Bevan Wistar of Zip City Solutions:

Our first ACC of the Month is Bevan Wistar of Zip City Solutions of Baltimore, MD. Bevan has been an ACC since 1997 and is definitely what we would call an “ACT! Fanatic.” With a team of four other consultants and two support staff, Zip City has built its customer base to over 400 customers, ranging from small office/home office businesses to Fortune 100 companies, with implementations ranging from a handful of users to hundreds. We spent a little time with Bevan to get his take on being affiliated with the ACT! program, why Zip City has been so successful, and his favorite ACT! implementation.

What is your favorite part about being an ACC?

The unique opportunity to sell to salespeople. We are afforded an opportunity to work and socialize with the most gregarious business professionals in every office. It is plain old fun and we get a huge kick out of developing a solution that is going to help them do their job better. We, of course, want to do even more of it.

After asking this question at a recent Zip City staff meeting, we all agree there is no bigger thrill than to effect change as quickly and completely as ACT! allows. There is so much we can do, and it is gratifying to have so many clients who have a committed vision and a mission and allow us to share the ownership of it with them.

On a personal level, I can't help but boast about the unbelievable people I get to work with here at Zip City. I have been blessed by my association with these energetic, talented, and genuinely authentic people. They take ownership of the relationships within our group and with each of our clients. Watching them develop into highly effective business consultants fills me with certain pride.

And, finally, the ACC community is as special a group of professionals as any I have been affiliated with in my career. The camaraderie is to be cherished and the friendships are enduring.

What is it that makes Zip City so successful?

We are sharpshooters, brought into a company looking for top-shelf advice on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of a sales and marketing organization. We are constantly developing and revising our processes and systems to deliver a better client/consultant relationship experience. We work closely with our clients to understand their unique business needs and to develop processes, customizations, and training that will meet the needs of their users.

We work from referrals and fortunately we have built a happy customer base. However, we are moving ahead aggressively to establish a presence "outside the box" and market ourselves as a national consulting firm with great experience in larger, sync-heavy business environments. Building on a great staff, fabulous relationships with other ACCs, acquisition of new partnerships, and a solid system for implementing in phases, Zip City is beginning to see results, outside of traditional referral business.

Key to all of this is that we believe in the product we are customizing and implementing for our customers. We are excited about what we do and can’t wait to make more ACT! fanatics!

What is one of your favorite implementations and why?

I took a poll of our group. Hands-down, the winner was The Washington Post. They had all the great ingredients for a challenging and satisfying project with 235 users, in a 100% synchronization environment, with few automated processes prior to our engagement.