Uptech is a service outsourcing company with 100 employees, primarily targeting US market clients, particularly startups.

The CEO initially handled operations, sales, and strategic initiatives. Starting in 2023, the company’s growth began to stagnate. This prompted the CEO to seek ways to secure existing revenue and drive further business growth. To facilitate this, the CEO planned to split operational responsibilities into a dedicated COO role and restructure the organization’s processes for future growth.

1. The company wasn’t earning as much as it could.

2. CEO was overly involved in operations.

3. Lack of transparency in processes and organizational management.

3. Unstructured delivery and SDLC processes.

4. Insufficient focus on business development, which was crucial for revenue growth.

5. A templated presales approach impacting conversion rates and overall sales efficiency.

Den brings a deep understanding of the specifics of service businesses, delivery processes, and has a laser focus on operational efficiency. He can quickly identify problems and highlight risks.

Den grew the company from 120 to 500 employees while establishing all key processes.

Here's a quick look at Den's background:

At the beginning of the advising process, Den and Uptech defined four targets to track the progress.

Target 1: Release CEO from Operational Duties

Uptech was already working on separating CEO and COO responsibilities. It was essential to clearly define roles, job descriptions, responsibilities, and authority for each to enable the CEO to focus on strategic initiatives and launching new businesses.

Den reviewed the organizational structure and helped effectively carve out the COO role. The existing Head of Engineering was promoted to Head of Operations, which was a successful move that enabled the company to start building improved processes.

Target 2: Identify and implement quick growth opportunities

The main problem identified early in the collaboration was that the company was not earning enough. To identify the cause, Den reviewed the P&L, organizational structure, and conducted a gap analysis and an operations audit. He identified which admin functions required transformation to improve NPM.
Den also optimized operational costs related to bench management, rethought salary strategies, and provided solutions for managing delivery-related salaries. As a result, Den helped to design which corporate functions the organization needed, what departments were necessary, and defined KPIs to achieve.
These changes resulted in an 8% increase in NPM.
Den also identified opportunities to improve delivery, which had a positive impact on GPM (go to this section>).

Target 3: Enhance Business Manageability

◆ Established Transparent Processes:

Den worked with the new COO to overhaul operations. They defined KPIs and management roles across delivery and corporate functions. Based on these KPIs, Den helped develop a multi-level dashboard that tracked organizational performance, project-level status, and highlighted actionable decisions based on changes in key metrics.

Additionally, based on an operations audit, Den suggested solutions for digitalizing and automating business processes, which laid the foundation for a comprehensive software solution search.

◆ Enhanced Strategic Planning:

Strategic planning happened annually at Uptech and required improvement. Den introduced a more mature goal-setting framework, separating strategic initiatives from operational tasks to ensure the company set effective targets and achieved them more successfully. It was a positive change for the company.

Further Results and Finetuning

Towards the end of the engagement, the collaboration shifted to a monthly cadence. The team presented monthly and quarterly results, and Den, acting as a board member, reviewed outcomes and strategized on key accounts and upcoming activities.

Next Steps

After successfully separating the COO and CEO roles, building operational processes, and improving key functions, the CEO's current goal is to step back from this role to focus on launching new ventures.