September 21, 2007

Thanks Hal, Ben, Robin, Dean, Pattie, Steve, and ... everyone!

I'm back in the Charlotte airport on my way home after spending last night and today with the senior management team of ACS Technologies. I mentioned that I was having dinner with Robin and Ben last night. I didn't know that Hal Campbell, President of ACS would also be joining us. Hal is a humble man who has built an outstanding company. The restaurant was a bit loud but the food was good and the conversation was excellent. It was a fun way to begin a relationship with them.

Robin is VERY well organized. She took care of all of the details of our meeting today, which included the same people from last night as well as RoundTable buddy Dean Lisenby, Pattie White, Steve Cumbia, Cindy Street and several others.

I'm glad I corrected my previous error and put ACS on our short list. We talked for more than 7 hours and never once did a product demo - my kind of meeting! I was very favorably impressed by the company. Like my meetings with Shelby and Fellowship Technologies last year, I quite appreciated the openness of the exchange. They graciously allowed me to challenge them as though we had been friends for years. Better yet, they challenged me back with some clear-headed responses. That's cool!

Pattie did wonder aloud if I might be high maintenance. My wife might affirm that speculation, I fear. ;-) Patti's concern was whether I would allow my dissatisfaction with the structure of the ChMS marketplace to stand in the way of making progress on Resurrection's real needs right now. I assured her that Resurrection's here-and-now concerns were very much on my mind, otherwise I would not have made the trip. That said, when I have the attention of the top management of the top company in the market, I won't be shy to cast a vision of a future different from present reality. And I might choose to go another direction if I think it is more likely to get Resurrection to my preferred future more quickly. Did I mention this would be a tough decision?

I'm grateful to say I now have a bunch of smart friends in Florence, South Carolina, whether or not Resurrection becomes their customer. I have Florence on my mind ...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Clif, I think we've had parts of this conversation before. The folks at ACS are just plain the nicest, most enjoyable, people in the world. Even though we've chosen another route, it still makes me happy to see people choosing to go with, or at least consider, ACS.

Anonymous said...

Cliff, I am happy to hear your Florence Trip was as good experience as mine...

ACS may or may not be the perfect software solution for everyone... but their team will discuss the ACS’ strengths and weaknesses to establish if their services (not just their products) are the right solution...

Yes we are an ACS ministry partner, but I would still give their team kudos if we weren't....