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Carl Lewis:

Welcome to The Connected Enterprise Podcast. I’m Carl Lewis, your host from Vision33, and my guest is Alex Rooney—also from Vision33! I first heard of Vision33 in 2003, when it entered the SAP Business One channel. It's been 20 years, so I wanted Alex to look back and forward. Alex, tell us about yourself and what you do at Vision 33.

Alex Rooney:

Carl, thanks for having me on. I like your podcast voice—it's very soothing. My daily life at Vision33 is mostly focused on operations, sales, and operations for our US business, where we get most of our revenue and profits. But I also spend a lot of time considering the global areas, strategy, and the board.

Carl Lewis:

It's a big job.

Alex Rooney:

Yes.

Carl Lewis:

As I mentioned, I heard of Vision33 in 2003. In 2009, I started working here. When I joined, we combined my company’s customers and Vision33’s customers, which equaled about 140 customers. 

Three days ago, somebody said we invoiced 1400 customers in 2022. That’s a crazy amount of growth. What are the five top things you think led to that growth over 20 years?

Alex Rooney:

It’s been 20 years? Wow. That's significant. You heard of us in 2003, but in 2003 we had barely heard of ourselves. SAP had just introduced Business One to the American market, and we were on that early train. So, one of the top five things is timing.

We were tiny—maybe 17 employees—and one of our biggest customers in America was Microsoft. That happened because Microsoft acquired a group of companies into their business solutions piece, which was Solomon, Great Plains.

So, we suddenly had Microsoft as a customer, which is a big deal. We were very technically centric, so we were doing development, QA, etc. That's part of our DNA. I was the sales guy, project manager, chief, cook, and bottle washer, and I had developed a good relationship with my Microsoft contact. 

I had talked about being a Microsoft partner, and he pulled me aside and said, "Alex, I know you're interested in getting into the ERP space. I heard through the grapevine that SAP is bringing a new product to market called SAP Business One. You should look at that." He basically steered me away to a competitor, and he was a mentor and an early investor when we took it on.

If I hadn't been in that place and time with that relationship, we might not have joined up with the SAP channel and become a Business One partner. When we did, we threw ourselves at our work and said, "We're going to focus on this and be a meaningful, relevant partner." We didn’t know much about the business, but we learned it.

We weren't afraid to make mistakes, and we obviously improved to where we started focusing on being one of the top partners worldwide. To do that, we had to be sales-driven and accountable to ourselves. We had to measure metrics every step of the way and never take our eyes off the prize. 

I'm proud to say we achieved that. We were the number one partner in the world for three years running. So, focus is another of the top five things.

Risk tolerance is another. Every day was a risk, but we were never afraid to invest. We reinvested in the business constantly—we still do. We're always trying to deploy corporate capital to grow and secure our future. You were around for some early risk days. I'll wind the clock ahead to 2007-2009 and the Great Recession. The US economy was in a rough spot, and businesses weren’t spending or buying.

We had a few rough years around that, but we made a conscious decision to make bigger bets. We said, "We can tuck our horns in and try to survive, or we can come out swinging." That period launched a spree of acquisitions of other partners who were likely making similar decisions. And it was an opportune time for acquisitions because company valuations weren't high. We took everything we had and gathered critical mass.

When the economy turned around, we came out bigger, stronger, and with serious critical mass that set us apart from our peers. It's about being able to take on risk. A lot of credit goes to the business we had in Canada. It helped us weather the bad times in America.

Then there’s leadership and relationships. Our CEO, Tony Whalen, is a fantastic leader and brilliant operations guy with a keen understanding that sales drive the organization. He’s a talented, self-taught CFO and an even, steady-keeled, fantastic guy who’s offered great leadership. I'm fortunate to have him as my business partner and friend.

Relationships. I've spent so much time fostering and nurturing our relationship with SAP. We're all in it to grow and make money—everyone has numbers to hit—but you can enjoy and have fun with business relationships. They can be satisfying, and everyone can accomplish their goals. When opportunity knocks and relationships are strong, it's valuable to help, whether it’s the next new deal, some large enterprise customer, or if you need a helping hand from an SAP perspective. Our global relationships are a focus for us, and it’s helped a lot. 

The fifth thing is creating a great company that's fun to work at and treating your employees with respect and professionalism. We wouldn't be anywhere without our great employees. We want to be a good quality company to work for.

Carl Lewis:

It's great to get your perspective on that, Alex, because I could ask other Vision33 people, and they’d all look at it differently.

Alex Rooney:

Agreed.

Carl Lewis:

In 2003 and for approximately the next 15 years, there was 100% dedication to SAP Business One. But things have changed, and we've added many new products. Tell us about what that collection looks like today versus then.

Alex Rooney:

Actually, Carl, since the early days—even pre-Business One—there's been a piece that still exists today: Enterprise and eGovernment. For a long time, we’ve had a consulting practice for governments and some large product-agnostic enterprises. That still exists.

That gave us the seeds to invest in our foray into the ERP world. And we had some of our own products from those early days. But you're right—for a long time, when it came to ERP, Vision33 was Business One and Business One was Vision33. 

A recent big shift was taking on the SAP Business ByDesign product, a native cloud product for small to mid-market companies. We had stops and starts with that over the years. For the last few years, we've had a vibrant practice, and we made a significant SAP Business ByDesign acquisition last year. 

In 2023, we're launching into SAP's flagship born-in-the-cloud product called ‘S/4HANA public edition.’ It’s a multi-tenant offering based on S/4HANA cloud technology. It’s designed to get down in some lower spaces. It’s going to be tough, but we're thrilled.

It's going to take a lot of investment. We're working towards a certification to sell it. Then, from a channel and partner perspective, we'll have all three products in our bag: Business One, Business ByDesign, and S/4 public. It's a different world for Vision33, just from five years ago.

We've also had a legacy Sage practice in-house for 20+ years. Two to three years ago, we piloted Sage Intacct, and last year we rolled it out in all our geographies. That's the fourth ERP product we sell. It's a nice complement to Business One. 

These products are offered in all our major geographies—the US, Canada, and the UK. That’s where we've landed geographically over the years, and that's where we'll stay, for the short term anyway. We have enough on our plate now. So, that's the ERP product set.

Last year we started a human capital management practice with two products. The one for small to midsized businesses is called BambooHR. It’s by an American publisher and is a great complement for our ERP customers or standalone. There's also SuccessFactors, which is for midsized to large enterprises. We use it internally. Now we have a full human capital management to complement and overlay the markets we serve for ERP too.

The final product set is Vision33 intellectual property. The Saltbox Platform is our flagship product. It's an integration platform as a service (iPaaS), and we're really investing in it. It complements the SAP ecosystem but also exists on its own. We sell through a channel. Our goal is to have Saltbox in the Magic Quadrant by 2025 with Gartner. We need 900 customers to do that. Only 600 to go!

Carl Lewis:

But we got 300 customers in two years, right?

Alex Rooney:

Yes.

Carl Lewis:

That's pretty good progress.

Alex Rooney:

Not bad. And let's not forget the other products in our portfolio. iDocuments, a workflow and collaboration around expenses and payment process. Excited about that one. Our customer and employee portal solutions and our SPS offering around EDI. So, we have our ERP stack, our human capital management stack, and our own Vision33 IP to complement that. It’s a lot of individual products.

I have a nice dashboard here to show all our sales, metrics, and widgets across all the regions. It's a different dynamic from a sales perspective from 10 years ago when we only sold on-premises B1. They'd mail you a CD, and off you’d go with your implementation.

Carl Lewis:

Exactly. The cloud came along during that period, too, and changed things. We now have a fully operational cloud part of the business.

Alex Rooney:

Yes. About seven years ago, the team from Amazon Web Services (AWS) flew to our Irvine office and pitched their infrastructure. We adopted it and have been an AWS partner ever since. That's been fantastic growth because we can support our customers better. It cures our customers’ IT headaches. 

When you think about it today, why would you deploy any other way than the cloud infrastructure? That's a critical complement to the products. It's not our product, but it allows us to offer our customers better options and serve them better. It's a strong partnership for us and will continue to be important.

Carl Lewis:

The B1 suitcase is full of other stuff now.

Alex Rooney:

It’s not a carry-on anymore—I have to check it.

Carl Lewis:

You talked about geography. When I joined Vision33, I think I was the second acquisition. There was a small company in Utah.

Alex Rooney:

Correct.

Carl Lewis:

We didn't have a location in Utah per se. We had an employee or two and an office in Portland. The headquarters in Irvine. By the end of 2010, we added Texas and San Francisco. But the pandemic and other things have changed how we view geography and reach. What's happened through the years? Where are we now, and how is Vision33 spreading its reach into the world?

Alex Rooney:

We've always had our global headquarters in my hometown of St. John's, on the east coast of Canada in the Newfoundland and Labrador province. We have two offices there. You're right—as we expanded across our primary geographies of North America and the UK, we opened offices in key metropolitan areas. Now, this is all pre-pandemic thinking, but the thinking was that customers want local relationships. They want to deal with people who have geographic and cultural similarities.

I feel it’s easier to be a good partner to customers when you have those geographies. We didn't have one big office to serve everyone in the country. At our peak pre-pandemic, we had offices coast to coast in the US.

In Canada, we had offices from Newfoundland to Vancouver, and in the UK, we had offices in London and Manchester. That was 21 offices and 400 people. Now, post-pandemic, we shuttered some offices. Leases came up, we didn't reopen, we downsized. Today we have seven offices versus 21. And at our office peak, we were 90% in an office, 10% remote. That's basically flipped. We're probably 20% in an office, 80% remote—present company included. Right?

Carl Lewis:

Yes. Do you think that’s allowed us, from a staff perspective, to spread even farther from a geography perspective?

Alex Rooney:

Absolutely. There's an attraction for recruiting talent when it doesn't matter where you or they are. The other piece is that we can have cross-border elements, especially in North America. That's important. We can tap into some centers we didn't before. The flip side of that, Carl, is that everyone has that advantage now. Everyone's chasing the same talent in different areas.

In some areas where employment opportunities were more limited, the whole world has opened to you. That works against you. You must deal with the reality and work within the constraints of it. You still have to be a good company to work for. You must treat your people well. You must treat them with respect, be professional, and make a great place to work. If you do that, you've done all you can to keep employees interested and engaged.

Carl Lewis:

Absolutely. In 2010, I moved to Irvine for about four and a half years, primarily to help start our TOTAL Care program. In those days, there were three of us: me, Dean Garrison, and our good buddy, Bob. He retired and moved to Oregon a couple of years ago.

Alex Rooney:

I thought it was Arizona.

Carl Lewis:

He left Arizona and moved to Oregon. I stay in touch with him.

Alex Rooney:

Funny.

Carl Lewis:

So, there were three of us. I asked Dean Garrison how many people are in TOTAL Care now, and he said 46. That’s 1533% growth. You always have to put that 33 on it, right?

Alex Rooney:

Right.

Carl Lewis:

In 13 years, right? That's phenomenal. Of all the things I'm proud of being part of at Vision33, that's one of them. Please tell us about TOTAL Care, how it’s always been in your mind, and the fruition of that.

Alex Rooney:

The minute you have a customer, you must offer support. At what point does it make sense to have a dedicated team versus your consulting team doing double duty? That works for a while, but it doesn't scale. It was a pivotal moment when—and I know it was a big ask for you, and you rose to the occasion—you came down and had a Southern California adventure.

Carl Lewis:

It was an adventure.

Alex Rooney:

I just did a quick check on SuccessFactors, and Dean’s numbers check out.

Carl Lewis:

He said he could use five more people.

Alex Rooney:

It changes all the time. As the customer base grows, the support offering grows. Did I ever tell you the story about how we came up with the name TOTAL Care?

Carl Lewis:

You have, but please tell it again.

Alex Rooney:

It wasn’t a eureka moment or anything. We were traveling, as we did a lot then, and I said, “We can't just call it support. We have to brand it and have it as an offering so customers can have a relationship with it and it's easy for the sales team to position it and create brand awareness around it.”

I was boarding a plane, and a lady ahead of me had one of those wheelie bags. It said TOTAL Care. No idea what the company was—it just said TOTAL Care. I thought, "That's it. That's a great name. TOTAL Care." It was branding on a piece of luggage from one of my trips. I'll take that as me coming up with the name.

The team, the product set, and the offering have expanded a lot. We talk about the US, Canada, and the UK being our core anchor geographies, but our customers are in 100+ countries. We'll work with any customer with a HQ in Canada, the US, or the UK.

With cloud infrastructure and the global relationships we have with SAP and other partners, we can take on, manage, and deploy projects worldwide. We've done it successfully many times, but it comes with a support obligation. Part of the reason those numbers are big is that when we support our cloud infrastructure, that's 24/7. Our original TOTAL Care mandate was just business hours. We didn't have 24/7.

We have a team in India, resources in Argentina, and a few scattered in countries outside our anchor geographies to close that gap for 24/7 support. That drives the numbers up. We obviously have a lot more customer support, which also drives numbers up. We have to be there for our customers in every time zone during their business hours. 

Carl Lewis:

Alex, this last question is important. I started my 15th year with Vision33 in January 2023. It was the best decision I could have made for my whole career. My family and I have benefited from being a part of Vision33, there's been a lot of fun, and I've always felt like I was working for a friend when I was working for you. That culture is critical to success, right? I attribute a lot of that to you. So, what are you going to do for the next 15 years to make sure that powerful culture keeps being built?

Alex Rooney:

I appreciate that, Carl. It's difficult, especially since I don't get on airplanes nearly as much as I used to. I used to pride myself on having met everyone personally, especially in the American region. But it's a challenge.

I'm a big proponent of face-to-face video calls, so we always have our cameras on during meetings. We have this mantra of more phones, more faces, get up from behind your email, use the technology, and leverage the tools we have. Treat people as you would like to be treated and have a culture of respect and professionalism with a call to a higher standard to be better each day and continue our growth mandate.

I read a McKinsey study about the ‘firm of the future.’ They discussed scale and intimacy, which are usually conflicting. You have to balance the scale and intimacy as you grow. I know it's possible, and we strive to do that. It’s little things. We survey employees—there are almost 500 now—and see if there’s consensus on things we can do to improve the experience. Then we action them.

Those little intimate details buy you goodwill, balancing things like what's our remote work policy? What are policies around leave, maternity leave, vacations, bereavement? How can we be a better overall company for personal wellness? I think we're cognizant, and we'll always have that as a factor in the organization. You need to know what everyone's thinking, recognize trends, and act on them.

Carl Lewis:

I think you've done a great job. It's a place you want to work once you start working here and you feel good about it. Well, Alex, thanks for spending this time with us and looking back.

Alex Rooney:

It was fun. Maybe we should tell our story more often! It's nice to look back and realize we've come a long way. But Carl, I think we're on the cusp of some of our greatest years ever. If we adapt, recognize the industry trends, capitalize on them, and do our best to steer our customers in those directions, we'll be fine. Let's check back in 10 years, shall we?

Carl Lewis:

I'll try to be here for that. Well, my buddy, take care. And everybody out there, until we talk again, stay connected.