Resource News

ArcherPoint dedicates itself to fostering a close relationship with the school, providing internships for students and offering full-time positions to graduates

ArcherPoint Carlson School of Management Interns 2015:
Top row from left to right: Jay Chaudhary, Matt Lind, Caesar Wong, Cole Halligan, Taiwei Li, Adrian Gan
Bottom row from left to right: CEO Greg Kaupp, Chuting Qiu, Olivia Kinney, Kelly O’Brien

ATLANTA, GA — JULY 20, 2015 — Because of its renowned programs, faculty, and academics, the Carlson School of Management has been acknowledged as the only intern recruiting source for ArcherPoint, Inc. ArcherPoint is a Microsoft Gold Partner that sells, implements, and supports Microsoft Dynamics NAV Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, used by more than 100,000 companies worldwide. Although ArcherPoint has offices in Canada, India, and headquarters in the US, the internship program is made up exclusively of Carlson students. Their motivation, intelligence, and exposure to industry relevant information makes Carlson students ideally suited for the company. ArcherPoint is dedicated to fostering a close relationship with the Carlson School by not only providing internships for students, but also by offering full-time positions to graduates, being involved with the Carlson Career and Internship fairs, and helping to diversify the campus career options for University of Minnesota students.

Since ArcherPoint was founded in 2002, there has been a growing need for young talent. “The key challenge was knowing it is up to us and companies like ours to train the next generation of talent,” said ArcherPoint CEO Greg Kaupp. “We are facing what is called the graying of IT – the age of the average IT professional keeps creeping up, baby boomers are nearing retirement, and we don’t have the personnel to fill their shoes.” Out of the interns from 2014, two came to work full time for ArcherPoint, providing value that cannot be matched. Kaupp hopes that out of the nine interns hired this past summer, some will come back to ArcherPoint full time.

With this vision in mind, Kaupp wanted talent from the best school in Minnesota – which also happens to be where he lives. This was another reason for his decision to recruit exclusively from Carlson: he wanted to be directly involved in the program, to invest his time in making it grow. The exclusivity in recruiting from Carlson ultimately stems from a matter of focus and scale, Kaupp continued. He expressed that there are “huge benefits from focusing on a single institution versus spreading our efforts across multiple schools.” He truly believes that there is value in creating deep connections among students and staff at Carlson. With this focus, ArcherPoint can get an amplifying effect.

In the program’s infancy, ArcherPoint’s main concern was that the process of engaging with Carlson would be complicated. The expectation was that no one would return phone calls, the process would be lengthy, and the school would only be interested in Fortune 500 companies. However, this was not the case. All it took was one call, and a meeting was set with the Career Center, which helped get the program set up and kicked off. Kaupp is thankful for Carlson’s willingness to help. For example, the Career Center provided suggestions on how to be successful. The challenge for ArcherPoint was how to compete against larger companies for recruits. Carlson suggested that ArcherPoint embrace its differences—there are things that a smaller company can do that are more difficult for larger organizations. For example, because it has the flexibility of a smaller organization, ArcherPoint allows interns to be autonomous and shape the program into an experience that best suits their strengths. This would be very challenging for a Fortune 500 company to manage because of sheer size.

Before the internship program began, there were many decisions to be made, including the length and structure of the program, how many interns were going to be involved, and ultimately what direction to go in. One of the biggest decisions was how to take the Carlson Career Center’s advice—to create something that looks unlike any other intern program. According to Kaupp, “The first year we interviewed Carlson students to help us build a program, which was neat because we validated our ideas with actual students. It was a very collaborative effort and it continues to be.”

Coming into the second year, the question was how to scale the program. ArcherPoint decided to make the program unique by inviting competitor Clients First to join it, giving the interns even more opportunities to participate in hands-on projects. “One of the key principles was turning competitors into collaborators,” Kaupp added. ArcherPoint also strives to create larger opportunities for interns who weren’t accepted into the program. To do so, Kaupp refers these students to other business partners for internship opportunities.

Kaupp describes the relationship between Carlson and ArcherPoint as mutually beneficial. He believes that this relationship will be ongoing as Carlson provides ArcherPoint with feedback about what they think is working, what needs to be improved, and what should be considered. Carlson wants to provide great future professional opportunities to their students – and ArcherPoint has been successful at doing so. The benefit for Carlson in this symbiotic relationship is getting small to medium sized businesses recruiting at Carlson. Providing a broad range of career options for such a diverse student body is vital, and something at which Carlson is very skilled.

ArcherPoint is so loyal to the Carlson School that even as the internship program expands, Kaupp plans to continue recruiting from Carlson and maybe even other University of Minnesota schools, such as the College of Science and Engineering, for developers.

Kaupp concluded by saying that his favorite thing about Carlson students is how fearless they are, willing to jump in and try anything.

All in all, the relationship between Carlson and ArcherPoint is highly valuable and will be something that continues to grow. This recruitment strategy is one that has proven to be very effective for a small company with big ideas and for Carlson students.

About ArcherPoint

ArcherPoint, Inc. is a Microsoft Certified Gold and LS Retail partner, providing modern workplace solutions including Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics NAV, LS Retail, Azure, Dynamics 365 Sales, Microsoft 365, and Power Platform to companies throughout the North America and Europe.  ArcherPoint’s certified, experienced professionals collaborate with clients to design, implement, and support solutions tailored to their unique requirements—from back-office accounting to supply chain, inventory, and warehouse management. We serve multiple industries including manufacturing, distribution, retail, hospitality, food and beverage, professional services, and large equipment rental. Our team of experts provide full-service ERP implementation, integration, development, 24/7 support, and upgrade services. ArcherPoint is dedicated to helping companies realize true business value by giving them access to world-class ERP and cloud solutions that will grow with them to meet their needs now and in the future. www.archerpoint.com