29 A PARTNERSHIP BUILT ON TRUST CHAPTER TWO templates in Document Vault — a feature that is now available to every Member. “We’re just one little percentage of their [Member base], but we have been heard,” says Johnson. “It keeps us believing in the product that we are working with day in and day out.” In the cooperative model, decisions are based on what works best for Members, who are all equal co-owners. A scanning template may seem insignificant next to paradigm- shifting innovations such as mobile applications and cloud-based computing, but the same concept applies: NISC is guided by the quest to meet Members’ needs, whatever they are. Sometimes the input is formal, such as at an Advisory Committee meeting. Other times, it comes up in a conver- sation between a Member and an NISC employee. No matter how it originates, that connection between the end-user and the technology team produces solutions that work, says Dan Wilbanks, Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Research, Development and Quality. “We’re just the caretaker of their ideas,” he says. “It’s our job to put their ideas into software.” Traditional software companies keep their ideas secret until they are ready to release a product. “That’s not the way we do things,” says Wilbanks. “We involve Members and show them software early and often.” That interaction has shaped the evolution of NISC. The commitment to serving Members led to the biggest moment in its history — the merger of two technology companies into one stronger enterprise that was ready and able to innovate. “We’re just the caretaker of their ideas. It’s our job to put their ideas into software.” — DAN WILBANKS NATIONAL INFORMATION SOLUTIONS COOPERATIVE