Our client was looking to set up and scale an IT Support team in Singapore to reduce costs and demands of shift workers in their North American-based head offices. They sought employees to support various banking applications such as Personal, Business and Mobile Banking, Cards, Retail, Fraud, and Compliance/Legal.

Their own talent acquisition team faced challenges finding committed candidates. Available senior talent was expensive to hire, while junior and graduate talent lacked the right digital skills or mindset to stay in the role. The shift-based, fast-paced environment led to fewer applicable resumes and a high attrition.

Toronto-based department heads turned to FDM to steadily build a team in Singapore, taking advantage of our model:

• Shifting night work from North America to Singapore saving costs and improving employee motivation by working only daytime hours.
• Equipped with Skills Lab coaching, FDM Consultants quickly adapt to in-house systems. Starting from the same cohorts, they build camaraderie and a positive work ethic.
• And while, typically, employees may take six months of required coaching from the client to get up to speed – FDM’s pre-assignment upskilling ensures consultants only need on-site basics to start contributing.

Our Service Delivery Team analysed the client’s job descriptions, identifying necessary skills. Multiple-round interviews and technical tests identified the candidates most suitable for selection. Collaborating with the client, we created and built a customised programme to quickly deliver a diverse, scalable pipeline of 100% local talent with the right mindset and skills.

Selecting consultants with core capabilities gained in our IT Operations Practice, they were upskilled to meet client requirements. Specialised upskilling included SQL, Unix, Windows OS Admin, Linux, Cloud Management fundamentals, ServiceNow, Network, LAN, and Azure Cloud with ITIL certification.

FDM onboarded an initial batch of five consultants in the first month, ready to step directly into their roles on-site, enabling them to quickly integrate into the client’s teams. With more consultants added over time, the client successfully grew a large Level Two Support team in Singapore.

Their responsibilities included:

• Meeting or exceeding standards while minimising operational risk.
• Effectively handling incident management and communicating with clients.
• Timely notification, escalation and resolution of potential issues.
• Identifying and addressing cross-capability issues affecting application integrity.
• Supporting change management and application upgrades.
• Performing regular application health checks and monitoring.

By covering North American night shifts, the team significantly reduced client costs. In six years, 33 consultants converted with the client in Singapore, ensuring a steady talent pipeline. Today, 22 FDM Consultants support over 100 applications in L2 support roles on-site.