The problem was the telephone. In 2006, Leo Kogan, then president of SANS Consulting Services, described struggling to interest prospective clients in a conversation. He believed his Russian accent was getting in the way. Trying to change his pronunciation alone had not worked. So he sought a voice coach, Leigh Dillon, who designed exercises for him. Kogan reported greater confidence and a different response from listeners.
It is a small episode in the history of an IT recruiter. But it offers a useful way into the business: a match depends on whether two people can understand what the other needs. A résumé can begin that conversation. Someone still has to make it work.
- SANS supplies technology professionals through contract, permanent and project engagements.
- Financial services is its longstanding specialty; healthcare and other enterprise sectors broaden the brief.
- XDuce acquired a majority stake in 2020, adding the resources of a larger technology services group.
Read the job, meet the business
For a less abstract introduction, open a SANS vacancy dated October 24, 2025. The Hartford lead-consultant role asks for experience with CICS, IBM’s transaction-processing software, and z/OS Connect. Its responsibilities include maintaining software, moving changes through development and production, and resolving incidents with vendors. This is expertise measured in the ability to keep a particular system working.
Now consider another listing from the same date: a SailPoint architect for a healthcare client in Long Beach. The brief combines identity management, application integration and familiarity with HIPAA and HITRUST. A candidate must understand both the software and the environment surrounding it. These dated advertisements reveal the work SANS recruits for; they should not be read as promises that the jobs remain open.
The contrast is instructive. One brief concerns mainframe maintenance; another concerns access to healthcare systems. Both require a recruiter to distinguish a relevant technical history from a merely impressive one. That judgment is where a specialist agency earns its place in the hiring process.
Four ways to make a commitment
SANS’s service menu separates decisions that employers sometimes bundle together. Contract staffing supplies people for temporary requirements. Permanent placement recruits someone to join a company’s own team. Contract-to-hire introduces an assessment period before a possible permanent appointment. Project staffing matches consultants to a defined scope, timetable and budget.
Those choices distribute commitment differently. A temporary need does not automatically justify a permanent position. A lasting need may deserve one. SANS also advertises fractional teams: access to several kinds of specialist at a predictable fixed cost. For a buyer, the first useful conversation is therefore about the shape of the work, before the names of candidates.
The commercial model is business-to-business staffing and consulting. Employers engage SANS to find and support the professionals they need. Its contract offering includes help with vetting and onboarding; its permanent service includes assistance developing offers. Buyers should settle the rate, assignment duration, conversion terms and responsibilities in their agreement. A staffing arrangement’s value depends on those details as well as the person selected.
A practical comparison would keep the assignment constant: the same responsibilities, working location and expected duration. Then compare the proposed candidates, the screening evidence and the full commercial terms. A fast introduction is useful only if the employer can evaluate it. An attractive headline rate tells little about an engagement until the responsibilities on both sides are clear.
The financial-services connection
The company’s roots run through New York’s financial-services market. Its current banking, financial services and insurance offering covers banking technology, asset and investment management, insurance and fintech. Screening extends beyond programming: SANS describes assessing communication, adaptability and role-specific performance criteria. Those checks speak directly to the gap between knowing a technology and using it effectively inside an organization.
Its wider market includes healthcare, telecommunications and retail. The healthcare service discusses electronic medical records and regulated systems. The retail offering addresses e-commerce platforms and enterprise integrations. This is enterprise recruiting, with sector knowledge added to the technical brief. Employers can also recruit internally or choose another staffing agency; SANS’s proposed advantage is the combination of domain familiarity, screening and flexible engagements.
A local network gets a larger map
In July 2020, XDuce announced that it had acquired a majority stake in SANS. The buyer wanted a stronger financial-services presence. SANS brought relationships and market access; XDuce brought broader software, integration and delivery resources. The announcement described a fit between those capabilities. It did not establish a measured improvement in client outcomes.
The group’s geography expanded again with XDuce’s London announcement in September 2022, which explicitly included opportunities for the SANS brand. Today, SANS lists offices across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and India. That footprint gives its recruiting proposition an international frame, while individual assignments retain their own practical boundaries.
A Bethesda full-stack engineering advertisement dated October 28, 2025, makes the distinction wonderfully plain: five days on site, contract-to-hire, no sponsorship. A global network does not dissolve the requirements of a particular desk. Candidates and employers still need agreement on where, how and under what conditions the work happens.
The useful part to borrow
SANS describes a sequence of needs assessment, sourcing, screening, deployment and post-placement support. Its service pages include support for ramp-ups and performance improvement. In that account, recruiting continues after someone starts. The company also says its sourcing draws on more than 500,000 candidate profiles. That is an inventory claim; the useful test for an employer is the relevance of the shortlist.
“quickly engage the person on the other end of the phone”Leo Kogan, describing the result of his coaching, 2006
Here is the transferable lesson, as an editorial reading of that process: define the systems, outcomes and constraints before requesting candidates. Make communication part of the assessment. Agree on support after arrival. An agency needs a clear brief and an employer able to evaluate the people it sends. Kogan’s telephone problem supplies a modest reminder of why: expertise becomes useful when somebody else can understand it.