Spring 2003

Finding A Good Fit


Software Development Company Builds On Strong Rose-Hulman Alumni Base

SEP, Inc. isn’t your typical, successful software development company.

Its relationship with Rose-Hulman isn’t typical either.

Four Rose-Hulman alumni started the company in 1988 with the goal of finding out how engineers would manage an engineering company. The company was launched without a client, sales team, nor large amount of capital or even a business plan; just the expertise of its founders, and their desire to solve problems.

There's another factor that makes SEP different from any other company. Thirty-four Rose-Hulman grads are among the company’s 52-per-son technical staff. That’s more Rose-Hulman alumni employees than any company similar in size to SEP, according to the college’s alumni database.

Now in its 15th year, the company has stuck to its values. SEP doesn't have someone dedicated to sales. The company doesn't even advertise. The organizational chart is flat with employees taking on several roles depending on the project.

"Our goal has always been to make a better mousetrap," stated President Co-founder Jeff Gilbert (’85, ME). "I guess it was an experiment that escaped from the lab. We weren’t driven by wealth or the need to be famous," he said. "We wanted to build a place where we’d love to work."

A lot of the company's success is built on a simple philosophy – find a good fit. That premise relates to clients with the right projects The philosophy also influences the hiring of engineers who have the fit needed to create new technologies and be successful within the company's culture.

As Gilbert and 1986 Rose-Hulman grads Tony Montgomery, Tim Shoemaker and Mike Fouch (who is no longer with the company) got SEP going, they were driven by a basic business philosophy, "concentrate on doing good work, do what is right and success will come," Gilbert explains. As a result, SEP has retained its major clients who signed on with the company during its first years of operation.

"Our first project was developing software for an Army accounting system involving four million lines of software in a programming language called Ada. Most of our clients today are Fortune 100 companies, and an occasional small business," he says.

SEP has turned down business that isn't the right fit. "We don’t often compete on price. If a client is just looking to save some money, we’re not a good fit. That isn’t a compelling enough reason to work together; besides we’re rarely the lowest price. We look for projects that make an impact, let us learn new technologies and appeal to our engineers. Give us something that saves lives or makes a zillion dollars for our client– those are the projects that are most exciting," Gilbert explains.

"We look for projects that really make a difference to the client. When we do a good job we want it to be appreciated and remembered, who wouldn’t?," he said.

SEP provides development support for many markets, including automotive, military, medical, aerospace clients. "Our specialty is software, so we see a lot of different problems. Any company with a need is a potential customer," said Gilbert. The company's expertise lies in many areas including embedded systems, desktop systems, web-enabled systems, software and product testing, verification, protocols, hardware and process analysis and rapid prototypes.

Ask Gilbert how SEP has successfully recruited for so many years at Rose-Hulman and he'll tell you one reason is that the company's recruiters help students determine if they have the right fit.

"We consider recruiting to be a way to help students make the right job choice and that choice it not always SEP," he says. "I have personally counseled applicants to go somewhere else such as grad school, a bigger company, or their dream job. I think they appreciate that we are genuinely interested in them."

SEP asks interviewees to create a list of what's important to them about the company where they want to work. That's compared to a list the company has developed. The interview process is all about finding the best match.

"SEP is not for everyone and we make that clear in the interview," Gilbert explains. "What's most important to the senior? Salary, how many hours they’ll work, what their job title will be? If it's not the right fit, we move on."

Jeromey Goetz, who joined SEP after earning a Rose-Hulman computer engineering degree in 1999, says the company has a good reputation on campus. "As an intern working at SEP, I learned that they are what they say they are."

Do 34 Rose-Hulman alums at the company create a certain synergy?

Goetz says the campus and company culture communicate the same expectations. "You're expected to be good," he said. "You're challenged and you have a lot of pride in the work you do."

"We know they've been well prepared," Gilbert says about his fellow Rose-Hulman alums. "The college demands a strong work ethic. A Rose-Hulman education prepares graduates to be excellent problem solvers. And, that's what we need," he adds.

"We hire engineers and teach them to program instead of trying to teach programmers engineering. Because the basics of the Rose-Hulman educational philosophy haven’t changed, Tim, Tony (company co-founders) and I can still relate to the new grads, even though we are ‘old’" Gilbert noted.

Vice President Tim Shoemaker concurs, "Rose grads still come out with a culture that fits SEP," he said. "They speak the same language. They want their work to add meaning to their life. That's similar to our goal of wanting to do work that makes a difference, even to the degree of saving lives," said Shoemaker, who was instrumental in creating Vigilance Medical Technologies, a SEP subsidiary.

"Sometimes it’s like being back in the dorm," commented Raman Ohri, who graduated from Rose-Hulman in 1993, and works with two other engineers in one of the few traditional enclosed rooms in the SEP headquarters.

And, he notes, "Of course, there's conference room F. That's where we play foosball."

But don’t think this is a Rose-Hulman company. Gilbert and his colleagues are quick to point out that it isn’t. Just ask 1994 Purdue grad, Chris Shinkle, who, in addition to his engineering duties, recruits for SEP at Rose-Hulman and his alma mater.

"It's unusual for a Purdue grad to be in the minority at a company," he says. "New Rose grads contribute right away. It’s easy to work here and not be from Rose-Hulman," Shinkle stated. "The only time the Rose-Hulman group gets out of hand is when the U.S. News & World Report magazine rankings are announced," he said smiling.

Part of the SEP fit is an organizational structure with few titles, but shared responsibility. "While my title is senior software engineer, I may be a project manager on one assignment and a team leader or simply a team member on the next depending on how I can best con-tribute to the project," says Ohri. One way the company ensures that employees can sharpen their skills is through the SEP Academy. The academy classes are taught by employees. Courses last for three months and meet once a week. Quizzes, tests and homework are part of the requirements, says Gilbert as he displays his framed SEP Academy certificate proving that he completed a class to improve his writing skills.

Even though the staff gets involved in what employees describe as "commando projects" when stress levels rise to meet some clients demands, Ohri says SEP knows employees are people and need to put work in prospective. "The key question is, are you there for your client and team?" he explains.

Underlying the relaxed atmosphere at SEP's two-year old, head-quarters building in the Indianapolis suburb of Carmel is an ambition to make a difference without the number one consideration being the bottom line.

"That's no doubt hampered our growth," Gilbert commented. "However, we want to grow without changing our character or culture," he said "We've been through a tough period the past 12 months," Gilbert admits.

Gilbert is quick to answer when asked what he enjoys most about the demands of guiding SEP, "One of my greatest joys is giving a new graduate the opportunity to develop into a top engineer. That's why I like recruiting on campus so much," says the Farmersburg, In. native.

Sounds as if a lot of Rose-Hulman alums have found the right fit.