Hello all,
When I last wrote to our Lone Star family in July I was excited to say “The wheels are starting to turn.” Well I am happy to report the “Wheels are turning!”
Just as we’d hoped – as we continue to follow proper protocols and wade / fight together through this COVID mess – our business is starting to show more and more signs of normalcy.
Four major things stand out to me when I look at where we were and where we are headed.
First off, in Central Texas we’ve enjoyed a massive increase in Education bookings. It’d be tough to say enough about the amount of work Dustin and Kent have been able to bring in. It was one of our biggest priorities, and it has turned into quite the success story. It’s fun to watch their hard work pay off with orders. These orders are a direct reflection of the confidence our customers have placed in Dustin, Kent, and all of us to perform. Additional shout out to Victor Gonzalez and Joe Jackson for the role they’ve played as well.
Second, our larger IDN customers are moving faster and faster back to business as normal. Baylor Scott and White is getting ready to release a very large spend. We are working to secure a substantial amount of Ascension business for the Seton hospitals. HCA released us to work as normal a few months back (this was HUGE) and has continued their ongoing construction projects. Most impressively, just this week, they have given us a Purchase Order (PO) for a Responder 5 retrofit project that they had said would be pushed to Q3 2021 at the earliest!
Third, the velocity of ongoing, smaller projects has really picked up. When COVID hit, all of these type projects basically stopped. We weren’t being asked to price these smaller jobs, and we certainly weren’t getting PO’s and contracts for the ones we were expecting. This has reversed almost fully. We are getting those PO’s and contracts and we are being asked to price upcoming ones almost as frequently as we were pre-COVID.
Finally, we are starting to really get a handle on Responder ENTERPRISE. More and more, we are learning what it takes to properly present to our customers and we are seeing more and more interest. As we’ve said from the beginning, it will take time with Enterprise. We are rapidly gaining momentum and key IDN customers are showing measurable excitement. We will only get better with Enterprise as we get it to market and in the hands of our partners. I cannot describe how excited I am to think where we will end up as we generate increased “measured evidence” and develop the services that make up our Enterprise delivery. It’s going to be quite the show and well worth what we are all going through now to get it off the ground.
As has been said previously – none of the above is possible if we aren’t all together, doing our jobs and pushing (and sometimes pulling) in the same direction. It continues to motivate me and make me proud to be a part of what we all have going on.
We’ve proven we can get through this, and that we can make the best of an unprecedented and difficult situation. Now we are starting to show we can even begin to excel when many other companies/ competitors in our industry can’t find their way.
Stay safe everyone, continue to follow proper protocols, and let’s keep pushing forward and upward to succeed together.
-Chris Andrus, VP of Sales & Business Development, Central Texas