07/02/08
Trillium Staffing Implements Vision With StaffSuite Staffing Software from VCG
Continued growth drives need for integrated staffing software system to maximize efficiency for diverse 60-office staffing firm.
GE’s Jack Welch once said, “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” Rene Poch, founder and CEO of Trillium Staffing in Kalamazoo, Michigan and his team of staffing veterans put that thinking into action when they made a decision in mid-2006 to purchase VCG’s StaffSuite staffing software for their business.
Founded in 1984, Trillium’s employment service portfolio had grown consistently over the years, driven by Poch’s vision. By 2006 they were a well-diversified staffing company with six lines of business, 45 offices and 180 internal staff.
While growing and profitable, the firm was not nearly as efficient as it could be according to Timm Sturgeon, Trillium’s Controller. “Six years ago we were, practically speaking, a paper-driven organization. Over the years we had added a front-office solution and VCG’s TempWare-V as a pay/bill solution. But it became obvious that those would not enable us to grow and prosper the way we wanted to. We needed a fully-integrated solution that everyone in the organization could use and be effective at supporting us at all delivery points throughout the organization.”
"With StaffSuite, StaffSuite WorldLink, and other technologies, we now have more and better means to service our customers and field staff.
It enables us to deliver the caliber of service our customer’s desire consistently.”
Rene Poch
Founder and CEO
Trillium Staffing
A Tough Selection Process
Finding the right solution meant an exhaustive review of potential vendors by the selection team at Trillium. “Our biggest challenge was finding and balancing the use of technology to deliver customer service that drives value. We began with a list of 60 vendors,” said Sturgeon. “However, our requirement of a truly integrated staffing-specific solution quickly narrowed that list to four.”
VCG’s StaffSuite and the StaffSuite WorldLink Web portal module was chosen over the competitive offerings for a variety of reasons. Sturgeon, who led the selection team, noted that, “What set StaffSuite apart was a combination of its attributes and VCG’s experience. The StaffSuite interface has a much lower learning curve and gave us huge potential to improve user efficiency. The security and integrity of the system gave us reliability and scalability to grow. StaffSuite’s core functionality; its payroll/billing, order fulfillment, and the knowledge bank represented by the system were confidence-inspiring. On top of that were VCG’s solid support and our trust in the relationship.”
Implementing the Vision
Poch, who is fully engaged in the daily business operations of Trillium, pointed out that StaffSuite had to, above all, support Trillium’s unique vision. “People are our business,” Poch said. “Most importantly, the quality, skills, and experience of our own staff and their commitment to service ARE our differentiators.” StaffSuite’s integrated system creates effective communication throughout the entire organization that helps to deliver greater customer value. Yet that enabling technology had to be implemented with an eye to the human needs of Trillium’s staff, whose average staffing experience was eight years.
Sturgeon said that commitment made the biggest difference in the speed and success of StaffSuite’s implementation, “We were able to bring the entire company online in less than nine months, which was remarkable for a company our size. VCG's support and our own relentless commitment to make it successful were critical -- we refused to cut any corners. As part of the implementation program we’ve put into practice our own stringent internal training programs, supported by VCG, but based on our own business processes.”
Visionary Results
Success over time is the ultimate measure of success; however Trillium has already begun to achieve significant results in their first year on StaffSuite since going live in January of 2007 according to Sturgeon.
"StaffSuite’s configurable workflow processes for different lines of business have been critical to our success. In essence, we’ve been able to drive decision-making down-stream, where it has a positive impact on service delivery, while improving accountability and efficiency.”
Timm Sturgeon
Controller
Trillium Staffing
“StaffSuite allows our company to operate -- for the first time -- on one foundation,” says Sturgeon. “As a diverse, geographically spread-out organization each office and individual can now operate in concert. This gives each staff member in every office tremendous clout when doing business. StaffSuite’s configurable workflow processes for different lines of business have been critical to our success. In essence, we’ve been able to drive decision-making down-stream, where it has a positive impact on service delivery, while improving accountability and efficiency.”
Over the past year, Trillium has seen many other benefits from StaffSuite as well.
- Added efficiency played a role in achieving seven percent year over year gross revenue growth in 2007.
- Refined, streamlined collection processes have reduced outstanding invoices tremendously for their primary staffing division.
- Saved more than 1,100 hours of time per year and thousands of dollars in postal expenses for report mailings that were previously made to and from branch offices that are now all online.
- A Web portal developed by Trilliums’ internal IT team for internal staff using StaffSuite and StaffSuite WorldLink enables them to view dynamic, up-to-the-second graphs and charts on virtually every key performance metric that’s relevant to their business. This improves individual, branch and company accountability and performance.
- With StaffSuite WorldLink recruiting effectiveness has improved. Posting more jobs online has increased the number of applicants for jobs, and Trilliumjobs.com ranks in the top 99.6% percentile for Internet job boards.
- StaffSuite’s integrated document management system has greatly improved the tracking and management of unemployment and Workers' compensation claims as well as contracts, resumes, I9 forms and more.
All that improvement in efficiency has certainly helped their growth. As of early 2008, Trillium has grown to 60 offices (15 more than in 2006) serving 46 states through seven lines of business with a staff of more than 230. In 2007 StaffSuite helped them handle an average of 4,500 contingent workers every week, while coordinating the recruitment and placement of more than 300 people. Further, their revenue performance puts them on par with many of the highest performing staffing firms in the nation.
Visionary Future
Poch and Sturgeon are quick to point out that Trillium has only taken one more step on their successful journey. Sturgeon says, “I'm excited about the potential going forward. Not only is our technology foundation now incredibly solid, we'll be able to work with VCG to continue to grow our company.” And Poch agrees, “With StaffSuite, StaffSuite WorldLink, and other technologies, we now have more and better means to service our customers and field staff. It enables us to deliver the caliber of service our customer’s desire consistently.”
And that is what living the vision is all about.
END
More about VCG staffing and recruiting software solutions.
About VCG
VCG provides comprehensive staffing and recruiting solutions that power success. Since 1976, VCG has helped hundreds of companies and more than 14,000 professionals worldwide achieve operational excellence by streamlining their unique business processes and accelerating finding and placing the people most likely to thrive. VCG, C-PAS, Pointwing, StaffSuite, TempWare-V, WebPAS, StaffSuite WorldLink and WebPAS WorldLink are registered trademarks of VCG, Inc. For more information visit: www.vcgsoftware.com or call 1.800.318.4983
About Trillium Staffing
Michigan-based Trillium Staffing was founded in Battle Creek in 1984 by CEO Rene Poch. Over time their employment service portfolio has grown from a commercial employment agency with one office and two employees into seven lines of business with sixty offices across the nation. For more information, click www.trilliumplus.com.