Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
Adam Eliott
ID Insight Inc.:
877.749.8731
ad**********@*******ht.com
www.idinsight.com
David Knighton
Creative Water Solutions:
763.398.0141
www.cwsnaturally.com
Luke Lingle
plasticprinters.com:
651.437.1929
lu**@*************rs.com
www.plasticprinters.com
Kathy Veldboom
Amcom Software:
952.230.5344
www.amcomsoftware.com
Bill Worthen
UnityWorks! Media:
952.838.7201
bi**@*************ia.com
www.unityworksmedia.com
IT TAKES MORE than an idea to make a success out of new technology. Knowing this, finalists for Best Practices in Technology & Innovation have put in place processes that support the long-term viability of a product, as well as leaders who aren’t afraid to do their homework, reverse course or wait out a market until the timing is right.
When Amcom Software started out 24 years ago, it provided a service that seems almost antiquated now.
The Eden Prairie-based company enabled hospital operators to type a message into a terminal, which would then deliver it to doctors and physicians via a pager.
Today, it’s easy to send tens of thousands of messages to any place, delivered by cell phone text messages and e-mail, in a matter of seconds, says Kathy Veldboom, vice president of quality and support.
The company has evolved with the times. Its mass-notification software helps sprawling companies and organizations coordinate and work through emergencies. When a 911 call comes into a dispatcher, the exact location, down to the cubicle, is given, instead of a general billing or mailing address.
“If someone has had a heart attack, or if there’s a security situation, seconds help save lives,” she says.
The company also automates mass notification so organizations can inform all affected parties quickly in the event of an emergency.
Amcom’s clients include large Las Vegas hotels and multi-building corporate campuses, such as Best Buy and Microsoft. Universities and colleges also use their software to inform students of an on-campus crisis, triggering an immediate lockdown and coordination of public safety teams.
Veldboom says the key to building versatile software is to listen to customers.
The company seeks early feedback on their prototypes. Along the way, developers often discover that their software is being used differently than its intended design.
Listening to the marketplace, rather than following competitors, has tripled revenue for the company in the last three years.
The idea for Creative Water Solutions, a pool- and spa-product manufacturer, was dreamed up by David Knighton while on a return flight from Europe.
En route, he had the option of reading one of three publications. Not interested in golf or People magazine, Knighton snatched up a copy of Atlantic Monthly. Soon he was engrossed in a one-page article about the use of sphagnum moss on injuries sustained by soldiers in World War I.
Soldiers, he read, would pack their wounds with the moss, leading tohigher survival rates than if they packed them with cotton.
A vascular surgeon and cellular biologist with expertise in woundhealing, Knighton made the connection that the moss likely had anantimicrobial effect. That hypothesis, coupled with his own personalobservation that lakes in northern Minnesota had clearer waters thanthose in the southern part of the state, led him on a moss odyssey.
Out of thousands of species, he found two that didn’t allow thegrowth of bacteria, fungus, mold or algae. He tried them out in his spain an attempt to clear it up, and it worked.
After several years of beta testing, Knighton, chairman and founderof Creative Water Solutions, rolled out SpaNaturally and PoolNaturally,all-natural products that provide a green alternative to competitors’chemicals. The company claims to cut the need for chemicals andmaintenance by half, with none of the unpleasant side effects, such asdry skin and hair and irritated eyes.
Knighton’s advice to small-business owners? “Keep open eyes, openears and open minds. Because as we look around, we read things, wecompare things. It’s amazing how the innovation can come when one keepsan open mind.”
Also, look to nature as a source for inspiration for new ideas. “Ifwe look at nature and try to understand what happens in nature, we canusually come up with solutions that are unique and useful.”
With limited resources and marketing dollars, the company will most likely be profitable this year, he says.
ID Insight has known for years that a change of address can lead to identity theft.
When the Northfield-based company started in 2002, no one was reallyinterested in hearing about that fact, says Adam Elliott, CEO. Nor werecustomers in a hurry to purchase its technology, which uses data andanalytics to help financial-services companies prevent fraud.
“Identity theft still wasn’t quite front-page news, but weunderstood it was growing at about a 30 percent rate each year,” hesays.
There are two ways identity theft from a change of address occurs:When someone has your credentials and tries to open up a new account inyour name; or when someone takes over an existing account that you have.
The problem is worsened by the fact that, until November 2008, noinstitution regularly checked address changes, or new accounts wherethere was a difference between the information at a credit bureau andwhat was coming in on an application.
The standards have drastically changed. With legislation (the FACTAct) introduced in 2003, but just weeks ago put into action, now everybank and credit-card issuer across the country must screen new-addresschanges and new accounts for address discrepancies.
ID Insight technology zeroes in on suspicious activity and raises ared flag. “If a ‘customer’ says they’re moving from a Lake Minnetonkamansion to an apartment in a crime-ridden part of downtown and asks fora replacement credit card ID Insight knows in about one second that afraudster is likely behind the request.”
During the early years, the company resorted to “survival tactics”as it waited for the market to catch up. It kept a close eye on thelegislation process, gearing up for the inevitable tide of need.
“In response, we’ve stepped up efforts to help financialinstitutions and retailers with their compliance programs the topinformation-security challenge facing the industry in 2008,” saysElliott.
The company’s strategy has been to get the technology to the marketquickly, and let customers tell them what works. Solutions can be builtwithin four to six weeks.
“Being a startup company, we could go do market research until thecows come home, but we always know when we get out to the marketplace customers are going to tell us something different.”
Plasticprinters, a Hastings-based plastic-card manufacturer, has ahistory of leveraging the Internet to increase its sales and enhanceits customer-service experience.
The company built its Web site in 1999, three years after opening ina home basement. Back then, plastic phone cards were all the rage, andthe company home page was used like a glorified billboard. Quotes werestill faxed in, and orders would come in on floppy disks delivered bythe U.S. postal service.
“I looked at that and thought, how can we speed that up?” says Luke Lingle, CEO.
He soon devised an automated online quoting system, which customerscan access at any hour to customize the color and material of theirgift cards, credit cards, security cards or business cards. Behindevery order is a dedicated sales representative, a customer-servicerepresentative and a graphic designer, “so instead of having to run toa bunch of different people, there’s just one team,” says Lingle.
“We’ve never lost our personal touch There’s always a salespersonbehind that automation,” just not in the middle of the night.
The development of these programs has increased activity by 25 to 30percent. And easy-access quoting has enhanced staff response time,reducing costs and increasing sales by 20 to 30 percent each year. Thecompany also adds on average between 6,000 and 7,000 customers permonth.
While the company built its online presence, it also adds thenewest, fastest equipment for security, magnetic striping andbarcoding.
UnityWorks! Media, a video solutions provider based in Edina, begannoticing the prevalence of online videos about three years ago. Today,the company provides streaming videos to franchised auto dealers acrossthe country, helping them sell cars without a large showroom presence.
The videos are five times more effective than pictures alone, says CEO Bill Worthen.
The company produces thousands of videos each month, with somecreated in as little as two minutes. These mini-commercials, whichcustomers pay from $400 to $4,000 per month to use, can be placed ondealers’ Web sites, as well as UnityWorks’ partner sites, such asCars.com, Autotrader.com and Carsoup.com.
UnityWorks! Media’sStreamFast product is an affordable way for automotive dealers toshowcase their vehicle inventory. By using video messages called
“Auto Walkarounds,” the company converts a dealer’s photo packageinto a video, complete with multiple camera movements and viewsaccompanied with narration, music and branding.
Customers can post their videos on their Web site and on national auto Web sites.
Those that use UnityWorks! Media report an increased conversionrate, the key metric for auto dealers. Of 5,000 people that visit a Website per month, about 150 will become leads. With videos, however, “youget a 300 percent increase on that, to 500 leads,” says Worthen.
He’s now exploring other markets to expand the company’s reach.
Cannabis-based products have been increasingly available in Minnesota over the last six years. The opportunities in that space became even more prominent last year when the state legislature voted to become the 23rd state to legalize adult recreational use of marijuana for Minnesotans over 21.
When Super Bowl LII was played at U.S. Bank Stadium in February 2018, Alex Tittle didn’t play a down on the field, but he had more than three-years of impact on the experience.
Unemployment in Minnesota sits below 3 percent. Labor market participation is high. Airport traffic counts across the country are approaching and even surpassing pre-pandemic levels, so consumers are still spending money. Consumer confidence, reportedly spurred by the strong labor market, also seems at least cautiously on the rise.
