Tekne Award is among highest recognition a technology firm can receive

by Aaron Vehling
Thisweek Newspapers

This is an era in which  innovative business solutions abound to help companies and employees compete globally amid a legion of economic challenges.

Dilafruz Umarova works at Maverick Software’s University of Minnesota location. As a student, she earns a decent salary doing software work for big-name clients while gaining valuable practical experience in the field of information systems. Photo submitted by Marty Hebig.

Sometimes it takes a maverick to inject some creativity into the mix. Marty Hebig owns Lakeville-based Maverick Software, an aptly-named company that provides a way for businesses to save on technology costs while offering practical job experience and opportunities to college students.

The under-25 demographic faces an unemployment rate of nearly 54 percent, according to Time Magazine, so Hebig’s ability to offer cost-effective software testing to companies, and provide well-paying jobs with real experience and job opportunities to students is a big deal.

The Minnesota High Tech Association saw this, bestowing on Maverick the 2011 Innovative Collaboration of the Year during its Tekne Awards celebration on Nov. 3 in Minneapolis.

“This collaboration creates a motivated, skilled and productive workforce that sustains and expands Minnesota’s technology-based economy,” the association said in a press release.

To win is an honor, Hebig said, but the ceremony itself also provides valuable exposure to his company.  The event is the Oscars of the Minnesota technology industry, he said, and so large firms such as Oracle, 3M and Microsoft  are well represented. The potential for networking exists in droves.

Along with business partner Chuck Sherwood, Hebig accepted the honor as a two-minute video presented the history of  Maverick.

How it works
Through the program, Maverick sets up offices on-site at the locations of its university collaborators.

Currently, it has six offices with 110 students at nine universities, Hebig said. Each site has a full-time office manager.

The company’s clients include Digital River, Symantec, Merill Corporation and Thomson Reuters (which was the first), among others.

Maverick’s student employees earn on average about $13 an hour, far outpacing retail and food industry alternatives. Clients pay Maverick about $25 per hour for those students’ services, which center on software development testing, Hebig said.

By managing the fixed costs associated with physical locations, Maverick has been able to maintain profitability.

“We don’t go out and set up offices, hoping clients will come,” he said. The offices come afterward.

Maverick has been profitable since “day one,” Hebig said, adding that he anticipates his firm will see about $4 million in revenue this year.

The company is transparent with its clients about its expenses, Hebig said. This builds trust when “we know they could go out and do this themselves. We want them to know it would be difficult for them to do it much cheaper.”

Maverick draws on students who achieve high grades and exhibit excellent technological aptitude.

“We get the best students,” he said, with assurances that he is not running a sort-of “IT sweatshop. These are high-paying, flexible jobs close to class.”

The students get a lot out of the program. In addition to  earning income, they get the opportunity to implement theory in a practical setting, learning by doing.

In addition, there are the opportunities for job placement with Maverick’s clients. But there is more to it: Hebig and his staff also help the students with resumes, conduct mock interviews and encourage them to attend career fairs, he said.

“We do that because Thomson Reuters and other clients might not be able to hire all the students,” he said.

Maverick’s goal for the next three years is a doubling in size. To do this, Hebig said, he is in the process of seeking more clients.

Hebig said Maverick is currently working with Minnesota’s Department of Employment and Economic Development and Advance IT Minnesota to apply his company’s model to help the long-term unemployed.

“We would get them some training and basically have them do the same thing (as the students),” he said. “When they are finished they could go on to full-time work.”

When Hebig started his company in 2000, he christened it after his high-school nickname, which he earned because of the model of Ford he drove back then. Little did his classmates know how descriptive that moniker was.

Aaron Vehling is at aaron.vehling@ecm-inc.com.

http://www.thisweeklive.com/2011/11/23/maverick-software-honored-for-its-innovation/