Issue link: http://www.insightdigital.biz/i/355934
26 | I nsIgh t • A u g u s t 2 0 14 w w w . i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m online: Click to hear Gail Ondresky, president and CEO, discuss the importance of innovation in helping Omni and its clients meet their business goals. She also explains the power of the whiteboard. As the solutions group has grown, it has created its own roadmap to innovation, breaking the process down into four distinct segments: ideation, technology design, planning and execution. By knowing where a client is in the process, the staff at Omni can better understand what resources are needed and provide them more efficiently for clients, Lang says. Omni may work from ideation to execution phase, or simply assist with any one of the phases for a client. For Omni itself, the process is continual. "ere is always more to come," Ondresky says. "You don't do it once and stop." hot opportunity M iller Electric Manufacturing's search for a better way to deliver valuable performance data from its power supplies and welding equipment prompted the company to begin discussions with Omni's solutions group in late 2011. Instead, Omni went through a major internal change that expedited its change in focus: the original owners, Robert and Veronica Mueller, retired and sold the company to the employees though an Employee stock Option Program. now, everyone had a stake in the company's success. "I would say the EsOP experience has given us a definite leg up," says Brent Otto, the company's controller and EsOP administrator. "I would say the enthusiasm level has certainly increased and the solutions group has been a major driver of that." It didn't go smoothly from the start. For Omni, 2009 was one of the worst years in its history as the economy bottomed out and the company transformed itself internally. at transformation was a two-fold process: the redefinition of the company as a solution provider with a group of employees dedicated to those projects, and the development of the "Omni Innovation Process." Innovation defined F ive years later, the solutions group numbers 50 employees in the Appleton office, and has been expanded on a smaller scale in the Milwaukee and Madison offices, with 10 and 6, respectively. In its first year of operation, the group accounted for 5 percent of the company's revenue when compared to the It staffing. at's now 30 percent, and the company expects to derive 50 percent of all revenues from its solutions group in two years. sales for Omni Resources exceed $20 million annually. "staffing will always be part of our core business, and we have oen benefited from having our foot in the door through staffing," Ondresky says. "But within two years the solutions group will be at least half of our business. It's an area of great growth." '' A lot of IT partners struggle to go from the vision to what it means in practical business terms. What was great about working with Omni was that they were really good at understanding our business goals and making sure the solution met them.'' James Young, Spring-Green Lawn Care Corp.