Vol. 2, No. 5 • March 30, 2007
The ties that bind
Helvi Sandvik
NDC President
There’s nothing more important than family. It is through these relationships that we share goals and values, make long-term commitments to each other, and share the economic benefits that come from working toward a common goal. In addition to our personal, nuclear families, as NANA employees, we are fortunate to also have our extended business family. Although each company operates independently, and we are encouraged to make individual contributions and are rewarded for our personal accomplishments, our ultimate success comes from the common thread by which we are all woven: improving the quality of life for our shareholders.
For those of us who have been part of the NANA family for many years, we know that this is not empty corporate rhetoric. Our tenure is testimony to that. For those of you who are relatively new to the NANA family, I encourage you to invest time getting to know the other members and businesses that are becoming part of your professional heritage. The more you know, the more you will recognize opportunities to work together on projects, and share knowledge and ideas for growing the company you work for, and the more connected you will feel to your job. Because at the end of the day, it’s all about family.
A work in progress
The company-wide conversion to Deltek Costpoint®—software designed specifically for project-driven companies—continues to be a challenging and rewarding work in progress. Ultimately, the entire family of NANA companies will operate from this “common platform.” The implementation takes place in different phases: some companies are currently online, while others prepare to go live according to the established timeline. According to Project Manager Brad Osborne, one of the biggest challenges since the conversion was undertaken is that the corporation has quickly grown from 2,500 employees to almost 6,000, and those who are responsible for overseeing the change are, at the same time, managing a substantially increased workload.
Costpoint tracks, manages and reports on every aspect of a project business, including budgets, schedules, expenses, purchasing, indirect cost allocation, billing, revenue recognition, profitability, business performance and regulatory compliance. This allows businesses to have control over all aspect of operations, improving performance management, streamlining operations and allowing more time for new business development.
Currently, the project team is adding two new products that can be shared across companies: COBRA, an earned value management system that measures progress objectively, and Cyber Recruiter®, a web-based recruiting tool for Human Resources. NANA/Colt is online with COBRA and 50 percent of NANA companies have implemented Cyber Recruiter.
You don’t look a day over 44
DOWL Engineers is turning 45! To celebrate, there will be an open house on Thursday, April 12th from 4:30-6:30 p.m. in Anchorage. The company also has offices in Redmond, Washington; and Tucson, Arizona.
Welcome to the Hotel Arizona
DOWL Engineers’ Tucson, Arizona office is providing services in support of the Hotel Arizona expansion in downtown Tucson. This 900,000 square-foot mixed-use renovation includes two additional hotels, residence towers, retail space and a 2,000-car parking facility. The work requires American Land Title Association (ALTA) and topographic surveys, re-zoning, a traffic impact analysis and engineering, and site development engineering. DOWL recently completed the engineering study phase of the project and will move forward with Phase I design this year.
NANA employees pull together for Bean’s Café
NANA employees have been serving breakfast monthly at Bean’s Café in Anchorage for more than 10 years. Here is a photo from last week at Bean’s Café. Right to left: Clarence Snyder of NDC, John of Bean’s Café, Amy Massey of NANA Management Services, and Carl, also with Bean’s Café.
Res2007
ASCG booth at Res2007 conference
Meeting and greeting at the Res 2007 conference. From left: Steve Cammack of NANA Services, NDC board members Dood Lincoln and Lester Hadley; Jonathan Widdis of Akmaaq.
Seven NANA companies—ASCG, Akmaaq, Akima, KPSG, Qivliq, NANA Services and NANA Management Services (NMS) Lodging—were in Las Vegas earlier this month to participate in Res2007, the longest running business and trade fair in the United States, organized annually by the Mesa, Arizona-based National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development, or NCAIED. The four-day event is attended by 2,500 people and allows attendees to share their capabilities directly with federal procurement officers and corporate America representatives looking for information technology, construction and engineering service providers. NMS Lodging and NANA Services hosted hospitality suites and NANA Development Corporation Board members Lester Hadley, Dood Lincoln, Robbie Kirk and Henry Horner attended to meet potential customers. This year's conference focused on creating sustainable economies.
Mary P. Quin, President, NANA Management Services
Mary Quin, and her partner Ray Kaufman, with a fallow buck Mary hunted in New Zealand.
Riding the floor cleaners.
Responsible for the performance and growth of NANA Management Services (NMS), Mary P. Quin says the thing she enjoys most about her job is the variety of issues she encounters in a typical week, as she leads the company to provide support services to statewide Alaska businesses and institutions in food and facilities management, camp services, security, hotel management and workforce solutions.
“There is always something new and interesting happening,” she says. “I also enjoy working with a great organization of people who really care about the company and each other.”
Before joining the company two years ago, Quin worked for big corporations such as Xerox and Kodak, as well as start-up companies, in research and development, marketing, sales, product development and strategy functions before growing into management. She also has governance experience, and has served on the boards of directors for companies and non-profits. Her extensive education includes earning a Bachelor’s of Science in Physics in New Zealand—where she grew up as one of nine children—a PhD in Engineering at Northwestern in Illinois, then after working for five years, completing her MBA at the Harvard Business School.
As NANA continues its trend toward operating as a holding company, Quin says NMS is following a path to greater self-sufficiency. Over the past two years, the company has taken on responsibility for its own human resources, finance and payroll, and has plans to also roll IT and safety into the company. She also wants to continue to pursue opportunities outside of Alaska. Currently, NMS is expanding the Security Division into California and Wyoming. Quin is also looking at hotel management opportunities in several Outside markets. Long-term plans include growing NMS to become a nationwide supplier of management and support services.
“I am always driven toward a vision of what the company could become—the new services we could add, new markets to enter, and ways to achieve best practices in every part of our operations,” she says.
When she’s not working, Quin enjoys learning about other cultures by traveling to different countries. “Those experiences helped me see that there are many different ways to get things done and that it is important to include people with diverse backgrounds on any team,” she says. She also enjoys hunting, fishing and exploring Prince William Sound with her partner Ray.
Everybody Freeze!
An Excel Tip
Worksheets often develop to the point where they cannot be seen in their entirety on screen, and column and row headings are out of sight, making it difficult to know whether you are working in the correct column or row. The solution: freeze your headings. Here’s how: select a cell to the right of the row, or just below the column, that contains your headings. Then go to “window” and “freeze panes” and the rows to the left, and the columns above the cells you selected before freezing your headings, will remain on screen regardless of how far down or right you scroll. To turn this feature off, go back to “window” then “unfreeze panes.”