Vault Consulting has been delivering professional services (outsourced accounting and research) for five years; however, that only accounts for the time the leadership team has spent under the name Vault Consulting. Long is it written in the history of professional services firms that eventually organizations break off or get acquired. Vault Consulting is no anomaly to industry norms; in fact, one can trace back their origins over thirty-four years ago. While the celebration of five years in business may give off the allure of a nascent organization, Vault Consulting has the longevity and tenure of a long withstanding firm.
CEO Jamie Saylor is proud of how an organization with offshoots from “the big four” is working to bring top-notch accounting and professional services specifically to the Not-For-Profit sector. More than proud, the CEO is most fond of how the firm carries itself with a proven track record but operates with the gusto of a fresh entrepreneurial network. “What’s fun and interesting about Vault is that we have the spirit of a startup. We are always focused on improving all aspects of the business. However, we have the stability of having proven this business model for a number of years.”
Certainly, this is a platform to which the firm holds fast, but it does not only function as a persuasive line in a proposal or marketing copy for the website. It is the foundation of their work, the foundation of their partnerships. President of the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA), John Lyboldt, has been a client since 2016 and can attest to the longevity of the association’s partnership with the firm. “While I have only been working with Vault for 4.5 years, my organization has been working with them for closer to fifteen.”
Chief Operating Officer Amy Horner believes it is the tenured experience that gives clients the confidence to partner with them. “Most people do not see working with us as risky when compared to a startup. The tenure and experience make us different.” The COO, who also has experience in sales, is now one of the executives responsible for business development. “By pursuing [previous/past] relationships, we’ve had incredibly successful new client acquisitions,” remarks Horner.
Today, the professional services firm still partners with over ninety percent of the organizations they have worked with for twenty years. The depth of experience and specialized focus gives clients the reassurance that whatever unforeseen situation arises, Vault has likely overcome similar obstacles before.
Research client Donna-Jo Pepito, Director of Education and Research Strategy at NACAS, the leading organization supporting college auxiliary services, partnered with Vault only a couple of years ago. However, each time the nation-wide benchmarking program the firm is helping NACAS manage throws her a curveball, she is reassured by a well-informed and approachable demeanor. She relates, “Their approach is always calm and collected, and it never seems like my ‘problems’ are problems whenever I talk to them.”
Similar to the outsourced accounting legacy, the research unit of the professional services firm has been operating long before 2000. Prior to Vault’s launch in 2016, the outsourced accounting and research business units were service lines under Veris Consulting. Managing Director and Principal Mike Hayes has been running large-scale statistical programs like the NACAS benchmarking survey for over twenty years. “I love getting new programs up and running and sharing our expertise—every client and every report is slightly different, but there are enough similarities and skills that we gain and can apply across the board.”
The ongoing management of large-scale data programs for manufacturing associations with high-touch constituents like John Deere is not the type of engagement one would anticipate seeing in a young firm’s portfolio. Still, alongside other Vault leaders, Managing Director and Principal Ian Santo Domingo impressed confidence upon the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OPEI) leadership team in 2017. Having been referred to Vault during the firm’s first year in business, OPEI association executive Dan Mustico concludes, “We would recommend them to anybody without hesitation because of their focus and understanding of what they do.” Also the Vice President of Government and Market Affairs of OPEI, Mustico continues, “There is no need to micromanage them. They are informed because they work with a vast array of clients, and this allows them to run with little instruction. They can take the ball and run with it.”