In just five years, Monumental Games Limited has become a global leader in the hugely popular and growing Massive Multi-player Online (MMO) sector, with games such as MotoGP 09/10, Hunter's World and Football Superstars. Now comprised of three studios (Monumental Online, Monumental Racing and Monumental Conversion and Emerging Technologies), Monumental have established a technology platform to dramatically reduce the complexity and lead times for the development of online games and virtual worlds. Monumental licenses its technology to other game creators as well as producing its own games, and in 2009 the company’s broad-minded approach to the games business saw Monumental win the Fast Growth Business Award for Innovation, as well as £2 million in funding from the Capital for Enterprise fund.

Taking the Fast Track to Success

Relatively high UK costs and shrinking domestic talent pools led Monumental to look offshore to fulfil their strategic objectives. The resulting solution has not only afforded them extra capacity, but it has also helped to boost their profitability and industry credibility and fuel growth.

Creating exceptional games and getting them published and distributed is an ongoing challenge to indie developers. Since Monumental Games became a client of Quickstart Global, they have raced to success. The first title created in conjunction with their In-House Anywhere™ team, console-based racing title ‘MotoGP 09/10’ has been a success in both the UK and America.

Less than one month after securing the contract with Capcom to develop the racing game, Monumental had, with the help of Quickstart Global, established their offshore studio in Pune, and hired four talented artists to complement their UK based studio in Nottingham to provide the detailed graphical artwork content for the MotoGP game.

Just one month and a half later that team had doubled in size to eight. Six months later Monumental won the Innovative Business of the Year accolade at the Fast Growth Business Awards 2009 which honours the UK’s fastest growing businesses. Today Monumental Games has established itself as a leader in its sector a mere five years after starting up.

So, what have been the secrets of Monumental’s success, speed and scalability?

Sustainability and Reliability

Having worked in the video games development industry for many years, CEO Rik Alexander wanted to create a business that improved the efficiency and speed of games development while retaining the highest quality. A few years after starting up, in order to achieve that vision while improving the company's core value proposition, Rik decided that an efficient way to access high quality staff quickly and cost-effectively was to seize the overseas opportunity and look offshore. “It was a no-brainer,” says Rik.

However, as a small, fast growth business operating in a highly competitive market, the company didn’t have the time or resources to risk making a mistake when it came to choosing the most appropriate model.

With the strategic objectives of simplifying games development and shortening delivery timescales, operationally Monumental required simplicity and speed. They also needed to ensure optimum quality and creativity so, while speed was of the essence, they couldn’t blindly rush forth and risk jeopardising the quality of their creative output.

As such the sustainability and predictability of the offshore model would be vital. Monumental needed a solution that would enable them to easily predict and manage costs, keep processes simple and secure top talent quickly. They knew that, once they had a sustainable model for games creation in place, they could easily add the creativity, because the cost awareness would give them the freedom to focus their attention on securing the right skills at the right time. As a small business, they also needed a solution that reduced their risk, increased their efficiency and productivity while also ensuring process and cultural alignment with HQ.

The Quickstart Global In-House Anywhere™ model ticked all of the boxes. Firstly, Quickstart Global mapped out all costs across the year, so Monumental could see whether the venture would work from a cost perspective. Secondly, Quickstart Global was able to act fast and remove much of the hassle associated with setting up a new office.

Confident that this model would work financially, Monumental immediately established their studio in Pune, India and set about securing the initial team of four artists. They then hired an Offshore Manager, David Tolley, to run the studio from the UK who subsequently grew the team to eight.

While David is the main point of contact for the Pune office, kicking off each day with a Skype ‘catch up’ conversation and weekly reviews via video conference, anyone from the Nottingham studio can communicate with the Pune studio. “They’re on Skype, e-mail, and could almost be in the next room,” David explains.

Certainly, as long as the communication is good, having an office overseas is like having another department next door, it just so happens that the wall is thousands of miles thick.

Efficiency and Security

The Quickstart Global In-House Anywhere™ model means that, while the day to day direction of staff in India is driven by Monumental Games, Quickstart Global takes care of all recruitment, HR, facilities management and infrastructure.

“That was a real weight off our minds,” nods David enthusiastically. “Knowing that any legalities, wages, taxes and HR issues had been taken care of provides incredible peace of mind and enables us to concentrate on getting the work done, managing development and running the studio.”

“You feel safer when there's someone behind the scenes dealing with all the nitty gritty issues for you,” continues David.

Essentially this freedom and usability has helped Monumental achieve their goal of creating an efficient and easy-to-run studio, reducing delivery times and simplifying development.

“The great thing about being with Quickstart Global is that if you’re ready to recruit or move to larger offices, if you need new computer systems, or if you see a problem that needs attending to, it’s simply a case of picking up the phone or sending an e-mail,” adds David. “You know that, once informed, someone at Quickstart is taking care of it and will get the ball rolling.”

While providing a supportive safety-net, the Quickstart Global model helps to improve productivity and enable the workforce to focus on tasks that impact the value proposition. This in turn helps the company to better meet the needs of their customers, deliver on expectations and grow; while also meeting their own internal objectives.

Speed and Simplicity

Complexities circumvented, risk eliminated, Monumental were all of a sudden able to hire the best possible artists in the shortest amount of time. Indeed, set-up speed and the ability to hire quickly were critical success factors for Monumental.

“The other benefit for us has been scalability and immediacy,” David adds. “It seems to be quite easy to scale up in India.”

“In fact, the main attraction of Quickstart Global is that they make it so easy to establish and get going,” David continues.

“Even in the UK it can be quite difficult to hire eight artists immediately. While there are a lot of good artists out there, the best ones are often already working or have relocation problems; hiring overseas talent can be an easier way for us to hire a lot of people and put them on a project quickly. When you are about to embark on the production of a product that is mission-critical to your growth, resources often need to be ramped up rapidly so you need the confidence that you can access top talent in time.

“The cost-saving advantage is not going to work unless you can get the right staff, so that was the most important element,” says David, “as was the ability to shape the team.” A key value from Quickstart Global has been in their ability to help Monumental Games to create, maintain and grow their team.

“With Quickstart Global’s assistance, we’ve built a productive, creative team who understand the procedures involved in creating high quality video games. And we’re doing so while saving money, enjoying high quality production and credibility,” explains David. As such, having their own remote team has become integral to their value proposition.

While Monumental’s core strategic objectives are clearly being achieved, their offshore operation has also afforded them competitive advantage as those benefits are making the company all the more attractive to clients.

“Once they know we’ve got a studio in Pune filled with people who’ve worked on a successful game like MotoGP, one of the draws for people placing work with us is that we have an effective, scalable and proven solution,” adds David.

So while the cost savings impact the profitability of the company, the quality of work being carried out and the scalability available positively impacts the credibility of the company too.

But the benefits don’t end there.  “Running our own offshore studio has given us a number of distinct advantages,” says David. “But really the chief gain is that the team is working solely for us as an expansion to the UK studios.”

Integrated and Inspired

As Rik Alexander, CEO told BBC Radio 4’s In Business programme recently. “I don’t see [what we do] as outsourcing… it’s insourcing. The Pune team are treated as being our own employees, as an extension of our team here; we talk to them daily, we finance the hardware they need and they work in our office in Pune,” adds Rik who says that the Pune office has also been “Monumentalized” to fully align and unite the cross-border teams into one culture.

As the name of the model In-House Anywhere™ suggests, the team are still in-house, they are just in another country.

“That's one of the first things that attracted us to Quickstart Global’s offering,” says David. “I’ve worked with lots of good outsource companies before, and great results are certainly possible, but nevertheless, you can never overlook the slight ‘us and them’ mentality however small, and that’s something you can eliminate by ‘owning’ your own team”, David explains.

“However, with Quickstart Global where the staff work directly for you; teams from both locations are on the same bonus and pay structure, they're involved with the games from the beginning to end and they get a genuine feeling that they're involved with something that's making a difference. This makes it a lot easier to motivate the guys.”

“Working for a UK company certainly has kudos and the Pune team are actually involved in day to day development of the game, rather than just doing a section of it and then moving on to something else. They are key contributors.”

From motorbikes and control towers to track-side assets within the real world circuit, the artists in Pune have a vital role to play in the creation of the game.

Indeed Monumental knew that in order to attract and retain high quality talent, the artists in Pune would need to be an integral part of the creative process, work on high-end game assets, and feel like a part of the overall team, as this would foster a sense of inclusion and self-motivation.

“We certainly don’t use our Pune artists for “donkey work” which is a popular misconception regarding overseas staff,” says David who’s experienced in doing artwork himself and subsequently has a good knowledge of potential production issues.

“A few years ago it was common to send only certain types of work out of the studio, but with big developments in communication along with the fact that overseas staff are gaining experience, it’s become possible to delegate much of the high-end work to these studios. Particularly when you have the support and understanding of a strong core team in the UK, which is essential in helping manage the art quality and pipelines.”

“The team in Pune can actually see the game developing, so it’s not difficult to keep them motivated because they know what the end result is going to be,” he adds.

Furthermore, producing quality high profile games across multiple genres and systems keeps the work stimulating.

Ultimately, when your offshore team are your own team rather than someone else’s, they are included, they have ownership and, as a more responsive and productive team, they deliver consistently higher results.

The In-House Anywhere™ model also provides control over quality, continuity and maximum Intellectual Property protection.

“When you use outsourcing and you're based in the UK it’s natural to feel a little apprehensive, because you’re never in total control” says David, who has had many years experience in such projects.  “If your contacts aren’t online then you don't know what's happening - so just trust things are going well. Whereas, with Quickstart Global and our Pune office, if there's a problem out in India I know that Quickstart staff are there so there's nothing to worry about.”

Control over IP is of particular importance to Monumental Games as the assets they create belong to the publisher, Capcom. This means it’s critical that they are safe and secure.

Additionally, when using your own team rather than an outsourced one you need not suffer the sometimes frustrating, time-consuming and costly issue of retraining people over and over. Your training investment is essentially in your own people rather than someone else’s.

“Having an experienced team who are familiar with our tools and processes is a major advantage. We don’t need to retrain or re-educate the staff when moving to new projects,” says David. “That’s a big draw for us.”

“If you choose to work with an outsourcer, they may have to get used to your production lines and your briefs. But once you've got a studio of your own, your team understands what you're about, making it far easier to go from project to project because you're using the same tools, the same software and the same people”

For a fast growth company where time is of the essence, not only in terms of growth speed but also in terms of productivity, every second counts.

Interaction and Attraction

Monumental Games technology enables thousands of people to play games with and against each other simultaneously all round the world. As such, they are experts in interaction. It comes as no surprise then that they have closely integrated their UK and Indian teams and enable constant interaction so the overseas team can live and breathe the Monumental culture. In doing so they are optimising their offshore opportunity.

And, while much interaction takes place via the latest video and web technologies, there is face to face interaction as well. David flies over to Pune every couple of months for a week long stay, and the original four artists hired in Pune were flown to the UK to meet the rest of the team and see for themselves how the rest of the game was developing.  This enabled them to see the bigger picture and understand where they fit within it.

“It was a fantastic experience for them to be here as none of them had ever been to England before. Just to spend a bit of time with the team and get to know each other, the trip also improved their productivity. But one of the highlights had to be their introduction to English Bitter with fish & chips!” smiles David.

Now that they’re established, Monumental never have a shortage of top quality artists enquiring about opportunities. “A few years ago it wouldn’t have been easy bringing together a solid team of artists in India, and the few experienced guys available were drawn to the big outsource companies in India.”

“However now we’re finding it’s probably as easy to recruit experienced talent in India as it is in the UK, a fact we knew would be instrumental in us opening up a studio there.”

The growing interest in emergent technology makes game development an obvious draw for lots of young professionals. Pune is a hub of academia and research in the state of Maharashtra. This has led to the Pune studio getting a good deal of attention from the colleges and universities there. Consequently, Monumental are not short of high quality candidates.

“There are lots of talented guys eager to break into the industry and I’m currently working with a number of institutes on developing and opening up real-world opportunities to help exceptional graduates into gaming,” David explains.

In fact, David has done a tour of one of the Institutes in Bangalore, while their Lead Artist has flown to Delhi to give a seminar to young professionals. “They're all interested in Monumental and Quickstart Global and what we do,” David adds.

Ultimately, Monumental’s success is now attracting an even a wider talent pool of high calibre individuals for them to choose from in India.

“We get around15 job applications a week in India from people who are interested in working for us, so as soon as we're ready to hire again, we're going to have a great talent pool to choose from.”

Conclusion

Monumental has built strong foundations and proven that off shoring works for them. They are now preparing for a phase of growth as they embark on more games development projects.

“I'm confident that now we've got a core team in India and have delivered everything on time and to budget, we can ramp up that studio with experienced members of staff who can lead and guide the next set of applicants,” says David who hopes to expand the studio later in 2010.

“But you couldn't do it without a fantastic team over here in the UK,” David adds. “We've got a great core team of almost 90 staff in Monumental’s Racing studio and the support internally is fantastic. The legacy of a strong studio in Pune is that we've got so much complementary support both via our UK team and from Quickstart Global.”

Operationally and commercially the In-House Anywhere™ model has met and exceeded Monumental’s requirements. Having an offshore capability has allowed the company to grow their top line revenue, achieve their strategic objectives of revolutionising the games development industry and has helped to drive their success. Unlike traditional outsourcing, the Quickstart Global model is not merely transactional, it is about building, sustaining and growing a solid business. And that’s a game that Monumental Games are winning.