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Partner Interview Series: Jared Milligan of Soliant Consulting

Zak Pines
October 13, 2020
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Min Read

Our VP of Partnerships Zak Pines recently interviewed Jared Milligan of Soliant Consulting as part of our ongoing Partner Interview Series. Zak and Jared had a conversation about Jared’s background in document management and a collaboration between Soliant Consulting and Formstack to digitize a referral and consent process in a HIPAA compliant manner. Here’s an abridged transcript of the chat. 

Soliant Consulting Background

Zak: Can you start by telling us about Soliant Consulting?

Jared: Soliant is an almost 20-year-old consulting firm and has been in the Salesforce space for over 10 years now. We are about 70 people, half of which are Salesforce. Our Salesforce team includes myself in business development, business analysts, and solutions architects. We also have a team of custom developers who build applications from scratch with code. 

Given our size, all customers are very meaningful to us. We work with companies ranging from small independent organizations, nonprofits, and Fortune 500 companies. We have the service of a boutique firm with the horsepower of a larger company. We’re actively working with our clients; 75% of our revenue comes from recurring clients and repeat business. And we’re steadily growing new business at a manageable pace of around 10% per year. 

Zak: What types of companies do you typically work with?

Jared: Soliant has been a generalist for industry verticals. We have a strong footprint in financial services, and quite a few large projects in the lending industry. We also do a lot in the life sciences space, and with higher education, nonprofit technology, and software firms. 

Zak: That maps incredibly well to some of Formstack’s top verticals—healthcare, financial services, technology. What makes a great Soliant customer?

Jared: We are a consultant, not just a developer. There’s a book, “The Trusted Advisor,” that Soliant lives by. Good customers for us are those who want to work with us on a strong planning and foundation phase. 

We’ll look at the status quo—what systems are you integrated with? What functionality do you want to replicate and why? What do you want to modernize and why? We Look at a comprehensive plan and phased release approach based on time frame and budget. 

We’ll perform a needs assessment and roadmapping phase, identify blind spots, and create a great plan. 

Jared’s Background in Document Management

Zak: What is your history before Soliant?

Jared: I started a company in 2004 that did document management—primarily around document imaging. We scanned paper files and performed data extraction. We worked with law firms to start, and then expanded to financial services, insurance, and banking. 

Later on—and you’ll like this—around 2010, I trademarked the phrase Powered by Paperless. I tried to package a subscription model of eForms, eSignature, and imaging—for something like a municipal government managing their application process. We were a little too early, but that background was one of the reasons I was so impressed with Formstack when I found out what you have been doing in bringing together digital forms, document automation, and digital signature. 


Zak: Yes, that explains why things clicked so well when we met. You met Gabe on our team at Norcal Dreamin’ last year, and the relationship has evolved from there to multiple projects together. 

Jared: That’s right. The document nerd in me had a dream come true with our joint project with our customer who provides mental health services to students. I did some initial business analysis for the project because it was such a familiar area to me. The only difference is now we can build it all on Salesforce so that it’s part of an integrated solution for our customer. 

Lightning Round

Zak: What a story Jared. Let’s wind down here with the lightning round. What are some of your personal interests or hobbies?

Jared: For me, they change all the time. I’ve played guitar and drums for quite a while—alt rock bands. Lately, I’ve moved back to the mountains, so a lot of outdoor stuff. I grew up a lake rat with water skiing and wakeboarding. 

Zak: Do you have a productivity tip you can share? 

Jared: A colleague of mine, Aubrey, is a business analyst. She taught me Pomodoro time management—categorizing the day into fixed pockets of 25 minutes of time. I use that to schedule blocks of time for specific activities. I like to stay focused on specific activities for fixed amounts of time so as to not break up my concentration 

Zak: Do you have a favorite TV show?

Jared: I’ve never been a big TV watcher, but recently I’ve re-watched “The Office” and have gotten a new appreciation for it. I also love “Peaky Blinders” on BBC.

Zak: What’s your go-to lunch during the workday?

Jared: A lot of rice and beans

Zak: And last question of every interview: Is a hot dog a sandwich?

Jared: No way. It’s in its own class of food. A good hot dog is in a league of its own. 

Looking for your next step? Check out Formstack’s partner program for consultants, agencies, and tech partners.

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Zak Pines
Zak is the VP of Partnerships at Formstack, where he focuses on growing agency, consultant, and technology partnerships for the company. He's been creating, marketing, and selling SaaS products for two decades.
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