When Summit Bank needed an in-depth analysis of a potential new business line, leaders there knew just who to call—Oregon Consulting Group.

Founded in 2014, the professionally managed, student-run consulting organization is housed in the Lundquist College of Business at the University of Oregon. Oregon Consulting Group works with companies and nonprofit organizations to deliver quality research, analysis, insights, strategies, and business plans at a fraction of the cost of a traditional consultancy.

Summit Bank Assistant Vice President and Financial Analyst Chris Hemmings said officials were already familiar with Lundquist College students through events and hosting multiple interns. Hemmings and Summit President and CEO Craig Wanichek are both Ducks.

“Over the past couple of years we've had an intentional deepening of our relationship with the University of Oregon and the business school's banking/finance concentration," Wanichek said. “We support the college any way we can."

Hemmings explained Summit Bank leaders were interested in municipal lending but didn't have the bandwidth or access to information.

“We are always looking for potential new lines of activity or business opportunities," Hemmings said. “Municipal lending was one of those. We needed to get our arms around what we thought the attainable market was. We asked the students to do deep dive and analysis of the potential available market."

Alex Summers, an accounting student who plans to graduate this spring, served as project manager overseeing a three-person Oregon Consulting Group student team.

“We needed to familiarize ourselves with this nuanced space that they were in," he said. “This required a lot of secondary research—what it looks like in different geographical areas, technical terms—to be able to talk with ease and understanding."

The students interviewed industry experts, lawyers, and government employees. Then, eight weeks into the project and just two weeks before it was to end, a team member called the Oregon State Treasury and discovered someone had collected sector specific information from the previous two years in this particular market. The cache included hundreds of standardized contracts.

“It was the holy grail," Summers said.

It also backed up the group's existing research.

“It verified what we are doing from another angle," he said.

Without revealing too many trade details, Summers said the team delivered the market opportunity, as well as its recommendation on how to best enter that market. It also offered best practices for selling the product.

“We gave them a game plan of how to roll it out," he said.

Summit Bank's Hemmings said he was perhaps most impressed by the team's timeline and organization.

“Within the first meeting, the team had prepared a 10-week timeline with benchmarks set up to meet," he said. “They nailed every one of them. Considering they were in an unfamiliar field, delivering on that is impressive in and of itself."

Summers said the partners at Summit Bank were also invested in the success of the collaboration.

“They really cared about what we were doing," he said, adding they were in front of its executive team every week for an hour. “We wanted to come out and impress them every Friday."

The thorough approach paid off.

“They thoughtfully and carefully took our responses and notes and adjusted as needed," Hemmings said. “Each week they were able to evolve with the project and respond and update the requirements promptly."

And produce results.

“They delivered an assessment that they felt the market was large enough to afford another player, and structured in a way that there is room for an institution like ours, with a service proposition that we think we offer," Hemmings said.

“The Oregon Consulting Group got us real-world data that is extremely difficult to attain normally; that is useful to us when making lending decisions going forward. We are using that data and that is something we will continue to use."

Hemmings was quick to say Summit Bank was extremely pleased with the collaboration.

“Given the quality of service, commitment to the project, and value—yes, we can see potential projects down the road," he said. “I can say it confidently from conversations with our CEO and CFO, who both were very impressed."

Hemmings said he has already recommended the Oregon Consulting Group to other organizations.

He added, “The highest praise I think a business could offer for each student is that we would have offered any one of them a job in a heartbeat—if they hadn't already been snapped up."