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Employee
Spotlight
Bernice Holtaus
Written by
Cheri Lane, Communication Manager |
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Bernice Holthaus is the Ortivus North America Accounts
Receivable coordinator – manager – guru…you can fill in the blank as to the
specific adjective. If it deals with accounts receivable for the company,
Bernice handles it. I had the great pleasure of sitting down with Bernice to
learn more about her and her role here at Ortivus North America, and I’d
like to share a little of what I learned.
No one is more familiar with this company than Bernice. Whenever someone is
trying to remember “Who was in that role and when?” or “Which office did we
do this in?” Bernice is a likely candidate to field the question. Bernice
has been with the company for 18 years – since October 1987 - when she
started working part-time for Sweet Computer Services (which we’ll refer to
as “Sweet” from here on out). No employee at Ortivus North America has
experienced more company changes than Bernice. From DOS to Windows, from
local drives to networks, from ten employees to over 170, from one office
located in one place to numerous offices located in five different countries
– Bernice has lived through them all. And through it all, Bernice feels that
most of the changes have been positive and that she has grown and benefited
from them.
Bernice’s specific job responsibilities include many too numerous to name,
but revolve mostly around accounts receivable and sales order processing and
collections. Prior to October of 1987, Bernice had stayed home for eighteen
years, raising her three children. Prior to that, she worked in the
auditor’s office in the Winneshiek County Court House. However, an important
element to remember – one we often don’t think about in today’s technical
environment – is that computers had not yet infiltrated every office in
every part of our world. Therefore, when Bernice went to work for Sweet, she
had no previous computer experience. Bernice starting working in DOS, and
then eventually moved to the Window’s environment. Everything she learned
about computers was ‘on-the-job’ – perhaps an ironic story in that a
computer companies’ longest-standing employee came to the company with no
computer experience at all! Bernice was initially hired to perform data
processing for a local business with which Sweet had contracted to do their
accounts payable, payroll and general ledger. She also did the billing for
the local ambulance service using the current Sweet ambulance billing
program at the time, and thus, became the first beta tester for the
software.
Bernice recalls that the office where she first began employment with Sweet
was in the basement of a dentist office, and only ten employees covered the
departments of sales, IT, support, development, marketing and office
administration. As the company grew, Bernice went to full time, working in
the accounts receivable department, where she still works today. When asked
what her most memorable event has been during her time with the company,
Bernice shared the following story:
“Formatting my hard drive early in my employment was a very memorable
experience. ‘Format C’ pops up, and I select ‘Yes’. ‘Are you sure?’ is the
next question, and I again hit ‘Yes’. Blessed be the backups, for we shall
be saved! I have been reminded of this often. The other thing I remember is
‘reboot’ – as that seemed to be the solution to a problem if all else
failed.”
“I have experienced the growth of the company in many ways. I have had the
opportunity to work with many great employees over the years, and they have
helped make my job more enjoyable, as well as developing lasting
friendships. I also value having had the opportunity to work with many of
our customers over the years. I am grateful that I was given the opportunity
to work for this company, as I feel it has been an enjoyable, as well as
rewarding experience.” – Bernice Holthaus
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