Sonia Clayton formed VIP in October 2001, when her friends, colleagues and former team members were laid off from their jobs due to the economic downturn of 2001 and the aftershock of September 11th. Clayton's former team members, represented by PhD's, Business Administrators, Graphic and Instructional Designers, and Systems Engineers, made up 100% of the initial VIP team.

"That is when, all of us got together and decided to create VIP. Not a regular consulting company, but a 'Wal-Mart concept: Lower Prices and Higher Quality' in the Consulting Industry and an alternative to America’s decision makers during disastrous times. Our services and solutions had to be based on quality, consistency, and reasonable cost. Unity is power, and we had unity among us. Our great American Spirit could not be broken; the 9-11 attacks brought us together and made us stronger.”

The objective of the company was to provide reasonably priced IT Business Solutions, but Clayton's real business was PEOPLE. In reality, VIP has become more than just the acronym for Virtual Intelligence Providers LLC. The VIP acronym also reflects Sonia's business philosophy and practice of treating her clients and her consultants as "Very Important People."

Clayton drew on her years of direct sales experience to get the company off the ground. Knowing the importance of motivated and happy team members, she called them "Consultants," and from her first day in business she has treated them the way she wants to be treated. "The way I gain my team members’ and my clients’ trust is by treating them with honesty, dignity and respect. That is something every client and every VIP team member deserves regardless of rank. This group is full of energy, talent, professionalism and creativity. I know they have potential, and I urge them to do their best. That is why we have been good friends for a long time. How people are treated at VIP is more important to me than Profits and Losses."

As a first time entrepreneur, Clayton borrowed $5,000 to create the organization. IT consulting companies had already saturated the IT market. However, rather than competing directly with those firms, Clayton wanted to create a true alternative solution for her clients.

"At VIP we believe in the principles of low cost, high value, quality, and outstanding technical and customer services. We all work together. We create and find technical and cost effective, satisfying solutions for our customers. We work with great partners, building innovative and affordable project tools and solutions. We keep high standards for quality and performance by maintaining trained and seasoned professionals on our staff, dedicated to strategizing and delivering high performance results.”

That's the "VIP recipe." Our low-overhead policy allows us to maintain affordable billing rates. We have significantly lowered the cost of ERP consulting services for many organizations in the USA and in Latin America. We have given the IT world an opportunity to see what it's like to cut cost and still have a great implementation, a positive sense of accomplishment, and a true professional services consulting partner. “We're proud of what we've accomplished, being successful in business is not a matter of taking advantage of people who need your products or services. On the contrary, it is a matter of giving them value, care and attention, for a fair price, when they need it most." Clayton said.

Setting the tone of her company personally with hard work, Clayton maintains a cheerful, positive attitude producing an important leadership effect on employee morale, efficiency, productivity, and corporate ethical standards. She makes sure negativism is out of her environment, while promoting an "I can do" attitude. She helps her consultants build confidence by empowering them to do their best.

“Now in the third quarter of 2006, we have grown to serve over 50 Fortune 100 companies, most of which are in the oil and gas industry. Our international reach extends from our home base right here in Houston, Texas, USA to Canada, Mexico, Spain and Hungary. We also serve corporations in South American countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú and Venezuela. Among our clients are SAP Latin America, Shell International, Shell Lubricants, IBM, Hewlett Packard, City of Houston, Premcor Refineries, Baker Hughes International, Toyota/Lexus, Lennox International, CEMEX, Nexen Canadian Petroleum, Waste Management Corporation, Weatherford International, and Continental Airlines.”

”Why have we grown so fast? In the abruptly changing business world, which erupted with the events of September 11, 2001 came a need to minimize rates comparable to off-shoring offers, in order to keep Americans employed. VIP was able to achieve its goals maintaining American standards and quality, while supporting the US economy. By using Sonia's "VIP recipe," our enterprise was able to very quickly respond to the new market behaviors, becoming profitable during one of the most challenging years in the US economy. We optimistically implemented the following six "ingredients," knowing than large and small organizations would have to look into innovative business concepts, such as the ones VIP has to offer:

1. NEW BUSINESS TRENDS AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT: That implied the acceptance of the new business economy variables, such as "smaller or limited IT or HR budgets" and "short term assignments"

2. IMPLEMENTATION OF NEW EMPLOYMENT MODELS: Low Overhead Consulting Services, Virtual/Telecommuting Project teams trained to work with standardized product development policies, and Measurable Project Models.

3. IMPLEMENTATION OF COST CUTTING STRATEGIES: We create and integrate solutions for our clients. We represent one single source of support for our clients and offer the first true Virtual Development project strategies to the IT and HR markets. We also provide local manpower, avoiding exuberant travel or relocation expenses and by using Remote Administration, Video-Conferencing, e-Learning, and Virtual Connectivity Models we achieve considerable customer savings.

4. TOOLS: VIP's product development team works earnestly in creating "Cost Cutting Tools and Applications" to help our clients achieve their goals. Our applications have been developed with "100% Customer Feed-Back", providing to the US market, needed and requested solutions in terms of technical applications, documentation, and training.

5. BUDGETED SOLUTIONS: To avoid having jobs go offshore and to make positive contributions to the USA economy, VIP's business model created innovative alternatives to the new IT and HR decision makers, by offering competitive service pricing models, comparable to the off-shoring alternatives.

6. QUALITY ASSURANCE: VIP's quality and Customer Service has recently received honors from several newspapers and magazines. VIP has been recognized many times by many professional organizations. Click here to view the most recent awards http://www.vip-global.com/news.html.

Our ability to recognize the need for change and to quickly adapt to the needs of our clients is how "success" is spelled at Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC.

Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC Specializes in IT and ERP Project Management, Staff Augmentation, Change Management, Application Development, E-Learning, Marketing and Technical Documentation and Training.