The Datamax Way: Which Way is That?
The road is long, winding, and at times steep in its vertical ascent to the top. The Datamax Way can often be difficult to define, perhaps better shown through example. Datamax recently made the journey to East Texas: both literally, with the acquisition and employees burning hundreds of miles of IH-20 asphalt back and forth between the Metroplex and the Piney Woods, and figuratively, through collaboration, teamwork and a burning belief that, as Datamax Texas David Rhodes says, “the best is yet to be.”
The Datamax Way – it’s a one-way road to the top, meant to be traveled together. It’s also something to get excited about every single day.
“The Datamax Way, to me, is an accountability process and system that has been a work in progress for many, many years of learning from our mistakes, and growing as a company to be even better,” Rhodes said. “Even though each market place has some tweaks to the Datamax Way, the basis is we’re going to do whatever it takes, at all costs, to Create Raving Fans.”
Making IT Happen in East Texas
“Jubilation.”
That’s the first word that came to Thomas Pollard’s mind when he first heard of the East Texas Copy Systems acquisition in early January. The incredible opportunity for the organization to grow was unmistakable.
But it wasn’t long before reality set in for the Datamax Texas IT Administrator, and the mighty workload became obvious for he and many others across the company. So he – along with teammates from all across the Datamax landscape - went to work and prepared for the miles ahead of them.
“I have lost count of trips I have made (back and forth from Tyler),” Pollard said. “I know that my longest stretch was six nights staying consecutively, away from my family. It’s just easier when you have to be there the next morning, especially when you start early and stay late.”
Pollard and Datamax Inc. Internal IT Manager Stew Campbell were key figures in rolling out the technology pieces for the East Texas transition. Generally, Pollard took the business functionality side while Campbell handled the communications.
“This is the largest organization Datamax has purchased. I was excited about that, the idea to grow in this way,” Campbell said. “My impression is that everything went well, we just had some long hours. I knew in my gut that there was going to be a lot more than we expected. But overall, it went a lot smoother than we thought it might.”
"Our goal," he continued, "was to get you all set up and part of the family."
The tasks were many. Server migrations, desktop migrations, a whole new IT stack for East Texas locations to mold to the other divisions and communicate company-wide. A new active directory, and the actual physical installation of switches, routers and deployment of a new Cisco phone system were also on slate.
The two worked after-hours, before-hours and many weekends in tandem with East Texas employees to methodically check tasks off their list. Pollard came away most pleased with the way branches came together like glue to get the job done.
“We definitely came together as a team, especially with the guys in East Texas. As I said in an email to them, we couldn’t have done this without them. We also had Aaron, the IT Administrator in St. Louis, Dallas guys come over. No doubt. It was all hands on deck,” Pollard said.
The weekend of the big cut over, East Texas VP of Operations Stephen Hampton mentioned several East Texas employees who were instrumental in helping get preliminary work done, particularly late into the night Friday evening.
On Saturday morning the Team reassembled and worked throughout the day to get PC’s and phones up and online in Tyler and Longview, so that business could be conducted, and customers taken care of come Monday morning.
Hampton said, “ That weekend you saw employees from Dallas, Tyler, Longview, and Little Rock all come together in an assertive effort to make this happen. The cutover task, as daunting as it was, is now behind us because of the collaborative efforts of our Datamax Family.
Cracking the Conversion Code
In many ways, once the acquisition was completed and the transition began, the process started with St. Louis. The Administrative Team, including Terri Hackmeyer, was in Tyler in early January to begin acquainting East Texas employees with Datamax HR procedures. Meanwhile, Darla Goedelmann set up employees into the payroll system. Datamax Inc. Controller Sheryl Scott and her group were getting tax codes set up in the company systems, and latter getting vendors to switch over the information.
“My first impression of the acquisition? Growth for the company is always good, for everybody,” Scott said.
Scott knew, from previous acquisitions, that working off two systems can be a particularly bad headache. A major priority from the beginning was the eAutomate conversion, a process that involved downloading data including, but certainly not limited to, customer records, contracts, customer contacts in a spreadsheet, mapping them and importing them. It’s a job that Scott says, may sound like a simple process, but when you have to touch every line item, it’s far from it. All the while, Aaron Sauer was a main contributor to the conversion efforts.
“We really had to push through the conversion, it’s not fun in accounting to do the books off two separate systems. Everything in the ETCS system had to be done manually in our system (prior to conversion). Aaron Sauer was instrumental in helping make that happen.”
The entire team in St. Louis has worked long, often 12 hour days, and will continue to do so throughout 2018 as the transition process continues.
"We've got to do whatever it takes to get it done," Scott said.
Signs of Progress
Construction has also been an ongoing piece to the transition puzzle. The Tyler office is in the midst of a two-phase renovation, including a parts warehouse that will expedite the service process, a revamped training center and a showroom rebrand that offers a sleek, inviting space for Datamax prospects and guests to enjoy.
“I’m a big believer to get the support cast in place, and also get the tools you need to be successful in the positions you have within the organization,” Datamax Texas president David Rhodes said. “Obviously, the infrastructure, the IT infrastructure all the way to the computers, to the company vehicles, the tools the parts, the products, all of that is what we’re investing in to be able to do what we intend to do.”
The Datamax exterior signage is up in both Longview and Tyler. Wrapped vehicles are cruising the East Texas city streets and rural FM highways. An ongoing TV and radio campaign is spreading the word about what Datamax brings to the Eastern portion of the state. Everything down to business cards, flyers, technician shirts and give-away koozies are bearing the Datamax brand, ready to Create Raving Fans across East Texas.
“The signage, the vehicles, the shirts. Those are helping people here really feel part of the Datamax team,” Hampton said.
Through the every day grind and beyond the cluster of tasks yet to be done, the vertical ascent carries on. But the destination to the top awaits. And, according to Rhodes, the path there could not be more clear.
“We know we have to invest in our people, create the kind of infrastructure to be able to perform at the highest level possible,” Rhodes said. “If we need to do something to Create Raving Fans, we’re going to do it. That’s been our model since 1955.”
Indeed, the best is yet to be!
