FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT:
General Code Publishers
1-800-836-8834
Fax: (585) 328-8189
mail@generalcode.com
www.generalcode.com
VAR of the Month: General Code Publishers
Rochester, NY, December, 2000 - Much of LaserFiche®'s success is due to its talented corps of Value-Added Resellers (VARs). VARs evaluate client's needs, integrate LaserFiche with existing systems, and provide ongoing customization and support. As customers' needs change, VARs work with LaserFiche to meet those needs. The VAR of the Month feature introduces LaserFiche's top VARs and the skills, traits and values that make them successful.
Bang! That's how General Code Publishers of Rochester, NY, plans to finish off their exciting and profitable year selling LaserFiche. The
codification company that only began selling LaserFiche in November of 1998 has reached the Winner's Circle with ease, and as Proposal and Contract Coordinator Jane Kress sees it, this is only the beginning.
The sales plan for LaserFiche, Kress said, was to "go slow, do it right and then really cook." And cook they have. Keeping their existing municipal customers happy with LaserFiche while bringing new cities and towns into the mix has kept Kress and General Code's crack team of salespeople on their toes.
General Code, founded in 1962 to organize and compile accurate, current legislation, allowed cities and towns the opportunity to more easily navigate the complex and sometimes unorganized system of municipal legislation.
The company's founder, A. Ross Kitt II, was serving as the Supervisor for the Town of Ogden at the time, and became frustrated by the difficulty of locating various pieces of local legislation. He solved the problem by compiling the overflowing piles of paper into one up-to-date organized book. These books, called Code books, are used throughout the country to this day and allow government officials, judges and business people alike to keep up with the constantly changing municipal system of law.
General Code has been helping its customers manage information for 39 years, and when they saw another way to help, they acted. "We saw that our clients were struggling with piles of paper - they were being buried in it," said Chairman A. Ross Kitt III. "We wanted to provide a solution that would help our customers store, retrieve and share huge amounts of information efficiently." That solution was LaserFiche.
"We wanted a solution that was easy to learn and easy to teach,"
said Mary Ellen Smith, director of development. Smith scoured the Internet, traveled to different trade shows and found LaserFiche to be the perfect choice. "We wanted to make sure (LaserFiche) was a good fit with us," said Smith, who felt LaserFiche was geared toward their flourishing municipal market.
With LaserFiche's easy to navigate file folders and powerful search engine, Smith knew they had a solid match. "It's simple and easy to use. I knew that was what was going to sell the product," said Smith. Kress also stressed how easy it was for General Code's technical people to learn. Sandy Brennan, the company's technical guru, had no problem learning the software and teaching end-users.
General Code just put together its largest client deal with a large county in Wisconsin. The county purchased a 5-user system with 50 retrievals, WebLink, Audit Trail, Integrator's Toolkit, Snapshot and the E-Mail Plug-In. [See General Code's Installation Profiles]
Yet General Code caters to the needs of the small towns as well. One of their municipalities set up LaserFiche in conjunction with the installation of its first computer.
Kress said General Code's sales team, which includes Ginny Butler, Bruce Cadman, Tim Donovan, Warren Elliott and Earl Babb, stresses ease of use, efficiency and flexibility when selling LaserFiche. They point out interesting facts:
- It costs $2,150 a year to maintain one 5-drawer file cabinet.
- The average cost of one record being misfiled is $95.
- If paperwork handling could be reduced by just 20 minutes a day, it would save 2 weeks of personnel time a year.
General Code also hosts frequent LaserFiche luncheons, allowing end-users and potential customers a chance to learn about document imaging and how LaserFiche can best help them. "Once people see it, they have to have it," Smith said, also mentioning that the first luncheon they had resulted in four sales.
Kress said General Code enjoys helping the customer on every level. "We want to give clients the ability to be independent and do their own document management." She said the best way to do that is with LaserFiche. Kress said they want to "make information easily accessible using the best available technology."
For additional information about the project, please contact General Code at 1-800-836-8834.
