Tom Pilkington, Director of Sales, Tazworks

Grab a latte and pull up a chair and join us for a great interview with Tom Pilkington, Director of Sales, Tazworks

Prior to moving to the background screening industry in 2000 Tom worked for the renown Franklin Covey and its predecessor Franlin Quest, selling productivity training. As an aside for those of you don’t know, Franklin Covey was the home of Stephen Covey’s infamous and wildly successful book ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ which morphed into numerous other books and training programs.

Tom shared that when he was approached about an opportunity in the background screening industry he recognize an opportunity to work with a great group of people and get into a burgeoning marketplace.

He has enjoyed the changing and challenging aspects of the industry and the opportunity to meet and work with many great people.

Changing the focus to the business Tom shared that the mission of Tazwors is ‘To create the most simple, powerful software in the industry.’

To this end, Tom shared that Tazworks has recently finished updating their technology stack for performance, reliability and scalability. He said their next projects include updating all of our functionality and features one at a time.

The initial areas they are working on are ordering, drug screening and compliance. He noted that the enhancements they have in store for ordering are significant advances. It will be incredibly simple and easy for end users to place and process orders quickly and efficiently.

Talking further about the company he added thatTazWorks is the largest, most sophisticated platform in the industry. He said, “We have become the dominant player in the industry at a time when screening agencies need a sophisticated software solution. We have the resources to accomplish that.”

He added, “With so much focus on the system itself, many people overlook what a great place this is to work. Barton and Scott have created a company culture that focuses around our customers. Our success is manifested in the growth of our clients making our customer service team second to none! We have an entire team dedicated to providing support and helping our CRAs remain successful in their processes. While other software providers might hand you a user manual, we take the time to onboard and train every screening agency and answer the phones with a trained TazWorks representative. When you ask a TazWorks client why they love us, our white-glove customer service is always at the top of the list.”

Moving the discussion to my favorite question about what the future foretells, Tom pondered for a moment and said, “Companies that don’t stay up to date on their technology and workflows will become irrelevant. In an ever-evolving industry, unsophisticated software providers will either be acquired or disappear.”

Turning the dialogue back to him personally, Tom shared that he had recently read ‘Murder & Scandal in Prohibition Portland,’ by JD Chandler and Theresa Griffin Kennedy.

The person he would most like to meet is Norman Borlaug. [Norman Ernest Borlaug was an American biologist, humanitarian and Nobel laureate who took up an agricultural research position in Mexico, where he developed semi-dwarf, high-yield, disease-resistant wheat varieties. During the mid-20th century, Borlaug led the introduction of these high-yielding varieties combined with modern agricultural production techniques to Mexico, Pakistan, and India. As a result, Mexico became a net exporter of wheat by 1963. Between 1965 and 1970, wheat yields nearly doubled in Pakistan and India, greatly improving the food security in those nations. These collective increases in yield have been labeled the Green Revolution, and Borlaug is often credited with saving over a billion people worldwide from starvation.[He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 in recognition of his contributions to world peace through increasing food supply.]

Before ending the interview Tom shared his favorite quote, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.” – Abraham Lincoln. Amen to that!

Thanks to Tom for a very interesting and informative interview. Tom can be reached at 801-572-7401 or sales@tazworks.com.