencies, or their company, please
let me know. Affirma Consulting has been a trusted
business partner with Microsoft for several years. I
have been with Microsoft for 11+ years and working in
this market for 7+ years.
I can personally vouch for the quality of their work
since I have seen them positively impact our largest
and most strategic customers. From a Business
Intelligence, SharePoint and Application Development
perspective, they are as good as I have worked with
across the entire Northwest (which includes WA, OR,
ID, AK and northern CA).
Thank you,
Chris Bacich | Partner Account Manager
Northwest SMS&P | Microsoft Corporation
Video Password: Affirm@12
Microsoft Endorsement