Musings on Management – Calculating the real impact of your business
Ever wondered how many different types of businesses your product or service supports? Our Operations Director, Tom Shields, got a pleasant surprise when he did some research into our own Pimbrook customer base.
I’m not entirely sure why I recently became preoccupied with the notion of how many different types of business we support, and the indirect impact we have on countless different facets of Irish life.
Maybe I’ve become more contemplative since celebrating a milestone birthday recently (I’ll give you a clue, it had a zero and a five in it!). Or maybe it’s to do with the fact that during a discussion on a customer issue with some of our support team here in Pimbrook, I happened to ask what line of business the customer was in. “Coffin makers” came the surprising reply.
This is certainly not a common industry, so when it popped up like this it gave me cause for reflection. I did some quick research on the countless different industries that we service – and came up with a surprising and very pleasing conclusion!
The fact of the matter is that we deal with businesses that have an equally important role to play in the life of the communities that we serve. We’re there at birth, for example, in the form of maternity hospitals that we count among our customers.
And when those bonnie babies grow up a little, we’re there again as part of their early childhood by servicing countless creches right throughout the country.
When they graduate into formal State education, we’re on hand once more by providing software support to many of the nation’s primary and secondary schools. And when it comes to third level education, we count a host of colleges and universities among our customer base.
Once these young people move into the workforce, it’s almost inevitable that they’ll come across Pimbrook at some stage in their professional lives, as we have over 1,500 customers spread across a wide range of industry sectors and company sizes.
Moving on thirty or forty years, these young workers come to the retirement phase of their lives, and we’re still part of their world as we support numerous pension providers within the financial services sector.
And as old age eventually starts to take its inevitable toll, we’re there still as we have a significant number of nursing homes on our client list. And when the time eventually comes to shuffle off this mortal coil, our friends the coffin makers are there to complete the great circle of life.
This thought pleased me enormously, and it was genuinely gratifying to see in such a clear fashion how our endeavours are not just confined to the profit motive, but that we play an important role in the entire lifecycle of the nation.
We’re also on hand when people hit various medical challenges through our relationship with hospitals and medical practitioners of various hues. And to promote positive health and vitality, we also have clients in the sport and leisure industries, as well as hundreds of diverse clubs and societies that contribute so much to the enjoyment of our broader community.
And depending on your religious beliefs, it can even be argued that we are also linked to the afterlife via the churches, convents and religious orders that we service.
I fully understand, of course, that anyone running an organisation needs to ensure it remains viable – and this requires careful consideration of revenue, costs and ultimately profit. However, it was deeply heartening to think that there are companies out there who are not just about the balance sheet, but add significantly to many aspects of everyday life.
It might be an interesting exercise for you to see how many aspects of Irish life your own business affects. I hope you’ll be as pleasantly surprised as I was. I also hope that all our fantastic customers continue to contribute so richly to their communities – though hopefully I won’t be calling on all of them just yet (with all due respect to our coffin-making friends!).
About Us
Pimbrook Software is the go to company when it comes to solving the most demanding accounting and payroll challenges of our clients. We are the acknowledged industry leaders in the area of Sage Accounting & Payroll Software being named ‘Sage Partner of the Year 2018’ and ‘Sage 50 Irish Business Partner of the Year’ for four consecutive years.
We have staked our reputation for excellence on the level of support we provide across our entire product portfolio. Sage 50 Support is something we’re particularly proud of, and we take enormous pride in the positive feedback we receive from clients who have called on us for support or training.
As an SME ourselves, we have a particular understanding of the needs of our fellow SME’s. This is why we insist on such high standards when it comes to rapid turnaround and the strictest adherence to both timelines and budgets.
We have invested heavily in our staff in recent years, and we believe that this has paid rich dividends in the levels of professionalism and sheer value for money that we can offer our clients.
If you’d like to know more, why not contact us today for an absolutely no-obligation chat? It will cost you absolutely nothing – but could make a massive difference to your business!
