Founded in 2008, Accreon has seen steady growth, becoming a key player in the Province of New Brunswick’s strong Information Technology ecosystem. New Brunswick native Martin Ferguson is Accreon’s Senior Vice President — Delivery, and a graduate of the University of New Brunswick (UNB). Ferguson recently spoke to Opportunities NB (ONB) about the benefits of doing business in the province, and the many partnerships the company has formed in order to achieve such tremendous success.

ONB: The company is now headquartered in Massachusetts but Fredericton remains its primary location for human resources, is that correct?

Ferguson: Absolutely. Accreon grew up here but in early 2015 there was a change of ownership involving Mansa Capital. As a result, Boston now hosts our head office. However, I’d estimate 80 per cent of our staff is in New Brunswick, and we intend to keep it that way. 

What are some advantages of doing business in New Brunswick?

The biggest asset for us here is the quality of resources. We have a great relationship with UNB for example. We partner with the Computer Science faculty on a co-op program and bring students in every term; it’s the largest source of staff for us. We also have employees that come from their MBA program. Having a great university creating a workforce with the skills we need is the biggest asset here for us, and it’s why we intend to stay. 

How about life in New Brunswick? We often tout our quality of life as one of the top ten benefits.

I’m an anomaly perhaps, but if it weren’t for golf and hockey I’d never need to drive since I live right downtown; I can walk everywhere. I agree that the quality of life we have in New Brunswick is tremendous. Keeping a good work-life balance is easy; you can put in a long workday and then it’s not far to get home. I also think the educational opportunities are great here; I’m a product of UNB myself, and so are my children.

Plus, the local community is a delight to work with, and we’re big on being actively involved with it. We partner with Connaught Street School as part of a literacy support program called PALS for example.

Let’s talk about partnerships. Salesforce has a presence in New Brunswick and recently moved into your arena with the launch of Health Cloud. Are there partnership opportunities there?

We do have a relationship with Salesforce on the service side, yes. We are doing some implementation of Salesforce for them with a healthcare company in Connecticut. That’s a sector that Salesforce is moving into and the relationship we’ve started building with them is based on their cloud expertise and how they are applying their products to the healthcare space. 

Progress Media has written about Accreon and its reputation for employee engagement. Can you tell us more about the company philosophy with regards to taking care of staff and their well-being?

As a service-based company, we feel strongly that our people really are our best product. The best way to compete for talent in this region is to be fair with compensation and benefits of course but to also provide an environment that is family-focused, and devoted to our employees and their work-life balance. You need to provide those things that help build team spirit and camaraderie inside the office. Those things are easy to overlook sometimes. We also place a lot of emphasis on helping employees with their career advancement plans. 

Finally, sticking with the partnership theme, can you touch on ONB’s role with Accreon?

ONB has introduced us to organizations like 6 pm Solutions in Malta; we’re starting to build a new partnership there. It’s early but we’re in the process of understanding what their product set is and where our opportunities lie. They’ve also helped connect us with Salesforce’s New Brunswick operations.

ONB and the province have been very supportive in terms of job growth whether it’s been through training opportunities or wage subsidies. They’ve also provided expertise around recruitment strategy. We look forward to expanding on that partnership as we continue to grow.  

Begin your next partnership aimed at business growth or expansion. Connect with an ONB Business Development Executive here.

Written by Jason Boies

Cover image via Flickr