A Q&A With Issuetrak's New CEO

Hello everyone. We wanted to take this opportunity to address some changes in leadership we’ve had recently at Issuetrak.

At the end of March 2020, Issuetrak’s founder, Hank Luhring, retired from the company. He had been working tirelessly on growing Issuetrak and building it into the amazing company that it is today for over 25 years. He will still be involved with Issuetrak in various capacities, but will no longer be handling the day-to-day tasks of the CEO position.

Hank has been succeeded by Daniel Flowers, Issuetrak’s former Vice President of DevOps. Dan has been with the company for eight years and throughout that time has proven his dedication to Issuetrak, both the software and the company. We are excited to see where he takes the organization next.

We recently conducted a Q&A with Dan to let him speak a bit about his experience, his goals, and his vision for Issuetrak.

Dan, tell us a little about yourself.

I am originally from the Dallas-Fortworth area (Go Cowboys!), but I‘ve spent the majority of my adult life in Virginia. I am married to the love of my life, Kate, and together we have two beautiful children.

I have had a passion for all things IT since I was a small boy, taking apart all kinds of electronics and reconfiguring them into my own new creations. This love for technology has grown into a love for the field itself, and I feel truly lucky to have made a career out of what I love to do.

I also happen to really enjoy working with people. Having the opportunity to interact with different mindsets, philosophies, and cultures has provided me with invaluable experience when it comes to team building and running a company.

I enjoy working in technology because it is ever-evolving, growing, and challenging its creators to push boundaries and improve. I try to emulate these qualities in my own work ethic. When I am not working, I enjoy quality family time, attending church services, getting a round in on the golf course, camping, traveling, playing video games, and watching football.

What was your role at Issuetrak before stepping in as CEO?

I started my career with Issuetrak in 2012 as a technical support analyst. I built a foundation of product knowledge, support expertise, and fostering customer relationships. A natural progression in my career at Issuetrak led me to the role of IT Admin, and then on to Director of TechOps. As Director of TechOps, I oversaw technical support, Cloud operations, and technical writing. In this role I gained invaluable knowledge about various facets of Issuetrak, which fueled my desire to grow even more.

In 2019 I was promoted to VP of DevOps and acquired the Development Team, the QA Department, and product ownership. All of my previous roles have served as building blocks to establish a firm foundation to which I can proudly say I built from the bottom up -- with plenty of help along the way from my team.

What drew you to the position of CEO?

With each new role I held at Issuetrak, one key "bonus", if you will, was being privy to more information within each department and really having access to the inner workings of our day-to-day operations. Through this, I was able to identify the most important, constant component to Issuetrak's success: the team.

Issuetrak is home to the most hardworking, intelligent, optimistic, contributory, forward-thinking people I have ever had the pleasure to work with. This, coupled with my operations insight, allowed my passion for technology, business acumen, and my vested interest in our product to marry into a driving force that propelled my desire to lead this company into a future of growth and continued success.

Can you describe your management style?

Take care of your people and your business will be successful. I do try to lead by example. I like close interaction with my employees so that I can be an active listener. Hearing the ideas, reviewing the work, and providing the opportunity for employees to be heard and grow is essential to ensuring everyone achieves professional satisfaction. This, in turn, will generate a fantastic product, excellent customer service, and a positive team culture.

I am proof that Issuetrak has and will continue to provide opportunities to its employees to achieve their professional goals. I am excited about the opportunity to help my team members do just that.

What do you think are Issuetrak's biggest strengths as a company?

Our people. Starting from the beginning, this company was founded, cultivated, and grown by Hank through the keen implementation of the right people in the right positions at the right time. Many of our current employees have been with Issuetrak not just for years, but decades.

Our product provides a solution to an issue. Our people provide the life that grows and sustains our product. It is this human element that sets our company above others. We connect with our customers on so many levels and provide superior, intimate working relationships with them to deliver an outstanding product with the small business perk of personalized customer service.

What do you want to improve upon at Issuetrak?

I want to ensure that Issuetrak is continuously delivering value to its customers. Consistently improving features, enhancing the product, and building integrations provides customers with the proper solutions to meet their needs. We are working to develop, test, and deliver upgrades and new product launches at a quicker speed through strategic restructuring within the company.

Speed, however, should not trump quality. We are built on the foundation of only releasing products of the highest echelon, and that will remain a constant. I intend to improve on this mission by further customizing and configuring our upgrades and releases to meet customers' individual needs as they evolve.

What sort of changes do you intend to implement in the next year or so? Any big goals?

Over the next year or two, we’ll be working to offer more options for product integration. This will include Active Directory, ADFS, Salesforce, Slack, PowerBi, and more. In addition, an expanded and improved API will give our customers the opportunity to build their own interactions.

Increasing product security and providing security features, such as multi-factor authentication, is a priority as well to stay a step ahead in the evolving global technology environment.

We are also placing a greater emphasis on transparency when it comes to our goals for the product. We have recently launched a Product Roadmap on our website that provides a look at what’s next for our development team. Though details are subject to change, this will provide a good, “big picture” view of what we have coming down the line in terms of product updates.

(A link to the Product Roadmap: https://issuetrak.com/product-roadmap)

Do you have anything else you want to say to our customers?

Thank you. We look forward to continuously reinventing our product to meet your changing needs. When Issuetrak products reduce static in your daily operations, your renewed clarity will allow your business to run more efficiently.

We take pride in solving problems and promoting the success of our customers. Thank you for the opportunity to service your needs, improve your business, and build symbiotic relationships that grow alongside our mutual achievements.