This time I visited our branch office in Tokyo. My last visit was three years ago when our office just opened. We spent a great portion of our time working the website, customized CRM solutions and other support issues. I also met with one of our largest dealers. I have to say from a week of observation that the Japanese people are some of the hardest working and most professional people on the planet! I look forward to my next visit, and to success with the projects we’re now working together on.

I recently spent a couple weeks in San Francisco for two separate conferences. I’m thrilled to be home but the time was very productive.

itSMF Conference:  My first week was spent covering ITIL - the Information Technology Infrastructure Library. This is a globally recognized collection of Best Practices for IT Management.  With me was our ITIL Team – ITSM / IT Operations Senior Manager, Service Desk Manager, Change Manager, and Problem Manager. We participated in three days of courses and sharing experiences with other companies classes and sharing from other companies at varying stages of ITIL adoption. Notables included Toyota on Lean and Continuous Improvement processes applied to ITIL,  Barclays Global Investors on IT Budgeting and Costing, InfoGraphics for complex training illustrations, and many others. On Thursday we took a cram course and subsequently passed our fundamentals certification tests for the next major revision, ITIL V3. This is said to be the last “major” change – incremental refinements are expected going forth.

Oracle OpenWorld: My second week again in San Francisco was with our Oracle Apps Senior Managerfor this annual conference. With Oracle’s acquisitions of the last few years, they are now the world’s largest Enterprise Software company – and this meeting is insanely huge – fifty THOUSAND people. One of the great advantages however is the opportunity to rub shoulders and have conversations with many other customers, key consultants, as especially Oracle management. A great time to voice concerns, discover direction, and find solutions. Our plans for 2009 at Ultradent have changed based on some of these conversations, including chats with two separate Oracle vice-presidents and a key Oracle Product Manager. Interactions like this help us avoid jumping into an upgrade too soon, and are a good reality-check on the efforts we are putting into Business Intelligence and other key projects.

A very busy but productive two weeks!

Remember when email used to be fun?  And the internet was so new and exciting?  I remember when my husband and I first signed up for AOL.  We had this great plan, where we paid a monthly fee and got 3 full hours of internet use PER MONTH!!  I was about the only one in my office that had this service at home, so I felt super cool and advanced.  

 

Another thing I recall around that time was that my friends were very concerned for me because I was buying Christmas gifts “online” and giving these cyber-strangers my credit card number.  And come to think of it, there weren’t even that many companies that sold products online back then.

 

Well, that was the ‘90s.  In 2008, we are still really having fun on the internet—some of us too much—but when it comes to email, especially work-related, we’re not as excited to open up that mail box anymore!

 

The email problem really started getting to me about 7 years ago.  I am the type of person who always has a cluttered desk - stacks of papers here and there, file folders on the floor—I won’t even tell you about my car.  Anyway, I soon realized that I now had an unorganized disaster on my computer, and it was driving me insane!!  I not only had an unkempt physical life, I now had the added burden of an overwhelming mess on my laptop.   If you don’t think this adds stress to your life, think again.

 

At some point, I knew I had to do something to straighten out the situation, so I went to the library and started reading a few books on email management and etiquette.  Most of the concepts were so simple I couldn’t believe I didn’t think of them myself.

 

I highly recommend a book I just read last year, entitled, The Hamster Revolution, by Song, Halsey, and Burress.  I have shared several tips from this book with my Ultradent coworkers, and think many businesses would benefit by implementing some of these concepts.  The main emphasis is managing your email, before it manages YOU!

 

Here are a few quick tips that I started using right away:

1.       Strengthen the subject line.  Always make it clear.  That helps others find the message later if they file it away.  Don’t say “hi” in the subject—even just to a friend.

2.       For super short emails, just write it all in the subject line, then end with EOM (End of Message)*

*Blackberry users will love you for this, I’m sure!

3.       In the subject line, you can also end the title with NRN (No Reply Needed)  That’s for messages that you don’t need any response to from your audience.  Saves a LOT of company time.

4.       Don’t use the Reply-to-All button, unless absolutely necessary.  Reply to the sender only.

 

Whether you are an Ultradent employee, or just trying to organize your personal correspondence, take action now to manage your email.  You will save yourself and your company hours of unnecessary time wasted on the computer if you just get a system into place.  Not only that--you'll feel just like you do right after you clean the garage or basement.

 

Happy Organizing!

  

Inside Ultradent, a new team has been working on continuing to improve our new product development process. Ultradent already had a good process in place that withstands regulatory audits from national and international bodies, but upper management wants to ensure that we continue to develop quality products that are delivered to our market in a timely way and that function the way we intend them to, fulfilling market needs.

The new way of thinking is being developed by a cross-functional team called Delta Force. The proposed organization is shown in the chart below. Our existing organization is represented by the vertical columns. The functional vice presidents are represented by the different shapes at the top of each rectangle, or functional area (marketing, operations, QC, QA, etc.). Within that area, managers and other team members report to the vice president. However, in order to bring new products to market, these different functions need to work smoothly and efficiently together, so that all parts of a new development process are addressed by the experts on the Ultradent team.

The project team leaders, or core team leaders (represented by the shapes at the far left) lead the cross-functional teams to develop new products. We’ve always had these leaders, but the new element is the project controller, who coaches the core team leaders and ensures smooth communication across functional areas. This is the person who will help ensure ALL projects are resourced, and who will help management to understand where resources are going at any given time on new and maintenance projects.

Chart: Cross-functional Project Team Model: 

Tools are being developed and put into use by the Delta Force team to create this more robust product development process, and to strengthen the cross-departmental communication and working relationships. These tools and processes will ensure that Ultradent continues to develop robust, high-quality products that meet all of our customers’ requirements.

Last week, I flew to Atlanta for the 5th Annual Customer Feedback Week. I represented Ultradent in speaking about how we use and collect customer feedback. I always knew Ultradent focused on customer needs, but I didn’t realize the extent to which this is entrenched in the organization until I started putting together this presentation.

One of the more obvious ways we do this is through the Allegiance system, which allows customers to be anonymous while giving us feedback, if they choose. The cool part about it is that since it’s a third-party system, customers can enter their email address, but still maintain their anonymity since the address is masked to us at Ultradent. Then we can respond through the system and take care of the customers’ needs, without them having to reveal their identities. Such an improvement to the anonymous letter, which may bring up excellent points, but which can never be resolved to a customer’s satisfaction since we can’t contact them. Try it out. You can access it through clicking "Contact Us" on our Website or by clicking here. You are, of course, welcome to send compliments as well as complaints. ;)

Then there is our new product development task force, which Dr. Fischer explained so well in his blog a few weeks ago. Everything in product development is focused on making dental “jobs” more efficient, cost-effective, or higher quality. Now, PermaFlo Purple is a product that came out long before this task force was assembled, but I think it perfectly fits the spirit of the new process. Some of the members of Roots thought it would be great if there were a colored composite to indicate the pulpal floor in case of endodontic retreatment. That’s how PermaFlo Purple came about (and in return, we donate a portion of the sales to Roots).

Ah, the Ultradent Elite. They are always so open to sharing ideas with us and we always solicit ideas from them when they come to town. Did you know that it was because of their comments that Ultradent perforated the tray packaging for Opalescence Treswhite Supreme? Now patients can whiten one arch at a time without worrying that the other tray will dry out in the package. We are so lucky to have such inventive minds among our customers and even luckier that they are willing to share.

There were a lot more things I shared at Customer Feedback Week, such as Lynne’s presence on the Dentaltown boards (always so helpful), the customer surveys we send out occasionally (look for more in the future), and our branding research…but this post could get really long, really quickly.

Suffice it to say, I’m so proud to work for a company that cares so much about its customers and not just the bottom line. Do any of you have experiences with my co-workers that reflect this? I’d love for you to post them in reply to this message so we can all pat them on the backs!

We had another great group of Ultradent Elite offices in town last week. Dr. James Jesse and Dr. John Flucke were both there to lecture and we were lucky enough to snag them for some podcasts…video this time!

What total professionals! Both were so gracious and accommodating. We were a little late getting started with the recordings because of a meeting conflict, so Dr. Jesse hung out in R&D and Dr. Flucke “talked shop” with some engineers who were doing some durability testing on an upcoming product (but you’ll just have to guess what it was…my lips are sealed). Also, if we ever do an outtake reel, you’ll see Dr. Flucke having to do multiple takes because a moth kept flying in front of his face. In the end, though, these two doctors produced some excellent episodes for our podcast. You'll love hearing them talk about endo, composites, and light curing technology.  Stay tuned; as soon as Keith (our awesome A.V. guy) gets them edited, we’ll push them out to you…likely with CE credit available.

On the down side, I really wanted to record an audio podcast with two of our conference attendees -- Drs. Schuck and Flack from Minnesota -- but we didn’t finish the video podcasts until too late and I missed them. I was really excited about it because they were going to share some tips about serving patients whose insurance you don't accept. Maybe we can catch them over the phone sometime.

Are any of you passionate enough about a dental-related subject to record a podcast with us? Post your ideas in a reply to this post and we'll hook up!

I work for a healthcare hero…

Ultradent was selected as a Health Care Hero by Utah Business Magazine in the category of corporate achievement  Nominees were selected for excellence, innovation and achievement for health care in Utah.  I know this award holds special significance for Dr. Fischer considering the level of importance he’s placed on Ultradent and The Diversity Foundation’s efforts to give back to the community.  Locally, we’ve partnered with the Sealants for Smiles program to provide oral health education, dental screening and the placement of dental sealants for 2^nd and 6^th grade students in Title 1 schools.  We’re also an underwriter of the National Children’s Oral Health Foundation.  These small but growing non-profit organizations have made great strides towards improving oral health care for the underserved.  I think we need to be reminded of how much one program can make a difference. 

Internally, our HR department has made a tremendous impact by design and implementation of a health program that includes 18 “get healthy” events including a 5k marathon, health fair, and a variety of health and fitness seminars. 

It is rare that you see an organization that actually “walks the talk”.  These achievements stand on their own in representing the type of organization one could call a “hero”.

Last week-end Ultradent hosted a regional Distributor Meeting in Bali, Indonesia…

Quite a nice place to be for a meeting!

This was another stepping stone for the development of Ultradent in our region. One of the great ideas brought up by our genius European partners was a “Marketing Contest”. Each one of our distributors was invited to present his marketing creative artwork, with the opportunity to win a $1000$ check. What a remarkable group of people from around the world, sharing their project with so much passion! Customized T-shirts / catalogues / posters / new sample packaging / advertisements were just a few of the different materials presented.

Our Korean distributor “THEZONWORLD” achieved the breakthrough with an innovative marketing campaign to enlarge his product mix and increase the dentists coming to their booth. The most interesting thing to witness was the real motivation to “move forward”; many of our partners returned to their home country with great ideas to promote Ultradent differently and better!

This meeting wouldn’t have been a success without the involvement of our host Frank at THE MANSION; he truly made us feel like queens and kings: flower necklace on arrival, refreshing serviette, Balinese dancing, local delicacies….

Besides work, we also had some time to discover the Balinese lifestyle. Nowhere else does man live in such harmony with nature. After visiting other islands in Asia, I am struck by how well the Bali people and their culture, blend with the sculptured rice terraces. The ocean breeze, the rich smell of Jasmine flower, Buddha statues and massage was a perfect recipe for a relaxing time.

The theme was "Sharing Success in the Region" and I believe this goal was achieved thanks to all of you who prepared/participated/attended or lectured on that day.

Good stuff!

Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm; it moves stones, it charms brutes. Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity, and truth accomplishes no victories without it. Lytton

As Ultradent's Information Technology VP, you probably expect to hear a lot from me about technology.  It’s hard to shut me up on this once I get started, but this time I’d like to share something more relevant for everyone.
 
This past Monday was our Labor Day Holiday in the United States.  Labor Day started in 1882 in New York City as a "day off for the working citizens." Today, it's often considered as the last chance for travel with the family,  a day of parades, and a day of rest.  For my family, it was a great way to wrap up our family vacation at a beach house in San Diego. My wife, our four children (aged ten, seven, four, and three- months), and some of my wife’s family spent a great week enjoying our children and each other.

When I think of the time I have spent working over the last twenty-nine years at Ultradent, it’s been highly rewarding. I enjoy the people we work with and what we do, I enjoy my industry, and I love seeing our growth.  At times, however, it has had a “cost” in terms of family. Before I was married it was common for me to work two to three days before going home for a shower and some sleep – there was and always is too much to do and not enough time to do it in. After I was married, these habits abated slightly, but not by much. It was during a particularly long and grueling project that my wife finally got thru to me on what I was sacrificing. I couldn’t continue to work on a laptop all evening and thru the night, oblivious to her and our children.
 
During that time, I also heard a great piece of advice from a consultant we were working with. His name was Marcel – we were all working together in the office on Saturday, as usual, and it was his wife’s birthday. After working a few hours, he excused himself very courteously by saying “It’s tougher to get a new family than a new job.”

I still enjoy pulling occasional all-nighters and I know there are many people working at Ultradent who make similar or greater sacrifices from time to time.  It’s amazing how much gets done in the quiet hours of the morning without interruption.  However, I often think of what Marcel said.  My young children are growing and changing so rapidly – an infant’s speech and mannerisms change in mere days, and as a responsible, caring parent, I really NEED to build strong relationships with each of my kids so I can be in a position to help as they mature. Beyond that, I ENJOY it – time with my wife and children is time I will treasure to the day I die, and these relationships are at least as important as any others I’ll ever invest in.  

We’ve added “Life Balance” to our Core Value of “Caring” here at Ultradent.  It can be a tough act to pull off. From time to time we all may slip and “fall.”  At the end of the day we’re only human, but we must keep trying.

Are there ways you’ve found to keep your life balanced? Favorite vacations, hobbies, and things you do with your family or alone to recharge your batteries and stay balanced with the other passions and work in your life? I’d love to hear from you…

It has been such a pleasure to work for Ultradent Products, Inc. and Dr. Dan Fischer for over 12 years.  Not only does the Ultradent family have outstanding Core Values, but most every employee of this fine company has a "passion" for what they do.  The "passion" we all possess comes from the energy created by our leader, Dr. Dan Fischer.

Dr. Fischer is also a very giving man; a real humanitarian.  He definitely shares the wealth with thousands of humans across the world.

I am fortunate to take that passion and knowledge shared by Dr. Fischer into the dental schools to be absorbed by fabulous faculty members and students alike.  Our future dentists are like sponges soaking up all they can to prepare for their future of improving oral health globally.  It is so much fun to see them anticipate the arrival of the Ultradent rep bearing samples of great dental products that they will use on their patients, or even better, the Opalescence they will use to whiten their teeth, or perhaps whiten the smile of a family member.  The dental students and professors always express their appreciation of Dr. Fischer's continued support and generosity.

Not only does Dr. Fischer donate product to promote education, but he also donates to the many dental missions that our dental students and dental professors participate in each year.  Tens of thousands of dollars of preventative and restorative products have been donated to these groups traveling to all parts of the world on humanitarian dental trips.  Just to name a few in my territory...

Humanitarian trip by Dr. Eric Sung and GPR residents from UCLA School of Dentistry to Peru
Dr. Brian Novy and dental students from Loma Linda School of Dentistry dental mission to Nicaragua

Dr. Marc Geissberger, Dr. Noelle Santucci, and 40 other doctors and students from University of the Pacific School of Dentistry to Peru

Dr. James O'Meara and students from Creighton University School of Dentistry go to the Dominican Republic

And the list goes on and on, year after year.  I have never heard a no when I ask if we can donate product to these caring groups of dental professionals.  That is such a great feeling, and I personally say "Thank You" Dr. Fischer.

Just think what this world would be like if more people were like Dr. Fischer.  I have been in dentistry my whole adult life...that's a long time.  I have never witnessed such caring, sharing and giving from one man; a great man, a great dentist, a great father, and a great employer.

Thank you Dr. Fischer for every wonderful thing you do, to help so many in need all across this world of ours!  The dental schools thank you as well.  It just doesn't get any better than this.

Victoria