Jan Konn, president of teksoft ventures, inc., a business applications training organization, is a busy woman. “I work off a to-do list,” she told The Suit. “Today I have three hours of conference calls scheduled. I just got back from the UK. Tonight I’ll be flying to Atlanta to meet with one of the Big Four consulting organizations.”

To many people, such a packed schedule would seem daunting. But for Konn, squeezing in three-hour phone calls between international commutes is merely part of her day-to-day routine. As the head of teksoft, she hires the people who provide SAP training to some of the largest corporations in the world, including Deere and Company and K-SWISS, Inc. And she does it all from a virtual office. Simply put, Konn is a woman on the move.

In 2001, teksoft ventures was born with Konn at the helm. “We started as a company of one,” she said. “We were undercapitalized, and we just grew it the old-fashioned way, which was working hard and growing slowly.”

Since then, teksoft has grown into a multimillion-dollar company.

There are three reasons, says Konn, why teksoft is superior to others who provide the same service. “First of all, we care.” Because of their high level of customer satisfaction, 74 percent of teksoft’s clientele is repeat business.

“Secondly, we have fun,” added Konn. Not only does the president strive for a pleasurable working environment with the clients, she does the same for employees. “We’ll have contests to promote employee participation—a gift card, or a vacation. There’s a lot of recognition,” she said. “We set high expectations. We want our folks to think through situations, and if someone makes the wrong decision we ask them what they learned.”

Finally, teksoft is project-focused and team-based. No one is bigger than the team—not even Konn.

It is that same team-centered thinking that is seeing the company through the recession. Whereas other training companies are cutting costs through outsourcing, teksoft uses a double-sided approach to reduce costs. The business offers great growth potential to young entry-level employees and mentors these “go-getters,” using their seasoned consultants for knowledge transfer. This provides teksoft clients with excellent customer service, without requiring the company to manage overseas resources. Konn’s team also prides itself on “deliverable-based engagements,” or letting the client know what they’re getting before they are issued a price.

The formula works. Besides training mid-market businesses in SAP applications, teksoft educates Fortune 50 businesses like McKesson, the largest pharmaceutical distributor in the world.

Even with all of this success, Konn has even bigger goals for her company. “We just signed a contract with an organization that I think is going to double our revenues next year,” she said. “We strive to be the premiere education organization for companies to enable their productivity.”

www.teksoftventures.com