Pathways Consulting Group: “We Listen. We Care. We Execute.”

Pathways Consulting Group is an Elite ServiceNow partner with a 9.8/10 customer satisfaction score. Since 2012, Pathways has been 100% focused on implementing and developing on the ServiceNow platform. Pathways’ biggest belief is that people are an organization’s biggest asset, so they work tirelessly with you to review your organizational structure, governance, process and technologies to ensure they’re maximizing an individual’s pursuit of excellence.

We sat down with the President and CEO of Pathways Consulting Group, Jeff Giovinazzo, to know more about how the company has transformed itself into becoming a leader in this space over the years. Here are the excerpts.

Could you tell us about the journey of your company?

Pathways Consulting Group was formed in 2006 with a vision of supporting IT Service Management through mobile technology.It was an amazing opportunity for us to compete against Blackberry with the latest in mobile devices, but the carriers weren’t ready. At the time, we just sold software but through an acquisition, the leadership team toggled and chose to shut down the software component. So, we transitioned from selling products to services and took a vendor-agnostic approach.

We started to rebound quickly until Lehman Brothers failed. It was a long five quarters of small deals, long hours, and nothing to show for it except an empty bank account and a significant pile of debt. Our break came in March 2010 when we landed a long-term deal with a major financial firm.It was with this account that we were introduced to ServiceNow and the rest is history.

Today, we are an Elite ServiceNow service provider and reseller. We cover all aspects of not only ITSM but Enterprise Service Management as well. This means we go cross-organizational working with all types of business services within our clients.

What hurdles did you face in the initial years after setting up the company? How has your company evolved now?

Sadly, my inexperience in business showed when I partnered or hired people. Lehman had failed and my friends and former clients were suddenly out of work. I ignored solid business advice and hired friends who were unemployed or struggling to find work. I was wrong. I probably made every mistake you can make when you hire for the wrong reasons, and it took time for me to change a core belief I held.

Removing myself from the hiring process took a long time, but it was a significant change for us as it wasn’t my area of strength. Getting the right people on the team and the wrong ones off it was a major hurdle I’m proud to say we have cleared. Now, we have a very impressive process for bringing the right talent onboard.

How has Pathways grown its product portfolio overtime?

In the early years of our partnership with ServiceNow, the platform was very focused on ITSM which meant that the entry point into an organization for us was at the IT level. When the ServiceNow platform went from an ITSM platform to an ESM platform, we needed to ensure we could continue to support our existing clients as well as our future clients. This presented to us an opportunity to hire great talent and SMEs to cover things such as HR, GRC, ITOM, ITBM applications, to name a few. We don’t just cover commercial client accounts; over the course of the past few years, we’ve added enterprise organizations back into our portfolio.

How do you stay relevant in this competitive market?

We are constantly investing in our team. Whether it’s training to help developers speak like consultants, leadership and management skills, or the ever changing application training to stay compliant as an Elite Services Partner of ServiceNow. We are making these investments because our people are our product and we want them to grow and be successful.

According to you, should the firm be growing or trying to be efficient?

I think we walk a fine line where we are incorporating both growth and stability. We’ve seen and heard stories of other agencies that get a large contract, go on a hiring binge, and then, at the conclusion of the contract, the company goes through a workforce reduction. We’ve learned from others’ experiences and when we onboard employees, they become part of our work family – we don’t want to disrupt the culture by offboarding people or making people feel like their jobs are at stake. Because of that – and to answer your question – we’re aiming to efficiently grow in a stable manner.

About the Co-Founders

Jeff Giovinazzo, President and CEO

Jeff had been a top-producing sales and sales management professional in highly competitive financial markets until he founded Pathways in 2006. He saw that IT was changing and that software vendors needed to focus on capturing new customers vs enabling client success. He established Pathways Consulting Group to help those clients maximize their investment and achieve their goals.

Mary Manzo, Partner and COO

Mary plays a pivotal role in improving Pathways’ delivery processes. Under her leadership, the retention rate of the clients is at an impressive 85% and the customer satisfaction on an average is 9.8 out of 10.

She is part of the Watch Team on Women To Watch. Her Tech Watch segment can be heard every Sunday night during the Susan Rocco show at 7:00p.m. on 1210 Radio Philly or radio.com. Her segment consists of insights, research and the latest topics and happenings in the tech industry.

Additionally, she has a great passion for helping women transform their dreams into profitable businesses.

“We strive to be direct, transparent and positive in our attitude and approach of delivering quality and value for our customer’s investment in Pathways.”