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.
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and any other holiday or special event celebrated this time of year.
I had a conversation with a prominent consultant in the accounting industry regarding best management practices for high growth business. This is a very timely topic for the first newsletter of 2016, as everyone in business should be considering how to make the new year more profitable than the last. While the conversation initially centered on accounting software, it quickly became clear the focus really revolved around systems and processes. Here are a few of the observations we discussed during our conversation.
The best software in the world (of course that means software from Red Wing Software) can’t fix broken processes. A business needs to identify what is important to them for analysis purposes, and then implement a system that provides that information. That may mean changing some internal processes, so data that is being collected is sufficient to get the results they’re after. Change in process is always a difficult thing to implement, but may be necessary to accomplish an ultimate goal. The way to make a change successful is to make the process as easy as possible for people to understand, inform them of the importance of the information, how it will be used (share results), and then enforce implementation. It normally takes sticking to a new daily routine for just a couple of weeks for it to become habit.
I know many people reading this newsletter have great systems in place already, and have coworkers that would argue that there is no better way to do things. I would argue that any time we start to believe that our business can’t improve each and every thing that it does, the business stops growing, and we all know that without growth the business will fade away. I challenge everyone to take a look at what you’re doing today, tweak something that will make your business better, and reap the rewards. Here’s to a successful, different, and more profitable 2016.
- Ken Hilton, President