Luckily for CCG, the company's certification as an LGBT business from the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) was just the ticket to connect with the widely respected professional audit, tax and advisory services firm, KPMG.
"Columbia Consulting is proof that the system works," said CCG co-founder, Sam Lehman. "We signed a deal with a Fortune 100 company as a result of our association with NGLCC."
CCG, founded by Lehman and Doug Finlay in 1997, is a supplier of project managers, systems analysts and professional programmers, and has been an NGLCC-certified business since December 2008.
Lehman said that his company's NGLCC certification was "very instrumental" in closing CCG's deal with KPMG.
When KPMG's International Development Services practice needed support in identifying, tracking and reporting on business opportunities and gathering qualifications for providing services, KPMG Supplier Diversity Manager Tim Ruddell turned to NGLCC.
After reviewing the list of NGLCC-certified businesses and determining that CCG's services matched KPMG's needs for the project, Ruddell introduced CCG to the hiring manager for the KPMG contract.
"As well as the support Columbia Consulting is providing to this important business development project, we are delighted that they are our first NGLCC-certified LGBT-owned supplier," Ruddell said. "Although not a guarantee of future engagement, once a vendor has a ‘foot in the door' and has been through our on-boarding process-which includes elements of risk and compliance review-it is much easier for us to engage them in [the] future."
Landing the deal with KPMG, with a three-month contract starting in June, adds an additional client to the growing list of companies for which CCG provides services and allows for the potential introduction of CCG into "new markets," Lehman said.
"We have made many other valuable connections through our relationship with the NGLCC and by attending at their events, and [we] do not underestimate the value of the Chamber and its network in helping us meet our objectives," Ruddell said.
Victoria Fulkerson, NGLCC's senior manager of supplier diversity and corporate relations, called the CCG contract a prime example of what LGBT certification can do for small businesses. "We truly believe that certification is the foot in the door for many businesses that don't have access to Fortune 500 companies," said Fulkerson.
