It appears that the economy in our region is picking up. My daily discussions with you, our customers, and our prospective clients are yielding fantastic news. Many of you are reporting first quarter results that far surpass the first quarter 2011.

Further conversation as to why reveals that the businesses showing improvement were regularly investing in sales and marketing during the lean times. However, some reported that their marketing energies did not appear to pay off. Why is that?

Consistent sales and marketing must also be “on target”. How do you hit the target, making sure that sales and marketing energies yield good results? This can be summed up in one word: Intent.

It is really quite simple. Each of us enjoys buying, but hates being “sold”. We all like buying something that will make our life easier or fun. For instance: good business software can make work easier, so we will have more time for fun.

But as consumers, we can quickly identify when someone is trying to “sell us” rather than “help us”. We all need to make sure that the intent with our customer is to help them make a good purchase decision that will solve their problem. Even if it means they will not purchase from us. With good customer focus to provide solutions, our intent is established and our marketing is targeted. The sale will follow.

Each of us should ask ourselves this question: What is my intent when I go to work each day? Is it to make more money or is it to help my customer?

If your intent is to help your customer, the money will be a natural result. Although the latest writings byl the “sales gods” talk about Sales Intent, the concept is actually a long time proven business philosophy. Remember the movie 1947 “Miracle on 34th Street”? Macy’s Santa sent customers to Bloomingdales for the perfect gift which resulted in greater customer loyalty and referrals for Macys.

Take some time to review your marketing materials and your sales processes. Are they customer focused? Is your intent to help your customer make the correct purchase decision? If so, you’re on the right path.

Sheri Blaho
Vice President, Sales and Marketing – CS3 Technology
Maybe not the Queen of Fun, but certainly the Monarch of Money

This is the first in a series of articles that will focus on helping you grow your business.

If so – You could find yourself in BIG TROUBLE

With the growing problem of identity theft has emerged a plethora of new Federal and State Legislation. Most of these laws make you, the employer, subject to lawsuit by anyone who can show that it was your negligence that helped in the identity theft. The most important thing you can do is to make the employees Social Security Number (SSN) invisible to all except those who absolutely need to know it.

1. Remove all or most of the SSN from displaying on all the screens in Abra Suite
2. Remove all or most of the SSN from printing on Check Stubs or Direct Deposit Advices
3. Remove all or most of the SSN from all reports and documents except where absolutely necessary
4. Remove all or most of the SSN from your Time Clocks or other time collection systems

If you use the SSN as your Employee Number, the above items are almost impossible to correct, and you should re-number your employees as soon as possible.

Call your CS3 representative for more information on this subject and to learn how we can help you make these changes almost painless.

If you are still using Abra Suite v7.8x/v7.9x or Sage HRMS v10.0 please be aware the March 2012 tax update was the last one for your product. You will need to upgrade to a newer version to get future tax updates. Below is a table of the supported versions:

This information is current as of today but there may be changes to the scheduled Tax Updates for any particular version. Please review Knowledgebase Article “Sage HRMS supported Tax Updates” on the Customer Portal website.

Note: If you are also using Sage Employee Self Service or Sage Abra Benefits Messenger at your location, please contact Customer Support or your Business Partner before performing a software upgrade.

My sales and marketing team have been after me for months to post regularly to our Blog. Well the old saying of “today is the first day of the rest of your life” applies to me. So this is the first day of my blogging life.

They say it is critical to post meaningful information on a routine basis to your blog. So I will commit to the “routine” part and let you all be the judge of “meaningful’. I would like to poll you all and ask this question. With all the blog postings happening daily, how do you all decide what you will take time read? Personally, I stumble across blog entries when I do my Google searchs, rather than reading any one author routinely.

Since I sell Accounting and Payroll software, I should try to write incredibly interesting and funny stories about software. Did you hear the one about the three guys that went into a bar? The accountant, payroll clerk, and IT guy? Don’t feel bad,, no one has heard about them either becuase it was a pretty boring eveining.

Well there, I have done it! My blog posts have begun. I will talk to you all again shortly!

Always pass credit to those who deserve it and never take credit falsely. Know all the players and make them look good to their superiors. Make the managers look good to their employees.

Be sure to get your nominations in for this months behavior. The nomination entry form can be found at CS3 Technology.

2012 Oklahoma Human Resources State Conference and Expo
April 25-27, 2012 • Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center, Tulsa, OK
For more information and to register visit OKHR 2012

Arkansas SHRM Human Resources Conference and Expo
April 25-27 Springdale, AR
For more information and to register visit ARSHRM 2012

OSCPA Governmental Accounting and Auditing Conference
Thursday, May 03, 2012 – Friday, May 04, 2012
The OSCPA’s 2012 Governmental Accounting & Auditing Conference offers 16 hours of recommended CPE and Yellow Book credit, including two hours of Oklahoma Ethics, for only $250! Can’t make it to Oklahoma City? Webcasts are also available. Conference registrants will also have a chance to win an iPad each day of the conference.
For more information and to register visit the OSCPA website.

Congratulations to

Ann Chambers and Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America
(applause, applause, applause, applause)

Here is what was submitted with Ann’s nomination:

Ann Chambers is the Senior Manager of HR at MCFA.

Ann’s customers are not MCFA’s typical customers, instead they include: employees, managers, MIS, vendors and consultants. A recent project with MCFA was to implement Sage Abra for a division of MCFA. Like many projects, we ran into some obstacles with resource availability and conflicts of interest. Ann had to balance the needs of the new division and MCFA’s corporate needs. Ann was able to keep the focus on overall corporate objectives while remaining sensitive to conflicting needs thereby minimizing the politics of particular situations. If an obstacle came up during the project Ann usually ‘sensed’ it before anyone else. There were many times Ann met with each person separately to work out solutions before the obstacle derailed the project. By meeting with each person individual she was able to come up with a solution to solve the issue. This took the politics out of the situation and instead focused everyone on getting the job done.

Congratulations to Ann Chambers for "Staying Clear of Politics".

Just a reminder…get those nominations in for the 6th behavior – “Constantly Focus on Customer Value”

Consultants who do this always express the success of the project in terms of the success of the customer. Great consultants must create value for their customers. Success can only be measured with the customer’s scale.

Be sure to get your nominations in for this months behavior. The nomination entry form can be found at CS3 Technology.

Congratulations to

Sharon Beaudry and Colby Sawyer College

(applause, applause, applause, applause)

Here is what was submitted with Sharon’s nomination:

Sharon Beaudry is the HR Director for Colby Sawyer College in New London, NH . Recently, Sharon led her staff through an implementation of Sage HRMS along with CS3′s assistance. While no implementation is easy, Sharon helped make the transition go very smoothly.

Rather than focus on deadlines alone, Sharon often checked with her staff as to their comfort level with new processes. If there was a concern from a staff member, Sharon assisted with making sure they had time available to learn the new processes, practice and become very comfortable with the tasks. Only when Sharon saw complete confidence in the new system and in themselves would Sharon move forward. The new year opened for Colby-Sawyer with a new payroll system with most employees never knowing a new system had been implemented.

Congratulations to Sharon Beaudry for “Making her Customers (Staff) Feel Good”.

Just a reminder…get those nominations in for the 5th behavior – “Stay Clear of Politics”

Abra Crystal Reports Version 10 Details
Registration Open

April 12 at 9:00 to 11:30 CST
April 12 at 1:00 to 3:30 CST
April 13 at 9:00 to 11:30 CST
April 19 at 9:00 to 11:30 CST
April 20 at 9:00 to 11:30 CST

Location: Web Based Class
Instructor: Cathy Pangborn

Overview

This internet-based class is designed for users of Abra Suite. Crystal Reports is one of the most widely used reporting tools in the world today. This hands-on class is considered vital in allowing users to maximum utilization of their systems. There will be five web sessions with each session lasting for 2 to 2.5 hours.

For more information and to register, visit CS3 Univeristy.