I’m on my way back to Edmonton following after an amazing few days at our annual Perspective Users’ Conference. It’s always an insightful and educational experience (for us just as much as our customers!) with this year’s biggest lesson for me being just how many of our customers want to know more about our acquisition. Specifically, almost every one-on-one conversation I had during the conference started with a whispered “Where’s the new CEO?” and/or “So, what’s REALLY happening?”
I wasn’t surprised that most of our long-term customers were curious about Will, and he’s pretty tall, so it was easy to point him out during our opening night mixer. He’s also really approachable and wanted to connect with every customer he could, ready to learn what how Perspective is being used and how well PPM is meeting our customers’ needs.
The “what’s REALLY happening?” question was the one that caught me by surprise. Our customers were concerned about the acquisition in terms of the impact on them, but they were also genuinely concerned about the impact on Brian and me… former Co-CEOs, now reporting to a new CEO. How do we feel? Where do we fit?
Speaking solely for myself, this is the easiest way to describe it… back in 1988, PPM was founded; in 2014, a short 26 years later, PPM was discovered. Brian and I took over the leadership of PPM in 2009. Both of us were PPM veterans and passionate about the potential that PPM had yet to realize. Fast forward six years, and we had successfully doubled PPM, both in revenue and employees. Now what? To take PPM to the next level and to give the majority of our shareholders the chance to cash in their 20+ year investment, PPM needed new ownership— someone who recognized the potential and could add resources, both in terms of capital and expertise. Enter Klass Software, who approached us in August and bought PPM in December. They very quickly realized PPM’s potential, and just as quickly, they sold us on their vision. As a PPM executive and shareholder, I embraced the acquisition, knowing that it was the right time and the right acquirer, and feeling very confident that our employees and customers would be well taken care of. I still wear both hats—as an executive and as a shareholder—and giving up my CEO title was beyond logical. Will is a born leader with vast software company experience and a strong vision.
As someone who’s spent her entire career at PPM and watched it evolve from a home office to a global operation, the past 90 days have been educational, inspiring, and thought-provoking. We’re no longer ‘owner-operated’, but what does that mean? Does that mean that we’re—full stop—going to become something completely different, something we’re not?
Internally, the biggest shift for me is the pace of change. That said, once you accept that change is inevitable and approach it as a good thing, that shift is beyond exciting; it’s liberating. Don’t get me wrong, no one came into PPM and turned it upside down. Instead, we got the benefit of a fresh perspective (no pun intended) and truly welcomed the feedback and criticisms we received. Where we exceled, we’re doing more of the same. Where we needed improvement, we’re making those improvements. In short, since the acquisition, PPM has been added to and expanded. We’ve created 20 new positions (check out our Careers section), and we’re actively implementing new business processes and systems across the company. That says a lot!
Outside our office walls, the biggest shift has been… I’ll be honest here… a renewed commitment to account management and to working with our customers to ensure that our product, services, and support are matching your needs and expectations. It’s not just having our sales team connect with you and having customer service and support there when you need them, it’s about engaging with you to really understand how you’re using Perspective and what you need to make it even more successful within your organization. This takes involvement from the Executive, from Product Management, and from Development. Since January, we’ve had teams onsite with 15 clients—across California, Washington, Ontario, and Alberta and in such faraway places as Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and France. At the Users’ Conference, we engaged with a 100 more. We could easily write a whole blog post on this topic (and will!), so keep an eye out for more on PPM’s new account management initiative.
Acquisitions can be an uncertain thing, for employees and customers. I get that. In our case, I even wanted to wait a few months before putting pen to paper and sharing my thoughts on ours. I knew how it was supposed to unfold, but I wanted to see it happen. PPM has always been an amazing company to be part of (a great team with great customers and a product we all believed in), but it’s going to become so much more. I’m ready to see where the journey takes us.
Enough on that (though I encourage anyone who wants to talk about the acquisition to reach out to me, to Brian, or to Will), what about the Users’ Conference? The chance to reconnect with so many of our customers is a reminder of why we do what we do and the impact Perspective has on your jobs, your departments, and your companies. Some of the discussions I had more than once:
- IT Roadblocks: Not a new issue! On-premise customers continue to be frustrated by IT departments that can’t get them onto the latest version of Perspective, and when you’re at an event learning about and being trained on Version 4.5, the limitations of your outdated release are even more evident. They’re also magnified by the hosted clients grinning ear-to-ear during these conversations knowing how lucky they are to have every upgrade instantly available.
- The Importance of Quality Data: It’s great to talk about the value of metrics and KPIs, but meaningful metrics start with good raw data. The set-up of the system, and the accountability for everyone involved to enter the data consistently and completely, is a challenge everyone shares.
- Internal Perspective Champions: More and more companies are assigning Perspective’s administration to a single individual. They’re part of a team with an executive sponsor and other stakeholders, but this individual pulls it all together, much like a project manager. Once upon a time, their main responsibility was setting up new users. Now, they’re a champion, a negotiator, and a trainer. It’s a multifaceted role, and the ideal person is technical, a strong troubleshooter, and adept at teaching, mentoring, and coaching. We can do more to support these people and their Perspective teams, and that was a big conference takeaway for me.
My favourite moments:
- Everyone pulling out their phones to take pictures of Ryan’s Perspective Roadmap.
- Brian stealing Dale’s thunder by previewing some of the fantastic custom reports that Dale had built for his presentation. Mind you, they were so impressive that seeing them twice was a good thing!
- From George Campbell’s keynote: “Spreadsheets and numbers don’t tell the story. They’re just data.” So true! Metrics and KPIs need to be communicated clearly and succinctly, and you need to mindful of your audience and the message you want them to hear.
- Dale and Brad’s lively Q&A on Managing Turnover. This session was, without a doubt, an ‘aha moment’ for many Perspective administrators who realized just how insecure their Perspective systems might be thanks to informal turnover policies. Thankfully, Dale and Brad delivered solid ways to fix the holes that might exist. More than one customer mentioned that making some policy changes here was their first order of business when they arrived home.
- The discussion group that I led with Brad and the fantastic ideas they shared with us… and each other… on everything from PPM’s roadmap, to best practices, to the conference itself. One of the members of my group was attending the conference for his second time—a year ago, he was new to Perspective and in full-on learning mode; this time, he was an expert and ready to share his experience. What a difference a year makes!
- Every one-on-one conversation that I had and the insights they gave me, into who our customers are as people and what they strive to get of Perspective as professionals
To everyone who joined us in St. Pete Beach and offered insight, feedback, and so many aha moments, thank you! To all of our customers who are sharing their Perspective stories with our team, engaging with us, and excited to see what we’re working on, thank you! The newly discovered PPM really is a brave new world in the best possible way.
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