December 3, 2024 • 40 mins
This episode of CO Pod features candid conversations with Reid and Kurt Bangert of Bangert Inc, as they share their personal journeys, insights into running a successful business, leadership lessons, and the lessons they've faced in building Bangert Inc. With decades of experience in construction technology, Reid and Kurt have built a reputation for pushing the boundaries of what's possible, creating a culture of excellence, and growing a company that not only succeeds, but thrives in an ever-changing market.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone, I'm your host, Caroline. Welcome to another episode
of COPOD. Today we're joined by Kurt and Read Bangert
of Bangert. How are you guys doing.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
We're doing great. Thanks for having us on.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah, of course, Carolyn. Yeah, we're so excited to have
you guys.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hey, we're excited to be here. Tell you the truth.
Love what you guys are doing.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Awesome, So let's get into it. Tell me a little
bit more about you guys. You know, when did you
get into this industry? Why did you get into this industry?
Give me the full spark Notes version, you.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Bet so, I'll take that one on. So we started
the company forty one years ago and we've been involved
with construction for thirty seven of those years. Why did
we get into it. We just had customers that had
construction companies asking us for software, So what else were
(01:05):
we to do? So we we ended up finding in
partnering with a company called Timberline back then now Stage
and it's been full bar ahead since then, you know,
so we we've really become, you know, construction specialists over
all these years. That's the only industry that we address,
(01:27):
and we love doing it. We love contractors it's just
you know, and we have fun doing it, So it's not.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Not like, yeah, you guys have definitely you've been around
for so long that you've definitely been able to see,
you know, the many evolutions that the construction industry has
gone through, which has been probably a lot for those
forty years, right.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Oh yeah, yeah, quite a lot. Actually, it's uh, you know,
when we first got started, you know, the you know
things like hard drives, you know, they were you know,
five megabytes, ten megabytes. Well that's that's a third of
a photo on your phone today. So you know, the
technology has changed the price of these things has dropped
(02:12):
dramatically over time. You know, it seems expensive, but relative
to what you would have spent, you know, thirty years
ago to get the same if you could have done it,
it would have is astronomically different. So you know, it's
always fun to see that. We like to think we're
on the leading edge of that change. You know, we're
pushing the change, and that's also been true of our
(02:35):
company for a long long time. And you know we're
just always looking for you know, what's coming next and
how do we best make that work for our customers.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Awesome and you know, like when you guys started, it
was it was really before the big dot com boom,
the big technology, you know, infiltration of everything. Were you
guys the only ones doing what you do well?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Then? No, there were There were certainly other folks and
competitors and and so forth out there, But yeah, it
was a totally different world. You know, there were no
cell phones. You know, back then, fax machines were like
the most critical machine in a construction company, you know.
(03:22):
There we had customers that still use dial phones, which
a lot of you won't really know what I mean
by that. So you know, there's the the change in
the tech and use in our and our customers and
in our own business. You know, it's just absolutely dramatic.
And you know, I mean I think it was probably
(03:44):
ninety one or ninety two before I had a cell
phone and it came in a bag, you know, So
I will say the transmitters and those bagphones were way
more powerful than what we have today. But that's you know,
I don't want to sound like an old man grape
and about you know, transmitter power.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah, and you know, for anyone in our audience who
doesn't know what banger it is and what you guys
do do you guys mind giving a brief overview just
to catch everyone up who's not as cool as we
are and know everything about y'all.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
We are a Stage Intact partner and we specialize in
the construction industry. Our entire team has a deep knowledge
of construction and better yet, how to make software work
exceptionally well in a construction business. So you know, that's
(04:37):
really the core of what we do, and it's really
been the core of what we do now for the
last thirty seven years. So we've seen all kinds of
different scenarios. We've worked with all types and sizes of
construction companies. We have solutions for construction problems and other words,
(05:01):
we have very you know, when when somebody talks to us,
we not only understand what they're telling us, but they
understand our answer. So that specialization really makes a big
difference in in the customer's experience overall. So, you know,
and that's one of the reasons why, you know, we
(05:23):
work with partners like lumber for instance, who's a very specific,
you know, in their case, a construction specific payroll system,
which we happen to love. But you know, it's it's
we're not trying to adapt other products to construction. We
take construction products, we make them work in construction companies.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
That's awesome. Let's transition a little bit more to talk
about you guys. So you know it, really it takes
a special type of person to be in the positions
that you guys are in, and really, you know, being
at the forefront of change and really being the ones
that are behind that change and making those decisions. How
did you get confidence and experience to get where you
(06:02):
guys are.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Today, blood, sweat and tears. The answer, well, you know,
in the early days, it was just a lot, you know,
it was a general familiarity with business and construction and
then a lot of hard work. Today, you know, we're
(06:26):
in a much different situation. You know, we we select
people to join our team based on their experience, their
knowledge base, and probably most importantly, their cultural will fit here.
You know, one of the things here in the last
three years or so, we've made some very dramatic changes,
and I think I can safely say we pioneer a
(06:48):
few things in this industry which i'd like read to
kind of talk about. But one of the result, part
of the result of that is has been a real
culture change to the positive. And what we see in
our company is when we have happy people, we have
happy customers. So our focus is really on how do
(07:11):
we continue to build that kind of culture and how
do we If we need a new team member, our
first priority is to make sure that they fit into
our current culture and that they're you know, everybody's going
to get along and enjoy each other. So to us,
that's a primary primary thing. So so when we, you know,
(07:34):
look for new staff, we're looking for cultural fit number
one and then their knowledge number two. And when we
have those two things, it's consistently works out really really well.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
That's definitely one of the things we've been seeing in
this industry is it's really tough to you know, first
of all, get this talent, but then keep them and
keep them motivated. What do you guys do to help
with that?
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Yeah, I mean we focused on our internal process. Really
in our external process, so how we deliver services to
customers is completely different to how everybody else in the
industry does it. You know, we have systemized a lot
of the routine and the mundane education aspects, and we
(08:20):
put our customers through a consistent process time and time again,
it gives us a ninety eight percent success rate. And
we've been able to cut the cost of construction or
pe implementation by I think seventy percent, and we've we've
cut the time of implementation by fifty percent. So the
(08:42):
reality is is that we've we've walked our own walk.
We've utilized technology in a way to get our people
ahead and to get our customers ahead, and that's been
incredibly successful. And it's led to things like a four
day work week. You know, so for a good chunk
of the year, we all uh you know, rotate four
(09:04):
days a week and that gives everybody more work life
balance and ultimately just leads to a better culture all around.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Well, I love a four day work week. That sounds amazing.
Let's implement that over here too. That sounds great.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Yeah, I mean, you know, the reality is is that
that we've got we've got to be thinking of of
of ways in which you know, we you know, as
as somebody who's in a position to to to run
operations for a business, you know, you want to work
yourself into some some sense of flexibility.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
You know, I think if you're an owner of a
company like Kurt Is, you know, he wants to work
himself into a sense of you know, flexibility, and so
why wouldn't we want that for employees too. So I
think that's that's the real driver behind that. And then
ultimately we let the employees come up with the policy.
We said, hey, we'd like to do a four day
work week initiative. What do you guys think it should be.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Always getting that feedback I find is always so helpful
because sometimes you know, we have all these great big
ideas and then you know, running them by someone else,
it's not such a great big idea. So always having
that feedback is amazing. And I love that you guys,
you know, really include your employees and your staff and
all that decision making. I think that's so important.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
There's some other elements which, you know, typically in these
types of businesses like ours, the people that provide professional services.
You know, typically those services are billed by the hour
or some form of it. You know, there's people that
sell what I call quote quote unquote subscriptions or meter
(10:49):
subscriptions that say, okay, for this much a month, you
get these many hours. The problem with that, that's just
a different way of billing by the hour, all right.
Consultants are often paid salary plus if they meet their threshold.
If they build a certain number of hours hours over that,
they get paid an incentive pay on top of it.
(11:10):
So the problem with that is, first of all, hourly
billing or meter subscriptions are are not in line with
the customer's interest. So our first objective is, let's be
one hundred percent consistently in line with the customer's interest.
What do we need to do that, Well, we need
to get rid of the bill hour number one and
(11:33):
number two. They need to know what this is going
to cost upfront period, without any equivocation. But to do
that successfully, we also have to look internally and say, okay,
we need to remove all these incentive pays because it's
not fair to make an employee prove that they're worth
their salary every paper. Okay, if you're using an incentive pay,
(11:57):
essentially what you're saying to an employee is worth this
much only if you prove it to me by billing hours. Okay.
So that's inherently also against the customer's interest because you
now have a consultant that they need to bill hours
to make the kind of income that they need to
make to you know, pay their bills and send their
kids to college and all those kind of things, so
(12:21):
that you know they're gonna you know, work that system.
And I don't mean to imply that there's some sketchy
something sketchy going on, because that's really not it. The
problem is the system. The problem is the comp plan.
The problem is the way it's getting billed, and that's
not made by that individual, but they're forced into that.
(12:42):
So what we've done. What we did is we removed
all incentive pays everything because we said, let's pay you
what you're worth, which meant a dramatic rise in base salary.
Well think about that from from an individual standpoint. Now
I don't have to worry about how much I build.
I don't have to worry if I have a full
week next week to make sure that I'm you know,
(13:04):
covering my not all that kind of stuff. I'm just
I now can relax. I can now be a part
of a team because the other issue with that incentive
pay plan is that it drives people to work for
themselves when we in reality, we need a team. A
team will make us all successful. A bunch of individual
(13:27):
players not going to work.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
I've seen that time and time again. You know, you're
so worried about you know, yourself, and as humans, of
course we worry about ourselves. But really, when we start
to see teamwork is when we start to see progression
and success and everything. It all comes down to the team.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
And if you're truly working as a team, it's more fun,
you know. I mean, that's all this got started was
the question was is anybody having any fun? The answer
was no, So we needed to change that.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
You always want to enjoy what you're doing. That's why
I love having this job. I enjoy it absolutely. That's
why we all are where we are right it is.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
But you know, there comes there will come a time
when we find ourselves in a place we don't want
to be, and it's up to us to take action
to change that, so, you know, and that's not always easy.
So you know, as a Reid was saying, the other
thing we did was, you know, let's take a drink
of our own kool aid, which for years and years
(14:36):
we've been telling customers they should, you know, use software
to make them make their people happier, make their customers happier.
Be more efficient, be more profitable, and all that, and
then if you looked inside our own company, you'd find that, hmm,
maybe we're not taking our own medicine. So we made it,
did a huge initiative to build what we call the
(14:58):
Banger Deployment System, and so we leverage technology now to
relieve our staff, to provide a better experience for our
customers and a more consistent experience, and one where we
can say, here's how much your software implementation is going
to cost. Guaranteed you will never spend a penny more
than that.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
That's awesome. Let's kind of let's switch gears a little bit,
and let's think back to when you guys first started.
What is something that you know today that you wish
you knew back then.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Surprisingly, we are today more like what we were when
we started than the in between time when we first started.
When we first started, a customer would buy a system
from us, and they were quoted a single price and
they got everything for that price. We departed from that
(15:54):
and want to quote unquote the industry, you know best
practices by moving here's your software price, here's an estimate
of your services. But we're going to bill you by
the hour. Embarrassingly enough, we were in that model for
a long long time. So we're more today like we
were when we started, and which may be a little
(16:16):
bit of a surprise. I mean, our technical tools and
all that have advanced greatly as we discussed, but from
a philosophical standpoint, we were much more like the way
we started way back then than we were, you know,
between nineteen eighty nine and twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I want to talk about that that shift. Why and
how did you guys know how to you know, shift
back to that original model or how how did you
know that it was time to make a change.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I'll let Read take that one on, because he was
in the heart of the battle on that.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Misery. I mean, the reality is we had we had
unhappy customers. We had customers that you know, we're we're
exceedingly going over budget by thirty on what they were estimated.
We were giving away more hours than we were billing out.
(17:21):
And our system was broken. I mean the build, our
the project fee, change orders, you know, one to one
consulting was completely dead and completely broken. There's a good
saying it's the the build hour is dead. We just
haven't had the funeral. Yet, and that same goes with
(17:43):
modern day subscription services that are you know, effectively just
build hours in a subscription package and fixed fee implementations
as well. It's the same thing. It's just the build
hour and a different package. And so we knew we
had to look at our most successful customers and who
(18:03):
were they. They were the customers that took their own
initiative to learn the most about their software period. They
went above and beyond outside of what we could provide
them at that time to find resources and educate themselves
in the platform themselves. So we took our most successful
customers and we said, let's create a model that replicates
(18:25):
that every time. And so we just have consistently put
out as much knowledge as we possibly can for free.
We publish how to YouTube video every single day. I've
got six months where the videos and the backlog, you know,
and so our team is so driven about what can
we give away for free now? And that's yeah, that
(18:50):
decision alone, to you know, to sort of take off
the change, if you will, was the best decision this
company's ever made.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
You guys talk about you know, your team being so
driven and motivated. Why do you think that is you
know what what keeps you guys striving for more.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Aren't bogged down in the little details in the day
to day and updating their customer on whether it's going
to cost more money or not, or whether or not
this change is going to impact them financially, or you know,
oh hey, you know I can't meet this week, it's
going to have to be next week, or you know,
I can't meet for the next two weeks because of
the holidays. I mean, we literally have unburdened our staffy.
(19:34):
They no longer have to be tied to these you know,
meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting. Instead
they're they're working with our customers on the high value task,
the actual problems and processes that they need to solve
in their businesses. That are the whole reason they're switching
(19:54):
platforms in the first place. So the more time we
free up are our folks to a word with customers
on that, the happier everybody is all around.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
It's awesome when you take you know, the time you
spend on part of my French but the BS, you
take that time out of the equation and then you
have more time to focus on what's.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Important exactly because it is. It's a lot of busy work,
to be frank with you. I mean, you know, trying
to keep track of what a customer is used and
a time sheet and what they haven't used, and what
they've paid for and what they have, and I mean
the immense amount of overhead, you know, is so many
spreadsheets too, Oh my gosh, excel hell as I call it.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
I love a good spreadsheet, but that's too much.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Yeah, you know. Then they always fund meeting where we
everybody reviews their time sheets exactly. They're so fun. So
all this really comes down to how, you know, the
Banger deployment system and how well that works for a customer.
I mean, it's really exceedingly good for them, you know.
They they not only do they get everything for a
(21:02):
known price up front, but then they have daily access
to our staff. They have twenty four to seven access
to the vast majority of the materials they need to
be successful. They get all their ongoing support any customer
report needs, you know, and more often than not, you know,
it's our process has looked at with skepticism because it's
(21:26):
so different than what they've ever been used to in
the past. Sometimes it's a little hard form to wrap
their mind around it, you know. So you know it's like, well,
how do you do all that for that number, as
Reed said, seventy percent less than a traditional implementation, Karlyn,
If you were going to buy a software system for me,
the reason you would want to do that is that
(21:47):
it's going to positively impact your company through efficiency, through
better data, you know, and all those things. Happier people,
happier customers, and those things would drive your profitability. That's
why you would want to buy tech from us.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Well, that's what everyone's looking for when they purchase these
types of software, is that's you know, that's that's what
they want.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Exactly, except that the service side of this industry is
still stuck in nineteen eighty. It's so backwards, it's so
horribly backwards. And that's where we have come in and said,
why if we have such a modern product in Stage Intact,
it's fantastically modern, it's great, we have to match that
(22:30):
with a service program that's equally modern.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Not just that, but making a sophisticated and modern solution
like Sage Intact available to more people. I mean, who
wouldn't want that? You know, when we were implementing our
own technology, I you know, our team used and utilized
everything that was available to us, you know, effectively for free,
(22:56):
and so why not make a model like that So
it provides accessibility to more people, you know, more people
using the product makes the product better, and it makes
the product more relevant in the marketplace too. So there's
just so many advantages of it that you know, we
could go on and on all day.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Honestly we could. And you know, since we're on the
topic of technology, I'd love to bring up ask Richard Well,
I mean.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Ask Richard his name after my grandpa and Kurt's dad.
And you know, if effectively, it's kind of the culmination
of our next generation services. So you know, I like
to call it Banger deployment two point zero or three
point zero. I think we're probably three point zero now,
(23:46):
you know. But it's an all encompassing platform, so our
our learning management system is in there, takes the customers
step by step through how they get zero alive on
stage intact. It has a planning room functionality, so you
can say, hey, I'm going to start on December first
or January first, when am I going to be live?
By if I have one hour a day to work
(24:07):
on this. It's got your team tracking capability, so you
can track you know, your team's progress throughout. So if
you've got ten or twelve or fifteen people in deployment
with us, you know where they're at at all times.
But the most important aspect of it is ask Richard itself.
So we've created a closed domain language model, so it's
(24:31):
not like open AI or chat GPT that references outside sources.
It only references the data that we fed it, which
is actually all of our content that we've ever created
on stage intact. So if a customer has a question,
they can just type that question in and get an
answer right there. And not only is it how to,
(24:52):
but it's a how to with context, and it's how
to with visuals.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Yeah, that probably keeps the data a little bit more
safe and secure, doesn't it as well?
Speaker 3 (25:01):
I mean, well, the biggest problem with you know, generative
chat and things like that is just the trust factor. Right,
where are these sources coming from? Do I know this
is the right answer, et cetera. So when we only
feed it, you know, content that's been created by people
who know the product backwards in front you know, you're
getting a confident answer, and you know it's smart enough
(25:24):
to know what it doesn't know too. It says, hey,
I don't think I have an answer for this. You
might try this out or you know, get again touch
and sign up for a Q and A today, I.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Asked, ask Richard. You know, the it's really the first
in the world AI support tool for Stage Intact. And
so you know, we're driving again. We're back to let's
drive this town to technology forward. Let's modernize these processes.
You know, instead of putting in a support ticket and
(25:54):
hopefully getting a callback in a couple of days or
a week, you can get the answer right now, you know,
and we all expect that today. You know. It's it's
the kind of thing, you know, I say, we live
in an app world, meaning I can go on my phone,
I can download an app and I can start using
it immediately, right that's our expectation today. So we we
(26:17):
you know, while Stage in Tech and products like it
are complex systems, they're not apps. They don't just download
and you just run them. We have to bring the
experience as close to that as we possibly can, because
that is what we all expect right now. So ask Richard,
is just one more step in that direction, and we've
(26:39):
got more common you know. That's we're not done yet,
you know. So we keep pushing and pushing and pushing
to bring to a customer an expected experience and better yet,
a superb experience. They don't have to wait, you know.
I mean we were talking to a company contractor here recently.
(27:01):
This is they go, hey, with our existing system, if
we can get a support call returned in two weeks,
we're pretty happy.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Two weeks.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Uh huh, two weeks?
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Wow, I.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Would.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
I'm kind of like, so it sounds like if you
only break one leg, you're pretty happy, you know. So
I said, why don't we redefine what happiness is? You know?
How about you go right now, you ask a question
and you get a written answer. And so we gave
him access, of course to ask Richard, and he's like,
(27:38):
where have you been all my life? You know? This
is like this is what we need, you know, this
is what we want, this is what we expect.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yeah, So was ask Richard? Was it born from, you know,
a need from the industry or a need from your customers,
or you know where did this idea originate from?
Speaker 3 (27:58):
I mean, we're always thinking about user experience overall. So
you know, six years ago when I came into this company,
I would have never imagined we'd have our public verified
ratings and reviews on our homepage, but we do, and
we have one hundred and twenty six accounting. So you know,
(28:19):
it started from a place of we have to improve
our customer experience, and now today it is how do
we make the best possible customer experience that we can?
And so ask Richard, that's what that idea was born from.
(28:40):
Is this idea that there should be this seamless place
that guides a customer from A to Z that they
can track their progress, they can know exactly where they're
at and exactly where they're headed. They know exactly the
requirements of them this week, next week, the following week,
and so there's no iver a question of how in
(29:02):
the heck are we going to do this? Because the
old way and the old model that I set is dead.
You're constantly questioning that there's a project plan. It's pretty rough,
you know, if there's you know, an update, it's pretty vague,
you know, and so you're always constantly wondering, am I
(29:24):
really going to hit that date that I set that
I wanted to be live by.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
I know that.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Well, we've used all the tools that people use today,
you know, we've used project management systems and spreadsheets and
all that to try to track the progress. They always
fall down. They're never updated, they're usually way too complex.
Nobody understands, and the customer doesn't participate, and then the
customer starts throwing things in that they go, oh, we
(29:53):
need this, and we need that and the other thing,
and the consultant makes decisions that take it totally off
track and so no one knows where they're at. In reality,
we have people that want to hire project managers for
these things, which you know, in the old way of
doing things, i'd say, yeah, it might be a good idea,
because you need somebody to track it. It's expensive. But
(30:16):
with ask Richard, with a deployment system and all that,
we're like, no, no, no, no, no, no no no,
that's all done in the system. The project management's built
into the thing, and it's very purposeful, very intentional, because
we know certain things. We know there is a process
that will guarantee success and that's what deployment is. And
(30:39):
we also know that if we're departing from that, your
chances of success start dropping. And so if you think
about it in the old way of doing things, you know,
whether it's a metered subscription, whether it's hourly building, whatever
it is, you generally get one consultant assigned to your account,
maybe two, maybe there's a small team, but one primary.
(31:01):
If I have fifteen of those primary consultants and I
have fifteen customers, I guarantee you've got fifteen different ways
of implementing the software, guaranteed one hundred percent. You can
go as a company say hey, we're all going to
do it this way. No one's going to do it
because they're going to do it their way. So when
you take that, take it from individual focus and put
(31:25):
it on team focus, and we come to a consensus
on what is the way, and then we build that
into a system. Now we can gain ninety eight percent success.
So in the ERP implementation world, the record is dismal.
Between fifty five and seventy five percent of ERP implementations fail.
(31:47):
Think about that. Fail.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
That's a lot to fail.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Yeah, and failure can mean out and out it just
did not work, or it at best it simply didn't
meet our expectations, but the customer puts it in the
fail category fifty five to seventy five percent, depending on
your data source. We turned that around to a ninety
eight percent success rate. That's dramatically different, and so yes,
(32:19):
dramatically different. But the way we got there was leverage technology, teamwork, teamwork, teamwork,
and we give a ton of stuff away for free.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
The stage that this industry is going into right now
is so fascinating, and it really seems like, you know,
all these new technologies that are going to be brought
in are going to make things more efficient, more accurate,
and hopefully a little bit easier on everyone using them.
You know, our jobs and our lives are going to
be a little easier. So it's going to be a
very interesting time in the construction industry right now.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
No doubt. It's you know, it's very exciting. And because
I've been around this for so long, the reality is
in the in the financial management space, there's really been
no real true innovation since the early nineteen nineties. And
because there's been no technological advent, you know event I
(33:17):
should say that has happened to make it different. So
back in the nineties. It was the introduction of Microsoft
Windows for Crian out Loud. We went from a green
screen to you know, graphical user interface. That was a
major technological change, and it rapidly transformed over the next
five to ten years what everybody was using in their companies.
(33:39):
So now we have Sage intech that's arrived on the
scene here, you know, two three years ago, and it
is as much different from you know, from green screen
to Windows as now Windows PC based software to pure
cloud based software. So it's super exciting because we see
(34:00):
the potential for a huge jump in productivity, better information,
timely information, all of that. And so that's why we
came and looked at it and said, what's the biggest
you know, preventter if you will, of people moving into
a new technological, technological platform. And that is the pain
(34:22):
of implementation. I mean, very few people have done an
implementation that would say, man, I loved it, you know, wow,
could we do too bad? It's over It's so fun,
you know, I mean never, it just doesn't happen. You
can go look at our reviews on people that have
done deployment and they actually say, we really enjoyed it,
(34:45):
you know, again, I've never heard that in forty years.
I've never heard that before. But it's because we've focused
so so heavily on that customer experience and the fact
that we want and need them to be successful period.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
So makes a big difference, it really does. I have
one kind of hard but really fun question for you guys,
what is the best piece of advice that you have
ever received? That's probably the toughest question I'm gonna ask
you guys today.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Hmmm, So probably probably just doing the right thing, you know, honestly,
is probably the best advice I've ever given. I mean,
it's it's what we live through, you know, it's it's
a core belief of everybody here that works here. Then
we just simply do the right thing. Yeah, it's so
(35:44):
easy to get caught up and you know, uh, making
a ton of money or you know, you know, it's
you know how I describe it, you know, just uh,
you know, trying to get ahead at all costs. And
for us, we've always done the right thing. And at
(36:06):
least the six years that I've been here, doing the
right thing has absolutely paid off in the long term.
Had we taken shortcuts, I don't know where we be
at today we just focused on the bottom dollar. Don't
know where we be at today. Have we just focused
on you know, a benefit to our company, I don't
(36:27):
know where we'd be at today. So I think doing
the right thing is probably the biggest thing that a
piece of advice I've ever ever received me.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
You know, my parents and grandparents weren't much in the
way of delivering verbal advice, but they were fantastic at demonstrating. So,
you know, I think that what I've learned from that
is there's a value in being generous. There's also a
(37:01):
value in taking care of other people, and we have
a we have a responsibility to do that. So further,
you know, from my from my dad, he he raised
me to be an independent person, an independent thinker, to
be self reliant, and you know, to use my own head.
(37:22):
And he demonstrated that himself. He was an extremely, extremely
bright individual. So you know, a lot of these things
that we're doing today were generated inside this company. You know,
we didn't we didn't have somebody walk over and say, hey,
you guys, you should you should develop a deployment system,
or you should develop an AI support tool for stage
(37:43):
in tech. You know, those are those are things that
came from inside this this company because we have we
adhere very closely to that philosophy of independent thought, of generosity.
You know, it's we have thirteen hundred videos for free
on YouTube that are actually real training videos, you know,
(38:05):
totally free of charge course. You know, so there's a
generous aspect to it. And then then there's a we
want to care about others. You know, I when I
looked around nearly three years ago now and said, we
are no one here is having fun. Our people are
stressed out, they're burnt out, and you know I did,
(38:25):
I don't want to be This is not the kind
of company I want to run. It needs to change.
So when we started looking at it, going how do
we make this a place where people look forward to
coming to work at, where they enjoy coming into work,
where they enjoy the people that they work with. You know,
all that kind of thing didn't come from a piece
of advice. It came from demonstrations from my grandparents and
(38:50):
parents to me over time.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
That's always you know, lead by example, Yes, awesome. And
then you know, any of our viewers, any of our watchers,
you know, if they're interested in learning more about banger
learning more about you guys, or you know, hopefully, yeah,
becoming your customers. How can we reach out to you guys?
How can they find you?
Speaker 3 (39:14):
The best way is to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
It's bangered ink at bangared ink, you know, uh, that
has all of the information and links to other things.
So you know, the best way to learn about what
we're doing and ask Richard is go to our YouTube channel.
We've got a video right there that shows what ask
Richard is and what it's all about, how it works,
(39:35):
and then you can take a deeper dive from there.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Yeah, we'll definitely make sure to link all of those
below for everyone. Is there anything else you guys want
to say, any last remarks, anything not for me.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
I really appreciate the time today, Carolyn.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Awesome. Yeah, I know, thank you guys so much for
coming on. It really is truly a pleasure to have
you guys here, and we know that everything you're doing
is so important and so amazing, So I'm truly honored
to have you guys.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Thanks a lot.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Awesome. We'll catch you guys next time on the next
episode of c Opod
Hello everyone, I'm your host, Caroline. Welcome to another episode
of COPOD. Today we're joined by Kurt and Read Bangert
of Bangert. How are you guys doing.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
We're doing great. Thanks for having us on.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah, of course, Carolyn. Yeah, we're so excited to have
you guys.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hey, we're excited to be here. Tell you the truth.
Love what you guys are doing.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Awesome, So let's get into it. Tell me a little
bit more about you guys. You know, when did you
get into this industry? Why did you get into this industry?
Give me the full spark Notes version, you.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Bet so, I'll take that one on. So we started
the company forty one years ago and we've been involved
with construction for thirty seven of those years. Why did
we get into it. We just had customers that had
construction companies asking us for software, So what else were
(01:05):
we to do? So we we ended up finding in
partnering with a company called Timberline back then now Stage
and it's been full bar ahead since then, you know,
so we we've really become, you know, construction specialists over
all these years. That's the only industry that we address,
(01:27):
and we love doing it. We love contractors it's just
you know, and we have fun doing it, So it's not.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Not like, yeah, you guys have definitely you've been around
for so long that you've definitely been able to see,
you know, the many evolutions that the construction industry has
gone through, which has been probably a lot for those
forty years, right.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Oh yeah, yeah, quite a lot. Actually, it's uh, you know,
when we first got started, you know, the you know
things like hard drives, you know, they were you know,
five megabytes, ten megabytes. Well that's that's a third of
a photo on your phone today. So you know, the
technology has changed the price of these things has dropped
(02:12):
dramatically over time. You know, it seems expensive, but relative
to what you would have spent, you know, thirty years
ago to get the same if you could have done it,
it would have is astronomically different. So you know, it's
always fun to see that. We like to think we're
on the leading edge of that change. You know, we're
pushing the change, and that's also been true of our
(02:35):
company for a long long time. And you know we're
just always looking for you know, what's coming next and
how do we best make that work for our customers.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Awesome and you know, like when you guys started, it
was it was really before the big dot com boom,
the big technology, you know, infiltration of everything. Were you
guys the only ones doing what you do well?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Then? No, there were There were certainly other folks and
competitors and and so forth out there, But yeah, it
was a totally different world. You know, there were no
cell phones. You know, back then, fax machines were like
the most critical machine in a construction company, you know.
(03:22):
There we had customers that still use dial phones, which
a lot of you won't really know what I mean
by that. So you know, there's the the change in
the tech and use in our and our customers and
in our own business. You know, it's just absolutely dramatic.
And you know, I mean I think it was probably
(03:44):
ninety one or ninety two before I had a cell
phone and it came in a bag, you know, So
I will say the transmitters and those bagphones were way
more powerful than what we have today. But that's you know,
I don't want to sound like an old man grape
and about you know, transmitter power.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah, and you know, for anyone in our audience who
doesn't know what banger it is and what you guys
do do you guys mind giving a brief overview just
to catch everyone up who's not as cool as we
are and know everything about y'all.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
We are a Stage Intact partner and we specialize in
the construction industry. Our entire team has a deep knowledge
of construction and better yet, how to make software work
exceptionally well in a construction business. So you know, that's
(04:37):
really the core of what we do, and it's really
been the core of what we do now for the
last thirty seven years. So we've seen all kinds of
different scenarios. We've worked with all types and sizes of
construction companies. We have solutions for construction problems and other words,
(05:01):
we have very you know, when when somebody talks to us,
we not only understand what they're telling us, but they
understand our answer. So that specialization really makes a big
difference in in the customer's experience overall. So, you know,
and that's one of the reasons why, you know, we
(05:23):
work with partners like lumber for instance, who's a very specific,
you know, in their case, a construction specific payroll system,
which we happen to love. But you know, it's it's
we're not trying to adapt other products to construction. We
take construction products, we make them work in construction companies.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
That's awesome. Let's transition a little bit more to talk
about you guys. So you know it, really it takes
a special type of person to be in the positions
that you guys are in, and really, you know, being
at the forefront of change and really being the ones
that are behind that change and making those decisions. How
did you get confidence and experience to get where you
(06:02):
guys are.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Today, blood, sweat and tears. The answer, well, you know,
in the early days, it was just a lot, you know,
it was a general familiarity with business and construction and
then a lot of hard work. Today, you know, we're
(06:26):
in a much different situation. You know, we we select
people to join our team based on their experience, their
knowledge base, and probably most importantly, their cultural will fit here.
You know, one of the things here in the last
three years or so, we've made some very dramatic changes,
and I think I can safely say we pioneer a
(06:48):
few things in this industry which i'd like read to
kind of talk about. But one of the result, part
of the result of that is has been a real
culture change to the positive. And what we see in
our company is when we have happy people, we have
happy customers. So our focus is really on how do
(07:11):
we continue to build that kind of culture and how
do we If we need a new team member, our
first priority is to make sure that they fit into
our current culture and that they're you know, everybody's going
to get along and enjoy each other. So to us,
that's a primary primary thing. So so when we, you know,
(07:34):
look for new staff, we're looking for cultural fit number
one and then their knowledge number two. And when we
have those two things, it's consistently works out really really well.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
That's definitely one of the things we've been seeing in
this industry is it's really tough to you know, first
of all, get this talent, but then keep them and
keep them motivated. What do you guys do to help
with that?
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Yeah, I mean we focused on our internal process. Really
in our external process, so how we deliver services to
customers is completely different to how everybody else in the
industry does it. You know, we have systemized a lot
of the routine and the mundane education aspects, and we
(08:20):
put our customers through a consistent process time and time again,
it gives us a ninety eight percent success rate. And
we've been able to cut the cost of construction or
pe implementation by I think seventy percent, and we've we've
cut the time of implementation by fifty percent. So the
(08:42):
reality is is that we've we've walked our own walk.
We've utilized technology in a way to get our people
ahead and to get our customers ahead, and that's been
incredibly successful. And it's led to things like a four
day work week. You know, so for a good chunk
of the year, we all uh you know, rotate four
(09:04):
days a week and that gives everybody more work life
balance and ultimately just leads to a better culture all around.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Well, I love a four day work week. That sounds amazing.
Let's implement that over here too. That sounds great.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Yeah, I mean, you know, the reality is is that
that we've got we've got to be thinking of of
of ways in which you know, we you know, as
as somebody who's in a position to to to run
operations for a business, you know, you want to work
yourself into some some sense of flexibility.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
You know, I think if you're an owner of a
company like Kurt Is, you know, he wants to work
himself into a sense of you know, flexibility, and so
why wouldn't we want that for employees too. So I
think that's that's the real driver behind that. And then
ultimately we let the employees come up with the policy.
We said, hey, we'd like to do a four day
work week initiative. What do you guys think it should be.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Always getting that feedback I find is always so helpful
because sometimes you know, we have all these great big
ideas and then you know, running them by someone else,
it's not such a great big idea. So always having
that feedback is amazing. And I love that you guys,
you know, really include your employees and your staff and
all that decision making. I think that's so important.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
There's some other elements which, you know, typically in these
types of businesses like ours, the people that provide professional services.
You know, typically those services are billed by the hour
or some form of it. You know, there's people that
sell what I call quote quote unquote subscriptions or meter
(10:49):
subscriptions that say, okay, for this much a month, you
get these many hours. The problem with that, that's just
a different way of billing by the hour, all right.
Consultants are often paid salary plus if they meet their threshold.
If they build a certain number of hours hours over that,
they get paid an incentive pay on top of it.
(11:10):
So the problem with that is, first of all, hourly
billing or meter subscriptions are are not in line with
the customer's interest. So our first objective is, let's be
one hundred percent consistently in line with the customer's interest.
What do we need to do that, Well, we need
to get rid of the bill hour number one and
(11:33):
number two. They need to know what this is going
to cost upfront period, without any equivocation. But to do
that successfully, we also have to look internally and say, okay,
we need to remove all these incentive pays because it's
not fair to make an employee prove that they're worth
their salary every paper. Okay, if you're using an incentive pay,
(11:57):
essentially what you're saying to an employee is worth this
much only if you prove it to me by billing hours. Okay.
So that's inherently also against the customer's interest because you
now have a consultant that they need to bill hours
to make the kind of income that they need to
make to you know, pay their bills and send their
kids to college and all those kind of things, so
(12:21):
that you know they're gonna you know, work that system.
And I don't mean to imply that there's some sketchy
something sketchy going on, because that's really not it. The
problem is the system. The problem is the comp plan.
The problem is the way it's getting billed, and that's
not made by that individual, but they're forced into that.
(12:42):
So what we've done. What we did is we removed
all incentive pays everything because we said, let's pay you
what you're worth, which meant a dramatic rise in base salary.
Well think about that from from an individual standpoint. Now
I don't have to worry about how much I build.
I don't have to worry if I have a full
week next week to make sure that I'm you know,
(13:04):
covering my not all that kind of stuff. I'm just
I now can relax. I can now be a part
of a team because the other issue with that incentive
pay plan is that it drives people to work for
themselves when we in reality, we need a team. A
team will make us all successful. A bunch of individual
(13:27):
players not going to work.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
I've seen that time and time again. You know, you're
so worried about you know, yourself, and as humans, of
course we worry about ourselves. But really, when we start
to see teamwork is when we start to see progression
and success and everything. It all comes down to the team.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
And if you're truly working as a team, it's more fun,
you know. I mean, that's all this got started was
the question was is anybody having any fun? The answer
was no, So we needed to change that.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
You always want to enjoy what you're doing. That's why
I love having this job. I enjoy it absolutely. That's
why we all are where we are right it is.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
But you know, there comes there will come a time
when we find ourselves in a place we don't want
to be, and it's up to us to take action
to change that, so, you know, and that's not always easy.
So you know, as a Reid was saying, the other
thing we did was, you know, let's take a drink
of our own kool aid, which for years and years
(14:36):
we've been telling customers they should, you know, use software
to make them make their people happier, make their customers happier.
Be more efficient, be more profitable, and all that, and
then if you looked inside our own company, you'd find that, hmm,
maybe we're not taking our own medicine. So we made it,
did a huge initiative to build what we call the
(14:58):
Banger Deployment System, and so we leverage technology now to
relieve our staff, to provide a better experience for our
customers and a more consistent experience, and one where we
can say, here's how much your software implementation is going
to cost. Guaranteed you will never spend a penny more
than that.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
That's awesome. Let's kind of let's switch gears a little bit,
and let's think back to when you guys first started.
What is something that you know today that you wish
you knew back then.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Surprisingly, we are today more like what we were when
we started than the in between time when we first started.
When we first started, a customer would buy a system
from us, and they were quoted a single price and
they got everything for that price. We departed from that
(15:54):
and want to quote unquote the industry, you know best
practices by moving here's your software price, here's an estimate
of your services. But we're going to bill you by
the hour. Embarrassingly enough, we were in that model for
a long long time. So we're more today like we
were when we started, and which may be a little
(16:16):
bit of a surprise. I mean, our technical tools and
all that have advanced greatly as we discussed, but from
a philosophical standpoint, we were much more like the way
we started way back then than we were, you know,
between nineteen eighty nine and twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I want to talk about that that shift. Why and
how did you guys know how to you know, shift
back to that original model or how how did you
know that it was time to make a change.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I'll let Read take that one on, because he was
in the heart of the battle on that.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Misery. I mean, the reality is we had we had
unhappy customers. We had customers that you know, we're we're
exceedingly going over budget by thirty on what they were estimated.
We were giving away more hours than we were billing out.
(17:21):
And our system was broken. I mean the build, our
the project fee, change orders, you know, one to one
consulting was completely dead and completely broken. There's a good
saying it's the the build hour is dead. We just
haven't had the funeral. Yet, and that same goes with
(17:43):
modern day subscription services that are you know, effectively just
build hours in a subscription package and fixed fee implementations
as well. It's the same thing. It's just the build
hour and a different package. And so we knew we
had to look at our most successful customers and who
(18:03):
were they. They were the customers that took their own
initiative to learn the most about their software period. They
went above and beyond outside of what we could provide
them at that time to find resources and educate themselves
in the platform themselves. So we took our most successful
customers and we said, let's create a model that replicates
(18:25):
that every time. And so we just have consistently put
out as much knowledge as we possibly can for free.
We publish how to YouTube video every single day. I've
got six months where the videos and the backlog, you know,
and so our team is so driven about what can
we give away for free now? And that's yeah, that
(18:50):
decision alone, to you know, to sort of take off
the change, if you will, was the best decision this
company's ever made.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
You guys talk about you know, your team being so
driven and motivated. Why do you think that is you
know what what keeps you guys striving for more.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Aren't bogged down in the little details in the day
to day and updating their customer on whether it's going
to cost more money or not, or whether or not
this change is going to impact them financially, or you know,
oh hey, you know I can't meet this week, it's
going to have to be next week, or you know,
I can't meet for the next two weeks because of
the holidays. I mean, we literally have unburdened our staffy.
(19:34):
They no longer have to be tied to these you know,
meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting. Instead
they're they're working with our customers on the high value task,
the actual problems and processes that they need to solve
in their businesses. That are the whole reason they're switching
(19:54):
platforms in the first place. So the more time we
free up are our folks to a word with customers
on that, the happier everybody is all around.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
It's awesome when you take you know, the time you
spend on part of my French but the BS, you
take that time out of the equation and then you
have more time to focus on what's.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Important exactly because it is. It's a lot of busy work,
to be frank with you. I mean, you know, trying
to keep track of what a customer is used and
a time sheet and what they haven't used, and what
they've paid for and what they have, and I mean
the immense amount of overhead, you know, is so many
spreadsheets too, Oh my gosh, excel hell as I call it.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
I love a good spreadsheet, but that's too much.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Yeah, you know. Then they always fund meeting where we
everybody reviews their time sheets exactly. They're so fun. So
all this really comes down to how, you know, the
Banger deployment system and how well that works for a customer.
I mean, it's really exceedingly good for them, you know.
They they not only do they get everything for a
(21:02):
known price up front, but then they have daily access
to our staff. They have twenty four to seven access
to the vast majority of the materials they need to
be successful. They get all their ongoing support any customer
report needs, you know, and more often than not, you know,
it's our process has looked at with skepticism because it's
(21:26):
so different than what they've ever been used to in
the past. Sometimes it's a little hard form to wrap
their mind around it, you know. So you know it's like, well,
how do you do all that for that number, as
Reed said, seventy percent less than a traditional implementation, Karlyn,
If you were going to buy a software system for me,
the reason you would want to do that is that
(21:47):
it's going to positively impact your company through efficiency, through
better data, you know, and all those things. Happier people,
happier customers, and those things would drive your profitability. That's
why you would want to buy tech from us.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Well, that's what everyone's looking for when they purchase these
types of software, is that's you know, that's that's what
they want.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Exactly, except that the service side of this industry is
still stuck in nineteen eighty. It's so backwards, it's so
horribly backwards. And that's where we have come in and said,
why if we have such a modern product in Stage Intact,
it's fantastically modern, it's great, we have to match that
(22:30):
with a service program that's equally modern.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Not just that, but making a sophisticated and modern solution
like Sage Intact available to more people. I mean, who
wouldn't want that? You know, when we were implementing our
own technology, I you know, our team used and utilized
everything that was available to us, you know, effectively for free,
(22:56):
and so why not make a model like that So
it provides accessibility to more people, you know, more people
using the product makes the product better, and it makes
the product more relevant in the marketplace too. So there's
just so many advantages of it that you know, we
could go on and on all day.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Honestly we could. And you know, since we're on the
topic of technology, I'd love to bring up ask Richard Well,
I mean.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Ask Richard his name after my grandpa and Kurt's dad.
And you know, if effectively, it's kind of the culmination
of our next generation services. So you know, I like
to call it Banger deployment two point zero or three
point zero. I think we're probably three point zero now,
(23:46):
you know. But it's an all encompassing platform, so our
our learning management system is in there, takes the customers
step by step through how they get zero alive on
stage intact. It has a planning room functionality, so you
can say, hey, I'm going to start on December first
or January first, when am I going to be live?
By if I have one hour a day to work
(24:07):
on this. It's got your team tracking capability, so you
can track you know, your team's progress throughout. So if
you've got ten or twelve or fifteen people in deployment
with us, you know where they're at at all times.
But the most important aspect of it is ask Richard itself.
So we've created a closed domain language model, so it's
(24:31):
not like open AI or chat GPT that references outside sources.
It only references the data that we fed it, which
is actually all of our content that we've ever created
on stage intact. So if a customer has a question,
they can just type that question in and get an
answer right there. And not only is it how to,
(24:52):
but it's a how to with context, and it's how
to with visuals.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Yeah, that probably keeps the data a little bit more
safe and secure, doesn't it as well?
Speaker 3 (25:01):
I mean, well, the biggest problem with you know, generative
chat and things like that is just the trust factor. Right,
where are these sources coming from? Do I know this
is the right answer, et cetera. So when we only
feed it, you know, content that's been created by people
who know the product backwards in front you know, you're
getting a confident answer, and you know it's smart enough
(25:24):
to know what it doesn't know too. It says, hey,
I don't think I have an answer for this. You
might try this out or you know, get again touch
and sign up for a Q and A today, I.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Asked, ask Richard. You know, the it's really the first
in the world AI support tool for Stage Intact. And
so you know, we're driving again. We're back to let's
drive this town to technology forward. Let's modernize these processes.
You know, instead of putting in a support ticket and
(25:54):
hopefully getting a callback in a couple of days or
a week, you can get the answer right now, you know,
and we all expect that today. You know. It's it's
the kind of thing, you know, I say, we live
in an app world, meaning I can go on my phone,
I can download an app and I can start using
it immediately, right that's our expectation today. So we we
(26:17):
you know, while Stage in Tech and products like it
are complex systems, they're not apps. They don't just download
and you just run them. We have to bring the
experience as close to that as we possibly can, because
that is what we all expect right now. So ask Richard,
is just one more step in that direction, and we've
(26:39):
got more common you know. That's we're not done yet,
you know. So we keep pushing and pushing and pushing
to bring to a customer an expected experience and better yet,
a superb experience. They don't have to wait, you know.
I mean we were talking to a company contractor here recently.
(27:01):
This is they go, hey, with our existing system, if
we can get a support call returned in two weeks,
we're pretty happy.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Two weeks.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Uh huh, two weeks?
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Wow, I.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Would.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
I'm kind of like, so it sounds like if you
only break one leg, you're pretty happy, you know. So
I said, why don't we redefine what happiness is? You know?
How about you go right now, you ask a question
and you get a written answer. And so we gave
him access, of course to ask Richard, and he's like,
(27:38):
where have you been all my life? You know? This
is like this is what we need, you know, this
is what we want, this is what we expect.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yeah, So was ask Richard? Was it born from, you know,
a need from the industry or a need from your customers,
or you know where did this idea originate from?
Speaker 3 (27:58):
I mean, we're always thinking about user experience overall. So
you know, six years ago when I came into this company,
I would have never imagined we'd have our public verified
ratings and reviews on our homepage, but we do, and
we have one hundred and twenty six accounting. So you know,
(28:19):
it started from a place of we have to improve
our customer experience, and now today it is how do
we make the best possible customer experience that we can?
And so ask Richard, that's what that idea was born from.
(28:40):
Is this idea that there should be this seamless place
that guides a customer from A to Z that they
can track their progress, they can know exactly where they're
at and exactly where they're headed. They know exactly the
requirements of them this week, next week, the following week,
and so there's no iver a question of how in
(29:02):
the heck are we going to do this? Because the
old way and the old model that I set is dead.
You're constantly questioning that there's a project plan. It's pretty rough,
you know, if there's you know, an update, it's pretty vague,
you know, and so you're always constantly wondering, am I
(29:24):
really going to hit that date that I set that
I wanted to be live by.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
I know that.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Well, we've used all the tools that people use today,
you know, we've used project management systems and spreadsheets and
all that to try to track the progress. They always
fall down. They're never updated, they're usually way too complex.
Nobody understands, and the customer doesn't participate, and then the
customer starts throwing things in that they go, oh, we
(29:53):
need this, and we need that and the other thing,
and the consultant makes decisions that take it totally off
track and so no one knows where they're at. In reality,
we have people that want to hire project managers for
these things, which you know, in the old way of
doing things, i'd say, yeah, it might be a good idea,
because you need somebody to track it. It's expensive. But
(30:16):
with ask Richard, with a deployment system and all that,
we're like, no, no, no, no, no, no no no,
that's all done in the system. The project management's built
into the thing, and it's very purposeful, very intentional, because
we know certain things. We know there is a process
that will guarantee success and that's what deployment is. And
(30:39):
we also know that if we're departing from that, your
chances of success start dropping. And so if you think
about it in the old way of doing things, you know,
whether it's a metered subscription, whether it's hourly building, whatever
it is, you generally get one consultant assigned to your account,
maybe two, maybe there's a small team, but one primary.
(31:01):
If I have fifteen of those primary consultants and I
have fifteen customers, I guarantee you've got fifteen different ways
of implementing the software, guaranteed one hundred percent. You can
go as a company say hey, we're all going to
do it this way. No one's going to do it
because they're going to do it their way. So when
you take that, take it from individual focus and put
(31:25):
it on team focus, and we come to a consensus
on what is the way, and then we build that
into a system. Now we can gain ninety eight percent success.
So in the ERP implementation world, the record is dismal.
Between fifty five and seventy five percent of ERP implementations fail.
(31:47):
Think about that. Fail.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
That's a lot to fail.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Yeah, and failure can mean out and out it just
did not work, or it at best it simply didn't
meet our expectations, but the customer puts it in the
fail category fifty five to seventy five percent, depending on
your data source. We turned that around to a ninety
eight percent success rate. That's dramatically different, and so yes,
(32:19):
dramatically different. But the way we got there was leverage technology, teamwork, teamwork, teamwork,
and we give a ton of stuff away for free.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
The stage that this industry is going into right now
is so fascinating, and it really seems like, you know,
all these new technologies that are going to be brought
in are going to make things more efficient, more accurate,
and hopefully a little bit easier on everyone using them.
You know, our jobs and our lives are going to
be a little easier. So it's going to be a
very interesting time in the construction industry right now.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
No doubt. It's you know, it's very exciting. And because
I've been around this for so long, the reality is
in the in the financial management space, there's really been
no real true innovation since the early nineteen nineties. And
because there's been no technological advent, you know event I
(33:17):
should say that has happened to make it different. So
back in the nineties. It was the introduction of Microsoft
Windows for Crian out Loud. We went from a green
screen to you know, graphical user interface. That was a
major technological change, and it rapidly transformed over the next
five to ten years what everybody was using in their companies.
(33:39):
So now we have Sage intech that's arrived on the
scene here, you know, two three years ago, and it
is as much different from you know, from green screen
to Windows as now Windows PC based software to pure
cloud based software. So it's super exciting because we see
(34:00):
the potential for a huge jump in productivity, better information,
timely information, all of that. And so that's why we
came and looked at it and said, what's the biggest
you know, preventter if you will, of people moving into
a new technological, technological platform. And that is the pain
(34:22):
of implementation. I mean, very few people have done an
implementation that would say, man, I loved it, you know, wow,
could we do too bad? It's over It's so fun,
you know, I mean never, it just doesn't happen. You
can go look at our reviews on people that have
done deployment and they actually say, we really enjoyed it,
(34:45):
you know, again, I've never heard that in forty years.
I've never heard that before. But it's because we've focused
so so heavily on that customer experience and the fact
that we want and need them to be successful period.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
So makes a big difference, it really does. I have
one kind of hard but really fun question for you guys,
what is the best piece of advice that you have
ever received? That's probably the toughest question I'm gonna ask
you guys today.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Hmmm, So probably probably just doing the right thing, you know, honestly,
is probably the best advice I've ever given. I mean,
it's it's what we live through, you know, it's it's
a core belief of everybody here that works here. Then
we just simply do the right thing. Yeah, it's so
(35:44):
easy to get caught up and you know, uh, making
a ton of money or you know, you know, it's
you know how I describe it, you know, just uh,
you know, trying to get ahead at all costs. And
for us, we've always done the right thing. And at
(36:06):
least the six years that I've been here, doing the
right thing has absolutely paid off in the long term.
Had we taken shortcuts, I don't know where we be
at today we just focused on the bottom dollar. Don't
know where we be at today. Have we just focused
on you know, a benefit to our company, I don't
(36:27):
know where we'd be at today. So I think doing
the right thing is probably the biggest thing that a
piece of advice I've ever ever received me.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
You know, my parents and grandparents weren't much in the
way of delivering verbal advice, but they were fantastic at demonstrating. So,
you know, I think that what I've learned from that
is there's a value in being generous. There's also a
(37:01):
value in taking care of other people, and we have
a we have a responsibility to do that. So further,
you know, from my from my dad, he he raised
me to be an independent person, an independent thinker, to
be self reliant, and you know, to use my own head.
(37:22):
And he demonstrated that himself. He was an extremely, extremely
bright individual. So you know, a lot of these things
that we're doing today were generated inside this company. You know,
we didn't we didn't have somebody walk over and say, hey,
you guys, you should you should develop a deployment system,
or you should develop an AI support tool for stage
(37:43):
in tech. You know, those are those are things that
came from inside this this company because we have we
adhere very closely to that philosophy of independent thought, of generosity.
You know, it's we have thirteen hundred videos for free
on YouTube that are actually real training videos, you know,
(38:05):
totally free of charge course. You know, so there's a
generous aspect to it. And then then there's a we
want to care about others. You know, I when I
looked around nearly three years ago now and said, we
are no one here is having fun. Our people are
stressed out, they're burnt out, and you know I did,
(38:25):
I don't want to be This is not the kind
of company I want to run. It needs to change.
So when we started looking at it, going how do
we make this a place where people look forward to
coming to work at, where they enjoy coming into work,
where they enjoy the people that they work with. You know,
all that kind of thing didn't come from a piece
of advice. It came from demonstrations from my grandparents and
(38:50):
parents to me over time.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
That's always you know, lead by example, Yes, awesome. And
then you know, any of our viewers, any of our watchers,
you know, if they're interested in learning more about banger
learning more about you guys, or you know, hopefully, yeah,
becoming your customers. How can we reach out to you guys?
How can they find you?
Speaker 3 (39:14):
The best way is to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
It's bangered ink at bangared ink, you know, uh, that
has all of the information and links to other things.
So you know, the best way to learn about what
we're doing and ask Richard is go to our YouTube channel.
We've got a video right there that shows what ask
Richard is and what it's all about, how it works,
(39:35):
and then you can take a deeper dive from there.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Yeah, we'll definitely make sure to link all of those
below for everyone. Is there anything else you guys want
to say, any last remarks, anything not for me.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
I really appreciate the time today, Carolyn.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Awesome. Yeah, I know, thank you guys so much for
coming on. It really is truly a pleasure to have
you guys here, and we know that everything you're doing
is so important and so amazing, So I'm truly honored
to have you guys.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Thanks a lot.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Awesome. We'll catch you guys next time on the next
episode of c Opod
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