News and Events

BA's Biggest Loser Contest Names a Winner, er, Loser

Something happens to us when we hear the word diet. Our knees start to shake. Our palms start to sweat. We think to ourselves, is cheesecake considered one of the four food groups?

But for BA employees, the dichotomy of diet and exercise was a challenge they were willing to face waist on.

It all began February 1, 2007 when many of Buchanan Associates’ employees began the race to become the first BA Biggest Loser. After only five weeks into the contest, the competing participants shed a combined weight of a whopping 498 pounds!

Twelve teams competed in the contest, each having their own coach to help encourage and keep them accountable for their weekly weigh-ins. At the end of the competition, two Biggest Losers were proclaimed for (1) the highest amount of pounds lost and (2) the highest percentage of body weight lost. Both winners were awarded a $500 prize. The eight regional winners and Top Coach received a $50 prize.

Congratulations, Losers, on tipping the scales and looking fabulous! Maybe now we can talk to Jim about a prize for the first employee who can present scientific proof that cheesecake really is considered one of the four food groups.

ISC Uses Curve Appeal to Expand Client Base

First quarter of 2007 was an exciting one for the ISC. On the sales side of the business, we have a few hot opportunities that are currently being pursued including a deal with Curves to support their centralized workout management system that was developed by our own Application Development Practice located in Toronto. Initially, it will roll out to 2,000 sites with a potential saturation of nearly 10,000 locations. This by far would be the largest deal for the ISC to date. We have also gone through final negotiations with AAFES on a $1.4M/yr opportunity to serve as their POS (Point of Sale) help desk, complementing our recent application development and maintenance win. Additionally, with the acquisition of Tekelec’s switching division, we very rapidly landed and implemented their helpdesk with the acquiring company, Genband. Amazingly we went from the proposal stage to “go live” in only three weeks. Finally, we expect to be a strong candidate for the Dallas County help desk RFQ that was recently released. If won, we would support more than 2,500 users around the clock for nearly a million dollars a year. Overall, 2007 is expected to be a very exciting year for the ISC with staffing and revenue growths expected to more than double.

We have also begun a quality improvement initiative that includes enhancements of our Socrates Knowledge Management System that will benefit both our agents as well as our clients by offering customer facing knowledge bases and FAQs. Additionally, in an effort to improve agent training, we have our minds set on having BA’s own Learning Management System, Apollo, implemented for our larger clients by the end of second quarter. These efforts combined with previous quality improvements have already been noted across existing accounts which would not be possible without an outstanding ISC team! Special thanks to the Team Supervisors: Jeff Axt, Anthony Batler, Kenneth Huizenga and Jesse James for making the ISC continue to be an integral part of BA.

-Sean Kirby