April 2022
Hello all,
It’s newsletter time again! Another month behind us. Can you believe the first quarter is gone already? For me it just zipped by so fast we hardly got our Rocks established for the quarter and the quarter is over. Some of the rocks for the quarter are complete or just about complete and in just two weeks, we will be gathering to discuss Q2 goals.
It’s been fast, but it’s been a good quarter. We are still dealing with supply-chain issues, we have a talent shortage, and the amount of work we have booked has been nothing short of amazing, but we are dealing with it, and we have a plan. The management team is working hard to make sure we have all the things we need in our plan to put ourselves in a position to successfully execute this work once we begin to receive equipment in the amount we need to fulfill our commitments. With the work we have booked and the other unfulfilled projects we have in house already, we have over 50 million dollars’ worth of work in backlog to complete by the end of 2022. We have booked 25 million against a 19 million dollar goal. That’s 132% of the 2022 single quarter goal. That is an amazing number compared to last year’s revenues and our projections. Can we keep it up? It appears there is no slowdown on the horizon. We see sales keeping pace for the next quarter, so it is already shaping up to be an OUTSTANDING year, even just for this first quarter of 2022. Of course, it is early…
Promotion. We are happy to announce the promotion of Eric Gillespie to the position of IT Programming Supervisor. Eric has been with the company since December of 2001 giving him more than 20 years at Lone Star.
Eric started as a nurse call tech in the field under Hayden Hughes programming R4 systems, then became our expert on ResponderNET which was the state-of-the-art integration platform back then, moving on to Responder 5 integrations in 2008. He most recently has focused on Responder Enterprise, supporting new integrations and anything healthcare related to keep Lone Star the front runner in the industry. During these 20+ years, Eric has evolved into a person to whom so many Lone Star folks and customers have turned for his experience, knowledge, and tenacity. He has helped guide the growth, complexity, sophistication, and quality of the programming team to provide our customers with dependable, replicable results.
In his spare time, Eric enjoys time with family and friends. He says golf is his sport of choice, but it needs more of his attention. Eric’s contribution to his team and Lone Star as a whole is exemplary, and we are very proud of his many accomplishments. Join me in congratulating Eric on this well-deserved promotion.
Strategic Planning Committee. As I mentioned we are having our 2nd quarter SPC meeting the week of April 18th. Kathryn Marshall will be joining us and provide the financial oversight to the team which is especially necessary as our backlog builds and cashflow becomes a consideration of the next quarter or two. With our official launch of Professional Services over the first quarter of 2022, we now have representation from all groups within the SPC. Our team consists of the four COOs, three from Professional Services, three from Corporate Services and two from sales.
The team is:
Chief Operating Officers
Victor Gonzalez
Kevin Henderson
Dan Hiett
Ron Kruse
Professional Services
Justin Bailey
Donna Montgomery
Jeff Richard
Corporate Services
Patt Bowles
Joshua Hiett
Kathryn Marshall
Sales
Chris Andrus
Marquis Woodard
This is a strong group, and we are excited to plan for the future. As you may recall, some of the offices will be doing their local Start, Stop and Keeps this week and next. These feed directly into what we use at the SPC to plan our Rocks and Initiatives so please participate in the meeting with your full enthusiasm. We need your input at the office level to guide us and validate our direction. Please make your opinions heard!
Mr. Kevin Henderson is traveling down from Little Rock to Houston on April 8 to be the guest facilitator and will join discussion breakout leaders Marquis Woodard and Donna Montgomery for the Houston bi-annual Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats (SWOT) workshop. The group will include Marissa Cerna, Monique Dow, Nicole Flores, Brian Manibo, Leo Martinez, Gregory Propps, Erik Rosas, Nelson Saldivar, Gabe Sanchez, Gus Torres, Regina Wysocki and Yessenia Zamora. There will be whole different group in October for the Houston office.
Tenure Recognition Awards. We are in the planning stage to set dates for the annual tenure recognition awards. We are aiming to do these in each office with a lunch or a dinner and share the pictures at one of our virtual Town Hall meetings soon after. We have just gotten too big and spread out to have them all in one day in one place, as I would prefer. So, the next best thing is to have the meetings and awards locally and share them with the entire company. Remember, we will be recognizing 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 years of service awards as we have in the past. This year we have our first 30-year employee to be recognized. We actually have three employees, one in Houston and two in Grand Prairie, who have attained or will attain their 30-year mark during 2022. We will recognize our Houston employee on May 18 and the two Grand Prairie folks will be celebrated at next year’s award ceremony.
Professional Services. We discussed in the last newsletter the creation of Professional Services. We have the organizational chart taking shape with Jeff Richard leading the technical division of the group and Donna Montgomery leading the clinical division.
Professional Services is going to be responsible for a great deal of the growth in the future. This growth will be either directly with PS, Professional Services, for a facility or IDN or for a more traditional project through the normal sales channel providing hardware and software. This traditional hardware sale will be the first phase of provide Professional Services, so the facility is able to track the facilities initiatives for improvement in workflows or other projects.
Emplify survey. The quarterly Emplify survey went the morning of April 4. We do this survey every 90 days and yes, they are always the same questions. I know, I have recently been told by some to mix up the questions, ask different questions; I agree. We want to change them, but for now, for consistency’s sake, they need the questions to stay the same. There is a possibility that on a future survey, we might be able to add a couple of custom questions and not have them be a part of the total score. If the custom questions become part of the total score, it would skew the results and that really wouldn’t give us what we are looking to get from these surveys. We are trying to make sure we are making this the best work environment we can. Please help us by taking the survey as soon as you get the link.
Thank You. We are so thankful for all you have contributed to Lone Star’s success thru this long, challenging time. Through COVID, the isolation, short supplies, quick turnarounds, your creativity, tenacity, and dedication to our purpose has raised the level of pride I and the management team has in all of you to new heights. In coming weeks and months, Lone Star will experience more growth, changes, reassignments, promotions, and opportunities for all. Be open. Seek learning experiences. Communicate. Put yourself in a position to shine. Until next time.
Ray
- Ray Bailey, President