The first Sybiz Hall of fame entrant Lynne McGrath from Visionaries!

As our inaugural winner of the Sybiz Hall of Fame, we’re proud to introduce Lynne McGrath, founding member of Visionaries, one of Sybiz softwares most awarded companies.

A furious evangelist and champion of the Sybiz brand, and a powerful “can do” business analyst, Lynne’s Hall of Fame achievement will set a very high standard for all future Hall of Fame winners.

Lynne, the Sybiz community salutes you and thanks you for all of your hard work. Bask in the Sybiz Hall of Fame aura – you deserve it!

You can read Lynne’s own story about her past, present and future in business. Download the pdf by clicking on the image below or scroll down to keep reading.

“Out of adversity comes opportunity” 
Benjamin  Franklin (1706-1790)

In 1978 I was on top of the world when I was chosen for the job position that I had applied for. My dream job would enable me to work with a group of very successful accountants, and whilst doing so, they would assist me in obtaining an accounting degree.

I learned so much, and was able to apply this learning to the variety of clients and accounts that I was to work with. One day I woke up and my dream had ceased. I developed severe RSI, resulting in my right hand being plastered, with subsequent weeks off work. The company I was working for told me that my career was finished, as I couldn’t give them a 100% guarantee that the RSI would not return. “I will show them” I thought, and I secured myself a very interesting job, quite different to my last, and commenced my new role ‘full steam ahead’ and this was the start of it all!

In 1979, I commenced working for a hair dressing products manufacturing company, Leonardo Duconte Pty Ltd, in a very varied role. I would assist in the management as well as the administration of the company. The role would include: product costing, calculations of sales tax on manufactured goods, and all of the company accounting, which included looking after wholesalers, group stores, thousands of salons that spanned all metro areas as well as regional. We had over 4,000 customers and 5 sales reps on the road. It never stopped... I still get exhausted thinking about it.

It became apparent that I either had to have some assistance or computerise. We elected to computerise. My much loved ledger machine and trays of ledger cards would become a thing of the past. I was given the project of evaluating various software packages to find the one that would best suit the company. To cut a long story short, my selection from many software packages, my choice was Sybiz. Sybiz software stood out from the rest with its ease of use and great reporting.

I set to work creating the Chart of Accounts, with over 4,000 debtors broken into groups and regions, then linked to sales reps. The owners, when shown the results incorporating the reports by region and reps, were blown away. Towards the end of implementing the software, I contacted Sybiz support to ask some questions and during the conversation was asked if I had done the implementation myself and on answering ‘yes’ they replied... do you want a job? Little did they know, this had planted a seed in my mind!

In 1981, I decided to leave my much loved job, and start a business of my own. I thought, how good would it be to take the lessons and applications I had learnt from ‘the accountants’ experience, as well as Leonardo Ducontes and do it for myself... and that was the beginning of my further involvement with Sybiz Software. It was made even more special when the owners of Leonardo Duconte’s persisted in wanting me to be involved with their business, so fortuitously they became my first client.

Since my initial involvement with Sybiz in 1979, there have been many, many changes to both the software and the company, in which my involvement has been numerous. I started with the old DOS version with Syrep reporting and Sypay for payroll applications.

As with everything in life, things change, while most changes have been for the better, others haven’t been quite so successful. It’s true to say that there have been some rough times for all involved, and I have certainly been through my own difficult times within the industry, especially around the introduction of GST. This period created issues for many, and as a result of this, my old company Business Accounting Systems and Supplies ceased operations in January 2002. In May 2002 Visionaries commenced, and our journey to date has been nothing short of fantastic.

“When it is dark enough, you can see the stars” 
Ralf Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Since Visionaries commencement in 2002, we have won awards and achievements every year, and I display them all with pride. Every award is special to me, but the very special ones have been:

• No 1 Nationally (Sales) 
• No 1 in Victoria (Sales) 
• No 1 for Customer Service and Support - The 
• Judith Leefson Shield

The Customer Service & Support award is particularly special to me, as we are able to display the shield for 12 months, and I must say, it’s extremely difficult to hand the award to the next recipient. (When the time came, we almost couldn’t ‘find’ it!) We have won this hat trick in both 2004 and 2006. And the pinnacle of my career: the inaugural Hall of Fame award in 2010.

There are many people that deserve recognition for my successes. Visionaries, as well as myself, would not have achieved the success thus far, if not for my loyal and fantastic team. My front line team includes, Monica Boland, Dean Murdock, Ruben Trevisan and Barbara Gaskin. They have shown loyalty tome over many years of good times and not quite so good. They have exceptional knowledge of the Sybiz products, second to none, and collectively, their knowledge would span over 50 years! You can’t get better than that... Thanks team!

They say that behind every good woman is a good man, and I am very lucky as I have one of the best. Len has worked with me for many years, and has supported, encouraged and believed in me in every way. He has enabled me to shine... thanks Len!

My beautiful daughters Kerri and Melinda have shown me support, love and understanding at every level. They tell me how proud they are of me, but I am sure they are only half as proud of me as I am of them... thanks girls!

I would also like to acknowledge the respect and support that is given to me from the team at Sybiz especially from Shane Rollas, Peter Whalley and Ben O’Brien... thanks guys!


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