E7 Systems provides talented professionals with a productive environment combining the best aspects of employment and independent consulting. The employees of E7 Systems are all owners of the company. The consultants of E7 Systems are independent contractors who have joined with us to share expertise and opportunities. We find this arrangement offers unique advantages in workstyle and motivation, helping everyone to grow professionally while we focus on the work that each of us does best and loves most.

Working with E7 you will benefit from:

• Team Support and Interaction
• Larger Projects
• More Interesting Work
• Technical / Specialty Assistance
• Project Accounting, Customer Billing & Collections
• Immediate Monthly Payments
• Flexibility

E7 Systems has a growing portfolio of active customers, from Durango to Hong Kong. We present ourselves as a team rather than an individual. Therefore, we can pursue larger, more profitable contracts.

The consultants at E7 Systems have an extraordinarily wide range of experience and skills. By working together, we all benefit from the capabilities of the team. No one consultant must be an expert at everything. This allows us to spend more time working in and developing our unique, high-value specialties.

E7 Systems uses an advanced in-house project management and billing system. This system manages projects and tasks, accounts for hours and sends invoices to customers. It also provides a customer interface which allows customers to track the tasks and accounts online.

E7 Systems pays consultants immediately upon invoicing. E7 Systems manages and covers the costs of collections. Payments are based on a percentage of the invoice directly related to your contribution. The features of the E7 Systems work-style are designed to enable independent consultants to maximize their billable hours working within their favorite specialties for the best clients available.

E7 Systems is a flexible organization with diverse relationships. If you are seeking or currently have a full-time job, if you are going to France for a year, you may still work with us. We merely request that you let us know of your plans so we can schedule accordingly. In working with consultants who hold full time jobs, we search for opportunities that are a close fit for their best skills and their busy schedules. Thank you for taking the time to look into working with E7 Systems.

Consultants are expected to be completely fluent in their areas of domain expertise and to be able to produce extraordinary results with a minimum of assistance.

E7 Systems is perfect for the high-end graphic designer who doesn’t know JavaScript or PHP and has no desire to learn them. E7 Systems is perfect for the color-blind programming guru who hates to market himself.

• Domain Expertise
• Business Sense
• Excellent Communications Skills
• Your Own Equipment and Workspace
• Effective Time Management
• Strong Personal Ethics
• Resiliency

All E7 Systems consultants must have good business sense. Programmers must be able to tell what makes for a viable-repeatable business process in the real world. We must be able to recognize solutions and most importantly to deliver completed solutions, without costly defects.

Communicating with customers and colleagues is equally important to domain expertise. The best software in the world is useless if the customer doesn’t understand the benefit of using it. When problems do arise, communication skills are vital to their successful resolution. When problems arise, we must be very good at recognizing, quantifying and describing the problem.

As an independent consultant, no one will tell you when to work or where. E7 Systems does not maintain a public office. All E7 Systems consultants have their own work spaces and computers. We do have many shared resources but your main tools and expenses are your own.

All consultants at E7 Systems must know how to manage their time, balancing their work-styles with their lifestyles in such a way that the customers’ expectations are always met or exceeded. We manage projects. We do not manage people. To be successful at E7 Systems you need to manage your own time for the benefit of all.

The final ingredient of success is resiliency. The business world is hard and often unfair. We need to have the drive and confidence to overcome any challenge. We need to be able to set our egos aside to determine and deliver the best solution given all inputs (not just our emotions).

Again, this is not a traditional job opportunity. The process of joining E7 is simple and gradual. It is designed to keep risks low and to make the best of everyone’s time.

1. Read and understand this document
2. Decide whether independent consulting is the right fit for you
3. Complete the New Consultant Introduction form here
4. We will trade a few emails
5. If a meeting is in order, the team will meet you for lunch (or a Skype conference)
6. If we all see a good fit, then we will start working together on small projects. Your first projects will be quick hits with very little customer risk
7. As you exceed our expectations, we will provide you with more sophisticated projects

Depending on your skills and the items discussed above you could quickly get to the point where most of your work is directly with E7 Systems. However, there is no requirement that you work with us exclusively.