Something to help your team add content to your social media sites

It seems everyone is talking about Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Linkedin these days. Here is a small, inexpensive device which might be able to help you add content to your websites, blogs, or social networking sites.

I picked one of these a few weeks ago and have been taking pictures with in on a recent trip. The device is a Kodak Zi6. You can pick one up at most electronic stores. It is very easy to use for taking pictures and videos. As you can see from the picture the Zi6 has a usb adapter built right into it.

Take a look at the following YouTube video which highlights all of its features.

Recent Tempworks trip

A few weeks ago I traveled eastward to Wisconsin. I was able to stop in at a few of TempWorks current customers as well as a few prospects. I wrote about one of my days during this post.

Anyway, during my trip I was able to try out a my new garment bag. It works great for a two or three day trip.

Another highlight, besides the customer visits, was my stop at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. Even though I am a Vikings fan, I will post a few pictures (below). It will be interesting to see if one of the most famous Packers becomes a Viking here in the next few months.

Good job, Alisha

I personally have been involved in many demos the last few weeks. These demos have been with new prospects, as well as current customers. Alisha Arnold, our corporate trainer, has been involved in many of these discussions.

The people involved have mentioned to me how well Alisha knows our products. They have also mentioned she does a great job of showing all of the different functionality TempWorks has to offer. She has been showing our Enterprise product, as well as WebCenter, DocCenter, Time Clock, just to name a few.

Alisha has been working with TempWorks since 2005.

Good job Alisha!

Recent Press Release About TempWorks Payroll Services

Prime Industrial Recruiters Reduces Overhead and Improves Productivity by Outsourcing Payroll

Prime Industrial is operating at a faster and more efficient pace after streamlining their front and back office functions.

St. Paul, Minn. (PRWEB) May 23, 2009 -- Prime Industrial Recruiters of Tulsa, OK , recently implemented TempWorks Payroll Processing services, cutting their costs, saving time, and allowing them to focus on revenue generating tasks.

Oddie McClendon, from Prime Industrial Recruiters explains, "Previously, we utilized three different systems for our staffing software, payroll and billing so our data was not conveniently accessible. As we began to expand across Oklahoma we needed to merge all three systems so that everything was fluid." McClendon goes on to state that "we needed something that was integrated, so that we didn't have to pay three separate vendors. TempWorks Payroll processing seemed to be a great option, we've eliminated the extra steps and the process is now so simple."

Prime Industrial's Tulsa Branch Manager, Joy Moody conveys that "human error was forcing us to re-cut checks because the payroll process went through multiple back-office employees before it was complete. It was such a waste of time for everyone involved, and was costing us money." Moody continues to acknowledge that "Having TempWorks process our payroll has saved us time, money and grief because we have access to everything in one integrated system."

TempWorks has provided recruitment, payroll and billing systems to staffing firms since 1997, and added payroll processing, employer of record and payroll funding to its inventory in 2006. TempWorks currently processes payroll for customers in all 50 states, and has added several strategic, high-volume payroll accounts since the first of this year.

TempWorks Director of Operations, Kevin Prow acknowledges that, "Prime began using TempWorks in August of 2008 and quickly added payroll services in October. Since then, Prime has been able to speed up their day-to-day tasks and eliminate the worry that comes along with payroll processing. Now TempWorks handles all of it and Prime can focus on tasks that affect their bottom line instead." David Dourgarian, President of TempWorks Software, comments that "We are committed to providing our customers with solutions that will increase productivity and profitability, and are excited that we are helping Prime do just that."

About TempWorks Software
TempWorks Software incorporated in Minnesota in 1997 and provides a full suite of enterprise staffing solutions. Designed to automate and streamline all facets of a staffing firm's daily operation, TempWorks Software offers fully integrated front and back-office staffing software, web portals for customers, employees, applicants and vendor management, and many additional modules. From recruiting to payroll and everything in between, TempWorks Software puts technology to work for staffing firms and their clients. For more information about TempWorks, please visit http://www.tempworks.com or contact Director of Public Relations, Laura Baratto, at 651-452-0366, or by email at laurab(at)tempworks.com.

About Prime Industrial Recruiters
Prime Industrial Recruiters began in 1996 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Prime's focus is exclusively on industrial staffing, both temporary and long term. The goal at Prime Industrial is to continue to be the best industrial recruiting agency anywhere. For more information about Prime Industrial, please visit http://www.primerecruiting.com

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The story behind TempWorks Enterprise

Paul Czywczynski, TempWorks CTO, does a great job of describing the journey of TempWorks Enterprise over the last few years in the following blog post. I enjoyed reading the story, as well as seeing the various screen shots of how Enterprise has progressed (for the better...first screen design below).



You can read other posts by Paul here.

Milestone

My blog posting today is #100.

I know many others who have been blogging for years and have hundreds or thousands of postings. I hope to get there at some point.

I am a believer in celebrating the small things. As I have stated a few other times, sometimes you just need to start. Like the person in the picture, you might reach 100 at some point too.

Thank you readers. I look forward to writing my next 100 posts.

Rich Peterson celebrates his TempWorks Anniversary with another sale

Last Friday was Rich Peterson's fourth anniversary with TempWorks. Rich has been a valuable member of our sales team during his many years at TempWorks.

Rich celebrated his anniversary by bringing in yet another sale before the holiday weekend started. I believe this latest sale brings the total up to nine in the last three weeks for our sales team.

Thanks Rich for your many years of service, as well as your many contributions to TempWorks success.

Great day for a 12K

This morning I woke up early (before 5am). I tried talking my wife into staying home, but she wouldn't have any of it. I felt I had not been training as much as I needed to, and was not confident on how well I might do.

We got to Stillwater about quarter after six and the race started at seven. We arrived at the Stillwater High School and boarded the bus to take us downtown for the race. Surprisingly my brother, Matt, and his two brother-in-laws (Rob and Joe) were also on the same bus when we boarded.

Once we got downtown I also ran into TempWorks Revenue Machine, Casey Kraus. His wife-to-be was running in the 12K too.

It was a great morning. The weather was great. The view was awesome. Everything was perfect.

It was my first 12K (7.46 miles). The 10K I participated in last month, I wasn't able to run the whole way. This one I was able to run the entire time in an hour and twenty-two minutes. Mainly because my wife and my brother were pushing me most of the way.

I don't get to see my brother as much these days as we are both very busy. I felt very fortunate to spend this time with him, even if it was running the whole time. I also had fun spending time with Rob, Joe, and my wife. All of them are great people.

A day in the life...

Yesterday I mentioned I hit the road this week to visit customers and prospects. Today I am going to discuss a little of what my day looks like when I am away from home on a business trip.

5am - my alarm goes off. I wasn't planning on getting up this early, but I forgot to change my alarm from the day before

6am - check email, write thank you's for meetings from the day before, listen to the news, read my favorite blogs

7am - run a couple miles on the treadmill, 12K coming up this weekend

8am - shower, shave, get ready for the day, have continental breakfast at the hotel, take vitamins

9am - follow up on emails, make phone calls, schedule a few product demos for next week, drop off thank you's at the front desk to be mailed, drive to first appt

10am - meeting with current customer, discuss how their current upgrade is progressing, discuss the new things TempWorks has come out with in the last few months, arrange demo for DocCenter

11am - drive to next appt, check email, make phone calls

12pm - grab lunch (fast food)

1pm - presentation with prospect, discussed core product software as well as all ancillary products, also interested in funding

2pm - drive to next appt, check email, return phone calls

3pm - meeting with current customer, very positive comments regarding our support team, especially Melanie Kramer our support center manager, also let me know TempWorks always has great marketing information/presentation

4pm - drive to hotel, check email, make phone calls

5pm - check into hotel, drop off bags, turn the tv on to ESPN's SportCenter

6pm - eat a decent dinner at the hotel

7pm - call home to talk to my wife, payton, and tatum to find out how their day had gone, find out how many days of school they have left, inquire on how the soccer game went this evening

8pm - turn on the lakers/nuggets game, catch up on email, news, surf the next

9pm - think of ideas to write about on my blog, write my blog, watch the game

10pm - decide to turn off the computer, and get ready to do it all again tomorrow.

Life on the road, all very glamorous...

Two more sales this week at TempWorks

I know the week isn't over, but two more sales have come in this week. Earlier this week I mentioned we had quite a few contracts come in over the last few weeks.

Again, nice work sales team.

Not content with our recent successes, I am on the road this week visiting customers and prospects (500 miles in the car today).

Lunch anyone?

Another thing which makes TempWorks unique, as well as a fun place to work are the spring and summer barbecues.

Pictured is the CEO of TempWorks, Gregg Dourgarian. As you can see he is serving up some burgers and brats. Stephanie Sparby and Jared Gebhard are also pictured here with Gregg.

Thanks Gregg for lunch, as well as making TempWorks a great place to work.

Lots going on at TempWorks the last couple weeks

Last week I wrote it seemed like things are showing signs of picking up. Certainly that didn't stop last week either. The TempWorks sales team continues to hit the road discussing the many product offerings we have to prospects and current customers. As a result of pouding the pavement and putting many miles on the rental cars we are seeing results...six new contracts for payroll processing and software in the last two weeks!

In addition, we have had many of our current customers discussing upgrades. The web time keeping, Time clocks, and DocCenter being the key contributors...besides the new look and feel of TempWorks Enterprise.

Nice job sales team! Kudos also to our training team for doing such a great job in showing off products to these new customers.

Last week we also released a new product to help our customers be more productive, while giving their employees the ablity to text in availablity.

Gregg highlighted Andrew Larson in one of his blog posts.

And we had another 3 year anniversary last week. Tim Vossen celebrated this anniversary. Tim works in our Web Development department and has been working recently on some major applicant portal development for one of our biggest clients. Nice work on this last project, as well as all of the projects you have been involved in over the years.

Hello Windows 7

I am pretty excited to be trying out the new release candidate for Windows 7. I was able to get it installed on my laptop on friday and have been downloading various applications back onto my computer over the weekend.

I also have been testing out version 8 of Internet Explorer. For the last few years I have been using the FireFox browser instead.

I look forward to testing out the new features.

TempWorks new text messaging capabilities...only the tip of the iceberg

I had the privilege to sit in on a demo today with our Chief Technology Officer, Paul Czywczynski. Paul was showing a current customers one of our newest database integrations. TempWorks now has the ability for temporary employees to use their cell phones to text in their availability.

This new functionality frees up staff from numerous phone calls throughout the day. It also saves time from entering messages into the database.

Yet another option and more flexibility for the temporary employee to shoot off a text message whenever they want.

Stay tuned for additional features. TempWorks will be adding more text messaging capabilities in the weeks and months to come. Any customer feedback, wants, or needs is certainly welcome. Please feel free to call or email if you have any questions...651.452.0366 or cory@tempworks.com.

A great payroll training program

I few months ago I stopped in at PeopleSource in Oklahoma. During my visit I spoke with Cheri Ridpath and David Bozalis. I learned that Cheri had worked at Paychex before she started at PeopleSource.

My resume also has a line item on there from Paychex. Before working at TempWorks I processed payroll as a Payroll Specialist for a year and a half.

My fellow co-worker, Jon Schachtele who is Manager of Payroll and Tax Research for TempWorks also worked at Paychex for a number of years.

Cheri, Jon, and I have all expressed how we thought Paychex does an excellent job of training their people about payroll.

TempWorks Customer Spotlight: The Premier Group

The Premier Group has been in business over 20 years. They have been a customer of TempWorks for five years. I was out to visit them a few months ago and had a great time with their President, Paul Schwabe, and CFO, Frank Cagliostro.

Mr. Schwabe has been a very big supporter of TempWorks over the years. He has always had great things to say about the TempWorks WebCenter products. He also supplies the TempWorks team with feedback to help us improve our products.

Thanks Premier Group for your business.

Three key contributors to TempWorks success

Certainly there are many people who have helped or continue to help TempWorks succeed in the staffing software market. Three which I will highlight today are Paul Czywczynski, Sairah Tran, and Melanie Kramer. Each of these three TempWorks' Managers has worked at TempWorks over seven years.

Paul Czywczynski is the Chief Technology Officer of TempWorks. Very few technology personalities are experts from both a hardware and software standpoint. Paul does a great job with both aspects. In addition, he oversees the development of all of our new products. He also manages our Enterprise, Web Services, and System Administration teams. As you can see he wears many hats on a daily basis. Paul has been working for TempWorks since 2001.

Melanie Kramer has also been working for TempWorks since 2001. She is our Support Center Manager. I speak with our customers in person and over the phone on a daily basis and I can not recall how many hundreds of times I have heard, "Melanie does a great job," or "Melanie knows your system so well, and was able to help me so quickly." Melanie also does various trainings at our corporate office. She also helps out our training and sales teams from time to time with product demonstrations.

Sairah Tran is the Manager of Consulting and Technical Services at TempWorks. She started out in the TempWorks support department in 2002. She was a key member of the implementation team before she was promoted to Manager a few years ago. It is no easy task to keep track of all of the various software installations and upgrades, while making sure projects finish on time and on budget.

Thank you Paul, Melanie, and Sairah for the great job each of you do on a daily basis.

Things picking up?

Last week certainly seemed like it at TempWorks. It was a very busy week, and here are a few of the highlights:

• We had new software and payroll processing contracts come in
• We had conversations with quite a few of our customers to discuss upgrading to Enterprise, WebCenter, DocCenter, and TwMobile
  
• Many customers continue to ask about the integration with TempWorks and Trak-1
• Two Anniversaries took place
  
• Our development team continues to keep cranking out new things for our Enterprise product, which Gregg mentioned in his blog
• The TempWorks team had the first barbecue of the summer outside our office on the patio

I will keep you posted if this coming week is as busy. I am certainly counting on it.

Two more anniversaries at TempWorks this week

Yesterday we celebrated the two year anniversary of Casey Kraus at TempWorks. Casey is one of our Regional Sales Managers. You can read about his upcoming sales trip to the east coast and other sales related articles from his sales blog.

Today we celebrate the three year anniversary for Todd Glander. Todd started out in our support department, moved into assisting with the implementations of our TwSelect division, and now is part of our Implementation team.

Thank you both for your contributions and dedication to the TempWorks team.

The NBA...Where Amazing Happens. Maybe, but Amazing Happens at TempWorks on a Daily Basis

(only we don't get paid millions of dollars a year...yet)

I am stealing the NBA tag line as I had seen it last night while watching the Celtics/Magic game.

Anyway, we had a customer contact us this morning letting us know their website has been down for the last few days as their web developer has been making a few enhancements. Their web developer however was having issues restoring the site to the public.

In less than 20 minutes our team had researched the issue, fixed the issue, and let the customer know their site was back up and running. Jared Gebhard from our Web Services team jumped in and took care of the situation in short order.

Nice work team!

The Power of One

This picture hangs on my wall in my office. I look at it hundreds of times a day. It is a great picture and it motivates me every time I look at it.

Many years ago I went through a divorce. A few months after this occurred I was walking alone through a shopping mall and I saw this awesome picture of an elephant in the window as I walked by. The picture was created by John Banovich. The eyes, the huge ears, the tusks. I loved everything about it.

I walked into the store to get more information about it. I read the title. "The Power of One." The title couldn't have been more perfect. It fit my situation perfectly, and in one sentence describe it all.

I bought the picture that day. I didn't even ask how much it cost.

Be strong, be powerful, be yourself. You can do anything you put your mind to.

If you don't have a picture on your wall, in your cubical, or wherever...I would suggest getting one.

TempWorks Support: Always ready, and willing to help

During my trip last week to Texas I was able to sit down for lunch with Jack Huff and Randy Burkhart from Instaff.

Mr. Burkhart is the CEO of Instaff. He let me know the reason he likes TempWorks is because TempWorks is always willing to do whatever it takes to get issues resolved. He also mentioned he knows no software is going to be perfect, nor is he expecting it to be. Lastly, he said he always knows how to get in touch with me (if he needs to).

Instaff has been a customer of TempWorks for over four years.

Pictured are a few members of our support team. From left to right are Hassan, Adeel, and Kyle.

TempWorks customer gives praise to our Web Services team

This afternoon I had the pleasure of talking with Keith Stevens. Keith is the President of ProTeam Staffing which has been a customer of TempWorks for over eight years.

Keith shared with me he has been very happy with the service he and his team have been receiving from our Web Services department. Derek Nicholls, Jared Gebhard, and Brandon Johnson comprise the TempWorks Web Services team.

Nice work gentlemen.

Thank you Keith for your nice comments. Thank you for your business. And thank you for reading my blog!

TempWorks Biker Gang...

Okay it is more of a group than a gang (but that doesn't sound as cool). Maybe some of you are picturing the movie, "Wild Hogs" with John Travolta and Tim Allen...that pretty much sums it up.

Now that it's the first week of May, there are things people are starting to hear, smell, and see which happens only in the warmer months here in Minnesota. There is the smell of freshly cut grass, the taste of a brat or hamburger from the grill, and the roar of the motorcycles down the highway.

There are a few of TempWorks' employees which ride their motorcycles to and from work. Those riders include myself, Kyle Borgschatz, Kevin Prow, Melanie Kramer, Jathan Moline, Michael Bracy, and Derek Nicholls.

As we see each other in the hall at the TempWorks office we may utter the phrase, "Did you ride in to work today?" As well as, "Do you know what the weather is supposed to be tomorrow?"

A few months ago I mentioned the hand drawn employee portraits makes TempWorks unique. Our Biker Gang is another thing which makes our team unique.

Motorist, please watch for motorcycles. Bikers, be safe.

A few audio books I have on my IPod

In the past I have written a few posts regarding travel tips and business trip essentials. In my post regarding business trip essentials I mentioned my IPod Touch was #3 on the list. This past week I moved it up to #1.

As any business traveler knows you have no control over the weather or your flight taking off on time (or taking off at all for that matter). My return flight last week was supposed to leave at 5:40pm from Dallas. It ended up leaving after 10pm, thus getting me home around 2am. I wasn't upset. There wasn't anything I could do.

I was happy though that I had a fully charged IPod. Below are 4 audio books I had which helped me pass the time. I would recommend them to anyone:

1. The Last Lecture
2. The Magic of Thinking Big
3. Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
4. Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist

***It might be a good idea to go pick up one or two of these before your next trip...just in case.

Another raving fan of TempWorks

"Love it, love it, love it." These were the words expressed by Liz Torres, Branch Manager, of Journeyman Staffing when talking about TempWorks. Liz has been using TempWorks for over three years.

While I was sitting at her desk, I noticed she had been using the older Access version of TempWorks. I asked her if she had seen the new Enterprise version of our software. She said she hadn't. I started telling her about the new features of TempWorks Enterprise. I asked if I might be able to install it on her computer for her to start using. She said it would be great if I installed the new software.

After I got the Enterprise software installed I changed the background color of the software to RED. I showed her a few of the new features. I could tell Liz was very excited for me to leave. Not that she didn't like talking to me, she wanted to start using the new Enterprise version of TempWorks as soon as possible.

Thanks Liz for your time. Thank you also for your great comments about TempWorks.