Turning Vendors Into Partners

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He didn’t realize he’d be getting much more than an accountant when he hired Skoda Minotti, a 120-person accounting and consulting firm. Joseph picked Ken Haffey—one of Skoda’s 10 partners—because he sensed in Haffey the same hustle he himself had. What he quickly found was that Haffey was good at two things: seeing the entire financial picture of his business and staying in touch.

Haffey has plenty of big clients and spends long stretches on the road working on mergers and acquisitions. Still, he lavishes attention on ASI, which has just 15 employees. “I got an e-mail from him once at 3:50 a.m,” Joseph says. That kind of responsiveness means Joseph now feels comfortable turning to Haffey for advice on strategic planning, benefits programs, even on keeping his PCs running smoothly. If Haffey can’t fix it himself, he usually knows someone who can. “For all intents and purposes, Ken’s my CFO,” Joseph says. “I rely on him that much.”

According to Haffey, being available to all clients—at all times and on all issues—is part of the Skoda Minotti culture. “Customers are our second most valuable asset,” Haffey says. Employees are the first, and they must meet high standards. The firm does situation training for its CPAs, dealing with such questions as what to do if a client calls and you’re supposed to have a meeting with a partner (ditch the partner; call the client); what to do if a client calls at 4 p.m. on a Friday (call back before you go home); and how many times a CPA should meet face-to-face with each client for something that isn’t strictly business (at least once a quarter). The firm requires that CPAs respond to clients within half a day, insists they go over tax returns and financial statements in person (unless the client asks otherwise), and even asks them to sit down and write a note to clients once a year. “Ken Haffey is a wonderful guy,” says Joseph. “But if Skoda Minotti didn’t have the culture to let him do what he does, it wouldn’t matter.”

5. How hungry are you?

Steven Mullins was fed up. The CFO and COO of Secure Elements, a 40-person network security software developer in Herndon, Va., needed to get his company’s 401(k) program up and running—and he needed to do it fast. Secure Elements was on a major talent hunt, and it’s tougher to attract worthwhile people without a solid retirement plan in place. When it was founded in early 2003, Secure Elements had outsourced all of its HR functions to a $1 billion HR outsourcer in Houston. The idea was that it would get better service cheaper than hiring someone in-house.

But the provider seemed incapable of dealing with the unique financial needs of a start-up. In fact, before it could complete the 401(k), the provider demanded that Mullins produce documents showing that the retirement program wasn’t being set up for the benefit of the company’s venture capitalists and their investors—that is, people not on Secure Elements’ payroll. Doing so, an auditor told him, would cost $25,000. And that wasn’t the only problem. Secure Elements staffers also found themselves doing things the company expected its HR provider to do, like getting accurate information on available vacation time.

Customer service representatives at the large company were responsive, Mullins says, “but the same problems continued to occur.” He didn’t think he should have to work so hard to get them fixed. As he began researching other providers, he received a timely cold call from someone at a company called TriNet, a 215-person HR outsourcer based in San Leandro, Calif., that works primarily for high-tech companies. TriNet quickly became the leading contender for Secure Elements’ business. The company seemed particularly on the ball, with the right answers to all of his questions. But so did plenty of other providers. What clinched it for Mullins was the fact that TriNet seemed hungry to make his company a customer. “Everyone will tell you that their customer service is better than the others’,” Mullins says. “But TriNet was very aggressive about wanting our business.”

It didn’t hurt that TriNet seemed attuned to the needs of his employees. It was also a plus that TriNet didn’t want payroll funds as far in advance as its competitors did. After about six months of due diligence and learning about TriNet’s benefits plans, Mullins felt comfortable making the switch.

“We have intimate knowledge of what our customers have to deal with. That’s our secret weapon.” Martin Babinec, founder and CEO, TriNet

Once it got the account, TriNet didn’t lose its hunger. Martin Babinec, the company’s founder and CEO, works hard to get out in front of clients’ issues before they become problems. “We have intimate knowledge of what our customers have to deal with at a particular stage in their life cycle,” he says. “That’s our secret weapon. People are moving at a fast pace. All they know is we’re responsible.” TriNet was able to take care of the 401(k) plan. The cost to Secure Elements: $1,000. TriNet also took over negotiating health care benefits, and secured better rates by lumping its small clients’ employees together into one large pool.

All of that was to be expected. But Mullins was stunned when TriNet jumped in to help with some problems a new employee was having. The employee had an outstanding claim on the insurer at his former employer; it came back denied after he had started at Secure Elements. Even though the case occurred at another company, TriNet handled the issue and ultimately resolved it in the employee’s favor. “They took care of it,” says Mullins. “The large companies we deal with don’t go the extra mile for us. TriNet clearly has.”

Michael Fitzgerald is a freelance writer in Millis, Mass. Staff reporter Darren Dahl contributed to this story.