Notes from the President

01 June 2023 khilton Notes from the President

Ken Hilton - President Red Wing Software

We hear a lot about malicious activity in technology, with people attempting to access your connected devices and sometimes causing havoc with your data. We do what we can to secure our computers and networks from outside forces, but what about our internal security?
At Red Wing Software, we are fortunate to have Larry, our internal technology wizard, ensuring we have up-to-date and strong passwords that must change regularly. Even if you don’t have a “Larry” to keep your systems secure, there are some simple things to do that will help keep your information safe.
When did you last change your password to access your computer or confidential business information? When a new person joins your organization, do you ensure they know the processes you use to protect your systems? When a person leaves or retires, do you make sure that person’s logins are deactivated? Are you regularly changing passwords if you’re taking advantage of CenterPoint in the Red Wing cloud? When transferring access from a staff member that leaves to a new employee, don’t just give the username and password of the former employee to the new person to get access quickly, as that means they both now have access to your systems.
It is important to think about all levels of security in your operation, just like you would change the keys to your house when access needs change.

Notes from the President

08 May 2023 khilton Notes from the President

Ken Hilton - President Red Wing Software

Seeing the severe weather devastation throughout the central United States over the past year tends to put things into perspective. It proves the Minnesota winters aren’t the only thing challenging to handle. Our thoughts and prayers go to all those affected by disaster.
We know that some of our valued customers were directly affected by storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. As a company, we at Red Wing Software will do what we can to help our affected clients get back to business and resume some sort of normal operations.
If you are subjected to a disaster, we will do whatever we can to help minimize the impact on your business’ recordkeeping tasks. Please call on us if help is needed reinstalling programs or backups or for any other task our support staff can assist with.
This is a good time to remind everyone about the importance of data backups and disaster recovery plans. We can help reinstall your programs, but it’s up to you to have current copies of your data. Please count on the staff at Red Wing Software to help in any way we can.

Notes from the President

05 April 2023 khilton Notes from the President

Ken Hilton - President Red Wing Software

I’ve heard it said that if you genuinely enjoy a job, you’ll never work a day in your life. I hope everyone reading this has the same problem I have: sometimes it’s difficult to remember I have a job, but if you enjoy your job as I do, it doesn’t seem like work.
Pam, my wife, who also works at Red Wing Software, and I recently “worked” at a trade show, representing Red Wing Software in a display booth. I don’t get to do this often, but the show was close to my home, so I was the logical choice, and I enjoyed the assignment. I always have the benefit of enjoying what I do and having a great team of professionals to work with, but I don’t often get to meet and talk with so many wonderful customers over a short period, which was the most rewarding part of this assignment.
I appreciated everyone who stopped by our display to say ‘hi’ and chat. It’s wonderful to hear the compliments about our support staff and how people use our software. Many customers who stopped by have been with us since the 1980s; others are relatively new to the products. While I always appreciate them as customers and the business they give us, they seem more like long-time friends.
I encourage you to look around and enjoy your job and choose never to work a day in your life.

Notes from the President

06 March 2023 khilton Notes from the President

Ken Hilton - President Red Wing Software

March 1st marks a milestone for me. I have now been with the company in some capacity for 40 years. 40 years!? Is that even possible? To give a little background, I started in a support position. Forty years ago, having a personal computer wasn’t too common, so in addition to providing software, we also sold computers, printers, and the like. So being a computer nerd, I was a good fit for the job. Over the years, I learned enough about software, accounting, and payroll to be dangerous. Enough about me. I really want to highlight our team’s longevity and knowledge.
To begin with, our average years of service throughout the organization is over 21 years. If I bragged about each person, this article would be several pages long, so I’ll focus on a few, and over time, each team member should show up in this newsletter. Here are a few examples:
• Roxie, the voice of Red Wing Software, for over 32 years.
• Larry, our internal technology guru, officially over 25 years. (Unofficially, I think he was stuffing envelopes for the company before he graduated 8th grade.)
• George, a developer and internet technology expert, with over 33 years.
• Tim, our Support Manager, has completed almost 30 years.
I shouldn’t have even started listing names, as I like to brag about our entire staff. We also appreciate new people and fresh ideas, our newest team member (just four months), Jake, hit the ground running. If you’ve had an opportunity to talk to him in his support role, you know about his commitment to seeing an issue through to the end. I would be remiss not to mention the many customers who have been with Red Wing Software since the beginning.
We have been extremely fortunate to have a great, dedicated team throughout Red Wing Software for a long time. We plan to continue this history of longevity for many years to come.

Notes from the President

03 February 2023 khilton Notes from the President

Ken Hilton - President Red Wing Software

Usually, working in the technology industry is not a very scary occupation. After all, I’ve never heard of anyone getting seriously injured by a computer or software. However, a few things I’ve experienced or heard over the years are very scary. I want to share a few of these stories and will change the names to protect the guilty.
I will admit this first story is all on me. A long time ago, when we still used the DOS operating system, I was helping a customer clean up their computer and accidentally stepped them through how to delete all the files on their hard drive. As soon as they hit “Enter,” I realized what I had done, told them not to do anything on their computer until I got there, hopped in my car, drove to their location, and recovered everything I had them delete. That was a bit scary.
Here are some other scary things I’ve heard from customers:
• “I just got a new computer and am using the old, outdated software. Since I no longer have the original program disks and don’t want to update, I’ll just use the old computer for my accounting.” So, what happens when the old computer dies?
• At a January trade show, I heard, “I guess I should start putting in last year’s accounting data.”
• “My hard drive crashed. Can you help me get my data back? I don’t have a current backup.” We are happy to help install the program on a new computer and restore data from a recent backup, but we can’t recover data from a destroyed drive.
I hope we didn’t hear these things from anyone reading this, but take a moment to think about what it would take (cost) to reenter months or years of data, and make sure you never put yourself in a position where this is necessary.