With all the political noise dominating the airwaves, many people may not realize the Summer Olympics take place later this year in Brazil. How would your business team do in the Olympics? I am not asking if you have a great pole vaulter, sprinter, or golfer. I mean: is your team trained, do they practice, and do they have the right equipment to be the best at what they do?
As with any great team, the most important thing is to start with the right people and make sure they are in the right positions. Just like a great sumo wrestler wouldn’t make the best relay anchor, a great sales person won’t necessarily make the best accounting manager.
Once you get the right people on the team, it is important to ensure that all players are encouraged to learn all they can about their position on the team. Just like professional athletes are always learning about the latest workout techniques to fine tune their game, everyone on your business team needs to regularly receive continuing education and stay apprised of the latest technologies and tools of their trade. This can be as simple as providing them with trade journals, attending local networking opportunities, or hiring good coaches (business consultants).
Finally, you must make sure your team is playing with the best equipment. You can’t expect a world-class golfer to be using 20-year-old clubs, or a world-class programmer to be using a 1990’s era computer. Don’t give away the gold by making your team play with inadequate equipment.
While striving for the gold medal, we must also remember that bronze is still a great accomplishment. I’m always amused when sports commentators, who have likely never played the game, negatively comment on the effort put forth by a competitor that stumbled during the performance. These are Olympic athletes--the best in the world. It was still a great performance, even though it wasn’t what some might consider to be perfect.
The bottom line is: hire great people, give them the knowledge to succeed and the equipment to perform, and when they stumble, encourage them to get back up,
- Ken Hilton, President
Preparation pays off. Unless you’re fairly new to reading this newsletter, I’m sure you’ve witnessed my bragging about our staff. This year is no exception to their commitment to providing the best software and support experience possible to our customers.
Throughout 2015, Red Wing Software has been designing, programming, and refining functionality for our CenterPoint Payroll software to handle the reporting required by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). While our development and quality assurance teams did everything they could to make the new features work properly according to the legislation and make them as intuitive as possible, our technical writer and support team were preparing for implementation by our customers and making sure they had everything they needed to smoothly create and electronically file the reports.
This preparation included several documents that can be found in our help files/How2 Viewer, as well as notifying our customers about the need to file these new forms, and the information they needed to collect and enter into the software. It also included our notification of legacy payroll product users who, if they needed to comply with the new requirements, would need to migrate to CenterPoint Payroll, as our legacy products would not have ACA functionality.
Because of this effort, our busiest time of year has gone extremely smooth. In a matter of about ten business days, we were able to handle over 4800 support calls, with over 85% of those calls being handled as they came in, and with on-hold wait times being the lowest our customers have ever experienced.
We want to thank our customers for implementing the new requirements in a timely manner, which certainly helped reduce the calls during the first of the year. And, of course, it helps that we have the most dedicated staff in the galaxy.
Everyone in business realizes that their particular industry experiences certain times of the year that they are the busiest, and doing as much as possible to prepare ahead for the upcoming crunch-time makes for a smooth busy season. What can you do to prepare your business?
- Ken Hilton, President
The Vold Family and Dorrich Dairy Honored for Conservation Efforts in The Farmer.
Red Wing Software customer Dorrich Dairy was featured in the January 2016 issue of The Farmer magazine, in a section honoring their conservation efforts. The Volds became the first Minnesota Ag Water Quality Certified Farm in Pope County. Read the whole story in the January issue of The Farmer.
Iott Seed Farms, Inc. Featured Story about Success in Seed Potatoes
Red Wing Software customer Iott Seed Farms, Inc. was featured in the December 2015 issue of Vegetable Growers News. The story details the history behind the Iott’s seed business.
Greentown Farmer and Businessman Pens Autobiography
Red Wing Software customer Bryan Dee Kirkpatrick has published the book “Faith of a Farmer: God, Family and Life in America’s Heartland.” In this autobiography, the Indiana farmer, businessman and community leader shares with readers the joys and struggles of raising a family, expanding his farm and facing love and loss. Click here to learn more or purchase a copy of his book.
Annette Schalla Interview in Progressive Dairyman
Red Wing Software customer Annette Schalla of Bomaz Farms in Hammond, Wisconsin, was interviewed for the Progressive Dairyman story “What Makes a Good Female Leader in Dairy?” Click here to read the entire story.