Helix Business Solutions Partners with University of Montana Western to Create Boot Camps to Grow and Train Top Talent in Montana

In the fall of 2013, Travis Cottom, a fourth-generation Dillon resident and executive at Helix Business Solutions http://helixconsulting.custhelp.com , decided to move back home and open Helix’s first Montana office in his hometown. After outgrowing the first office he opened in Dillon, Cottom moved the operation to the historic Mary Innes School building where he, his father, and his grandfather had gone to kindergarten. Based in Memphis, Helix Business Solutions – the Oracle Cloud Partner of the Year (2014) – now has two locations in Montana. The second office opened in Bozeman this summer.

In an effort to train talent in rural areas that are not traditionally known for technology, Helix partnered with the University of Montana Western http://www.umwestern.edu/ to create a series of tech boot camps. The boot camps are a week-long, fast-paced immersion into the concepts, features, and capabilities that surround the implementation of Oracle’s Service Cloud platform.

The connection with University of Montana Western is important, according to Helix’s Executive Officer Tim Black. Helix is able to pick some of the "best and brightest" from Western and teach them technology skills. The students’ rural-area background – and the experience with helping on ranch and farm operations – is relevant business experience, Black said. In addition they have a great work ethic and "it’s easy to teach someone like that tech." The boot camps also serve as a pathway to internships and maybe later, to full-time jobs, he said.

"We give them a week-long education for free," Black said. "If they can put in a week, they’re serious. It’s sort of like a week-long interview."

According to Beth Weatherby, the chancellor at Western, the "boot-camp partnership with Helix is exactly the kind of team effort we need to promote in order to keep higher education and high-tech businesses healthy."

For more information on Helix boot camps please contact Helix here http://helixconsulting.custhelp.com/app/ask/ or contact Beth Weatherby at [email protected]