When we entered 2022, many of us in business thought the worst was behind us. The pandemic had seemingly loosened its stranglehold on our everyday life, business was slowly returning to normal, and we all seemed more positive about the year ahead. Unfortunately, that optimism gave way to the reality of inflation, severe supply shortages caused by geo-political issues in Ukraine & China, as well as new strains of COVID and RSV in children. 

Keystroke also felt the effect of tech-sector poaching as about 20% of our staff from almost all our departments were picked off by other tech companies. This forced us to be resourceful, and we hired a number of excellent team members during that stretch that have become central to our business and company culture, this includes two new support team members from Chennai, namely Naga and Albert, as well as Shannon Hawthorne in sales. Joe Mossa also stepped up as he assumed a larger role in customer care & accounts receivable. September also saw the welcome return of Jiakai Zhang, our head of French technical support, who had been off on extended leave since late 2021. 

This year also saw us invest heavily in Qsales & Linktivity. In March we relaunched the Linktivity.net suite of products, while introducing Link2quotes in early spring. This last product in the Linktivity.net suite became so successful, we switched our internal team to it on July 1st, and never looked back. 

Amidst these changes and challenges, a new attitude of work-life balance emerged, and we learned to run a leaner ship. On balance, we're a stronger company and a more cohesive team than we were 12-months ago, and better positioned for the future.

Here is a month-by-month list of the changes we saw in our business, and the products we make and support:

January - March (Q1)

• Qsales starts the new year with new pricing & features
• Keystroke Acquires Effective Business Solutions, LLC 
• Keystroke welcomes TMW Consulting 
• Keystroke celebrates the relaunch of Linktivity with 5-part webinar series 
  • The Linktivity product suite was a huge investment for us, and as the year progressed we switched most of our internal processes to use Linktivity products - especially Link2quotes & Link2forms.
• Shannon Hawthorne joins the Keystroke sales team 
  • After a few months of transition, Shannon has become one of our most reliable producers and won Employee of the Month in November
• Keystroke to launch new online quoting system called Link2quotes
• Naga and Albert joined our support team from Act!, and significantly boosted our ability to support our customers. Naga went on to become our key Qsales person, and Albert has emerged as one of the most technical people on our support team

April - June (Q2)

• Act! issues urgent security alert 
  • This security alert dominated our service focus in the coming months as we had to upgrade almost 2000 accounts to supported versions of Act!, or apply patches to newer versions.
• The new Act! Premium Cloud launches on Wednesday
  • Formerly Act! CRM Classic, the latest technology was rolled into the relaunch of Act! Premium Cloud with literally the best syncing and web experience available
• Teams Editions released for Link2forms and Link2quotes
• Keystroke rebrands to reflect international customer base

July - September (Q3)

• Qsales Classic - Everything old is new again
  • This was big! We realized that after launching the Qsales API, most of our customers wanted a simpler setup, but have all the features of the newer version. The release of a 64-bit version of QuickBooks made this possible, and Qsales Classic was born.
• Keystroke announces the acquisition of Act! Fanatics on LinkedIn
• Keystroke's Support Team welcomes Aspentech's customers
  • Just as we began to wind down from the Spring security alert, we took over the support of all Aspentech customers - on of the largest Diamond partners in North America.
• Act! and Keystroke agree to co-market Qsales for Act!
• Lots of news on program updates from Keystroke

October - December (Q4)

• Act!'s new focus on addons is a harbinger of BIG things to come
  • Keystroke has turned over management of the Act! Addon Store to Act! LLC, believing they can better leverage the wider Act! community to promote addons
• Your time is valuable, and now Link2calendar helps you sell it
• Tell us why you love Act! and earn a chance to win a new iPad
• Exciting new changes to Linktivity on the way
• Qsales Classic to soon support QuickBooks online
  • With most of the world migrating their business apps to the cloud, it was important for us to integrate with QuickBooks online.
• The 50% off Linktivity bundle available until the end of the year 
• Free setup this month with most product purchases

I am reminded of the poignant words offered by one of our customers, David Liebman, who wrote a post this time last year as 2021 was winding down. He wrote of the many things he was thankful for in his life, and reminded me that with each challenge comes the opportunity to show what you're made of. David quoted Aldous Huxley in saying "Experience is not what happens to you, it is what you do with what happens to you".

We certainly have been challenged in many ways over the last few years, but discovering what we're made of is always a valuable exercise. 

Happy New Year!.