Recruit 121 Company History
Recruit 121 founder & CEO, Chris Holcroft, has spent the last 20 years in the IT services sector and almost 15 years within ERP. He gained his initial experience in the late 1980's working with some of the leading staffing firms of the time, and after initiating ERP divisions for these firms, launched IT Link Ltd based in North London in 1994, aimed specifically at the SAP marketplace. IT Link was Europe's first staffing firm focused solely on the placement of
SAP Professionals and quickly became Europe's leading supplier in this sector, servicing clients such as SAP UK, SAP AG, Deutsche Bank, Hewlett Packard, Sony, Barclays and IBM. IT Link was acquired by NYSE listed Modis Professional Services in 1998 and, following the acquisition, Chris resigned as Managing Director in order to spend more time with his family and evaluate new challenges.
Upon completion of an 18-month "non-compete" clause relating to the sale of IT Link, Chris embarked on a new challenge and formed his second company, Recruit 121 Ltd, in October 2000. Chris attracted some of the management team from IT Link Ltd to assist with this new venture and within 6 months, the company's services were taken to market. Similar to IT Link, the mission of Recruit 121 is the placement of
SAP recruitment consultants and SAP Professionals, only with an even more strict commitment to service on a "121" basis. This focus on service is still paramount in Recruit 121's business model and it's mission to become the premiere 'Global Source of SAP Professionals'. If not 'The Global Source'.
Since its inception, Recruit 121 has expanded its global support network through the formation of its first Americas office in Southern California, which became operational in 2003. The organization has since then, successfully established offices in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Chicago, Illinois. There are aggressive plans currently to extend our global reach into the Asia Pacific regions.
In 2005, we witnessed a great increase in demand for SAP resources across all industry sectors within the UK & Ireland, mainland Europe and the Nordics. Key relationships with consulting firms such as SAP UK, IBM, Deloitte and Accenture grew from strength to strength and the demand for Direct Hire/Permanent SAP Professionals rose by more than 70%. Some of these consulting firms requested Recruit 121 specifically to assist their clients, many being large global end-user organizations, to help staff SAP Competence Centers through structured Direct Hire/Permanent recruiting campaigns.
In addition to increasing our supply of candidates interested in Direct Hire/Permanent employment, our ability to supply expert level contract/subcontract resources ensured that we quickly grew to be one of the market leaders in this region. We frequently meet the demand of our clients in providing high level subcontractors across all areas of SAP technologies and industry sectors. Our client companies have grown accustomed to this consistent delivery capability and, to accommodate this increasing service demand, our EMEA Practice further trains and expands the Client Development Team with the intention of increasing our market share within this region.
Recruit 121 LLC has continued to cement its position in the North American SAP marketplace as a trusted provider of quality SAP resources to a growing list of global customers. Our long-standing relationships with SAP, Deloitte, CapGemini and IDS Scheer to name a few, continue to generate significant revenue, in addition to an increased number of global Fortune 500 end-user organizations. The expansive reach of our Americas region in conjunction with our EMEA based parent organization has enabled us to provide all our customers with the highest level of candidate and client satisfaction globally.
Recruit 121 LLC is not only having success with their clients, but also their other customers; SAP recruitment consultants. We continue to receive positive feedback for the ethical and professional way we conduct ourselves in the marketplace, as well as commendation for our very efficient Contractor Care Department staff that ensure accurate and timely payment to our contractors. More and more organizations are turning to Recruit 121 to assist with their SAP Resource needs; Candidates and Client Companies alike.
The internal Resource Consultants hired in the final Quarter of 2004 and first Quarter of 2005 are now an established and successful part of the Vertical Resource team. Record figures for Quarter 3 are now the benchmark for this rapidly growing company to target moving forward. To accommodate a continually growing staff, the La Jolla office since expanded to a larger space within 2006. A second Americas regional office is being launched in Chicago, Illinois to better service our mid-west to east coast customers.