Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Boost Your ERP podcast. Today we have on Jenny Hoffman from accountingdepartmentcom. As with all of our podcasts, this really is designed for you, as Nesweet users, to have insight to our Nesweet ecosystem, the different processes that people use, best practices, things like that. We've dealt with accountingdepartmentcom. We've had shared customers and we've had great experiences. Today we wanted to bring on Jenny to really talk about what her view is from the accounting side when it comes to Nesweet and that. Welcome, jenny. Welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:40

Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: 0:43

Let's get started with just a little bit about you. Why don't you just give a little background about yourself first, and then about accountingdepartmentcom? Sure Love to.

Speaker 2: 0:53

I live about 30 miles southwest of Chicago. I grew up in Southeast Wisconsin and pretty much stayed in this whole area my entire life. I went to college at Northern Illinois University. That's where I graduated from and received my CPA from there shortly afterwards.

Speaker 1: 1:12

Oh, cool, cool. So you're Husky. Is that Husky?

Speaker 2: 1:16

Yeah, at the time we're not very good in football, but they've reclaimed that, yeah, great little program there. We proud now.

Speaker 1: 1:23

Yeah, cool. So how about accountingdepartmentcom? Tell me a little bit about them.

Speaker 2: 1:28

Yeah, So I've been with accountingdepartmentcom now for about 11 years. We started out as a Quick Book Shop So we did business outsourcing, So mostly your bookkeeping and controller outsourcing services And in the last two, three years we decided to go into Nesweet and really open up our opportunities to work with clients that have ERP systems, larger systems and just Quick Books.

Speaker 1: 1:55

Got it Cool. So how did you get into the industry? How did you like one get into accountingdepartmentcom? How'd you get into being a? Tell me a little bit about that.

Speaker 2: 2:06

It's actually funny because I, If you know knowing me, I went to college actually to be in marketing, which is actually really funny. So I was at Northern and one of my really close friends was in the accounting program And to be anything in business you have to take accounting And as an undergrad, And so she had to take the accounting qualifying exam to get into the accounting program And so I said I would help her. I had two years of accounting from high school. So, we studied together and I helped her and we took the test together and I passed it when a lot of people didn't, and I thought, well, maybe that's what I should be doing. I really enjoy it and I like actually like teaching it, and so I changed my major to accounting after that.

Speaker 1: 2:47

Oh I can say there's probably not a lot of people that went from marketing to accounting and did that successfully.

Speaker 2: 2:54

It was a great high school and college was marketing. But you never get to see in marketing.

Speaker 1: 3:01

So what did you do after college then? So you get into accounting and go in. So tell me about that. What did you do then?

Speaker 2: 3:07

Yeah, finished up, went, like a lot of people do, straight to public accounting. They kind of groom you for that.

Speaker 1: 3:13

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:14

And I was in public accounting for about nine years And then decided I didn't want to be a partner in a public accounting firm That just wasn't for me And went to work for an industry and for a privately owned company and with their controller for seven years And it was. I wish I already had the experience to work like in a business before they're auditing a business, because I learned so much more about how a business operates And then just coming in and doing an audit And then after about seven years of that I was starting to get bored because it's the same thing every day.

Speaker 1: 3:48

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:49

I liked a lot of the aspects of public accounting.

Speaker 1: 3:51

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:52

Of meeting new people, being in different places, and so I found accountingdepartmentcom and it was like it was literally a perfect match for me, because I had my accounting background. I'm able to utilize that, challenged with different industries, different clients, and it's something different every day. So while it's still accounting, it's every day can be different.

Speaker 1: 4:15

So, going back to, I'm curious. So what did you learn being a public accountant? What did you take away from there?

Speaker 2: 4:23

Honestly, the confidence is a piece of that, because you're in somewhere different. You really don't know. Yeah, you know accounting rules, but you don't know how it actually all works in real life until you go in. And one of the biggest takeaways, honestly, for me from public accounting I had a partner I worked with a lot. And we were in a client one day And we were going over their end of engagement results and talking to them about the findings and going through the reports And he was the partner that was like a third year And, as he's telling them things, they kept looking to me like looking for that head mad, looking for that insurance. I could tell when they didn't understand something and I would try to like rephrase it to something that they could understand. And when we left, the partner pulled me aside and said don't lose that. And I was like, lose what He's like you relate to people. And he goes your that skill set will serve you well. And he's like so don't be afraid to like be that relatable with people. And so that was probably out of my whole experience there, because it is hard in public accounting, very demanding, but I always went into engagements where I got to know the people that I was working with.

Speaker 1: 5:36

Yeah, and I spent a couple of years at an accounting firm early part of my career And the one thing I took away from it is learning the language of business. When you work in an accounting firm, a public account and it's the business of business and just understanding so much and the value and there's great value in public accounts and just knowing that detail of business And when you get that right partner or the right account that you're working with that and understand that business and apply that and really have that bridge between those two worlds, that's really, it's really valuable, such a great relationship when you get that built up, so that's really cool. So so you did the public and went to be a controller. What did you learn as a controller?

Speaker 2: 6:31

There was a whole lot more about running a business than accounting.

Speaker 1: 6:35

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:36

So I as the. it was a small company, so I was responsible for not just accounting but HR in some facilities, and so I learned a lot about, before you recording an invoice, what goes into that, what happened before that, that occurred, collections, making those hard decisions about when there's seasonality in a business or when that big project that we thought we were gonna get we didn't get. How did we adapt and how do you pivot from that? So, it was. I learned a ton being there. It was probably, on experience-wise, more beneficial probably than public accounting. If I could have flipped them, it probably would have meant more.

Speaker 1: 7:19

Yeah, that totally makes sense, Cause also then as a controller with a public account and dealing with a controller, you're just focusing on finances. As a controller, you're being forced to interact with every department and how to interact with each department and personalities within as well. So, yeah, so then you go to accountingdepartmentcom. So what was that transition like? What was the first thing that really stood out to you on that?

Speaker 2: 7:46

Well, first it was I mean, i've been here for a long time that there was really an opportunity to work remote and it was real.

Speaker 1: 7:53

You know they had a lot of work from home job back in that time that weren't real.

Speaker 2: 7:59

And we are, because we've always been 100% remote. We're incredibly disciplined. There's a lot of procedures in place for us to be successful, so we have the same messaging, so we communicate. We see things the same way, we name them the same way. So the first thing I noticed was just an abundance of processes. That taught me how important those processes are with pretty much everything you do.

Speaker 1: 8:24

Yeah, yeah. Definitely applicable outside, even of work, but That's super cool And I can see that. You know, and as we've grown as a company, those processes when you're a smaller company you can get away, you know with, but when you just got all of those and different people that are coming in and have account, you know just those processes are.

Speaker 2: 8:45

It's not optional you know to do it professionally you know. It ensures our accuracy but also our high. You know what we demand of ourselves a high quality of work, because everybody we know what's acceptable and what isn't acceptable.

Speaker 1: 9:00

Yeah, yeah, totally. So what type of clients do you guys normally deal with? You know, is there a certain vertical or size?

Speaker 2: 9:07

There is. That's a good question, because we used to be really industry agnostic and we are still to that extent where we have all different types of industries that we work with but we internally have silos. So if you are, you know, warehouse supply, you're in one silo. If you're a law firm, you're in a different kind of silo. So that way the controllers who work with clients, they're really more industry specific.

Speaker 1: 9:34

Yeah, and to me, what I've always found is that you know, in our industry, coming into Nesweep people like, oh hey, we're a warehouse distribution, do you do a lot of that, or service or what have you? Or like we only want to work with somebody that's done service. And to me it's always been part of an education process, because what's really interesting is there's truth. Have you worked in a vertical? and there's just certain things that you can't fake, nor would you want to fake, but you're just like boy. I need to understand that. But one of the benefits I've always found is that we do work in so many different verticals And as we process, engineer and solution design and bring things to the table, there's so many times where I have background in service and I'm doing it with somebody in a warehouse distribution, i'm like have you thought about doing this principle from service? and like what are you talking about? I'm like if you go to a service industry, they do this. Can you go ahead and model that? And it's like boy, i've never thought about that. So to me there is some truth to having experience in that vertical, but also we're like industries in some ways and that you do deal with a lot of different verticals, that you can bring those things to the table and say, hey, why don't you look at it from this perspective And, as we all know the last two or three years, especially that product companies are adding services, service companies are adding products, and how do you? our subscriptions are things of that nature, and it really is a blending of those verticals. So it's really interesting, so okay, so I guess the next question I have for you, the first really like technical question, is what was the best technology advice anybody ever gave you?

Speaker 2: 11:21

I was saying backup and document. I'm probably the first to It's painful as the documentation is how critically important it is. But, honestly, the best advice was probably don't assume you know everything about. Yeah, because not only especially in the counting space. I have to say, like probably more than ever, there's more counting technology than ever before. It's moving faster. You're seeing a lot more players in the market. With Netsuite, you're seeing a lot more add-ons, a lot more entities that come in and say, oh, we can connect to Netsuite and do this And being able to use that skill set of like I know, business processes. So I can talk to you and say, okay, but do you do this And give up this piece and trying to help find the one that does it right. That's what we think we do very well Because we have that experience. But just don't not making the assumption that because you're using one system and one thing that's not going to change, it's always changing.

Speaker 1: 12:25

What are some of the? you mentioned all the different technology and I agree there's a plethora. What are some of the good ones that you think of? I mean, we're buys, we're not sweet, but I'm like, doesn't that mean that? What are some of the things that you're seeing out? there is like technology. I'm like, yeah, this is kind of cool or worse out there.

Speaker 2: 12:43

So with NetSuite I mean because we're a quick bookshop and a NetSuite shop, So I have references for both It's more in like what they're trying to solve. So on the invoicing side, solving the clients, our clients, customers can see their invoices real time. Can see their history, can pay their bills pay by credit card change their payment information, all of that. So we have you know, biller Jean is really great. On the Quick Book side, versapay is a good one on the yeah, they're great Yeah. Bill payments, not just paying the bills but approval, routing, all of that. So we work really closely with billcom. We also work with Ramp. We have other partners and then the biggest one where we're seeing a lot more players is the expense reporting. And so you know with billcom and Divi's relationship, and then Expensify and Tally and Ramp has an expense app now and all of that can be built into NetSuite. So that's a question that I've been asked as well. Why this if it's in NetSuite? Sometimes it's a matter of what's actually more user friendly for you.

Speaker 1: 13:53

Do you?

Speaker 2: 13:53

really need all those people in. NetSuite if they can just log into another app and do what you want them to do. So, but there are so many different solutions out there.

Speaker 1: 14:04

You know, and that's a really good point And at times I've asked the same question as when you go to Sweet World and you walk to floor and you see Expensify, you see all these different third party products, i'm like, yeah, they're in the same room as NetSuite, who technically does the same thing. So what is it? I think that that's the one really good thing for those listening, that you know sometimes you know a NetSuite license isn't free, you know. So can you go with a different third party product that allows them to live outside with that and be really specific and specialize within that process? Because you know NetSuite is a monster of a product in a good way, that there's so much in that when you do, okay, i just need to focus on expenses Okay, do you need to be entered into this vast kingdom of NetSuite, when maybe you just really only need this aspect of it?

Speaker 2: 15:00

Exactly.

Speaker 1: 15:01

Yeah, and in VersaVe. You know we dealt with VersaVe for a long time and great staff and love working with them as well. So, yeah, i definitely love that. I see a lot, so okay. Next question, you know really is like what's some of the best business advice? So go back to your public accounting control or account. I mean, you've had the opportunity to see all of this, all these different businesses outside of technology. I mean, what's some of the best business advice you've seen or heard?

Speaker 2: 15:32

Like what I'm seeing too, and I don't know if it's just where we are as a company. There's a lot of professional organizations out there now. There's you know Vistage and EO and Young Entrepreneurs and there's just a lot out there for people to use. So where it bridges for us is like do what you do best. And so if you are, if you have a business and this is what you're doing and what you're passionate about accounting is most likely not what you're passionate about. So, let somebody who is passionate about it do that piece of it and let them synergize with you. Yeah, Talking to people, I think that's becoming more acceptable to say that I can't do it all and that we can bring in somebody else who can help us out. And it doesn't have to 100% be homegrown. That's probably like for business. Advice would be. Let a lot of people who know what they're doing best do that piece of it and find those good partners to work with.

Speaker 1: 16:28

You know, as you and I were talking in the past, that you know you don't know what you don't know. I know it's very cliche And when you do have those people like yourselves that know accounting very intrinsically, in that space there's going to be things that you're going to ask. And I've always said the mark of a great consultant in what we do is not spewing knowledge but asking great questions. And if you ever want to know a great question, you know great consultants. When they ask a question, everybody just stops and goes, oh, i've never thought about that. That's a really good point. And really getting to that, getting to those people that can ask those questions that really force you to say, boy, i don't have this process baked out yet, i'm not ready to implement or modify or do what I have to like, have that. And then to me, i found that the turnout to be really good advocates and in challenge, you know on that, but that takes trust, you know as well, to not be like, oh, you know, it's really developing that trust And over time you really got to know that So um, so okay. So then that with all these different people, you've learned all this different stuff Once that you know we all have our client list. Anybody who's worked you have a good clients is some not so great clients, stuff like that Usually, at least for my perspective. At times you just see it wow, they're really good because of this or they're doing that. What are the best people out there doing that from your perspective? when you're looking at like through my lens of accounting, what are the best people doing out there?

Speaker 2: 18:08

I think they are realizing that they don't know it all. I think the ones who are like saying, okay, I can connect with, like an accounting department to account, I can connect with GBO and maybe I already have NetSuite but I'm not using it like full list and looking to others to help in building that network, I think is what the best ones are probably doing.

Speaker 1: 18:31

Yeah, okay, and then, kind of alongside that, like I said, you don't know what you don't know unless you worked on that side. What would you tell somebody that, hey, from my side you guys don't see it, but from my side this is what I'm seeing. Is there anything that like jumps out that you're like, hey, this is something you guys could really learn from? Is there anything? That's a tough question.

Speaker 2: 18:56

I know I'm trying to think of anything else. That's a good one. I have so many different like partial examples.

Speaker 1: 19:07

I'm trying to get one, that's.

Speaker 2: 19:11

I think sometimes it's in that cross industry knowledge helps, like you were saying. Yeah, sometimes I have some clients that are in nonprofit and then clients that aren't. Then when you're in the nonprofit space you think nonprofit and there's times where there's some applicability of other things that you can plug in to make things work. I think of a really good example of that.

Speaker 1: 19:35

But in one the knowledge is in my thing. I'll share one just for my example is that in our industry, the one thing that in everything it's dollars, we're time, we're built for time and things of that nature is having really clear requirements before you really start going down a path was people is really efficient. The process of writing down what those requirements are really is therapeutic, because you're like, well, what about this or what about that? To me, going along with that is like writing. I know people don't have time to write down requirements, but they don't write down test cases. To me, when you're like I want to do this and like when we get it done with that script or what have you, we need to test this, this and this. To me, that's what has been so much of it. And like we're great at putting the nuts and bolts together to solidify a process or automate a process. We're here, we have ideas on how to do that, but so much of them. We need those requirements When people can start at the point of we've met with our team and this is what we want, and starting there is so efficient for us and, ultimately, for the customer as well.

Speaker 2: 20:59

Well, that's honestly my biggest net suite From QuickBooks to NetSuite. My biggest learning experience for me has been about that documentation and that requirements upfront. With QuickBooks there's not a lot to configure NetSuite. We had a client that was all on board, very involved with the process but didn't have the right people involved in your team. We had misses on how important some functionality was. That they said that's okay if it's two-step-three but it was really a requirement for step one. That was something like 100 percent being more direct about what those requirements are upfront, gathering them, making sure that they're coming in on that. It's probably for me, one of the most things I've learned with between those applications and moving to an ERP, it's how important all the different areas are to come together.

Speaker 1: 22:01

Yeah To me. And QuickBooks is a great product. We do NetSuite and there's fists for both. That's really one of the challenges that we see at times that you go from QuickBooks where this is how you use it There isn't five ways to do this or at scripting. And to me, when you move into that NetSuite world, they're like, well, what do you mean? Okay, well, if you don't like that process, you can do it differently. What does that entail? But it's really a different mindset to say, okay, now I've been let out to Pash or I can go all these different ways in this little scary at times, but it doesn't. Not everybody has that business analyst mindset to figure that out. So that's part of those things that people sometimes it's beneficial to learn a little bit of that BA mindset to the questions I should be asking how am I documenting When people talk about the five ways, why are you doing this, why are you doing that? And really, for those that really at times have a specific budget that they need to stay in, from our side it's just like okay, it can be really efficient, we'll help you where you need help, but we got to get to the end of the five ways before we bake that out, and sometimes that could be a little bit. It takes a little time and, like I said, time is money. So now that leads me to my next question is kind of like I don't care what it is about those expensive high billcom versus pay you us. We're all in the business of change management.

Speaker 2: 23:39

Yes.

Speaker 1: 23:40

You know, in that you know, and I know for my experience as much as the challenges of what we do is is managing change management. How do you guys do that? because I mean you really are, you're really helping people like totally change your business. So how do you? guys do that.

Speaker 2: 23:57

Yeah, and we were all we joke in implementation So we are Change kid. I mean, it's always difficult to be downright hard, sometimes right. So we have clients that come in that As much as they have gone through our Yeah, sales process, they know what we're about There are still clients who are like, oh, you're gonna change that?

Speaker 1: 24:18

Yeah, oh, you want to talk about that We've always done it this way. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 24:23

And I think it all comes down to communication. Yeah empathy piece that you talked about, of understanding why they did it the way they did it Yeah, Yeah and being able to bridge that to where you think it can go and where they can be.

Speaker 1: 24:36

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 24:36

I'm see the benefit of that. So, yes, this is how you've been doing it, but there's a huge benefit if you're doing it this way, and this is that benefit. Being patient Yeah, there's a lot of patients. You don't want to Not change and not move them along that path, but you also have some. You know, sometimes you have to say things a couple times or a couple different ways or show it.

Speaker 1: 24:56

So a lot of it's.

Speaker 2: 24:57

How do they need to hear it or see it.

Speaker 1: 24:58

Yeah, are they?

Speaker 2: 24:59

a visual, what you know? how are they need to hear it? and, yeah, we use a task management system, so we're, you know, putting milestones in front of the client. We're being as transparent as we can about yeah here's where we are. Here's where we're going. Yeah this is what it's gonna look like. We're very time intensive for a client when they first come aboard Yeah, a lot of questions, you know a lot of things that need to happen and then when they move on to our client services team, then it's a more recurring and it's more comfortable. But we're very upfront. You know, at first it's a lot.

Speaker 1: 25:32

It's a big mountain decline to find and and. To me and that's where you know We share, especially when I talk to our delivery team that does implementations and our managed applications team that takes over after that delivery That is always the the mindset that you have to remember that people had a full-time job before you asked them to change the system. And You know you have somebody who's probably really busy in their 40 45 hours a week to get everything done. I don't know anybody in the professional world This is I. You know I. I surf the web 20 hours a week. I don't know anybody who does this. So you have somebody who says that that compressed work schedule and now you're saying We're going to holy, you know we're gonna implement net suite or gonna implement this or that, that they have to do that On top of that 40 hour job that they do. That does cause a lot of friction and you know it takes a lot of time. So, yeah, i love a lot of things that you called out there and to me is getting that vision of why you know and you know I'm you and I talked in different times that you know, like salespeople, you know stuff for, like CRM, you know for people, that you know businesses, that they had a disparate sales force and they had quick books. They weren't attached. Now They're together. You know, and really the one of the things that we see that's been most effective with adoption of CRM is Really educating the salesperson on all the benefits of having a 360 degree view of that. Okay, well, do you know that you can go in and see support cases, you can see whether that has been delivered, you can see where that sales order is and you can see all that data? You know in one system. You know, but it does take effort, but there is a payoff, you know, in the end on that. So that's that's really cool. Thanks for that. And I guess so you know from your vantage point. You know, looking forward in 2023, early 2023, what are some of the opportunities you see out there for people?

Speaker 2: 27:36

Yeah, i know, for I mean for us. I know I'm excited you know that suite is a newer vertical for us you know, and so I'm excited just about Meeting these prospects, talking to them. It's one of my favorite things that I get to do is talk with Prospects as they're coming in, asking questions, learning about them and, yeah, i just see a lot of growth opportunity for us and in that space, yeah, and I also see For staffing, because now you have individuals who maybe got a taste of working from home. Maybe it wasn't for them. Yeah and now they realize that there is opportunities out there where you can work from home And do what you love to do, and so I I think there's a lot of opportunities. Covid may have also given businesses the ability to see that they needed help, so maybe people weren't in or people left and they needed outsourced and it was successful. So it's okay to ask for help and it's okay. If your accounting doesn't reside within your brick and mortar and it's somewhere else, it's okay. And so I think we have a lot of opportunities, i think, ahead of us in 2023.

Speaker 1: 28:50

Yeah, sorry, i agree that there is. And to me, i know as a partner group at GVO that, looking back, that we came out of COVID better than we went into it And it really did force a lot of people to analyze how they do business, how their staff works, how you measure and what are the metrics that you look at and things of that nature, and it really forced a lot of businesses to say I have to do business differently to keep up. But yeah, and I think a lot of people have figured out the big chunks of it, but I still think there's some opportunities to do that. And to me, the last question I had for you is I know a little bit, and that's one of the reasons why I think we work well together as partners is that you guys have a fairly intense process to get to know, and we do too. We don't like to do anything and in that sweet account, unless we know the topography. You know it's really easy to step out of landmines when you don't know their landmines there. But, like, when people like, how do people start with, like what you guys do, how does that look like?

Speaker 2: 30:02

It is. it is intensive And so, but it's so successful We need. if somebody's interested, we have a prospect. they can connect to us. you know calling us around our website, But once they go through a demo and they are interested in more we do, We have a CPA, a dedicated CPA and a file a financial nails analyst and then myself too, if it's in that sweet, and we meet with the prospect and we, like a two hour phone call, kind of dig deep in the financials. We go through their cycles, you know the revenue cycle, their payable cycle, inventory, payroll. We really kind of I mean we can't go super deep into it, yeah. Yeah, deep enough to kind of know, ok, where do, where there are some significant issues, where can we help the most, where is it at? And then we go through the financials with them And we walk through the balance sheet, we walk through the PNL, kind of get a good idea as to what the scope of our services would be Again, being recurring, but keeping in control or ship. And then we put together a proposal. It's reviewed internally and then we present it to the client and we really walk through. So our proposals are very detailed in terms of in each section Client does this, we do this, client does this. And so we make sure. Again, the effort of transparency and communication, it's really clear. And then if a client chooses to, a prospect chooses to work with us, they sign the proposal And we usually give them a couple options, a budgeting forecast included or not. But then they start, they sign up and our implementation team, which I'm a member of. Yeah the first group they work with and we get them on boarded. We discuss all of their processes that affect accounting. And we get everything documented, then we turn them over to our client services team.

Speaker 1: 31:49

Awesome.

Speaker 2: 31:50

Yeah, it's pretty involved, but it's it's very successful. We've had a lot of prospects, whether they've chose to go with us or they have said that this process was very informative for them and very enlightening, and that they really understand how much effort we put in.

Speaker 1: 32:05

Yeah, and I think, like you mentioned I mentioned before great questions. You know, as a great consultant, ask great questions and make you think about that. So, like when you guys do your proposals, i'm like do they have the opportunity to like, ok, well, hey, we want to retain, we still want to do this, but you guys do that. Do you guys like mix that up, or how does that go? We do, we can.

Speaker 2: 32:25

Absolutely One of the areas. Most is like things that touch HR, like payroll. Sometimes clients will say you know what? we have hourly staff. We want to keep payroll. A lot of times That makes sense.

Speaker 1: 32:35

They want to be able to approve time. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 32:38

And so we can carve that out. What? we try to do is keep as, because we are full charge. So we don't want to be where they have somebody internally who's doing everything and we're just reviewing.

Speaker 1: 32:49

Yeah, that's hard, that's a hard place to put us in. Yeah, that's what we're designing.

Speaker 2: 32:54

It's not your fit.

Speaker 1: 32:55

Yeah, yeah, that makes that totally makes sense, so OK. So so, if anybody is interested, what's the best way to get hold of you guys?

Speaker 2: 33:02

Honestly, our website is probably the best way. It's just accounting departmentcom And there's contact us on the top, or there's a little thought bubble, you know, on the bottom Chat bubble.

Speaker 1: 33:12

Yeah, on there. Yeah, well, cool. Well, and also from from the GVO side. If anybody wants to get ahold of us, you know we're govirtualofficecom. Also, we have a boost your ERP LinkedIn group, where this and other things will be posted. But well, jenny, thank you very much. As always, we always thoroughly enjoy working with you guys and also the conversation, so so thank you very much and being a part And everybody. I hope you have a great day. Thank you, talk to you later, bye, bye.

Todd: 0:00
Hello and welcome to the Booster ERP podcast. We're delighted to have Jim Winisorfer here from DOIG Corporation. Jim has been a customer of ours. We've actually known each other for quite a while. We've run into each other, different user groups and things of that nature. Welcome, jim, welcome to the podcast.

Jim: 0:22
Thanks very much, Don.

Todd: 0:25
Yes, I have the benefit of knowing a little bit of your background. But if you can, just for everybody listening to the podcast, how about where you're from? Where did you go to school? What's your story?

Jim: 0:36
Okay, I'm a farm kid. I grew up with eight brothers and sisters in Stratford, wisconsin, in the middle of town, in the middle of the state, 40 acres, 40 cows or 80 acres, excuse me, 40 cows. And then went to high school, went to UW Stout and came out as an industrial arts teacher. I went back and taught, actually in my hometown for a few years, woodworking, drafting, building construction. I learned a lot of processes and how manufacturing works there and after three years I got out of teaching and went back to Stout and got my master's degree there in management. So after Stout came to Milwaukee, worked for a number of companies in the manufacturing circles here, always on the business development, sales and marketing side of things. So the old RTE corporation, johnson Controls, dover Corporation, waukesha, bering's modern equipment in Port Washington and most recently here the last almost nine years with Doig Corporation in Cedarbury. So for me it's always been about sales and marketing. Even though I've risen into different positions in my career, from general manager to president or CEO, I've always kind of had a handle on the sales and marketing side of the business.

Todd: 1:59
And that's an important side, because it really does drive it. And what is your current title right now?

Jim: 2:04
President.

Todd: 2:05
President, ok, so great. So going back a little bit. So you're a teacher for what? Three years.

Jim: 2:10
Yes.

Todd: 2:11
And so how was that a benefit to you as your career went along? How did that impact your career? I'm just curious.

Jim: 2:19
Absolutely Presentation skills, being able to plan a lesson, being able to be up in front of people, whether it was seventh graders, seniors or their parents. And then I also coached a couple of different sports, primarily basketball and football, and got a lot out of being able to work with young kids and guiding, direct them and discipline them when necessary. And I still say you know, my title is president, but I still call myself head coach, because it took me about 20 years to figure out that what I still love doing is teaching and coaching. The only difference is that some of the some of the people that I teach and coach these days are a little older than the seventh graders and seniors that I used to work with.

Todd: 3:09
And you can't teach them how to tackle. Yeah Well, that's cool. So industrial arts. So did you always know that you wanted to be kind of in that industry when it comes to like mechanical engineering and just mechanical types of? Did you always know that?

Jim: 3:24
Well, growing up on a farm, you kind of have to learn how to do a lot of everything. You know your, your own mechanic, your own welder, your own plumber. In many cases my dad was all of those things, yeah. So, getting a chance to work alongside my dad, I tended toward the woodworking, building, construction side of things. I worked with him building rock walls and, you know, upgrading barns in the summers. That was my summer job in many cases. But the teaching side of it I got into manufacturing processes. If you start one place with a piece of wood or on a drawing, here's where you start, here's where you go next, here's where you go next. So you just learned the processes. I did my master's program in management technology and a piece of that was a master's project, I guess you'd call it with Wausau Homes and their millwork division and that's where I really got a chance to look at processes in a manufacturing setting rather than in a high school shop and really got a chance to say OK, I'm not just building a cabinet, I'm building thousands of cabinets and I'm building individual pieces of wood. So standards, processes, quality, all came into play. And having your machinery lined up and your inventory lined up and making sure you didn't run out of things and your maintenance programs squared away really gave me a good chance to see OK, all these things that I taught kids about at one level now goes on to a whole different level when you're in a production basis. So that time at Wausau Homes and Wausau Millwork was really valuable to me.

Todd: 5:14
Oh, that's very cool. And now I don't know if you know or not, I'm actually a dairy farm kid grew up in Fenimore, so I grew up on a farm myself. And I talked about working with your dad. There was many times working on equipment that I had to say my dad didn't think fondly of engineers. So going into engineering crumbing from that environment probably gave you a different perspective on the practical usage of some of that engineering and how to build that out.

Jim: 5:41
Yeah, I'm not an engineer by any means, but my background has been sales and marketing. Most of my master's degree was focused on the marketing and market research side of things strategy, development, organizational leadership but I've led engineers my entire career. My first position was actually an application engineer, but it was a business development role supporting sales and technical people out in the field. So I got to do a lot of technical presentations, technical demonstrations, technical instruction to customers and to distributors and reps in the field. And then every position that I've had since then has been with some kind of a technical product, whether it was transformers, batteries, bearings, furnaces, all the way up to some of the electronics and electrical products that we deal with today. It's always been leading a technically based company.

Todd: 6:44
Especially, I'm sure, in Milwaukee, because there's such a great base in Milwaukee. There's a lot of great manufacturers all around. We have some clients over there. That's such a hotbed for really good manufacturers and technical so I'm not surprised by that. So you go down the sales and marketing path and you go into there and then you end up where you're at now. If I remember correctly, your first day was it that they decided to go with Nestwe. So tell me a little bit about that.

Jim: 7:16
So Doig Corporation had been on a product called Tribute for years and years. I think that it had been put in place during Y2K, maybe even before that, but we had been on that product for a long time. My very first day at the company, at Doig Corporation, was our first day of installing NetSuite. So they had already made the decision to make a move to a new ERP, had gone through the selection process and settled on NetSuite, looked at a number of different distributor packages. In hindsight very, very grateful that we switched over to NetSuite and not made the choice to some others. But yeah, my first day was a day with Steve Verrett out of NetSuite in Denver who helped us decide what logo to put up in the upper left-hand corner. It was like, I mean, we were step one all the way through the first day. So I got a chance with the team here of about four or five of us that installed NetSuite over the course of. We went from June. We made a small acquisition in October. During that process. We were looking to get done by the end of December but decided to back it up. We went live March 1st. So from June 1st to March 1st was our install bumped around a little bit by a small acquisition we did and then two months later we took that acquisition live as well. So over the course of nine months, 10 months, we took two companies and brought it up, got everything together Through that process. One of the things we did that I thought was really smart was we got our salespeople out of the way, and by saying out of the way I mean we trained them first in contact management, crm management, how to load customers and contacts and events, how to load opportunities, how to do their expense reports and all those things. So they were actually working live, if you will, in NetSuite, for about three months before we went live as a business. And what was cool about that was the salespeople knew on day one when we went live they already knew what they were doing and from an inventory and purchasing and invoicing and sales order standpoint, we got the salespeople out of the way by putting them in front and getting them ahead of everybody. So usually sometimes the hardest part or the hardest people to bring around are the salespeople. We got them out of the way by giving them advanced work and advanced training and when we went live, like most companies, there is that first couple of days that are rough. And then you learn how things are going and then at the end of the month your first close is a cluster and it's a tough week to get yourself closed. But we didn't have to worry about the salespeople in that whole process at all. So we went through our first live, a little valley of despair for the first few days, climbed out of that, had our first close, got through that and then we went on. The next close got a little bit better, the one after that got better, and now we kind of pride ourselves on saying that we're usually closed the first day of the month by at least 10 o'clock in the morning.

Todd: 10:45
Last thing that is fantastic. You're definitely out of the curve on that.

Jim: 10:51
It's kind of a point of pride. We just make sure that everything has to be done. All the transactional things have to be done by midnight, no matter what position you're in, everything has to be done by midnight so that when our accounting people take a look the next morning, there are a few things that we have to clean up and balance and then we're closed for the month. We can do all of our reporting immediately report to suppliers, report to our customers, report to our salespeople and let everybody know how the month closed very, very quickly.

Todd: 11:25
That's fantastic. So it sounds like you spent a fair amount of time kind of working on those internal systems and processes. Is that correct? Yes, ian, what in you know? Everybody listening to this is involved in Nest Week one way or another. What do you think are some of the best processes that you've baked out? As far as for you guys to help, you know, facilitate some of that? What advice would you give with people with that?

Jim: 11:54
Well, we're a distributor, so we're buying and reselling. We don't have all the manufacturing processes and all of the inventory transactions of work in process inventory that some other people may have to reconcile Expenses is typically, you know, we invoice, so we have all of our sales records done right away. All we have to do is make sure all of our expenses are lined up and in the proper period and then we can close. We do some bank reconciliation things, some account reconciliation things, but then we're pretty well done. We don't wait around for people to do their expense reports and have to record that we're not waiting for freight or you know other things to come in. So we can basically take it. As long as we've got a mindset that says, hey, we want to close quickly and get on to the next month, we can do that very quickly.

Todd: 12:51
Awesome and so I mean you're correct in your statement that he's talked about with the sales staff that that's usually the most challenging to get up to speed and I've always shared that. There's good reason for that and, generally speaking, you don't want sales people living on a laptop or on a desktop all day, so they're not always connected to it and they don't always live on it. And two, like finance has gap accounting rules. You know there are no gap accounting rules for sales so, but it sounds like you may have some process behind that. Let's talk about that a little bit. For CRM, are you still using this week CRM?

Jim: 13:28
Absolutely. It's the only thing we use.

Todd: 13:31
And how have you been? Because that is and that was my specialty for years and years and it has always shown how have you been able to get that to work?

Jim: 13:42
Well, for most of what we do it's contact management, event management, where when we visit a customer our sales guys are out in front of anywhere from three to six customers companies a day and a number of different contacts. We log all of those customer visits and contacts as an event. We don't go to that, we don't log telephone calls always, but we log all face-to-face visits at a customer site and if a customer comes in here to our business we'll log that. We log our supplier interactions so that if a supplier is along on an event at a customer visit we include them on it so we can always see who was on the event, who was on the call, who was included, what were the notes and the actions that are tied to that. And the sales reps are responsible for putting all of that information in. So on a daily basis they have to record. Some of them do it first thing in the morning, some of them do it at the end of the day, some of them wait a couple of days. We try not to have that recording be any more than about 48 hours old. I'm not saying we're perfect there, but that's most of the guys. Most of the guys are same day or next day. They get all of their customer visit reports in and we can all see those throughout the company. And if I wanna go back eight years into our history and see what we were doing with Go Virtual Office as a customer, I could go see that and see who called on them and which suppliers we had in there. So the CRM piece of it is mostly about contacts and customers and events. The third or the other piece that we do is opportunity management. For us, any deal that's worth five grand in sale and larger we log as an opportunity because we wanna see it. We kinda wanna track it. We also report to our suppliers because they wanna see bigger deals, they wanna see the progression, they wanna see when it gets opened and track when we close it how many we win, how many we lose, the reasons behind why we might win or lose orders and the progression and how they can help. So we have at the end of the month we have an automatic report that goes out to our suppliers and the opportunities that we've opened and have live for them and it's an automatically generated report that just goes out four o'clock in the morning on the first day of the month. So it's another one of those auto-gen reports that we do that quickly give our suppliers information.

Todd: 16:27
So what about your dashboards?

Jim: 16:29
Have you been pretty successful with building out the dashboards for the sale staff and, as that goes along, yes, each role in the company has a different set of dashboards on their home screens so the sales reps can see all of their own information for their customers, their quotes. We've built a number of portlets as well custom portlets that allow them to see which customers they're selling to, which suppliers they're selling from, how they stack up against the other sales reps that we have in their other territories. We've got probably a dozen different custom portlets that we can choose from, depending upon the role that that person is working in. That allows them to see what's going on in their territory or in their role. It's one of the most valuable pieces that we've seen. So as a distributor, we're in the middle of suppliers and customers and I always wanted to be able to see and we always want to be able to see, as a supplier, which customers am I working with through Doid Corporation. And as a customer, or as a sales rep, I want to be able to see which customers are selling to which suppliers. So there's always three ways to look at things. And if I'm on a supplier, I want to be able to see my sales reps and my customers. If I'm on the customer, I want to be able to see my sales reps and my suppliers and a number of different performance metrics that we have for either the supplier or the customer. So on our customer portlets we'll have sales, gross margin, number of units sold. We'll have our on-time delivery specs. We have a customer profitability formula that we run using all the transactional data and the margins and the number of times we get asked to quote or ship or invoice or pull things from a warehouse. So we have some profitability reports we run. But the big thing for us is when you're one place in the system, you've got access and information from how it got there to be able to really take a quick look and not have to be running 15 spreadsheets at the end of the month or every morning and all those things. I can pop on any supplier and tell you who our top 40 customers are. I can tell you what inventory level we have, what on-time percentage we have right live on the spot.

Todd: 19:09
Well, and I'll tell you this, that one thing that I've learned from you just your conversations in the past and different panels we've been on those processes that you have in place lead to one thing, and that's clean data, Because without all of that, that's one thing that especially somebody is coming off, say, of QuickBooks or a different platform, that maybe now you have a little bit more freedom within Netsuite and a lot of horsepower. You don't map out those processes to ensure that you have clean data. And is there anything that you've done that's helped to keep data clean in your account?

Jim: 19:52
Well, I think the general concept and I don't know if it's your term or mine or I picked it up someplace else, but spot single point of truth for all data in the company, it's being able to look at the data and know hey, I have good information here. I don't have to compare this spreadsheet versus that spreadsheet versus that report and have periods mixing in. I can rely on the single point of truth for all of my data and we try to only store data in one place so that you're not replicating data all over the place on different spreadsheets, on different reports that somebody has on their laptop someplace. So it's very critical for us to have that fully integrated ERP system. And when I'm fully integrated, we've got our CRM, we've got our contacts, our customers, our sales orders, our quotes, our invoices and our payables and receivables and our website and our e-commerce site all linked to the same inventory data, pricing data, margin data, so we can all look at it and make a quick decision based on what we're seeing from the data. So that full integration of the system is really the, I think, the power of NetSuite for us as a distributor.

Todd: 21:12
I would agree. Do you, of course? Do you use safe searches and reports? You mentioned Portless. Are you using the Sweet Analytics, the workbooks? Do you use that in NetSuite or no?

Jim: 21:24
At this point in time we haven't. I know it's there, I've seen some demos on it. We haven't dug into it. I think some of the work we've done on Portless has given us what we need for now.

Todd: 21:35
Yeah yeah, I'm a big fan of Portless. I love KPIs core cards. We can get a lot of custom stuff with the drill down and I love it. For my team, we, as the saying goes, we eat our own dog food. With that, it's been very powerful. So if you're listening out there and needing to get to turn the tide a little bit on, like what's my shared information, if you can't get it with the natural Portless, those, those custom Portless with KPIs core cards, is a really good place to start and not overly technical to be able to build those out.

Jim: 22:07
So you know, the one thing I like in particular with the Portless and the scorecards and the system itself is that I know that every one of my inside salespeople, my purchasing people, my operations people, our owner, our accounting department and our salespeople all have NetSuite open almost all day long on their desktops. You know, it's the only thing we work with. That and Microsoft Outlook are basically what we use, and we'll pop things out into Excel as we need to, but most everything is right in front of us.

Todd: 22:43
That's very cool. Now you mentioned e-commerce and you guys are a sweet commerce customer and you use sweet commerce, which is NetSuite's e-commerce solution. So tell me a little bit about that. What do you like about sweet commerce?

Jim: 22:57
We started on Site Builder, the original NetSuite product, and we went live on Site Builder Black Friday 2017, because I wanted to have a shopping day to remember. So it's just one of those little. We went live in 2017 with our e-store and it took us a while to get some orders, and now we've been bouncing along. And then, I think about a year and a half ago, we switched up to sweet commerce not sweet commerce advanced, but sweet commerce. It was enough for us for the work we do and, as a distributor, a lot of what we sell through the website are one and done kinds of sales. Somebody looked at the supplier name and they looked at a part number. I'm looking at your screen behind. They bought an Ansel Adams Brown painting, number 12348. And that's what they were looking for. And boom, we popped out as Dory Corporation. Here's the Ansel Adams 12348. Boom, I'm going to buy that. I use my credit card, I get a chip to me, and that might be the last time I ever go to doigcorpcom, because I've found exactly what I wanted and now I'm done. So we add a lot of customers through the website that are one and done kinds of transactions and it's okay. It's profitable for us to do that. We encourage our normal customers to buy through the website when they can or if they want to, and we've set up a few of them to do repeat sales. But most of our website sales are one and done kinds of transactions. So the setup, you know, setting up a customer most of the work is done by the customer. We have to review things before we accept the order fully and then process the order, but it goes pretty well. For us it's a huge lead generator. So, even though we may not, we get an awful lot of sales directly through the website where somebody pushes a button, says buy, now it's a credit card. But we get many, many more sales through the people that find the product and then hit the button that says I need more info or can you quote me a price and delivery?

Todd: 25:09
if we don't have it there, yeah.

Jim: 25:11
Yeah, so we quote an awful lot that goes through the website and we gain those new customers that way, so it's a great lead generator for us.

Todd: 25:22
That's awesome, and so you've done a really nice job of management as well. I know our team has helped you at times of stuff, but what do you think is to somebody who's looking at going to a sweet commerce implementation and leveraging that? What advice would you give them?

Jim: 25:41
It's a pretty smooth transition and we've worked with you guys to get ourselves back to a point where we did some customization work and we did our initial install and we worked with Go Virtual Office to get back to a point where now if we want to make a theme change from whatever theme we're on today to another updated theme, and even if NetSuite is making upgrades to those existing themes, we will get the automatic updates and it's very easy to take on those updates and go to a different theme. So that was the one thing that we did in our initial switchover to SweetCommerce that we probably did wrong. We allowed ourselves to get a little custom and it was to fix things that we could see, but we didn't know that we were pushing ourselves off a little bit of a ledge in terms of getting new updates and new theme capability.

Todd: 26:37
Yeah, it's one of those things when you extrapolate a small change to a theme a year or two later, it's not a little change, it's actually a pretty big change. That is one thing that some people do as a common mistake. So be careful with your themes. If you're on SweetCommerce, they're easy to manage, but you just got to have a little foresight when you're doing that and how you want to manage them.

Jim: 27:02
No, item management for the website is pretty good. It's not everything we want it to be. There's some things that we could do in SiteBuilder that we can't do in SweetCommerce, but item management is pretty good and it's live as soon as you make the updated flows through. But our best way of inputting new items is if we can get a mass upload, if we can do, even if it's 20 or 100 or 2000 items at the same time. It's a lot easier to do them that way than individually. We go through a lot every day to upgrade individual items that we have to quote or that we've taken an order on to get it ready for the website, and every one of those might take us I don't know two to three minutes to upgrade an update and item to get it ready for the website if you haven't done it through a mass update of some kind or another.

Todd: 28:03
That's awesome, and I know that you guys have a fair amount of items on your store, if I remember correctly.

Jim: 28:08
We have about 15 or 16,000 now, I think.

Todd: 28:12
Yeah, yeah, you have quite a bit and so so I know you. So you use SweetCommerce. Are there any like other NestWeek modules or any third party products that you guys use?

Jim: 28:23
I think no, we have more like 60,000 items.

Todd: 28:26
Okay, I thought it is quite a bit yeah.

Jim: 28:30
I knew that number was wrong. It's like I remember passing the 50,000 mark and we're at like 60,000 items. We have about 120,000 items in NetSuite itself and about half of them are saleable online. Awesome, so excuse me, uninterrupted. What was your last question?

Todd: 28:46
Yeah, so are there any other like modules, like out of not standard modules but any other standard modules or third party products that you use?

Jim: 28:58
We've tried a few but really don't. We're using SweetTax now to be able to do SweetTax and went through about a year's worth of integration trial and trial and error getting it at a speed and implementation. Yeah, it was one of the tougher implementations we've ever done.

Todd: 29:22
Was that one of where you kind of like an early doctor was the SweetTax, or was that kind of a boom when it was a newer product?

Jim: 29:30
Well, it was about a year and a half ago, so it's certainly within the past two years that we made the decision. We did the same thing. We did it at the exact same time. We were doing SiteBuilder to SweetCommerce, so it's about two years ago. And the problem was, as we were making changes in SweetTax, sometimes that had an impact on SweetCommerce and we didn't know which one was causing the problem. We were pointing fingers in eight different directions. At some point.

Todd: 29:59
That's not fun. So well, let's switch directions a little bit from the Neswee side of things. So we talked a little bit before we started recording that currently we're 2023, towards the end of 2023, 2024 is fast approaching. Different market conditions than we've been used to in recent history. Costs of money is definitely a topic. In fact, you guys deal with a lot of capital projects and stuff like that. So, as we go into 2024, what do you think the opportunities are and it could be technically, or what do you see from your perspective? What do you think is some opportunities that are out there for people?

Jim: 30:47
Okay, I would say outside of Netsuite, but maybe it also ties to Netsuite in terms of process automation. For us, our whole business is in factory automation. We service all of the customers in the Wisconsin factory market, whether it's machine builders, oems or end user factories, so we're selling them robots, safety scanners, sensors, vision systems, safety fencing and all different kinds of products. We have about 60 different product lines we represent. The demographics of baby boomers moving out of the workforce is not changing and one of my favorite jokes is it still takes about almost 19 years to grow an 18-year-old. So there are no. There's no quick answer to this thing. There's no quick answer to this thing. So there are still an awful lot of people leaving the manufacturing workforce and we are not, as factories, automating fast enough. So being able to walk through a process and saying I have some people here that I could put into much higher value kinds of jobs and work where they can generate much more productivity, much more income for us as a business, if I could just figure out how to automate that particular process or that particular job. So in our case it's lots of robots. In other people's cases it might be information sharing or information processing. I used to go around to factory leaders and say do you think you're doing this fast enough, do you think you're automating fast enough? And now I'm old enough, now I've earned my strokes, that I can point somebody in the chest and say you're not automating fast enough. Got to get going here. China is not going to wait for you guys. So that's kind of what I see the opportunity for the factories and most of the businesses You're not going to be able to hire your way. You're not going to be able to have people come across the border fast enough and get them trained fast enough to be able to get the workforce where it needs to be two and three and five years from now. So you've got to automate processes. You've got to find the waste in processes and remove it so that you can put the people that are doing those jobs into higher value kinds of positions where, as an old high school teacher, I was trying to teach kids how to do things, swing a hammer, use a saw, make things and put them into good jobs. Today I still see people that are moving things from one place to another on a machine and I want to grab the factory manager and just say you're wasting that person's life, do something about it. So the opportunity for the next several years is in automation, whether it's hard automation, soft automation of processes, process improvement to eliminate the wasteful steps, or data automation.

Todd: 34:00
When you say data, is that AI? Do you think that? Are you just getting into the world of AI as it comes into automation?

Jim: 34:08
Yes, because a lot of automation has already been involved in AI. I mean, we're using 3D vision, 2d vision, to be able to detect products as they go down a line. We're getting to the point where some of our equipment now in the vision systems can take just a pallet full or a box full of stuff that's not stacked nicely. It's just in there all over the place and AI can now or 3D vision can now go in and pick this one first, and then this next one, and then this one, and then go and take a picture again and reevaluate to see which are the next best candidates that I can pick from. So you don't have to go through the process of stacking everything nicely and having good fixtures. Now you can put it kind of on a pallet or in a box in front of the machine and the machine and the vision systems can go and make the decisions on what to work on next. That's a next level of you can call it AI if you want. It's 3D vision. Really, that's giving us the capability to do it.

Todd: 35:17
It's interesting just getting back from Sweet World within the last couple of weeks. The big topic, of course, was AI. It's interesting. A lot of stuff we showed is coming. We'll be out the next 12 months, but there's been stuff for years that really are under the banner of AI. If you really think about it, it's taking data and in doing something or making a recommendation base off it. I think that we're probably five to seven years away from dramatic transformations on the Nesway side. I think we're close on some things. There's some great third-party products out there that I've seen us do some really cool stuff with AP automation and stuff like that. It's really interesting to see where that will go. We are really at a time where we're pivoting. But the question I have going back to some of your clients are you starting to see any of the manufacturing coming back to the United States or is that still staying over there? You seen it coming back?

Jim: 36:16
And I've had some customers say, not the United States, the Midwest Because of some of all the things that got have been pushed into China and parts of Asia where we don't think it's such a great idea to do business with anymore. A lot of those are foundries, die casters, electronics places and you think about where the foundries and die casters and some of the big electronics manufacturers are? They're here in the Midwest. So it's been very good for the Midwest and we have seen upticks in some of our customers and the projects they wanna do and the level of automation they think they need to get to in order to be able to handle that extra volume.

Todd: 36:56
Yeah, and to me. I grew up in the 80s, prior to the 80s, and I remember when robotics was the big issue that nobody wanted to revise because you're gonna lose jobs. And it's interesting to me seeing the trend now that we're going have to go to AI or certain robots because there's not enough workers to actually do the work. It's really so different than it's being openly received, because I can't find anybody to work, as opposed to the ease, where we didn't wanna lose workers. And are you seeing, that's what's the biggest driver in your business right now as the labor market.

Jim: 37:36
Yeah, not for us as the distributor, but our customers certainly, and our suppliers. I mean, we see supply chain issues all the time because our suppliers can't produce fast enough because they don't have the people. Our customers same kinds of things. They can't produce enough fast because they don't have the people.

Todd: 37:55
That's interesting, so okay, so step back a little bit. You come out of college, you're a teacher and you're starting over. So if somebody was looking to get into what you're doing now, what would your advice be to them as they're getting into your industry or what you do?

Jim: 38:16
I always try to tell people to get some level of business development experience. I don't care if you wanna be an engineer. If you wanna be, you know and you related to it before. Get outside a little bit and get out to the area where people are actually generating the business that you wanna be a part of. So, whether it's sales, marketing, sales account executive role, a business development role, working in a distributor or working in a rep firm or something like that, get out in front of customers and learn the business there, and that will help you all the way through your career, no matter what role you're going to be in.

Todd: 38:57
You're always selling something.

Jim: 38:59
Nothing starts till. Somebody sells something to somebody.

Todd: 39:03
I would agree.

Jim: 39:04
My father-in-law is favorite saying.

Todd: 39:06
Yeah, I agree. So then I guess my last question for you is you know you guys have done a fantastic job with your processes and your data and things like that. So let's say that somebody's running that sweet dinner in there for a couple of years and just aren't at that level. Where would you recommend that they start? What would be the first step for them?

Jim: 39:31
Well, we've been in almost nine years. We've gotten a lot of outside help. Initially we worked with NetSuite, then we brought in a couple of outside consultants. We've had another outside consultants. We worked with you guys for the last couple of years and the outside look from people who understand NetSuite is very, very valuable. So you don't have to have a consultant on permanent retainer all the time. Sometimes you just need that, as you guys call it. You just need that boost to get over the edge of something, and that's where we've gotten some of the best bang for the buck is hey look, we've got this list of six things we're dealing with and if you can help us get over five of these six, it makes a massive jump forward for us in terms of productivity, netsuite utilization, our ability to get information out quickly and just make our people more effective and more productive in front of our customers internally.

Todd: 40:34
And it's the same goes you don't know what you don't know and that's the one thing that we have a time in service and, as we say, we've seen the mistakes, we've seen the right calls, the bad calls, and I always say that we help as much as you want help, because you're right, we asked a little talk earlier talking about just how you've done things and how we've worked together. I've always said that if we had to be more than 60 part of the relationship, that it's a strain from what you're going to get out of it. It's not strained from our perspective, but it's strained because we really need people's insight into their business and their industry and things of that nature. We understand industry, understand business, but we don't know your character of your business and that's so massively important for us to know and you guys to contribute that. So I know that you're a great client in that aspect, jim.

Jim: 41:36
So in lean terms in Toyota production, in lean terms we always talk about go and see and going and visiting other companies that are involved in it. I'd say the same thing with NetSuite companies Go and see somebody else that's working inside of NetSuite, see what kinds of problems they're having that you can help them with and vice versa where they might be able to help you. The networking side of it has been good. The Wisconsin NetSuite users group has been good for us. We've made some good contacts and had some good joint meetings. Either we've gone to another company where they've come in here and we always pick up something. I have personally never been to one of the NetSuite conferences the big conferences. I got to go to a NetSuite distributors group conference down in Austin maybe four or five years ago. That was great in terms of getting some direct contact with other companies. But go and see, get out of your own business, go and see what other people are doing with it and how they've solved some of the problems that you probably are banging your head against the wall with.

Todd: 42:43
We didn't plan this as actually a great lead-in, but two or three weeks ago we released what we're calling the Boost Forum and I know that you signed up for it. But that was really the intent behind the Boost Forum is that we think that there's a need in the NetSuite ecosystem that it's just for NetSuite end users. We don't let in NetSuite employees, netsuite partners, recruiters, hat hunters, because just because I have NetSuite in my LinkedIn, I get bombarded all the time. I can't imagine as an end user, you must get bombarded all the time. But we really wanted to create that so NetSuite end users can talk amongst themselves. We have the monthly town hall or we have just a chat area because we actually we think that's really important and, yeah, we as consultants have a place in the market but we can't satisfy 100% of that gap because not many people can afford that. We get that, you know. And so there's customers that are small, that can't afford a boost or manage application services, or they've gotten big that they don't need like manage application services but they need to connect with other developers or other administrators. And that was that's really the magic or the secret sauce behind it, because we want people to be able to grow their NetSuite account, grow their NetSuite context that they have. I've gone to Sweetroll, I think five times and I've always thought the best session is actually lunch, because you sit in the table. Yeah, yeah, cocktails, and you sit there and you just talk with other partners or end users or vendors, and it's really just like you and I are talking and in some ways we want to replicate that in the form, but to be able to have that so people can just say, hey, I'm having a problem with this, is anybody else having that problem? And, like I said, I think it's best for us as partners or NetSuite resellers and everything else, for that ecosystem as a whole to rise up, because what we find a lot of times is people that'll come off like it quick books you move to in the ERP and it's powerful. And in NetSuite ERP it's really powerful and not everybody goes to ERP school to learn how to do it, and so that's really kind of it's almost like a light ERP school to help people do that. So if you haven't signed up for it, just go Google it. We got a boost form, it can sign up and it is free. The community area is free. So well, jim, I thank you for your time. I've always enjoyed your conversations. I've always learned something for our conversations, so Good from one farm kid to another. You bet? Yeah, no doubt. And for those that are listening, if you wanna learn more about Jim when it's sore for checking out on LinkedIn, I follow you on LinkedIn. I actually really enjoy your posts. I know I'll see you there tomorrow. One of the machines that was stacking on the pallet Some of that stuff is really cool to see this, so make sure you check it out.

Jim: 45:45
And lots of things about you not automating fast enough.

Todd: 45:48
Yeah, yeah, and if you need to automate it, get to get with Jim. So well, that's the end for the recording. Thanks a lot, jim. And if anybody, how do they get check out it? What is it? Do a corporation or what? Do you have a website?

Jim: 46:02
doigcorpcom. D-o-i-g-c-o-r-pcom. Doigcorpcom.

Todd: 46:08
Check them out, request a quote if you need the prize, and they'll follow up with you.

Jim: 46:13
So Thanks, Todd.

Todd: 46:15
Yeah, thank you Okay.

Todd Parrish: 0:00
Well, welcome to the Boost ERP podcast. Today I'm delighted to have Daverick Wagstaf fro m ChemBio. He's been one of our customers with Boost for a while and he's actually one of our favorite admins. Daverick is not only a pleasure to work with, but understands ChemBio's business and their needs and really good detail, and it's always been able to communicate well with our staff. And I was deciding to have you on Daverick. Just like I said before, we started here just to be able to talk about what it's like to live in your shoes, and so everybody's listening, Daverick. He's a supervisor of planning and ERP systems and he's been our primary contact since we started. So, Daverick, welcome to the podcast. So let's start out. I always like to give out the list. There's kind of an idea of who you are and where you come from. So tell me a little bit about yourself. Where did you come from School, what's your story?

Daverick Wagstaff: 1:00
Yeah, yeah, no problem. So I'm originally from Way Upstate, New York, about 15 minutes from the Canadian border, currently on Long Island a. So now the meeting, the decision to go to net uite was made before I've been started at ChemBio. Our previous CFO had experience with net suite, so he is the only actually wanted to make the change. By the time that I, by the time that I started at come by, we'd already been about a year and a half in the development of going live. We did like a slow launch, started with like the procurement module and stuff like that, you know, got the core of financials in there and Ben's rolled out manufacturing. So yeah, that decision was made before I even at ChemBio .

Todd Parrish: 5:17
Got it in in just a general, just talking about nested in general, what? What are some of the favorite things that you've seen in this, or what were the things that you like the most about nested? I'm just curious.

Daverick Wagstaff: 5:30
So I really like the fact that it's called base Our, our old ERP system. It was awful to log into it. You had to be on the terminal server, so maybe you know working remotely and it, you know, very, very slow because you'd have to sign into our terminal server in order to sign into the, you know, erp system. Besides that, I love how customizable it is. We have a lot of customizations in it. Being such a Regulated industry as we are, you have a lot of rules that we have to follow regarding what materials can be used, where they can be used, expiration dates up like that, you know, call quality management system flows, and that's what it is able to. You know gives you the ability to Customize workflows. You know certain record types. You know different order of events that you know help us Maneuver our day-to-day activities in a lot more efficient manner than the way that it was done before, because we are able to set up systems and records to talk to Each other. Where you know, before you had to do everything quite manually we can have one record automatically. You know create 50 different records if we wanted to, because we know what the rules are and do you have a lot of scripting in your nest, with account or no? Yeah, we do have a decent amount of scripting and that scripting you know really just helps, you know, with the efficiency of everything. We have a lot of scripting that automatically, will, you know, submit different Orders for approval. We have some scripting that you know reassigned regions based on our region assignments. We have numerous scripts that you know just help the end users day-to-day life.

Todd Parrish: 6:59
Yeah, some of them I think was done before we we actually came in because we didn't help you guys implement. You know came to us later. But do you know, with that are a lot of those scripts or were those workflows? Do you know, was there workflows involved or was a lot of it scripting?

Daverick Wagstaff: 7:13
a Lot of it scripting, and then there's a few workflows here and there. So a lot of the stuff that was done for us, you know, to get set up, a lot of it is script based. And then a lot of the stuff that I'm doing now is I'm doing the last more. You know I'm learning that you can do a lot of stuff with workflows. So you know I'm resorting to scripting when you know, when really needed. But for the most part, you know most of the development I'm doing right now is all workflow based because I can get the automation you know that I want out of, you know, setting of simple workflows.

Todd Parrish: 7:40
Yeah, and you know it's always easy. You know hindsight is always 20 20. So with that scripting, looking back, what would you have done differently with some of the scripting other than maybe use other workflows? Is there anything they like? Lessons learned for people that are looking at scripting? What recommendations or advice to give?

Daverick Wagstaff: 8:02
Um, you know I would. I would just honestly just figure, you know, just make sure that the script is needed. Obviously, you know, because if you can get it done with a workflow, I would personally just do it in a workflow because I think that you know, when it's just a lot more simpler, you know it's a lot more visible. On scripting, a lot of stuff can be done in the background and people lose sight of it. So that's another thing that I would say is also you know, just make I know it sounds silly, but make sure you're keeping track of all the scriptings that you're doing. Make sure that there's, you know, some database of them and you know what they're doing. Just because as time progresses, you know, five years after you're implemented, you know people that set up these scripts might know, might no longer be with the company and all of a sudden nobody knows what these things are Doing in the background.

Todd Parrish: 8:43
So I think that's very important as well, yeah, and one thing that you know people mess great advice because a lot of people do forget. People move on or what have your Changed roles? And in people that don't change role, you know we're also busy and there's so much to go through your head he kind of forget the details. But you know, just keeping a list of those. But then also, I've always recommended make sure you keep the requirements. You know, and even if it's a workflow or if it's a script, really either way you want to have what the requirements were. Because a lot of times we see people are like why did we even do that? And in, and it's really hard when you lose some of that context. So you know, always recommend, like if you're gonna go down, that you know Whether you do it yourself with a workflow or like somebody like us writes a script for you, that like make sure you keep track of those initial Requirements. That's why we always try to put in the proposals so everybody can always go back and say what was this supposed to do in the first place. Because you know, at times we get version control where you know people don't do version control, like oh, we made a change a year afterwards that if you can at least have some starting point, you can put together the pieces. But that's always really, you know, my biggest piece of advice is Keep the documentation some player access neutral that everybody can get to, and it really does save a lot of time and headaches down the road.

Daverick Wagstaff: 10:06
Yeah, no, of course. And then another thing that I would also add is that you know a lot of our, a lot of our scripts will be based off of same searches. So making sure that you know if you're safe if you use scripts that are based off your safe searches. Make sure somewhere in that safe search it says like do not delete, do not modify, because someone goes in. They think that they're doing Someone's like oh, I really want an extra column added to this report. I think would make my you know day to day a lot more helpful. But little do you know that that's actually powering something else. You go in, you make that change. All of a sudden somebody else is complaining because One of you know one of their scripts didn't function properly.

Todd Parrish: 10:39
Yeah, and what's really interesting is that I always had a branding whenever I was it, when I was an active consultant, like anything for like a KPI Scorecard, I literally put KPI colon in front of the name. So if anybody saw it they knew that it was for a KPI and our INT for internal or things of that nature, and everybody has their own little you know acronyms or what have you. But that's a really good call-up because you see that and all of a sudden Something makes that little tweak and all since something goes down. Yeah, is that sweet? No, it's actually in the script in the safe search. That's that's a really good call it as well. And so now, as an S we'd admin, so what, what is your typical week look like as an SNS we'd admin?

Daverick Wagstaff: 11:24
My typical week looks like some troubleshooting, getting emails from end users. This record has this issue. Just because amount of data that we have in our system there's so much to compete with, we might have records that are cut. One of the biggest things is we might have customers that we've made in Actives. We haven't been busy with these customers for a while and they might have, since we made them in Active, we might have also made like an item on the record in Active. For example, we'll have a sales rep that goes in they try to remake them in Active, add new pricing or update their information and stuff, and they can't save the record. They'll email me and then I'll look into it and I'll be like, okay, yes, because we have this outdated item on the record, update everything. A lot of it's troubleshooting day-to-day. It's working on new modules. I'm currently working on setting up my account, the customer portal, working on that. Then it's looking into outside solutions for these integrations. Now that I'm doing the my Account, we got to figure out a payment processor that we'll be using to actually allow customers who pay through it. That talks to Netsuite. So then that opened up another can of worms. So a lot of it's new module development, new product development, customization, request report development. I get a lot of people asking me can you make this report for me? I like this report. Is there a way that you can make this? But add this Then, besides that, user setup, user auditing, making sure that people are using their licenses properly. We only have a certain amount of licenses, so once in a while I'll go in and make sure that everyone's at least utilizing the access that they're being given. Otherwise say, hey, do you really need this? If not, we'll find someone else that's going to make a use of it. Besides that, there's a million things that I can list off that I do on a weekly basis. I'll just a matter on where to begin.

Todd Parrish: 13:22
Yeah, you mentioned one thing third-party products, and that's really an underlooked part of the Netsuite ecosystem. When people are looking at Netsuite as a product, I'm curious how do you or do you have a vetting process when you start looking at third-party products and what does that? Look like.

Daverick Wagstaff: 13:40
My vetting process normally goes by obviously scouring the web, trying to find any information to make sure I get an idea, making sure getting a good feel that the organization has some professionalism to them, making sure that it's even worth my time to begin with. So if I see a website that doesn't really look like profession it doesn't, then I'm not going to waste my time with it. But I can't really see any other information, any other people talking about it, any good reviews on it, then obviously I'm not going to proceed on it. So that's what I'll do at the very beginning. Then, honestly, what I'll do next after I might meet with them. I might do a demo, might just have a chat with them, and then I'll also reach out to your team at GoVirtual. I'll reach out and say, hey, I'm looking into a solution for this. Have you guys familiar with this company that I'm talking to you right now? Do you have any other companies that you guys have personally worked with that you might recommend over them? So that's my methodology.

Todd Parrish: 14:41
Yeah, and we do take a lot of what our clients say, because we of course, get bombarded just like you do as an SV user with different third-party products and stuff like that. But we do take a lot of credit in what our end users are saying, like this has worked well or this has not worked well. What third-party products would you recommend, or is there any that stick out that you like working with particularly?

Daverick Wagstaff: 15:10
So right now. So one of the suggestions that. So one of the problems that I've faced is we're going through looking. We went through an area of trying to figure out how we can automate our direct labor tracking against the work orders. Right, Because one of the modules I'm working on is within routing, where you have all your manufacturing routing. You want to assign labor to it. But now it gets to the point where I don't want people to have to manually enter their own labor for that work order at the end of every day. I want it to all be automated. So one of the issues is we wanted a way to do it like scanning, where it's automatically tracked. People kind of just punch in, punch out and it'll automatically back flush into NetSuite. And your team actually suggested R of Smart to me and R of Smart actually showed me a demo of it that works perfectly well. We haven't gone forward with it yet just because I'm working and getting the my Account or not my Account the Whippin' Row module set up first to where now we can begin the testing for all the labor tracking. But the solution that they showed me was perfect, that our business needs exactly what I was looking for. So, based on what I saw, I would recommend that solution If anybody is looking for a way to track labor automatically and have it back flush back into NetSuite, because it really saves the headache. We do a lot of that manually. Right now we have manual Excel spreadsheet suggest. I know that once we get onto that it's going to be a real time saver.

Todd Parrish: 16:34
Yeah, and we've actually have Ruth on this podcast from RF Smart and because that is one of our favorite third-party products and they are really solid company, solid product, good staff, good implementation methodology. So, yeah, I'm glad you brought them up. They're really solid, so okay. So when your people, when they have an issue, do they route that to your case or how do they let you know? Do you email? How do you generally get your request from your people?

Daverick Wagstaff: 17:07
Normally it's always through email. I mean, I do sit at a desk, I am in the office. A lot of people do love to call me on my desk, but I try to tell people it's an emergency, call me. But if it's something that's like a net sweet issue, that's not life or death emergency, send me an email. Normally I tell them if it's in net sweet, send me a screenshot, send me a link to the record. It's one of the biggest things to get end users to understand is that you might be looking at a report that, for example, I'm looking at my open orders report. Your open orders report might be different than my open orders report. Just send me the link to it, because we've got so many different state searches because people like things a certain way, so I might have 10 different open orders reports. Send me the link to the one that you're having an issue with so that way I know which one to help you with. Because if I just look up open order report, I don't know which one I'm gonna fix and I'm probably gonna fix the wrong one. So, yeah, a lot of it's through email. And then I actually set up case management in net sweet so I just automatically. If it's, I just automatically pump it in a case. That way they can be updated as I'm working on it and don't be notified when it's resolved.

Todd Parrish: 18:15
That's awesome and I still. I've always said for years and years that support cases is probably the least used functionality in net. Sweet, but every I don't care what industry you're in, what you do you can find and use for it internally at least, if not even externally. But yeah, that's super awesome to have every time. I love the cases.

Daverick Wagstaff: 18:40
Yeah, no, it's great. And, like you mentioned earlier, we're doing things like we're doing so many things a day all the time where the good thing about me tracking these things with the cases is that a year from now, someone might have the same issue and I'll be like wait a minute, okay, I remember exactly what I did. Let me go to that, my notes on that and be like all right, now I don't have to waste two more hours refiguring out and resolving the problem. I can just be like oh okay, this is what I did last time. Let me see if it works this time and then save myself the time.

Todd Parrish: 19:07
You know, and for those that are looking at it, I've always said that support cases really should be like the canary and the coal mine, because if you start to get enough data collecting, you know, like, what the issues are or problems are. Then you can start to see, well, I'm having a consistent problem in this area of my business, or a vendor or a report or what have you, or sort of like tracking, like scripts or things of that nature that it really should give you an idea of like, hey, there's something deeper going on in my business, because I started to see different data points on that. Exactly, exactly, yes, 100%, yeah, so that's awesome. So what's the most challenging thing for your staff? So, if you had to pick, you know maybe one or two things. What are your staff as an admin Like? What are their biggest problems? Is it Nesweed? Is it training? Is it understanding the system? What do you fight the most?

Daverick Wagstaff: 20:06
It's honestly, it's remembering to do you know things properly in the system, knowing that you know. One of the biggest things is a lot of the times our manufacturing departments aren't doing their consumptions on work orders accurately or on time. So, you know, one of the biggest issues we want we encountered when we went live is that you know people weren't even building their work orders on time. So I had to create a like rule basically that would block you know them from being able to build the work order if it wasn't on the day that it was released. You know, and then you know set up alerts and reports to email. You know people every day that the work order wasn't built on time. So that was one of the biggest issues that we had when we went live. Then that got resolved because you know we set up those controls and now they're all built on time. And now it's a matter of you know making sure that they're done properly, making sure you're consuming the stuff, because now you know people, the end users, can be so funny because you can set up these rules, but eventually they're going to find a way to try to like keep the system. So we set up that thing and they're like okay, well, so he wants us to build the work orders on time every day, so we'll just build them, get the build made. We won't consume anything, but at least now it says that the work order is built. So you know it's. You know making sure that you're keeping track of the people, getting people to understand that how transactions you know cascade down throughout the rest of the you know system. Another big issue is, you know, speaking on that is teaching people how transactions communicate with each other is huge because, dealing with inventory, we get a lot of I get a lot of negative inventory emails. I have an alert that tells me hey, you have negative inventory, you know in, you know dislocation, so I have to go and look at it. And a lot of the time it's because in our, in our manufacturing environment, we do a lot of pre-yielding and post-yielding. So when they initially build the work order, they'll build it what they should yield, consume what they should be consuming, and then when it's finished, they'll, like you know, fine tune it. You know, build what was actually built and consume what was actually consumed. So all of the yields, all the yields get based off of that and so when they're post-yielding the post-yield as long as they're consumed. They basically what they would end up be doing is they end up consuming everything they did in the pre-yield on the next build and so after, when they lower the quantity on the initial build, now I have negative inventory because they consumed everything on the next one. So it's getting them to understand like, hey guys, if you're doing this build and then you're doing that one, make sure you go back and fix the one that you you know are lower because you can't consume. You can't consume 2000 of something you only made 1500 of, because now I have negative 500 in the system and we got to fix that. So a lot of it. It's just really getting people to understand. You know how the system works. The system can be user friendly, really user friendly. It's just that you know. You got to put you know good information into the system in order to get good information out of it.

Todd Parrish: 23:03
Yeah, and you know you've done a nice job, like I said, over the years. Is there anything that really helped prepare you to get to this point, Like because, like I said, you do a great job with your team? Is there anything that is somebody want to be like an admin, like in the role you're in? What could they do to, like, help herself prepare themselves for that role?

Daverick Wagstaff: 23:26
Honestly, a hands-on experience, a lot of looking into trying to solve your own problems, looking into it yourself. I spend a lot of time. We have access to my Learn, the NetSuite my Learn. I'm using the my Learn a lot, especially with new modules, development stuff like that. I look into different forums. I go on Reddit sometimes there's a NetSuite subreddit where I can literally look up questions that I'm having and I can find actual people other admins most of the time or consultants, different people, different experts that have the same exact issue and have a solution In order to get prepared for it. It's just getting your hands dirty, honestly. It's getting down and getting into it, partnering with you guys and your team, figuring out different solutions for different issues that come around, making sure that it's just not me just throwing the ball over the fence and asking you guys to catch it. I'll play a game of catch with you. I'm not just going to toss it over.

Todd Parrish: 24:23
Correct, that's. One thing that we've talked about in the past is that we have a good relationship because it's two-sided. I've always made the comment that we thrive when there is an admin not that there has to be an admin on the other side, but we have that great admin in place that really can do wonders for the velocity of how fast we work. You mentioned before you're not just throwing up what has worked well for you. For those listening, we have a managed application services contract where we have a certain amount of hours that we help the average and their team. How do you best utilize our consume from GBO? What has worked well for you?

Daverick Wagstaff: 25:11
What's really worked well for me is basically figuring out what my high-level projects are, figuring out what those big goals are within that suite and trying to partner with you guys to get those done, get those worked on. Like I said, I handle all the day-to-day the troubleshooting, the emails, all of these smaller issues you're in there, managed by me. I like to get the best use of our hours on those higher-scale, more in-depth solutions because, like I said, I know how to do all the troubleshooting Every once in a while. Maybe there's an issue that it might take me a little bit longer to figure out because I haven't dealt with it before, but more or less I have all of that covered. I like to utilize our monthly allocated hours on large-scale projects that are basically changing how we do different processes in the system for the better of our company, because to me that's the best value for what we're paying.

Todd Parrish: 26:10
Absolutely Okay. We'll switch gears a little bit here then. Been in technology, been went to school for this and stuff like that. What's some of the best technology advice that anybody's ever given you, or anything you would share with other people?

Daverick Wagstaff: 26:28
Well, just from the beginning, some of the best technology advice is just to always be ready to adapt and evolve. With technology, I mean technology. It's always moving at a rapid pace. It's constantly growing and evolving. It's important that you're adapting to the growth and you evolve. With this You're always getting the most out of it. Generically, I would say that's some of the best advice I've gotten. Then, actually, specifically regarding a piece of technology, like with computers, when I started leveraging computers like keyboard shortcuts, it's a game changer. That's not one of the hidden gems, I'd say. If you're not utilizing and leveraging keyboard shortcuts, they save you a lot of time Moving that mouse around. It sounds silly. It's a second here and there, but those seconds add up if you can just do it on your keyboard shortcut. I actually even have a Chrome extension for NetSuite that I programmed certain key codes to relate to different records in NetSuite. If I just type in these three keystrokes automatically, it just opened up an inventory adjustment form. I didn't even have to move my mouse at all. I quickly typed three keys and there it is.

Todd Parrish: 27:38
It's open for me Wow, that's cool. I'm going to have to check out that Chrome extension because I wasn't aware of that, but that's really cool.

Daverick Wagstaff: 27:45
Yeah, it's really helpful.

Todd Parrish: 27:47
I just used the simple one, just like copy and paste. I was just sitting there thinking if I actually had to go in and highlight in copy right-click, I just like the control-s-control-c. I can't imagine doing anything without that. That's really cool. How about for a business In Kenobi? You've gone through some different changes and things like that. What's some of the things that you've learned that you think that Kenobi is a business that's just doing really well? Or any business advice that you give?

Daverick Wagstaff: 28:23
So I guess I'll take it as two different ways. So what Cambio does really well is it really does adapt to its changes, because the market's always changing. So Cambio is really good at adapting to the different market trends. Like I said, I think we handled the COVID and no market is like really well as good as we could have given the place that we were in at the time. So I think that's something that Cambio does really well. And then just some good business advice is kind of something I alluded to earlier. But it's that you're not really going to be able to rely on reading all this information and looking for, I guess, a secret sauce to business success, because there's not really any. You know you're not really going to be able to find just an answer like that. A lot of it comes from getting your boots on the ground, getting your boots dirty. You got to go through, you're going to have some failures with it before you see success, but like that's really where it's going to come from. You can spend all the time in the world reading and researching, but then all of a sudden you're in the scenario and you know the textbook didn't really prepare you for this.

Todd Parrish: 29:22
Yeah, and what's interesting is I do think that times people get focused on an idea and like there's a million dollar idea and there's no lack of million dollar ideas, but there is a lack of execution on million dollar ideas and that's really what I've learned in my seat here at Ten Years at GVO is like those that can take that idea and execute that and automate it you know, like talk before and things of that nature that's really what I've seen. The difference between those that are closed, that are way past you know the finish line on getting that, is really just getting in there, figuring out a way to execute it and work with the team to pull it off. That's and you're right. There is no secret sauce, right.

Daverick Wagstaff: 30:09
Yeah, exactly.

Todd Parrish: 30:12
There's a lot of hard work and there's really not much of a you know a short cuts with that. And you know one thing that's really mentioned that there's a lot of different technology and learning, and you know, and rolling with that sweet, that's always been one thing that I've always thought is really important, like two new releases. There's two releases every year, you know, taking advantage of that, and there's always a cliche, but you don't know what you don't know. So it's good to pay attention, but what part of that challenge, though whether it's the million dollar idea and how it executed is really comes down to change management, and we see that at times as the struggle. So how do you at ChemBio help with the change management, like whether it's something you've come to GBO with and we're helping you with, or something internally what's worked well for you, getting that change across with your users?

Daverick Wagstaff: 31:05
So, when it comes to change management, I really think that there is like there's two key key strategies or two key ways to go about it. One is it's always got to put the people first. The people are the ones that are experiencing the change. When the change, you know, is, you know when the change is live, right, you know they're the ones that fuel it. The change gets easier when you engage them in it. So, like, if people aren't involved and they don't understand or believe in the change, you know the change really, you know it can only go so far, right. And then I'd say the other strategy is you know you got to make the change compelling and exciting, right? So many people have that mindset. If it's not broken, why fix it Right? So, like you know, the biggest, the biggest thing that, like you know, we heard when we were implementing that tweet, was our old, our old systems. Like you know, why do we have to do this? Like, why do I have to learn how to do it this way? But once you know, you show them that, hey, you know, yes, this is, you're learning a new thing completely. It's a completely different system. Right, you're not nearly going to be spending as much time doing tedious stuff that you were doing or you are doing in this current system. And once you put it in a perspective that is easy for them to understand, like that, where you know they see it as a way of they're getting something out of it, then you know the change is a lot more receptive by them. So I think, as long as you know you put in the people first and you're making that change exciting. I think that you know it's. You know it's really hard to have an unsuccessful change management.

Todd Parrish: 32:29
Yeah, and to me, you can always win the boughs but lose the war. You know the war is getting them to want that and see the benefit of that, so that's really cool. Well, the last question I have is really what are you excited about in the future? What do you see coming in Nest Leader and Business? What are you excited about? What's on the future horizon?

Daverick Wagstaff: 32:51
So it's really exciting for Kim Bio as a company. We just got acquired by BioCinex, which is a French market leader that also specializes in the distribution of rapid tests. So with that new partnership it comes up a lot of new synergies and exciting business opportunities for us. So that's what is. That's an opportunity that I see for our company. And then you know, regarding Netsuit, like I said, I'm working on a couple modules right now. We got some exciting stuff cooking up. We got some projects that I'm working on with your guys' team we're working on. You know, one of our business needs is one of our challenges is Bin transfers, and Netsuit are kind of done automatically, where if you enter a Bin transfer you know it automatically goes from one bin to another. Right, but we kind of do business Bin transfers in our department, at our company, so we don't really want one person to just be doing it and being done in the system. So GVO is actually helping us to create a kind of a Bin transfer request form where the end user can request it and then our warehouse team can do the movement. It's kind of like a transfer order but an interlocation transfer order more or less. So that's pretty exciting. It's going to be exciting to get that solution on board because right now, you know, for those interlocation, interdepartment Bin transfers it has to be done through an email. So it's an email, can you please move this? And then the person that moves it will do the Bin transfer. So that'll be a nice little solution when we get that. And then the two modules that I'm working on the my Account module for the customer portal it's going to be exciting to get that live start getting customer feedback on that, you know. And then Whip and. Routing. You know Whip and Routing. It's a huge undertaking. It's a big project that I've been working on for a while. But I know that once I get that done, once I got it perfected and it's live, the financial reporting on it, the demand planning, benefits that I'm going to get from it, they're going to all be worth it. So those are the exciting opportunities that I see.

Todd Parrish: 34:49
Awesome, and I'm excited to see Whip and Routing, though we've been talking about that for a little bit. I did not know about you guys implementing my Account, which was literally one of my favorite modules. I love that and, once again, if you have any customers that need to get access to similar information, it's a great portal. It's a really good product, so looking forward to see your feedback on that. So any final parting words to ever gain anything you want to share with other NetSuite admins.

Daverick Wagstaff: 35:19
No, I mean I think we covered a lot. Thank you again for having me Other NetSuite admins out there. Like I said, it gets down to putting your boots on the ground looking into it. There's so many resources out there for getting the information that you need, and Go Virtual is a great team to partner with as well. We've got a bunch of great minds that I work with weekly and I highly recommend them.

Todd Parrish: 35:44
Well, thank you, I appreciate the kind words and, like I said before, it goes both ways and good partnerships are solid on both sides. So well, thanks a lot, daverick. I really appreciate you having on the call and wish you the best with the new purchase and hope everything goes good. So, thanks a lot, all right.

Daverick Wagstaff: 36:06
Take care Bye.

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello everybody, welcome to the Boost Your ERP podcast. Here at GoVirtual Office we're going to talk a little bit about an ERP from a recovery perspective today. I'm thrilled to have on the podcast Tracy from CPED. She's the Senior Director over there at CPED. We've worked together for multiple years on a recovery project for their NetSuite account. Just for their background, they use NetSuite for their back office but also sweet commerce advance. We really work together over the years to improve that process. Very excited to have you on board today, tracy. Welcome.

Speaker 2: 0:39

Thank you, thanks I'm really excited to be here.

Speaker 1: 0:42

Yeah, Well there's a lot to talk about, so we're going to dive right in. But first, before we drive into the ERP stuff, give me a background. I know a little bit, but I'm actually curious to know the full background. Tell me a little bit about yourself, where you're from, where you go to school, stuff like that.

Speaker 2: 0:58

Sure, maybe I'll start with what our organization does and then I'll back into what my role is and how I got here through my background. Cped is actually online and in-person programming, like education. We offer certificates that give professionals modern, relevant skills needed to advance their career. Then we partner with organizations to provide customized professional development programs so we can actually come to your company and help you develop right there on site with your team. I love working for CPED It's Center for Advanced Studies in Business. We have a lot of acronyms, but when I refer to CPED, that's what we're talking about. I grew up in Platteville, wisconsin, so not too far, but I love Wisconsin, so I was not really motivated to go much further. I've been interested in technology since I was a child. I remember taking apart radios and I'm dating myself now, but because I was always fascinated with how things worked and how technology worked From there, i immediately started working after high school and going to college. My focus was always on technology, but I find the most joy when I'm helping other people translate and understand how to utilize technology within their space. There's the very technical speak and the technical way of doing things, and then you have the practical business needs. I've been really fortunate to wear a lot of different hats in my career. I've always been that person that bridges that gap between technology and what the business is doing and how they need to utilize technology. Other than that, i actually was a contractor when I started at CPED and I am now an employee there and I'm really grateful. But I have three certificates from CPED. I'm a lifelong learner. To be on the other side of that, supporting the organization and helping other people continue their education, has been a real treat.

Speaker 1: 3:21

That's awesome. To me, one of the things that I learned really quickly when we were starting to work together is you do a fantastic job on that practical application that you mentioned. I always could tell right away that you understood the nuts and bolts of the technology, but to be able to almost be that interpreter for those people that were end users, toss as a consultant, was extremely valuable. It was two directions that you would be able to take information that we would give to you and then you would translate it back to them. That was extremely helpful. You do really have a great long suit in that area Lifelong learning. so where'd you go to college at?

Speaker 2: 4:03

I actually started off at UW La Crosse, but I have a degree in electronics and then a computer science degree from Herzing. Then I've built on a PMP and besides the CPED courses I've taken a lot of other leadership and development education as well. I'm always getting myself into something where I'm a little bit outside of my comfort zone and continuing to learn, to develop as a professional.

Speaker 1: 4:34

That makes sense that you landed at CPED, which is about learning. You're really at the root of what you do and what you enjoy doing. That's very cool. You got your degree in Herzing. Where did you start out in the industry? How did you get into the industry For what we do? how did you get there?

Speaker 2: 4:51

Yeah, it was an interesting journey. I actually was an electronics technician while I was going to school. I was working full-time and working at a company called Mark Whip. I'm not even sure that Mark Whip's around anymore, but they were headquartered here in Madison. Then, when they shut down the Mark Whip here in Madison, i worked at Nicolet Instruments as an electronics technician as well. We were working on spectrometers that use computers to do the calibration and to run the equipment. I wedged myself into the space where you were setting up and configuring the computers that run all of this equipment. It was a need that they had and it was something I was passionate about. I was going to school for it as well. From there, things just really took off. I was working all the way through school and then I started at UW Health in their IT department a few years ago. I was really fortunate there, because I was in IT for 15 years and I got to wear a lot of different hats, all the way from the boots on the ground installing computers and software to eventually overseeing the systems administrator team and a big focus on telehealth at the end of my tenure there as well. Then, naturally, within technology, you were always project managing, and so that was a skill set that I really built upon as well. Then I was a PMO director after that. Now I'm not only the IT director at CPED, but I'm also a senior advisor, and I create online content. as you're aware, i'm always learning, i'm always growing and I'm always trying to share the lessons that I've learned in technology and in the business space.

Speaker 1: 6:47

That's a really good point. You talk about the continuous learning a lot and you really went from the nuts and bolts all the way up to where we deal a lot on the application level of those electronics. What are some of the key things that helped you continuously learn? What would help you be successful in that area?

Speaker 2: 7:08

I think my natural curiosity about how things work and then my drive to always take things one step further In healthcare, the other driver for me was. I was so passionate about what the hospital was doing and the use of technology, the role that technology played in patient care. Ironically, as you know, i've been dealing with a cancer diagnosis and recovery myself, so to know that I helped not only the patients that were there before but ultimately myself in the work that I did is incredibly, not only rewarding but it's very motivating. I really am just naturally driven to understand how technology helps everybody within their role, whether their organization or their personal life. I've just naturally fallen into these roles where I'm constantly helping others bridge that gap as well.

Speaker 1: 8:14

You do an excellent job with that, just of what I've seen, just in our experience together. One of the questions I always tend to ask and like to hear there's a couple of them kind of together but related like technology. There's lots of different viewpoints, lots of different users of technology. I'm curious what's the best technology advice you've ever been given?

Speaker 2: 8:36

Yeah, i mean that's a really good question And frankly I don't know if the advice was something somebody actually gave me or it's just best practice that I learned over time in my different roles. But it's really around technology change control and having a process in place. You know, in every role that I've had there was some level of I don't know if unruly is the right word but there wasn't a lot of control or oversight with not only the technologies that people were bringing into the organizations, but how they were using them And then the risk it was introducing, not only from a data security perspective. But you know, if you are utilizing a technology that doesn't get the job done or it's problematic, you are risking your business, whatever that business might be. So one of the first things I did when I came to CPED was I implemented a technology change control process, and it's really a way to allow our end users to take their technology ideas or the tools or things that they think they want to use and have a process to follow, to have it brought into a governance process to be vetted and to be very thoughtful about what we are utilizing. And I think one of the biggest things that it does is it gives visibility to the entire organization and to those decision makers, so that when we're looking at different tools, we have the opportunity to ask those questions, to make sure it aligns with our strategic plan, to talk about what is in scope, what is out of scope, and then to follow another process for actually implementing it, using change management processes, to make sure that when you're making those changes, you're being very thoughtful and intentional about that as well.

Speaker 1: 10:26

Yeah, and it's great and really to me is so interesting when people start looking at you know, a change management or change requests or things like that. It's really a catalyst for communication. Yeah, and really, in where it forces businesses to cross the part, mentalize and say, hey, what is going on, hey, this is going to affect me and X reason. And to me there's two different schools of thoughts a lot of times with that, especially when it comes to reporting. You know, like, do you allow people to go create their own safe searches or reports or do you lock that down? And there's really two thoughts you can go with that. Well, i want them to go ahead and be able to have that and just make that change. But, as we all know that, you know, a lot of times data isn't always wrong. It could be the safe search and the criteria or what have you that is wrong, but then it promotes that concept that the data was wrong. Right, you know. So it's one of those things that even on a safe search or report level, sometimes it's really beneficial to have that stripped away, that permission stripped away, to be consistent with reporting.

Speaker 2: 11:35

Yeah, i mean, you're absolutely right And in our instance, we're still working on the data And our goal is ultimately to do what you're talking about, which is empowering our end users to be able to get into the system to get the things that they need. But, like with anything, you have to have that foundation in place. You have to have clean data, you have to have structure and bumpers to ensure that they're creating reports or accessing data that is the correct data, and so we're not there yet. You know, as far as giving our users the freedom that we're hoping to give them, you know we're very much sort of like in control of that, but in a way that's very supportive. We would never, you know, dictate what data people can and can't see, but it's really about what you are saying making sure that what they are accessing is accurate And it's going to also get them the end result that they're looking for, because that's the other big piece that, even when changes, workflow changes with a net suite or data request, you know, a lot of times, end users, they know their business and they think they know what they need to accomplish. You know what they're trying to achieve, but it's up to us and technology to really translate that, to hear their goal and then to tell them how they can get there utilizing the technology or the data. And so we that is the role that we are playing right now Eventually we'll have, you know, dashboards and data that's just being readily available, and so that's our long-term vision. You know, we'll get there. Just it's, we got a little work to do.

Speaker 1: 13:20

And what's amazing is that you know we're talking about reporting with this. But at times when we started to do more in the last year, we actually have data analysts, not just data import. People have data analysts and really taking that because that's there's so much data, super data, rich, but you know how do you get actionable data out of it. And as we started to do more with Power BI you know Power Query and things of that nature with their data analysts you know people really had to reframe because a lot of times we would just have a request because I need a safe search, you know, or I need a report, and we would just generally do that. But as we've gone into the data analytics, we actually had to do a requirements phase prior to going into that and that it needs to have the diligence to say, okay, you've clearly said what you want, but like, let's peel that onion back because you're starting to look at the different layers and it almost requires that requirements analysis, that solution design, you know that vetting, proof of concept and that QA. So it's really started data projects. It started to mirror what we've done for a long time in custom scripting And it was really pulling it back to say let's start to apply these principles to data, to validate and make sure, because it is that important.

Speaker 2: 14:44

Yeah, absolutely. I mean the data. There's the data governance of the data going into the system and making sure that we're, you know, always putting good data in but then pulling out the right data based on the needs and you hit it right on the head with that requirements. That that's part of that change control. And the technology governance is, you know, making sure we understand what the end result is that we're trying to get to. And you know, the business. They have their focus, they have their expertise and our expertise and especially in our small group we don't have business analysts, but that is a skill set that I brought with me is to do that requirements gathering, and so important because then otherwise you're delivering on something that doesn't get you what they were trying to accomplish and then you've wasted your time.

Speaker 1: 15:35

So Correct And to me, the worst thing with data is people not having confidence in the data. The worst thing is data right and them having no confidence in that, because then the value of it is very minimal. On that, Yeah, completely Yeah, So with your recovery. So you guys, you know when we first met, you know you brought us in to help with recovery or struggling with certain aspects. So tell us a little bit about where you were at when you started in your recovery when you came on board the CPAC. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Speaker 2: 16:07

Yeah, i mean, that's, as you know, quite a story. So I, as I mentioned, i was brought in as a contractor to replace NetSuite and I very quickly you know you go back to that requirements discussion I took a step back and I just said you know what is the big picture? What are we trying to accomplish? What are the limitations of what we have now that are preventing you from getting there? And what I realized is that we couldn't just up and replace NetSuite. We had all of this sort of foundational legwork that had to be done first. And so the first thing I did was that technology governance. So you got to stop the bleeding. So no more changes without vetting, no more data requests, because you go back to saying you know, trusting the data, nobody trusted the data on the system, but come to find out It was a lot of those, you know, bad reports and that kind of thing. And then so, and then the next, the very next thing I did after that governance is I did an RFP to find a solution provider to help support us. You know, when it comes to there are systems that you can be trained on and you can learn, and it's one thing when you come in clean or you're part of an implementation, but when you're coming into something that has had years of customization, that wasn't best practice you need to bring in experts. And so we interviewed about 10 different service providers and you guys were the clear front runners. I mean, it was night and day the conversations I had with you compared to the others, but it was so important And that's why we did the RFP. We had our requirements defined for the service provider itself, and we needed somebody that was going to have our best interests at heart, that was going to actually partner with us, that was going to tell us the truth and then give us options to move forward. We're a very small nonprofit And so we couldn't just, you know, bring in the Calvary and do an overhaul. We needed to have a plan, and we needed to do it in a way that not only my little team could digest it, but that the organization could manage through that change. And so you know, one of the things as a leader that's so important is recognizing when you need help or when you need people who know what they're doing, and that's where you guys came in. And so, as you know, you came on site and our primary issue was that our website was unstable. It was unsupportable And we were about eight versions behind. I think I don't even remember It was bad A lot of versions, yeah. It was bad, and so you know our priorities sort of spoke for themselves. You know we needed to address that website And I knew and you talk about an overhaul that was something that needed an overhaul And we needed a partner to do that. And then the third thing that I did is that I brought on Dr Katie Forster. She's our Senior Systems Administrator And, as you know, katie is just outstanding, amazing, incredibly smart but dedicated and also somebody who you can trust to come in and have the best interest of the company at heart, to use best practice, to be able to partner not only with everyone in the org but with you all. And so between GVO coming in and helping us create a plan and then Katie really supporting and bringing the muscle from inside of our organization, we've been able to really turn that ship around. But it's been a journey. We just went live with our new website in the summer and that was a ton of work but it was so successful. A sign of a good goal live is that nobody says a word, and that's exactly what happened. But we had sales the morning of goal live right off of our website. We're already seeing our return on investment definitely pay off, but that was clearly our first priority. There are a few of other things that you had pointed out that we needed help. I mean, we needed to stabilize, to get to the point where we could start planning for that website. So there were some other foundational things, and now we're really going to start. We've assembled a team, a data team, that's really going to focus, or is focusing, on our data You know what is and defining what is a customer in our system, what is a company in our system, what are the data elements we need to capture and why on those things. But because of sort of the history of our environment, our net suite environment, we're going to start defining those things and then we're going to have to kind of back into it. So not only do we have like enhancements to the data that we're collecting, but we're going to have to go back and do a pretty big data cleanup effort. But what I can say is that, through this journey that I was just describing, we've taken the team of us, including you. We've taken a system that they were just over. They were like get it out of here, i don't want anything, and I really took a risk. I was like well, actually and the truth is, with all systems and that's where the experience comes in. From me and from you guys We know that you can take the world's best system and customize it or whatever, and not use best practice and ruin it. It could have been the perfect tool for you in the wide world, but if you're not following these processes, if you're not following the governance, it's the wild wild west, and then, of course, you end up with a mess, and it's not as easy as just picking it up and replacing, which is what they wanted to do, which is the start of how we got to this point. We had a different system long before I was here, and they sort of tried to do this lift and shift without really being planful about it, and a lot of the data didn't carry over and it didn't match up, and then we just kept building and building and building on a foundation that was unstable to begin with. So just a ton of work to get to the point where we are. But we are now at the point where people are actually excited about NetSuite Our biggest I don't want to say critics but the people who were suffering the most from what existed before are now singing the praises. They're excited about the opportunity that we have with that system And now that we've implemented a new three-year strategic plan to be able to use the system to execute on that. I mean, it's almost like I can't hardly believe it saying it myself, but it was a lot of work and getting the right people in place and the support of you that made it happen.

Speaker 1: 23:34

So really exciting stuff but a lot of work And I know when we talked in September I think, of last year, after the dust has settled, the relaunch of the website and everybody's able to exhale a little bit it was very, i know, satisfying for both of us Because we knew where that recovery process started And it was. And to me, as you talk about that, i vividly recall some of those first meetings This was pre-COVID, a couple years before COVID and coming on site and sitting down And I remember those first meetings and it would be very reminiscent of being a therapist in front of a couple that had decided that we're divorcing. We just need you to help. How do we do this? Do the paperwork? Yeah, yeah, and really it was at that point, and understandably so, because, as we're going through some of that, and to me, from my perspective of what I saw is there was some probably gross misunderstanding of what Nest we could do and how it had been set up, and it wasn't through anybody's fault, but there have been a number of different partners that have been in. There were some things that I wouldn't say that we're set up wrong, but we're set up right. But there were some and to me, as much as anything, those first meetings were education of okay, nest, we can do this. Well, it's not doing that, understand it's not, but the functionality is there to do this. And there was a lot of people that, and I always say that whenever you have that much energy against the product, people can take that as a negative, in a negative way, which is not a positive situation. I'm not saying it that way, but the fact is is you had some people that really cared about doing their job and doing their job well, and they were not able to do their job well because of the system set up or the data set up or whatever, or not having enough education and knowing how that system works. That that was all being manifested because, like I want to do my job, i can't even come close to doing my job. And so when it did cause a lot of pain And I remember the conversations that we had probably nine, six to nine months there was really that vetting process of like starting to get initial buy into, like okay, plus, not throw the baby out with the bath water. Let's step back. I remember you saying what you said that like look okay, even if you guys decide to go away from Neswee, what you have to do is figure out where you're at in Neswee from a data perspective and how do you want that to work and get those requirements. So even if you do go to another platform, you at least have a roadmap of where you're at now before you make that transition. Then it was really interesting and you did a great job leading your team and just like they're like okay, you're right, we have a good tool. We've just gone way off the path of that, so we get to that point. So everybody's just like okay, we'll pause, we're not going to shoot Neswee. What were the next steps on your side that you guys saw as far as getting towards that recovery process to move in a positive direction? What was next for you?

Speaker 2: 27:00

I mean, I think what was important to the business because they were putting a lot of trust in me and it was a risk, frankly So they needed to see some sort of positive movement And so it was really important for me to start to make some changes or to open there, to educate them through you all on the possibilities, the capabilities, and then also sort of explaining why we were in this situation. We were in because I don't think anybody really understood it And, frankly, there's still some gray area right, i mean it changed through a lot of different hands before it got to us, and that trust was something I really had to earn. And then we had to start delivering. So in my role, i not only had to deliver on Neswee, but I had to deliver on technology across the organization and prove that I'm not making these things up or whatever. There are real reasons and they're going to add value. And so I think we talked a little bit about the instability of the website. Your team made some immediate changes to the website And then suddenly it wasn't the topic that everybody was talking about, it just went quiet. And again, the best sign of a successful technology changes that nobody says anything. And that's what happened. And I remember our CEO, john, saying to me one day I haven't heard a single person complain about Neswee, and this was pretty early on, maybe six months in And he realized like, oh, we are, there's hope here. We are really going to be able to either use this or we have hope moving forward. And so I can't say enough about how much I appreciate John's trust and support I mean even out of the gates, but I really did have to earn that. It was sort of like okay, i hear you, i hear Todd, but the proof is gonna be in your action. So, like, let's get to it understandably and very scary, probably mostly for me, a little less for you, but I mean, i remember having very frank conversations with you about, like, i'm putting my butt on the line here and we need to do this, and I trusted you and I'm so glad I did. But that's that partnership I was talking about when we were talking about looking at other vendors from like a tactical checking the box there. Well, maybe we're some others, but what I felt with you and the message that your team gave to us is that we are gonna be your partner. We are here with you. And you even said something along the lines of, well, you probably might get rid of NetSuite. I don't know, we don't know enough to know right now, but what I can tell you is that we can make a difference And them, hearing you say that, and in a way that was really genuine and honest, resonated with them. So, yeah, but we had to start making action very quickly and your team did, and that's really what started that momentum. And then we went from a timeline of where I was. We had the NetSuite replacement on our roadmap. It was still on a roadmap even a few months out In my mind, though I knew that we were gonna move in sort of iterations, we were gonna address sort of like chunks of problematic pieces to build that trust, and then, eventually, i was able to put out a roadmap. That was also probably the second most scary conversation of my career, where I put out a new roadmap and I hadn't told anyone about it And I just said we're not replacing NetSuite. We got a plan and it's gonna work, and I just know it. And here we are, it worked. I mean it's just like the most incredible, exciting, exhilarating, but yeah, that was pretty intense there.

Speaker 1: 31:27

And I remember a couple of those conversations and one of the things that for those that are listening that may be going through need to go through recovery or stuff like that. The one thing that there's two things, two things really that happened that you mentioned, that were imperative. One is there was a lot of honesty, and when you were able to share it, you're just like, hey, todd this, and we were very, it was very honest. Dialogue, okay, this, what needs to happen, this is what I need to do to start gaining that trust and stuff like that. So it allowed us to have the insight into the playbook. It wasn't a guess And we weren't ever. I think we've been very honest, Like we're not trying to gouge you on anything. If we think it's gonna be this, we'll give you an estimate And if it's less, it's less, if it's more, we'll try to give you an advanced warning. And the reason why so it was always that the goodwill was always there And it was on your part as well and that really helped. But then also the one thing is I look at successful projects, not just recovery projects, but successful projects. The executive buy-in is mandatory. It's really not negotiable for a successful project. Now it could be a middling project, it could be a failed project, and so many times it does end up there. But in one thing I wanted to come back to is that you mentioned Katie before, and we do manage application services, where we do help businesses manage their Nesuit account and we do projects, and there's this common perception that we would be averse to people having a Nesuit administrator. That's farthest from the truth, because we actually probably get the most out of it because whether it's that buffer layer or the summing internally that can help herd the cats or what have you, that that is really important. Now, do I think that every business has to have a Nesuit administrator? They're not cheaper resources. No, i don't think that's the case. It depends on the business. Now what I do see is like your minimum viable product for you. What you have is you do need to have a super user that understands the bigger concepts, so maybe it's not an administrator but has that understanding of like. Okay, i just can't go do the save search right, understand the data structure enough to create a save search that I can validate, improve file and things of that nature, because you guys did have a fair amount of complexity built in some of your projects And a lot of way you had a learning management system where you're tracking, certificates and things like that. So you did have a lot of complexity. That absolutely warranted a Katie And to me, from my perspective, sitting on our side, i never doubted that we could get to where you needed to be. But once our team started working with Katie, and when you brought Katie on board, it was a multiplier effect. It just spent everything up because we could spoon-feed Katie And to give her that. Okay, i think this is what's going on. I'm not quite sure. The next week documentation and and Corey could hop on a call and say 15-minute call and say, yeah, you know what you're, you're not going down the right path. It's close, go this way, tip it to the right a little bit. She's like, oh, i get it, and then she could go full speed ahead and she was definitely one of the keys to success On the relaunch and just the whole recovery project. So anybody's listening the super user something that you just can't underscore. How big of a impact that has.

Speaker 2: 35:01

Yeah, i mean, i think if you put Katie and Corey in a room together, they could solve all the world's problems with enough time, frankly the two of them are just, uh, outstanding, um. So, yeah, i mean, katie, we did. You know, i went back and forth with I. I also had to sell, like getting a senior administrator within our organization. But for us, we, we have to implement. We, well, we had to implement a lot of different changes, especially to the net suite system and and it. It needed sort of like constant management and also support for our, our end users, because we were making so many changes and You know you go back to that change management component, the communication, the ability to ask questions, and she was that translator and not to say that your team couldn't have translated but Because we were doing so many things, having somebody with, you know, in the seat in our organization overseeing all of that, making sure that Everybody in the organization was coming along. She had the visibility into every single role within our, within our org, and to be able to make sure that they were Understanding and coming along with this change Was just critical. I don't think we could have done it any other way and you know you, i'm surprising here that people think that you guys Are not supportive of that type of relationship, because I mean, that has been the secret to our success. You know, not everybody's, like you said not everybody but like, yeah, katie, you know She is anytime she taps into you guys. You know, you know we. We got something big. It's either a big project, there is an issue, there's a change to net suite, that You know we need a level of expertise. You know people that are just living and breathing this all the time And if you have access to Oracle and and you know all of the things. But you know, what I love is that she can come to you with something real tough and You guys are nothing but supportive. And one of my favorite things to do is to be on a meeting when Katie and Corey are brainstorming and just cranking it out and They always come up with a solution and then Katie is able to take that back and execute it in a way in a time That works with our small little company who's already gone through so much change, and really help them through that. So You know we I just can't say enough about those two and and how much their, their partnership together has Impacted the success of of net suite implementation and the and the sweet commerce, goal life and and build last year. I mean just amazing work, amazing.

Speaker 1: 38:00

Yeah, and to me, and really was, it was two-sided on both sides. I totally agree on that. So to me you mentioned a couple times and I know you work with far Well or and you've had experience in change management And really so much of what we did, you know, together was really changed management. Because you know, is it's one thing and I think a lot of times people Take for granted that, like you may have an idea, okay, and the idea is a million dollar idea. There is truth to that, but the execution of that idea the more I do this is the Execution of those great ideas, because there's a lot of great ideas that fail From a lack of execution. So much of that relates, relies back on effective change management. Can you talk a little bit about what you guys did with change management and like your recovery project?

Speaker 2: 38:54

Yeah, so my, my little team actually owns change management, business process management, project management and IT, and so To have the ability to put processes in place for all of those things and sort of marry them together has Really been sort of the secret to success from a technology change perspective. You know people change management is really about helping people through change, which means you need to be communicating with them, they need to feel like they're a part of it, and so we have different tools that we have available to us at CPED. You know, depending on what the project is, we have, you know, a stakeholder list, but we have a communication plan, and the communication plan is, you know, really one of the best tools that we have, because Whether you follow it to a T or not doesn't really matter. The idea is that you're being very thoughtful and planful about who you're communicating to and what you're saying to them, so that they feel prepared and they're not surprised, and You're asking questions to make sure that the change that you're Implementing isn't going to, you know, totally derail What they're doing on their everyday job. Because, you know, we went from our organization, went from 100% in-person program delivery all of our classes were in person to 100% online, basically overnight, and You know then you throw me into the mix where we're, you know, changing the way we utilize net suite. We're upgrading SCA, we are totally Changing the way that we deliver and support and utilize technology within our organization. We also went from 100% on-prem hardware to 100% cloud infrastructure. So if we didn't have good change management, if we weren't communicating, if we weren't planful, this would have been a complete disaster. I mean it was. It was risky, to say the least, but it was so necessary. And so for me to come in, you know, with the experience I had, i have learned from some of the best project manager or, excuse me, change managers out there. I mean I am very fortunate to have worked with some people that are, just like I mean, unbelievable in this space, and so I was able to take those things that I've learned and Apply them here, and I'm a big fan of, like, applying what, what makes sense for your organization and only what you need, and not overdoing it. So we weren't, like you know, exhausting the change management practice to the point where people are. Just that's all we were doing, but it was being very mindful about those different things that you can do around communication and And you know the other thing, that we have done a lot within our company. That's really helped with change management, as we do a lot of lunch and learns. So any changes with net suite, any new features with net suite, any changes with any of the other technology, we always hold to lunch and learns and we invite the entire organization And we talk through what those changes are gonna look like, how does that impact them, and then we give an opportunity for questions and then, of course, we record those for the folks that can't be there. But we always err on the side of over communicating, making sure that everybody is just, you know, as comfortable as they can be in the midst of all of this change. But it has been a, it's been a priority for us to make sure that that's How things are, are being implemented, because I've seen the other side in. As you know, if you can have the best idea in the world with the best project plan in the world, but if it's a surprise to everyone and it's derailing their daily jobs or the other Responsibilities they have and they you don't have their buy-in you can forget about it because it's not gonna happen.

Speaker 1: 42:47

Yeah, and they'll use that energy to circumvent instead of Adopt. And and to me that's really and I kind of forgotten about that that Really this whole recovering project with cove it is, with everything. Cove it changed everything, that you really had to put this on the shelf For a while, because we're like We just learned that we're no longer gonna be 100% in person and if we want to survive we have to transition And so and that's a really good lesson for a lot of people that it's not always a linear On on how you go from like it was a to be okay We hate Ness, we all sudden this week is great. It was really a to M to C to D to Z to back, and so it was really There's a little bit of it and to me you can blame that on cove it, but I see that in other businesses as well. It's never just a linear transition and part of it is really. When you brought up the change management I love that you guys do your lunch and learns and things of that nature, because one of the bigger challenges for people that are doing a recovery project on an ERP or implementing an ERP The reality is, is an ERP, if done well, is going to affect everybody in your organization. And now, if you're a manufacturing plant and you have a new machine, you're gonna train your manufacturing people. A salon machine Everybody speaks the same language, everybody does the same thing. But what's an ERP? you have sales, you have accounting, you have ops people, you have purchasing, you know you have CFO with your book. So you have a lot of different people that you can't Share the same message. It needs to be communicated in a message that they're going to understand and that's where we talk. Go back to, like Katie and yourself I mentioned earlier that that buffer and at times It's really one of the values of that internal administrator or the super user that knows those different roles and say, bob, you remember how you did this. Okay, it's gonna be like this, but it's gonna be on this dashboard. And they go, oh, oh, yeah, i don't have anything to worry about. It's that internal communication with those different people. That it's just a spot. You know a little bit of wisdom that it's hard for us at times, unless we're fully engaged, which you know times times with the smaller companies It's hard to be like engaged That level. But having a super user can be very practical And get in and do that change management with that.

Speaker 2: 45:15

Yeah, yeah, especially when you have, you know, with a recovery. There are so many things that are going to need to happen. Having that One constant person who's in your org, that's, that's got their thumb on what the business is doing at all times, but also understands what's happening from a technical perspective in net suite. It's really helpful because this was a, this was a long journey and we're not we're, you know, still in the thick of it, and so, um, for us to have somebody like Katie, you know, as a constant Um has just been instrumental in, in being successful with this And ensuring that we're not derailing the business, that we're supporting the strategic plan that we just rolled out. Yeah, so it was. It was incredibly important for us and continues to be, and and will be, for some, the fourth foreseeable future.

Speaker 1: 46:09

Yeah, that's great. And my last question on the recovery is is there anything you would have done differently, having known what you know? now, going back, and it has been very successful, is there anything? or like, oh, i wish I'd done that differently. Is there anything that jumps out or no?

Speaker 2: 46:25

It's funny. I thought about that and Katie and I chatted about that. We talked about potentially, maybe earlier on, getting on the same page with defining what a customer and company is and bridging the terminology of our business with the terminology that NetSuite uses, because NetSuite is generally for people who are selling widgets and we are not Some of the terminology. There was confusion there about what is a project and a company and all the things. Maybe having aligned everybody sooner would have been helpful, but not to our horns. I don't know that. There's a lot we could have done differently or should have done differently. We were very flexible and mindful and we had to roll with the pandemic and all the other things. Hindsight is 2020, but I'm just really, really proud of what this team has accomplished together. That's including you all. It's astounding and I just don't know that we could have done it any differently. That we did That speaks to your flexibility as well, and you've always given us options. We could do A, b or C. You make a recommendation, but you're not being prescriptive about how we have to do things. You're understanding that we have our own insights, we have our own knowledge and you're pairing that with what your insights and your knowledge are. We're coming up with the best solution at the best time, and we are ebbing and flowing based on what's happening around us in the business or in the world, or whatever the case might be. I honestly don't know that there was anything significant that we could or should have done differently. It's just awesome what we've been able to accomplish.

Speaker 1: 48:29

I thought about that as well. Thinking back over the years that we did this, i don't think there was anything that jumped out to me. I think that you did a great job having your plan in place and was very methodical. That helps a lot. I thought that you guys did great with the resources that you had available One thing that I think that you mentioned a couple of times. I just wanted to call out that you guys were very methodical in the steps that you took For those that are doing a recovery and the process of recovery or wanting to recover. How you're using that suite, iterative approaches, is really successful to gain that confidence and that's, like I said, one of the things that you guys did great with the resources that you guys did. One of the first things I remember, when Corey and I left, that I'm like they have lost complete trust in that suite as a product and that's the first thing that we have to address is can we get them to a point where they believe that we see SEA can do this? I remember we don't normally do this, but in that situation I remember one of the first steps that we actually did is we actually did a demo for you guys SweetCommerce advanced like you had never seen the product before because you were so old. In some of your versions it really wasn't a brand new product. I remember Corey and I we just did a complete demo of here's SweetCommerce advanced and what you could do and that was like started to defrost a little bit. But it was iterative steps along that and I see times where people where they have some frustration they spent some money on a poor implementation of things like that that they try to boil the ocean and we try to slow that process down a little bit to say, okay, let's get some wins. So the people in the warehouse are feeling like there's some love. People on accounting do they trust their data? Are there financial reports accurate? Can we get that and then go forward?

Speaker 2: 50:28

Yeah, i mean, people could only consume so much change, and it's. I talked about all the different areas that fall underneath my group, but I can't stress enough how important it is to be planful and intentional. And so you know, every year my department puts out a roadmap and what people need to see is maybe not that everything is going to be done right now, but they want to see that it's on the plan, that they are coming, and what we've done is we've taken, like, all of the things that need to happen and we've prioritized them very thoughtfully so that we're doing them in the right order, in a way that isn't going to disrupt business, in a flow that people can consume, but that everybody is going to be benefiting from this long-term plan. And it's a journey and it's not a switch that you're flipping, because we all know that that's especially in technology. That's sort of the old school mentality is like all this planning and then you big bang, and you know the iterative is really that hybrid between the waterfall methodology and doing sprints for agile. It's iterative but not constrained by those methodologies and the out-of-box, if you will, and the out-of-box ways that you can implement. Yeah, and to be able to implement in that way in this organization has been really fun because I haven't always had that opportunity. But then to have you as a partner also be open to doing that, to doing things and like using your common sense and finding a bridge instead of, like you know, doing the textbook way, is so refreshing and that's, i think, why we've been so successful as a team.

Speaker 1: 52:31

And to me, and this one thing that you know I come from a simple background. I'm a farm kid, you know so, and to me, a lot of those things I've learned, you know, going back in the military and like how like in the military is like things to get very complicated and see what the bureaucracy but also see, okay, i need to get this done. What is the most practical way to get that done with the least effort? but the most, you know, most return. You know, really, that's where you know I encourage anybody. Get a good partner. You know that you trust and that you can talk to and that you get on a game plan. So well, that covers a lot of the questions. I have My last question for you, for those that are interested in you guys do have great classes. I one of the cool things working on the website. When you're looking at the courses and stuff like that, i'm like, oh my God, i could never work there because I'd be like, okay, i want to take that class, i want to take that class, i want to take that class. And so how do people find you guys, where they find the classes? How do they get there?

Speaker 2: 53:31

Yeah, so go to uwcpedorg. We have. you know, i talked a little bit about what's called open enrollment, so we have all kinds of classes available for you to sign up and, depending on where you work, there could be different benefits and discounts depending on your company and the relationship they have with us. but you can also build on certificates. So if you're interested in continuing your education and getting something tangible that you can put on your LinkedIn profile or on your resume, we have some amazing certificates in leadership and project management. We have a CIO program that I took myself and it's outstanding, and it's not for people who are currently CIOs necessarily absolutely it can be but it's for people like me. I'm a senior director with a lot of responsibility, and this program covers the gamut of all of the different skill sets and tools that you need to be successful in a technology role. So, absolutely, take a look at our upcoming programs and see what fits with you. If you have any questions, we have the world's most amazing customer service person, brooke, and she would be happy to answer any of those questions. Or if you're a company who you know you need a leadership series specific to your company, reach out to us because we would be happy to come in and give you a consultation and make a recommendation. So, yeah, i loved working here. I loved coming here, i love working here. I can't say enough good things. We're all good people. Everybody within this company is here because they want to be here. They're passionate about it and the culture reflects that. It's just an awesome place to be. And we're at the Fluno Center where we have amazing food. So if you've heard about the Fluno 15, that's the weight you gain when you come to one of our week-long classes.

Speaker 1: 55:28

Yeah, and I've been there. The food is fantastic, Again for those not familiar with Fluno. it's right there in the UW campus, right across from some really good drinking establishments. If you're Wisconsin, there's some great places right next to there, And to me what's really interesting is I have the benefit of seeing the data on the back and side. but for those companies that are looking to have ongoing learning and things like that, what was really refreshing for my perspective is you guys do such a great job of tracking for companies what they've done and what courses they've taken and things of that nature, So that was definitely a great start And we offer virtual.

Speaker 2: 56:08

If you don't want to come down to the Fluno Center, the amazing Fluno Center, or downtown Madison, we can do virtual as well. Obviously, thanks to the pandemic, we have really made that something special as well. So, yeah, definitely reach out to us. We would love to have you.

Speaker 1: 56:25

Awesome And so, and for those that are wanting to learn more about ERP, you can check in our LinkedIn group. Boost your ERP can sign up for that. So get a community to sign up, we'll get you in. We post a lot of articles about new things, so watch out for modules. Maybe you're not familiar with things of that nature. So, with that Tracy, as always, enjoy the conversation. Always learn a lot, too, as we talk about this in the process. So thanks for sharing today and thanks for being a customer. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 56:54

Thanks for having me, Todd. This has been a really fun journey with you and I look forward to continuing it.

Speaker 1: 57:00

Awesome, Awesome. Well, everybody thanks so much. Have a great day.

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello everybody, welcome to the Boost Your ERP podcast. Here at GoVirtual Office we're going to talk a little bit about an ERP from a recovery perspective today. I'm thrilled to have on the podcast Tracy from CPED. She's the Senior Director over there at CPED. We've worked together for multiple years on a recovery project for their NetSuite account. Just for their background, they use NetSuite for their back office but also sweet commerce advance. We really work together over the years to improve that process. Very excited to have you on board today, tracy. Welcome.

Speaker 2: 0:39

Thank you, thanks I'm really excited to be here.

Speaker 1: 0:42

Yeah, Well there's a lot to talk about, so we're going to dive right in. But first, before we drive into the ERP stuff, give me a background. I know a little bit, but I'm actually curious to know the full background. Tell me a little bit about yourself, where you're from, where you go to school, stuff like that.

Speaker 2: 0:58

Sure, maybe I'll start with what our organization does and then I'll back into what my role is and how I got here through my background. Cped is actually online and in-person programming, like education. We offer certificates that give professionals modern, relevant skills needed to advance their career. Then we partner with organizations to provide customized professional development programs so we can actually come to your company and help you develop right there on site with your team. I love working for CPED It's Center for Advanced Studies in Business. We have a lot of acronyms, but when I refer to CPED, that's what we're talking about. I grew up in Platteville, wisconsin, so not too far, but I love Wisconsin, so I was not really motivated to go much further. I've been interested in technology since I was a child. I remember taking apart radios and I'm dating myself now, but because I was always fascinated with how things worked and how technology worked From there, i immediately started working after high school and going to college. My focus was always on technology, but I find the most joy when I'm helping other people translate and understand how to utilize technology within their space. There's the very technical speak and the technical way of doing things, and then you have the practical business needs. I've been really fortunate to wear a lot of different hats in my career. I've always been that person that bridges that gap between technology and what the business is doing and how they need to utilize technology. Other than that, i actually was a contractor when I started at CPED and I am now an employee there and I'm really grateful. But I have three certificates from CPED. I'm a lifelong learner. To be on the other side of that, supporting the organization and helping other people continue their education, has been a real treat.

Speaker 1: 3:21

That's awesome. To me, one of the things that I learned really quickly when we were starting to work together is you do a fantastic job on that practical application that you mentioned. I always could tell right away that you understood the nuts and bolts of the technology, but to be able to almost be that interpreter for those people that were end users, toss as a consultant, was extremely valuable. It was two directions that you would be able to take information that we would give to you and then you would translate it back to them. That was extremely helpful. You do really have a great long suit in that area Lifelong learning. so where'd you go to college at?

Speaker 2: 4:03

I actually started off at UW La Crosse, but I have a degree in electronics and then a computer science degree from Herzing. Then I've built on a PMP and besides the CPED courses I've taken a lot of other leadership and development education as well. I'm always getting myself into something where I'm a little bit outside of my comfort zone and continuing to learn, to develop as a professional.

Speaker 1: 4:34

That makes sense that you landed at CPED, which is about learning. You're really at the root of what you do and what you enjoy doing. That's very cool. You got your degree in Herzing. Where did you start out in the industry? How did you get into the industry For what we do? how did you get there?

Speaker 2: 4:51

Yeah, it was an interesting journey. I actually was an electronics technician while I was going to school. I was working full-time and working at a company called Mark Whip. I'm not even sure that Mark Whip's around anymore, but they were headquartered here in Madison. Then, when they shut down the Mark Whip here in Madison, i worked at Nicolet Instruments as an electronics technician as well. We were working on spectrometers that use computers to do the calibration and to run the equipment. I wedged myself into the space where you were setting up and configuring the computers that run all of this equipment. It was a need that they had and it was something I was passionate about. I was going to school for it as well. From there, things just really took off. I was working all the way through school and then I started at UW Health in their IT department a few years ago. I was really fortunate there, because I was in IT for 15 years and I got to wear a lot of different hats, all the way from the boots on the ground installing computers and software to eventually overseeing the systems administrator team and a big focus on telehealth at the end of my tenure there as well. Then, naturally, within technology, you were always project managing, and so that was a skill set that I really built upon as well. Then I was a PMO director after that. Now I'm not only the IT director at CPED, but I'm also a senior advisor, and I create online content. as you're aware, i'm always learning, i'm always growing and I'm always trying to share the lessons that I've learned in technology and in the business space.

Speaker 1: 6:47

That's a really good point. You talk about the continuous learning a lot and you really went from the nuts and bolts all the way up to where we deal a lot on the application level of those electronics. What are some of the key things that helped you continuously learn? What would help you be successful in that area?

Speaker 2: 7:08

I think my natural curiosity about how things work and then my drive to always take things one step further In healthcare, the other driver for me was. I was so passionate about what the hospital was doing and the use of technology, the role that technology played in patient care. Ironically, as you know, i've been dealing with a cancer diagnosis and recovery myself, so to know that I helped not only the patients that were there before but ultimately myself in the work that I did is incredibly, not only rewarding but it's very motivating. I really am just naturally driven to understand how technology helps everybody within their role, whether their organization or their personal life. I've just naturally fallen into these roles where I'm constantly helping others bridge that gap as well.

Speaker 1: 8:14

You do an excellent job with that, just of what I've seen, just in our experience together. One of the questions I always tend to ask and like to hear there's a couple of them kind of together but related like technology. There's lots of different viewpoints, lots of different users of technology. I'm curious what's the best technology advice you've ever been given?

Speaker 2: 8:36

Yeah, i mean that's a really good question And frankly I don't know if the advice was something somebody actually gave me or it's just best practice that I learned over time in my different roles. But it's really around technology change control and having a process in place. You know, in every role that I've had there was some level of I don't know if unruly is the right word but there wasn't a lot of control or oversight with not only the technologies that people were bringing into the organizations, but how they were using them And then the risk it was introducing, not only from a data security perspective. But you know, if you are utilizing a technology that doesn't get the job done or it's problematic, you are risking your business, whatever that business might be. So one of the first things I did when I came to CPED was I implemented a technology change control process, and it's really a way to allow our end users to take their technology ideas or the tools or things that they think they want to use and have a process to follow, to have it brought into a governance process to be vetted and to be very thoughtful about what we are utilizing. And I think one of the biggest things that it does is it gives visibility to the entire organization and to those decision makers, so that when we're looking at different tools, we have the opportunity to ask those questions, to make sure it aligns with our strategic plan, to talk about what is in scope, what is out of scope, and then to follow another process for actually implementing it, using change management processes, to make sure that when you're making those changes, you're being very thoughtful and intentional about that as well.

Speaker 1: 10:26

Yeah, and it's great and really to me is so interesting when people start looking at you know, a change management or change requests or things like that. It's really a catalyst for communication. Yeah, and really, in where it forces businesses to cross the part, mentalize and say, hey, what is going on, hey, this is going to affect me and X reason. And to me there's two different schools of thoughts a lot of times with that, especially when it comes to reporting. You know, like, do you allow people to go create their own safe searches or reports or do you lock that down? And there's really two thoughts you can go with that. Well, i want them to go ahead and be able to have that and just make that change. But, as we all know that, you know, a lot of times data isn't always wrong. It could be the safe search and the criteria or what have you that is wrong, but then it promotes that concept that the data was wrong. Right, you know. So it's one of those things that even on a safe search or report level, sometimes it's really beneficial to have that stripped away, that permission stripped away, to be consistent with reporting.

Speaker 2: 11:35

Yeah, i mean, you're absolutely right And in our instance, we're still working on the data And our goal is ultimately to do what you're talking about, which is empowering our end users to be able to get into the system to get the things that they need. But, like with anything, you have to have that foundation in place. You have to have clean data, you have to have structure and bumpers to ensure that they're creating reports or accessing data that is the correct data, and so we're not there yet. You know, as far as giving our users the freedom that we're hoping to give them, you know we're very much sort of like in control of that, but in a way that's very supportive. We would never, you know, dictate what data people can and can't see, but it's really about what you are saying making sure that what they are accessing is accurate And it's going to also get them the end result that they're looking for, because that's the other big piece that, even when changes, workflow changes with a net suite or data request, you know, a lot of times, end users, they know their business and they think they know what they need to accomplish. You know what they're trying to achieve, but it's up to us and technology to really translate that, to hear their goal and then to tell them how they can get there utilizing the technology or the data. And so we that is the role that we are playing right now Eventually we'll have, you know, dashboards and data that's just being readily available, and so that's our long-term vision. You know, we'll get there. Just it's, we got a little work to do.

Speaker 1: 13:20

And what's amazing is that you know we're talking about reporting with this. But at times when we started to do more in the last year, we actually have data analysts, not just data import. People have data analysts and really taking that because that's there's so much data, super data, rich, but you know how do you get actionable data out of it. And as we started to do more with Power BI you know Power Query and things of that nature with their data analysts you know people really had to reframe because a lot of times we would just have a request because I need a safe search, you know, or I need a report, and we would just generally do that. But as we've gone into the data analytics, we actually had to do a requirements phase prior to going into that and that it needs to have the diligence to say, okay, you've clearly said what you want, but like, let's peel that onion back because you're starting to look at the different layers and it almost requires that requirements analysis, that solution design, you know that vetting, proof of concept and that QA. So it's really started data projects. It started to mirror what we've done for a long time in custom scripting And it was really pulling it back to say let's start to apply these principles to data, to validate and make sure, because it is that important.

Speaker 2: 14:44

Yeah, absolutely. I mean the data. There's the data governance of the data going into the system and making sure that we're, you know, always putting good data in but then pulling out the right data based on the needs and you hit it right on the head with that requirements. That that's part of that change control. And the technology governance is, you know, making sure we understand what the end result is that we're trying to get to. And you know, the business. They have their focus, they have their expertise and our expertise and especially in our small group we don't have business analysts, but that is a skill set that I brought with me is to do that requirements gathering, and so important because then otherwise you're delivering on something that doesn't get you what they were trying to accomplish and then you've wasted your time.

Speaker 1: 15:35

So Correct And to me, the worst thing with data is people not having confidence in the data. The worst thing is data right and them having no confidence in that, because then the value of it is very minimal. On that, Yeah, completely Yeah, So with your recovery. So you guys, you know when we first met, you know you brought us in to help with recovery or struggling with certain aspects. So tell us a little bit about where you were at when you started in your recovery when you came on board the CPAC. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Speaker 2: 16:07

Yeah, i mean, that's, as you know, quite a story. So I, as I mentioned, i was brought in as a contractor to replace NetSuite and I very quickly you know you go back to that requirements discussion I took a step back and I just said you know what is the big picture? What are we trying to accomplish? What are the limitations of what we have now that are preventing you from getting there? And what I realized is that we couldn't just up and replace NetSuite. We had all of this sort of foundational legwork that had to be done first. And so the first thing I did was that technology governance. So you got to stop the bleeding. So no more changes without vetting, no more data requests, because you go back to saying you know, trusting the data, nobody trusted the data on the system, but come to find out It was a lot of those, you know, bad reports and that kind of thing. And then so, and then the next, the very next thing I did after that governance is I did an RFP to find a solution provider to help support us. You know, when it comes to there are systems that you can be trained on and you can learn, and it's one thing when you come in clean or you're part of an implementation, but when you're coming into something that has had years of customization, that wasn't best practice you need to bring in experts. And so we interviewed about 10 different service providers and you guys were the clear front runners. I mean, it was night and day the conversations I had with you compared to the others, but it was so important And that's why we did the RFP. We had our requirements defined for the service provider itself, and we needed somebody that was going to have our best interests at heart, that was going to actually partner with us, that was going to tell us the truth and then give us options to move forward. We're a very small nonprofit And so we couldn't just, you know, bring in the Calvary and do an overhaul. We needed to have a plan, and we needed to do it in a way that not only my little team could digest it, but that the organization could manage through that change. And so you know, one of the things as a leader that's so important is recognizing when you need help or when you need people who know what they're doing, and that's where you guys came in. And so, as you know, you came on site and our primary issue was that our website was unstable. It was unsupportable And we were about eight versions behind. I think I don't even remember It was bad A lot of versions, yeah. It was bad, and so you know our priorities sort of spoke for themselves. You know we needed to address that website And I knew and you talk about an overhaul that was something that needed an overhaul And we needed a partner to do that. And then the third thing that I did is that I brought on Dr Katie Forster. She's our Senior Systems Administrator And, as you know, katie is just outstanding, amazing, incredibly smart but dedicated and also somebody who you can trust to come in and have the best interest of the company at heart, to use best practice, to be able to partner not only with everyone in the org but with you all. And so between GVO coming in and helping us create a plan and then Katie really supporting and bringing the muscle from inside of our organization, we've been able to really turn that ship around. But it's been a journey. We just went live with our new website in the summer and that was a ton of work but it was so successful. A sign of a good goal live is that nobody says a word, and that's exactly what happened. But we had sales the morning of goal live right off of our website. We're already seeing our return on investment definitely pay off, but that was clearly our first priority. There are a few of other things that you had pointed out that we needed help. I mean, we needed to stabilize, to get to the point where we could start planning for that website. So there were some other foundational things, and now we're really going to start. We've assembled a team, a data team, that's really going to focus, or is focusing, on our data You know what is and defining what is a customer in our system, what is a company in our system, what are the data elements we need to capture and why on those things. But because of sort of the history of our environment, our net suite environment, we're going to start defining those things and then we're going to have to kind of back into it. So not only do we have like enhancements to the data that we're collecting, but we're going to have to go back and do a pretty big data cleanup effort. But what I can say is that, through this journey that I was just describing, we've taken the team of us, including you. We've taken a system that they were just over. They were like get it out of here, i don't want anything, and I really took a risk. I was like well, actually and the truth is, with all systems and that's where the experience comes in. From me and from you guys We know that you can take the world's best system and customize it or whatever, and not use best practice and ruin it. It could have been the perfect tool for you in the wide world, but if you're not following these processes, if you're not following the governance, it's the wild wild west, and then, of course, you end up with a mess, and it's not as easy as just picking it up and replacing, which is what they wanted to do, which is the start of how we got to this point. We had a different system long before I was here, and they sort of tried to do this lift and shift without really being planful about it, and a lot of the data didn't carry over and it didn't match up, and then we just kept building and building and building on a foundation that was unstable to begin with. So just a ton of work to get to the point where we are. But we are now at the point where people are actually excited about NetSuite Our biggest I don't want to say critics but the people who were suffering the most from what existed before are now singing the praises. They're excited about the opportunity that we have with that system And now that we've implemented a new three-year strategic plan to be able to use the system to execute on that. I mean, it's almost like I can't hardly believe it saying it myself, but it was a lot of work and getting the right people in place and the support of you that made it happen.

Speaker 1: 23:34

So really exciting stuff but a lot of work And I know when we talked in September I think, of last year, after the dust has settled, the relaunch of the website and everybody's able to exhale a little bit it was very, i know, satisfying for both of us Because we knew where that recovery process started And it was. And to me, as you talk about that, i vividly recall some of those first meetings This was pre-COVID, a couple years before COVID and coming on site and sitting down And I remember those first meetings and it would be very reminiscent of being a therapist in front of a couple that had decided that we're divorcing. We just need you to help. How do we do this? Do the paperwork? Yeah, yeah, and really it was at that point, and understandably so, because, as we're going through some of that, and to me, from my perspective of what I saw is there was some probably gross misunderstanding of what Nest we could do and how it had been set up, and it wasn't through anybody's fault, but there have been a number of different partners that have been in. There were some things that I wouldn't say that we're set up wrong, but we're set up right. But there were some and to me, as much as anything, those first meetings were education of okay, nest, we can do this. Well, it's not doing that, understand it's not, but the functionality is there to do this. And there was a lot of people that, and I always say that whenever you have that much energy against the product, people can take that as a negative, in a negative way, which is not a positive situation. I'm not saying it that way, but the fact is is you had some people that really cared about doing their job and doing their job well, and they were not able to do their job well because of the system set up or the data set up or whatever, or not having enough education and knowing how that system works. That that was all being manifested because, like I want to do my job, i can't even come close to doing my job. And so when it did cause a lot of pain And I remember the conversations that we had probably nine, six to nine months there was really that vetting process of like starting to get initial buy into, like okay, plus, not throw the baby out with the bath water. Let's step back. I remember you saying what you said that like look okay, even if you guys decide to go away from Neswee, what you have to do is figure out where you're at in Neswee from a data perspective and how do you want that to work and get those requirements. So even if you do go to another platform, you at least have a roadmap of where you're at now before you make that transition. Then it was really interesting and you did a great job leading your team and just like they're like okay, you're right, we have a good tool. We've just gone way off the path of that, so we get to that point. So everybody's just like okay, we'll pause, we're not going to shoot Neswee. What were the next steps on your side that you guys saw as far as getting towards that recovery process to move in a positive direction? What was next for you?

Speaker 2: 27:00

I mean, I think what was important to the business because they were putting a lot of trust in me and it was a risk, frankly So they needed to see some sort of positive movement And so it was really important for me to start to make some changes or to open there, to educate them through you all on the possibilities, the capabilities, and then also sort of explaining why we were in this situation. We were in because I don't think anybody really understood it And, frankly, there's still some gray area right, i mean it changed through a lot of different hands before it got to us, and that trust was something I really had to earn. And then we had to start delivering. So in my role, i not only had to deliver on Neswee, but I had to deliver on technology across the organization and prove that I'm not making these things up or whatever. There are real reasons and they're going to add value. And so I think we talked a little bit about the instability of the website. Your team made some immediate changes to the website And then suddenly it wasn't the topic that everybody was talking about, it just went quiet. And again, the best sign of a successful technology changes that nobody says anything. And that's what happened. And I remember our CEO, john, saying to me one day I haven't heard a single person complain about Neswee, and this was pretty early on, maybe six months in And he realized like, oh, we are, there's hope here. We are really going to be able to either use this or we have hope moving forward. And so I can't say enough about how much I appreciate John's trust and support I mean even out of the gates, but I really did have to earn that. It was sort of like okay, i hear you, i hear Todd, but the proof is gonna be in your action. So, like, let's get to it understandably and very scary, probably mostly for me, a little less for you, but I mean, i remember having very frank conversations with you about, like, i'm putting my butt on the line here and we need to do this, and I trusted you and I'm so glad I did. But that's that partnership I was talking about when we were talking about looking at other vendors from like a tactical checking the box there. Well, maybe we're some others, but what I felt with you and the message that your team gave to us is that we are gonna be your partner. We are here with you. And you even said something along the lines of, well, you probably might get rid of NetSuite. I don't know, we don't know enough to know right now, but what I can tell you is that we can make a difference And them, hearing you say that, and in a way that was really genuine and honest, resonated with them. So, yeah, but we had to start making action very quickly and your team did, and that's really what started that momentum. And then we went from a timeline of where I was. We had the NetSuite replacement on our roadmap. It was still on a roadmap even a few months out In my mind, though I knew that we were gonna move in sort of iterations, we were gonna address sort of like chunks of problematic pieces to build that trust, and then, eventually, i was able to put out a roadmap. That was also probably the second most scary conversation of my career, where I put out a new roadmap and I hadn't told anyone about it And I just said we're not replacing NetSuite. We got a plan and it's gonna work, and I just know it. And here we are, it worked. I mean it's just like the most incredible, exciting, exhilarating, but yeah, that was pretty intense there.

Speaker 1: 31:27

And I remember a couple of those conversations and one of the things that for those that are listening that may be going through need to go through recovery or stuff like that. The one thing that there's two things, two things really that happened that you mentioned, that were imperative. One is there was a lot of honesty, and when you were able to share it, you're just like, hey, todd this, and we were very, it was very honest. Dialogue, okay, this, what needs to happen, this is what I need to do to start gaining that trust and stuff like that. So it allowed us to have the insight into the playbook. It wasn't a guess And we weren't ever. I think we've been very honest, Like we're not trying to gouge you on anything. If we think it's gonna be this, we'll give you an estimate And if it's less, it's less, if it's more, we'll try to give you an advanced warning. And the reason why so it was always that the goodwill was always there And it was on your part as well and that really helped. But then also the one thing is I look at successful projects, not just recovery projects, but successful projects. The executive buy-in is mandatory. It's really not negotiable for a successful project. Now it could be a middling project, it could be a failed project, and so many times it does end up there. But in one thing I wanted to come back to is that you mentioned Katie before, and we do manage application services, where we do help businesses manage their Nesuit account and we do projects, and there's this common perception that we would be averse to people having a Nesuit administrator. That's farthest from the truth, because we actually probably get the most out of it because whether it's that buffer layer or the summing internally that can help herd the cats or what have you, that that is really important. Now, do I think that every business has to have a Nesuit administrator? They're not cheaper resources. No, i don't think that's the case. It depends on the business. Now what I do see is like your minimum viable product for you. What you have is you do need to have a super user that understands the bigger concepts, so maybe it's not an administrator but has that understanding of like. Okay, i just can't go do the save search right, understand the data structure enough to create a save search that I can validate, improve file and things of that nature, because you guys did have a fair amount of complexity built in some of your projects And a lot of way you had a learning management system where you're tracking, certificates and things like that. So you did have a lot of complexity. That absolutely warranted a Katie And to me, from my perspective, sitting on our side, i never doubted that we could get to where you needed to be. But once our team started working with Katie, and when you brought Katie on board, it was a multiplier effect. It just spent everything up because we could spoon-feed Katie And to give her that. Okay, i think this is what's going on. I'm not quite sure. The next week documentation and and Corey could hop on a call and say 15-minute call and say, yeah, you know what you're, you're not going down the right path. It's close, go this way, tip it to the right a little bit. She's like, oh, i get it, and then she could go full speed ahead and she was definitely one of the keys to success On the relaunch and just the whole recovery project. So anybody's listening the super user something that you just can't underscore. How big of a impact that has.

Speaker 2: 35:01

Yeah, i mean, i think if you put Katie and Corey in a room together, they could solve all the world's problems with enough time, frankly the two of them are just, uh, outstanding, um. So, yeah, i mean, katie, we did. You know, i went back and forth with I. I also had to sell, like getting a senior administrator within our organization. But for us, we, we have to implement. We, well, we had to implement a lot of different changes, especially to the net suite system and and it. It needed sort of like constant management and also support for our, our end users, because we were making so many changes and You know you go back to that change management component, the communication, the ability to ask questions, and she was that translator and not to say that your team couldn't have translated but Because we were doing so many things, having somebody with, you know, in the seat in our organization overseeing all of that, making sure that Everybody in the organization was coming along. She had the visibility into every single role within our, within our org, and to be able to make sure that they were Understanding and coming along with this change Was just critical. I don't think we could have done it any other way and you know you, i'm surprising here that people think that you guys Are not supportive of that type of relationship, because I mean, that has been the secret to our success. You know, not everybody's, like you said not everybody but like, yeah, katie, you know She is anytime she taps into you guys. You know, you know we. We got something big. It's either a big project, there is an issue, there's a change to net suite, that You know we need a level of expertise. You know people that are just living and breathing this all the time And if you have access to Oracle and and you know all of the things. But you know, what I love is that she can come to you with something real tough and You guys are nothing but supportive. And one of my favorite things to do is to be on a meeting when Katie and Corey are brainstorming and just cranking it out and They always come up with a solution and then Katie is able to take that back and execute it in a way in a time That works with our small little company who's already gone through so much change, and really help them through that. So You know we I just can't say enough about those two and and how much their, their partnership together has Impacted the success of of net suite implementation and the and the sweet commerce, goal life and and build last year. I mean just amazing work, amazing.

Speaker 1: 38:00

Yeah, and to me, and really was, it was two-sided on both sides. I totally agree on that. So to me you mentioned a couple times and I know you work with far Well or and you've had experience in change management And really so much of what we did, you know, together was really changed management. Because you know, is it's one thing and I think a lot of times people Take for granted that, like you may have an idea, okay, and the idea is a million dollar idea. There is truth to that, but the execution of that idea the more I do this is the Execution of those great ideas, because there's a lot of great ideas that fail From a lack of execution. So much of that relates, relies back on effective change management. Can you talk a little bit about what you guys did with change management and like your recovery project?

Speaker 2: 38:54

Yeah, so my, my little team actually owns change management, business process management, project management and IT, and so To have the ability to put processes in place for all of those things and sort of marry them together has Really been sort of the secret to success from a technology change perspective. You know people change management is really about helping people through change, which means you need to be communicating with them, they need to feel like they're a part of it, and so we have different tools that we have available to us at CPED. You know, depending on what the project is, we have, you know, a stakeholder list, but we have a communication plan, and the communication plan is, you know, really one of the best tools that we have, because Whether you follow it to a T or not doesn't really matter. The idea is that you're being very thoughtful and planful about who you're communicating to and what you're saying to them, so that they feel prepared and they're not surprised, and You're asking questions to make sure that the change that you're Implementing isn't going to, you know, totally derail What they're doing on their everyday job. Because, you know, we went from our organization, went from 100% in-person program delivery all of our classes were in person to 100% online, basically overnight, and You know then you throw me into the mix where we're, you know, changing the way we utilize net suite. We're upgrading SCA, we are totally Changing the way that we deliver and support and utilize technology within our organization. We also went from 100% on-prem hardware to 100% cloud infrastructure. So if we didn't have good change management, if we weren't communicating, if we weren't planful, this would have been a complete disaster. I mean it was. It was risky, to say the least, but it was so necessary. And so for me to come in, you know, with the experience I had, i have learned from some of the best project manager or, excuse me, change managers out there. I mean I am very fortunate to have worked with some people that are, just like I mean, unbelievable in this space, and so I was able to take those things that I've learned and Apply them here, and I'm a big fan of, like, applying what, what makes sense for your organization and only what you need, and not overdoing it. So we weren't, like you know, exhausting the change management practice to the point where people are. Just that's all we were doing, but it was being very mindful about those different things that you can do around communication and And you know the other thing, that we have done a lot within our company. That's really helped with change management, as we do a lot of lunch and learns. So any changes with net suite, any new features with net suite, any changes with any of the other technology, we always hold to lunch and learns and we invite the entire organization And we talk through what those changes are gonna look like, how does that impact them, and then we give an opportunity for questions and then, of course, we record those for the folks that can't be there. But we always err on the side of over communicating, making sure that everybody is just, you know, as comfortable as they can be in the midst of all of this change. But it has been a, it's been a priority for us to make sure that that's How things are, are being implemented, because I've seen the other side in. As you know, if you can have the best idea in the world with the best project plan in the world, but if it's a surprise to everyone and it's derailing their daily jobs or the other Responsibilities they have and they you don't have their buy-in you can forget about it because it's not gonna happen.

Speaker 1: 42:47

Yeah, and they'll use that energy to circumvent instead of Adopt. And and to me that's really and I kind of forgotten about that that Really this whole recovering project with cove it is, with everything. Cove it changed everything, that you really had to put this on the shelf For a while, because we're like We just learned that we're no longer gonna be 100% in person and if we want to survive we have to transition And so and that's a really good lesson for a lot of people that it's not always a linear On on how you go from like it was a to be okay We hate Ness, we all sudden this week is great. It was really a to M to C to D to Z to back, and so it was really There's a little bit of it and to me you can blame that on cove it, but I see that in other businesses as well. It's never just a linear transition and part of it is really. When you brought up the change management I love that you guys do your lunch and learns and things of that nature, because one of the bigger challenges for people that are doing a recovery project on an ERP or implementing an ERP The reality is, is an ERP, if done well, is going to affect everybody in your organization. And now, if you're a manufacturing plant and you have a new machine, you're gonna train your manufacturing people. A salon machine Everybody speaks the same language, everybody does the same thing. But what's an ERP? you have sales, you have accounting, you have ops people, you have purchasing, you know you have CFO with your book. So you have a lot of different people that you can't Share the same message. It needs to be communicated in a message that they're going to understand and that's where we talk. Go back to, like Katie and yourself I mentioned earlier that that buffer and at times It's really one of the values of that internal administrator or the super user that knows those different roles and say, bob, you remember how you did this. Okay, it's gonna be like this, but it's gonna be on this dashboard. And they go, oh, oh, yeah, i don't have anything to worry about. It's that internal communication with those different people. That it's just a spot. You know a little bit of wisdom that it's hard for us at times, unless we're fully engaged, which you know times times with the smaller companies It's hard to be like engaged That level. But having a super user can be very practical And get in and do that change management with that.

Speaker 2: 45:15

Yeah, yeah, especially when you have, you know, with a recovery. There are so many things that are going to need to happen. Having that One constant person who's in your org, that's, that's got their thumb on what the business is doing at all times, but also understands what's happening from a technical perspective in net suite. It's really helpful because this was a, this was a long journey and we're not we're, you know, still in the thick of it, and so, um, for us to have somebody like Katie, you know, as a constant Um has just been instrumental in, in being successful with this And ensuring that we're not derailing the business, that we're supporting the strategic plan that we just rolled out. Yeah, so it was. It was incredibly important for us and continues to be, and and will be, for some, the fourth foreseeable future.

Speaker 1: 46:09

Yeah, that's great. And my last question on the recovery is is there anything you would have done differently, having known what you know? now, going back, and it has been very successful, is there anything? or like, oh, i wish I'd done that differently. Is there anything that jumps out or no?

Speaker 2: 46:25

It's funny. I thought about that and Katie and I chatted about that. We talked about potentially, maybe earlier on, getting on the same page with defining what a customer and company is and bridging the terminology of our business with the terminology that NetSuite uses, because NetSuite is generally for people who are selling widgets and we are not Some of the terminology. There was confusion there about what is a project and a company and all the things. Maybe having aligned everybody sooner would have been helpful, but not to our horns. I don't know that. There's a lot we could have done differently or should have done differently. We were very flexible and mindful and we had to roll with the pandemic and all the other things. Hindsight is 2020, but I'm just really, really proud of what this team has accomplished together. That's including you all. It's astounding and I just don't know that we could have done it any differently. That we did That speaks to your flexibility as well, and you've always given us options. We could do A, b or C. You make a recommendation, but you're not being prescriptive about how we have to do things. You're understanding that we have our own insights, we have our own knowledge and you're pairing that with what your insights and your knowledge are. We're coming up with the best solution at the best time, and we are ebbing and flowing based on what's happening around us in the business or in the world, or whatever the case might be. I honestly don't know that there was anything significant that we could or should have done differently. It's just awesome what we've been able to accomplish.

Speaker 1: 48:29

I thought about that as well. Thinking back over the years that we did this, i don't think there was anything that jumped out to me. I think that you did a great job having your plan in place and was very methodical. That helps a lot. I thought that you guys did great with the resources that you had available One thing that I think that you mentioned a couple of times. I just wanted to call out that you guys were very methodical in the steps that you took For those that are doing a recovery and the process of recovery or wanting to recover. How you're using that suite, iterative approaches, is really successful to gain that confidence and that's, like I said, one of the things that you guys did great with the resources that you guys did. One of the first things I remember, when Corey and I left, that I'm like they have lost complete trust in that suite as a product and that's the first thing that we have to address is can we get them to a point where they believe that we see SEA can do this? I remember we don't normally do this, but in that situation I remember one of the first steps that we actually did is we actually did a demo for you guys SweetCommerce advanced like you had never seen the product before because you were so old. In some of your versions it really wasn't a brand new product. I remember Corey and I we just did a complete demo of here's SweetCommerce advanced and what you could do and that was like started to defrost a little bit. But it was iterative steps along that and I see times where people where they have some frustration they spent some money on a poor implementation of things like that that they try to boil the ocean and we try to slow that process down a little bit to say, okay, let's get some wins. So the people in the warehouse are feeling like there's some love. People on accounting do they trust their data? Are there financial reports accurate? Can we get that and then go forward?

Speaker 2: 50:28

Yeah, i mean, people could only consume so much change, and it's. I talked about all the different areas that fall underneath my group, but I can't stress enough how important it is to be planful and intentional. And so you know, every year my department puts out a roadmap and what people need to see is maybe not that everything is going to be done right now, but they want to see that it's on the plan, that they are coming, and what we've done is we've taken, like, all of the things that need to happen and we've prioritized them very thoughtfully so that we're doing them in the right order, in a way that isn't going to disrupt business, in a flow that people can consume, but that everybody is going to be benefiting from this long-term plan. And it's a journey and it's not a switch that you're flipping, because we all know that that's especially in technology. That's sort of the old school mentality is like all this planning and then you big bang, and you know the iterative is really that hybrid between the waterfall methodology and doing sprints for agile. It's iterative but not constrained by those methodologies and the out-of-box, if you will, and the out-of-box ways that you can implement. Yeah, and to be able to implement in that way in this organization has been really fun because I haven't always had that opportunity. But then to have you as a partner also be open to doing that, to doing things and like using your common sense and finding a bridge instead of, like you know, doing the textbook way, is so refreshing and that's, i think, why we've been so successful as a team.

Speaker 1: 52:31

And to me, and this one thing that you know I come from a simple background. I'm a farm kid, you know so, and to me, a lot of those things I've learned, you know, going back in the military and like how like in the military is like things to get very complicated and see what the bureaucracy but also see, okay, i need to get this done. What is the most practical way to get that done with the least effort? but the most, you know, most return. You know, really, that's where you know I encourage anybody. Get a good partner. You know that you trust and that you can talk to and that you get on a game plan. So well, that covers a lot of the questions. I have My last question for you, for those that are interested in you guys do have great classes. I one of the cool things working on the website. When you're looking at the courses and stuff like that, i'm like, oh my God, i could never work there because I'd be like, okay, i want to take that class, i want to take that class, i want to take that class. And so how do people find you guys, where they find the classes? How do they get there?

Speaker 2: 53:31

Yeah, so go to uwcpedorg. We have. you know, i talked a little bit about what's called open enrollment, so we have all kinds of classes available for you to sign up and, depending on where you work, there could be different benefits and discounts depending on your company and the relationship they have with us. but you can also build on certificates. So if you're interested in continuing your education and getting something tangible that you can put on your LinkedIn profile or on your resume, we have some amazing certificates in leadership and project management. We have a CIO program that I took myself and it's outstanding, and it's not for people who are currently CIOs necessarily absolutely it can be but it's for people like me. I'm a senior director with a lot of responsibility, and this program covers the gamut of all of the different skill sets and tools that you need to be successful in a technology role. So, absolutely, take a look at our upcoming programs and see what fits with you. If you have any questions, we have the world's most amazing customer service person, brooke, and she would be happy to answer any of those questions. Or if you're a company who you know you need a leadership series specific to your company, reach out to us because we would be happy to come in and give you a consultation and make a recommendation. So, yeah, i loved working here. I loved coming here, i love working here. I can't say enough good things. We're all good people. Everybody within this company is here because they want to be here. They're passionate about it and the culture reflects that. It's just an awesome place to be. And we're at the Fluno Center where we have amazing food. So if you've heard about the Fluno 15, that's the weight you gain when you come to one of our week-long classes.

Speaker 1: 55:28

Yeah, and I've been there. The food is fantastic, Again for those not familiar with Fluno. it's right there in the UW campus, right across from some really good drinking establishments. If you're Wisconsin, there's some great places right next to there, And to me what's really interesting is I have the benefit of seeing the data on the back and side. but for those companies that are looking to have ongoing learning and things like that, what was really refreshing for my perspective is you guys do such a great job of tracking for companies what they've done and what courses they've taken and things of that nature, So that was definitely a great start And we offer virtual.

Speaker 2: 56:08

If you don't want to come down to the Fluno Center, the amazing Fluno Center, or downtown Madison, we can do virtual as well. Obviously, thanks to the pandemic, we have really made that something special as well. So, yeah, definitely reach out to us. We would love to have you.

Speaker 1: 56:25

Awesome And so, and for those that are wanting to learn more about ERP, you can check in our LinkedIn group. Boost your ERP can sign up for that. So get a community to sign up, we'll get you in. We post a lot of articles about new things, so watch out for modules. Maybe you're not familiar with things of that nature. So, with that Tracy, as always, enjoy the conversation. Always learn a lot, too, as we talk about this in the process. So thanks for sharing today and thanks for being a customer. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 56:54

Thanks for having me, Todd. This has been a really fun journey with you and I look forward to continuing it.

Speaker 1: 57:00

Awesome, Awesome. Well, everybody thanks so much. Have a great day.

Speaker 1: 0:00

Well, welcome to Boost your ERP podcast Today. We got Jake Cook from Taphole with us today, so welcome Jake.

Speaker 2: 0:09

Glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1: 0:11

Yeah, thanks. So the Boost our ERP podcast. As always, we're just focusing on really things in the next week ecosystem and different partnerships that we have and, just like everybody plays in the same space, we all need to learn from different lessons that different perspectives that people have. So really just want to focus a lot on best practices, just things like you don't know what you don't know And one of the things that, jake, we've been working together for years and I've always been fascinated by our conversations and you really do bring such a unique perspective to the next week road And just really excited to have you on because you bring that just a different light site into some of the things that we in this week take for granted. So I'm excited to have you on the podcast today. We're going to get into some questions, into some kind of remotely technical stuff. But first tell me a little bit What is your background, jake? I mean, i've known you for years. I'm like where are you from? Where did you go to school, all that stuff? Tell me a little bit about that.

Speaker 2: 1:19

Sure, So I grew up in Northeastern Wyoming I'm a fifth generation super small town And I ended up in Bozeman, Montana, for swimming. So it was a swimmer from could have swimmer starting at age five, some all the way through college. That kind of went to school on a swimming scholarship for a division two school, Drury University in Springfield, Missouri, And I got into it was a liberal arts school. So I was very confused as a student. I started off in sociology, did business, But I had a high school physics teacher that kind of blew my mind with showing what you can do with science and math And so, yeah. So I ended up getting a degree in physics, was going to do a dual degree with mechanical engineering at Washington University in St Louis. He did engineering. I worked full time as an intern about nine months in industry for in a biotech company And then from that I got my masters in marketing. This is like 2002 to 2004, kind of when the consumer, consumer, internet really takes off. You know broadband comes on in a big way Yeah, Pre Facebook, pre YouTube, And so, so, yeah. So I kind of fell backwards into kind of the digital e-commerce space from there.

Speaker 1: 2:26

So what made you fall into marketing? So what, what, what drew you to marketing?

Speaker 2: 2:31

You know it's funny, when I was working for that, trying to figure out what I can do with my life, i would work in this R&D lab for this French company And the engineers would come in and review like what they were producing and in the lab and complain, the marketer, people can't explain it, and then they would leave. And then the marketers would come in and be like, well, they're building something that nobody wants, so it's going to know how to use And so. But having been in that room on both sides and hearing both of those conversations, you could see like they both have valid points on what they're what they're saying And I was like, huh, so maybe there's this kind of weird area where you kind of span kind of technical and business, and so that's kind of why I decided to go back and do and do marketing And I was going to a PhD in physics after that. I love teaching but I dropped out of a PhD program And then I just kind of once I found kind of digital marketing. It mapped to physics really cleanly because it's like the site. There's data that comes off the back end of that, which is really fun, So yeah, but you're still involved with someone with academia now.

Speaker 1: 3:27

Is that correct?

Speaker 2: 3:28

Yeah, so I teach at Harvard Business School. I do some guest lecturing there on analytics and customer analytics and do some research in case study development with some professors there, and then and then I teach a create, teach a couple of e-commerce courses, one for University of Montana and one for computer science here at Montana State.

Speaker 1: 3:45

That's super cool And to me and I really want to dive in I'm going to ask these questions because it's such a good one. I mean, do you see really where that because you know, i remember the 80s and 90s and marketing and things like that Do you see that there's really pretty big adoption of like there's a science behind marketing or is there still more of a? it's a field business, not a science business?

Speaker 2: 4:08

You know, as you'd imagine, kind of like at a Harvard Business School. There's a faculty there that's very focused on, like, marketing science, marketing analytics. We work a little as some faculty at the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania and these are kind of but they're kind of more quant based. Yeah, you know, really deep on quant based research methodologies. But in academia in general, i think when you look at what's going on in the world with marketing and digital like there, there are a lot of them are, you know, just way, way behind. Yeah, i mean, talk more about this, but it's just to do great research, you have to have data and it's very hard to give a for for them to get access to really good cutting edge data. So, yeah, so there's always that challenge on that, but it's definitely a lot better than when, i think, i started first teaching in 2007.

Speaker 1: 4:52

So, yeah, it's way better than it was five, 10 years ago, for sure, yeah, And I think that's one of the reasons why, you know, when I attended one of the seminars the sweet world where one of your customers was talking about different data, analytics and stuff like that And that was one of the things that drew my interest in. what you guys were doing with your customers is, you know, taking that, that that rich data, you know, in doing something with it other than just your standard reports. So you know, so that's really interesting. So tell me a little bit about tadpole and how. how does tadpole play into that? Or, or how did tadpole come about?

Speaker 2: 5:29

Yeah, So we started almost 10 years ago around this idea that data customer data in particular, but lots of data blended together gives you great insights. Yeah, so we founded the company, initially doing user experience research, kind of qualitative user experience research like you know our very first client was donors choose in New York and they had this huge, interesting challenge because it's a crowdfunding platform for teachers Yeah. So if you have a school district and you want to go on and get paint brushes for your art class, a lot of these teachers are reaching to their own pockets and paying for that. Yeah, and if there's amazing opportunity, we have so much capital to deploy for the teachers. But they have a huge challenge getting people like teachers to on board onto the platform. And that was one of the first like wow, if you can change an onboarding flow or how someone goes through some forms to sign up for an account, and what does a teacher think about who's busy in a classroom and doesn't have a lot of time, even over the lunch hour for 20 minutes or trying to fill out this form. So that was kind of the first like really getting like empathy for an end user and then using, like you know, user studies and then running prototypes off that. So from there we just kind of grew and e-commerce continues And e-commerce continued to explode and data did too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So today, yeah, we have a software product, then integration to leave that suite, and Shopify and big commerce and claveo, and then we have our own kind of We call a first-party pixel, so a way for these smaller merchants to build their own really powerful data sets, similar to what an Amazon's building on their side every day. Yeah, and then we so yeah, so that's that. And we have a services arm that takes that data, kind of guides clients through these very specific stage gates to kind of scale their e-commerce business and a very kind of predictable methodology.

Speaker 1: 7:14

Yeah, well, that, like, is a always enjoyed working with you guys, because I always come away learning something From from the marketing world and from the application of it every time I talk with your team is so it's really interesting.

Speaker 2: 7:29

Well, likewise, and as I tell my grad students, i teach a data science class and 80% of data science is cleaning. Munging data and Partner like GDO across the table, like an algorithm, is only as good as a clean, as a psychic car. If the gas is dirty It's just gonna sputter on the side of the road. So you got to have got that data, got that data out of the, out of the ground, and refine it and get into the car clean.

Speaker 1: 7:51

So yeah, yeah, super critical for our work. Yeah, and it's interesting is the more and I've had some, some of our delivery team who says some go lives and and recently and just talking with the team, the delivery team and you know, just talking about data and blah, blah, blah and how Important it is for that data to be accurate prior to a goal, live and just thinking about the analogy that you know, like that's with the body, you know, if that's with the body, the data is the blood, is the life blood of that ERP And you can have all of those elements in the correct order, but until you have the right item data, the customer data, the pricing and things like that, it's just so, it's just it's not optional, you know, you know to have clean data and the importance of that. so Well, i got some questions for you that I always ask everybody. So the first one I'm gonna ask you is You know, being in the tech jobs, so this may be a tough question, but what's the best technology advice anybody ever gave you? You?

Speaker 2: 8:58

know it's disposable Technology is disposable and get used to it. So it's gonna move quick. And you got to have a mindset that you're gonna build something But you're gonna throw it away, probably. Or you know, ie upgraded But I think that idea it's easy, especially when you're building technology, to really get Emotionally attached to this, like artifact you know, and thinking that it doesn't need to change or grow. But I Think technology is always gonna. The Darwinian nature of it means you're always having to kind of Ah, you kind of get comfortable with the.

Speaker 1: 9:30

Yeah, in the CFOs on that are listening to your cursing you right now because I've capitalized this, this great product That we built out. That is gonna, but that really is. But that really is true, you know, because if you look at a fax machine, you know, or a beeper, or anything of that nature.

Speaker 2: 9:49

So and I think, disposable of the sense of you know what you bought and thinking you can just you know, for example, yeah, the ERP system.

Speaker 1: 9:55

Okay, great.

Speaker 2: 9:56

Now what do we add, what do we both on to that? or how do we take that data and diffuse it across your organization? and then you know And then also say, for example, examples, maybe you're feeding that data in your e-commerce site, but it loads really slow on mobile or whatever. Yeah, yeah okay, now we it's technically works, but it does need to get kind of disposed of an upgraded.

Speaker 1: 10:15

So Correct, make it load quicker or whatever so but and it's really true and you know as a good mindset Do you think that? I'm just curious from your perspective? Does technology ever get to a point where it's more fluid and that that it is more? I don't say organic, but you know it's a little bit more. That foundation is always there that you just build upon. Do you think it ever gets to that point, or no?

Speaker 2: 10:40

I think, i think data does to some degree. I mean data changes all the time, but I would should be just to be clean with my language here. I think data structures get to a point where they can be very stable for a business.

Speaker 1: 10:52

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:52

Yeah, and what you can do on top of that data structure in terms how you ingest it and exchange it, do all that fun stuff and transform it. All That got voted, the ETL work, that stuff, i think can That some there's always gonna be. You know, bugs in the system and quirks, but you bet, you bet. More importantly, i would say, is the culture that comes out of that too. So the culture, how they use the data and how you take that and get people to Okay this, this is broken. Who's gonna fix it in by when? Yeah, and then having the rhythms and the roles against that. I think that's another way of like Wage that the technology was, tell you what it should get fixed or upgraded and things like that, but a lot of times is, you know, like the sits in a dashboard deep in the vowels of a company that nobody looks at.

Speaker 1: 11:36

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and to me and and I've always believed in the nest we world. You know, and, as I've done, dealt with nest week for years and years that it's such a great platform For capturing data. Yes, but really, where that Can see, or where that, that place that we all want to get, is like, what is the actionable data From that? because data should be leading to an action or a correction or something that nature, not just a static. Here's my, you know my inventory turns. That's great, but what are you doing with that inventory turn or how is it affected?

Speaker 2: 12:14

100% and I think of data is kind of like tombs dashboards, like tombstones, right. Yeah, i'll tell you when something lived and died And that's about it, right?

Speaker 1: 12:22

You don't know was it a good life a bad life.

Speaker 2: 12:24

Yeah, you know you want to be. I think with data To it should be more of an EKG. So you know we're checking it. Okay, how's our EKG doing? What's?

Speaker 1: 12:33

you know Well, we have high blood pressure markers.

Speaker 2: 12:34

Yeah, what's your markers on the markers and how do we kind of adapt off that And then, especially with data, just as a common practice I see all the time. How did this compare? Oh, we're up 30%, 30% to last year, last month, last week, and then all the things that influence that where we were back in stock or we're out of stock or all that kind of parts that live beyond kind of a Just a simple static dashboard. But that's the conversations, and data should really drive Conversations to get results from it. I feel like so correct.

Speaker 1: 13:06

You know you mentioned the data structure. That's interesting to say that because I know whether it's a new implementation or a new subsidiary that's coming on. One of the first things that From a vendor and that's we partner is that we always want to say, okay, can you get us the export over coming with, and we're very in the large times. People say okay, well, what format do you want and what fields do you want? And you know we're very clear about you. Know like dump at all you know, I'm like. And it like every single field that you have on there, because you do the, the, the doubles in the details, because you're like, okay, we expect on vendors to have the name, the contact, the address, the bill to all that. But then when you see those other fields, you're like what's that? What's that field, what's that field, what is that field? Well, that's how we track this. Okay. Well, why do you? why do you do that? And but there it is. The anomaly is, yes, you're correct that I think that the data structure is probably kind of set, you know, when you look at master records, but some of that Ancillary information is really what's driving the conversations.

Speaker 2: 14:12

Well, and I think that's where you have a, a great expert like a gbo in there that can bring some creativity. Yeah, yeah, you did it this way and you set that up, you know with maybe it was an on-prem system or quick books or whatever, And it's like well, did you know you? could do this, and I think that's where a net suite can start to really shine and be powerful, it can also be kept. You have to be kind of careful too, because if you don't have an expert in there helping you think through, you can get real rats nest too.

Speaker 1: 14:35

Yeah you can't, yeah, yeah so you know and that is one of the questions that we asked I'm like okay, do you still need this data? You know, do you? do you actually need that historical data? Is there a value to that? So, but yeah, that that is. That's really a lot. I love that a technician, but it's going to go away. Don't get locked into it and keep and keep.

Speaker 2: 14:55

Fluid is why here is keep fluid, keep fluid and updating, and I think that especially with big digital transformation projects, big capital outlays to do it, it's like I'm all this money, now We're, we're done, right, and it's like, yeah, you are. But it's kind of like going to the gym And be like, okay, i'm in shape now. It's like, no, everything degrades. Entropy is everywhere. Second law thermodynamic rules the world and so like you'll have to kind of fight that entropy and go back and upgrading things as you go through it.

Speaker 1: 15:20

Yeah, no, that that's, that's great advice. So then the follow-up question is is what's the best business advice, non-technical? What's the business when you're a business owner yourself? you deal with business? What's the best business advice you've ever heard or received?

Speaker 2: 15:34

it's not, it's kind of I mean, sounds kind of trite, but no with. you know, when you see a wave paddle and get, just go, and you know You got to be in front of those waves to really see big opportunities. and um, even like you, look at a Warren Buffett right, he says, when I see something I don't just kind of commit, i put all my chips on the table. So I think a lot of is like building your spidey senses, if you will, your intuitions and some decision criteria to really think. if you are in front of a wave, and that's yeah. And if you've ever been to the ocean when you feel that pull of that wave going out and you're like that, i think you're kind of listening for that in like the business and the economy and then really starting to paddle.

Speaker 1: 16:17

So Yeah, no, that's great advice And to me that kind of leads to my next question that may line up with this is that when you deal with businesses and every business has had customers that are just like, wow, this business just crushed it They get it And other businesses are good not to diminish them, but everybody deals with customers like, okay, i love what I do, but if, like, i didn't work here, i go work for that company or work with that company, what those companies? I'm sure you have them. What are they doing? right that you know that you don't see other businesses do? Is it tie in, kind of what you're saying before?

Speaker 2: 16:56

You know it's funny, i teach this kind of a model. We call it the five Cs of e-commerce. Yeah, and the first thing I would say for the ones that kind of crush it and you could abstract it it's a little bit in the ways of digital stuff, but basically they have capital, right, they're not trying to like, take $2 and turn into $1,000, right, they invest accordingly and against a conviction or a thesis. I think the next step is they've got a culture that's obsessed on customers. Yeah, and everything they build from a product or customer experience kind of anchors off that you know down to. You know shipping confirmations And what is that experience? We click over to track that order or whatever, and then they build great products. And I think that's the thing with the internet is, if you build garbage products, you know it's easy to knock it off and put it on Amazon. Yeah, and then you know it's really easy, like all of us, if it's a new and up and coming brand and it's a high price point, you're going to go look at the reviews, you're going to go to Reddit and you're going to go to YouTube. So you, within 15, 20 minutes, have a really good triangulation if this is worth investing in And I think some people think that like the old days of commerce where you could kind of hoodwink people like God, you know, no one will find out.

Speaker 1: 18:03

It's like oh, yeah, yeah, Yeah Yeah. You can outmarket the customer, right? You know, in the old day and you could just like it does this and you're like it's so hard to return or I can't get ahold of somebody on the phone that you just you buy him, what do you do? You just kind of live with it. There's no recourse back to that. Now you have that recourse to reviews.

Speaker 2: 18:24

And the patience to back that capital and time like it takes a lot of people, i think, and I live more in the, obviously in the e-commerce you know, on the general, space. But when it comes to like direct to consumer or D to C, a lot of people think, well, i just got to put up this site and I just have an ATM in my business. It's just going to throw out cash, right. It's like it takes a lot of time. It takes years to get something to compound and not linear growth. But if you want to get exponential compounding growth, that does take time.

Speaker 1: 18:48

And I think that's back to that kind of cultural component of the way leadership thinks about the capital and when they expect returns and we're not going to build a new website and put in an ERP and then we're going to make millions of dollars in three months, it's like, hey, you know so And I guess follow a question on that, and I do see that as well Those that treat their customers while you see it And to me, i've been at sales in part of my background I could always tell great companies by how companies treated their vendors, because I was at sales And it's just like this whole methodology. We'll use a word earlier that I think has been a great buzzword industry is empathy. We have empathy is really, and to me, like when you know, we hire primarily on business experience for our consultants. You know, in our managed applications, our business department, the number one criteria is you have business experience, have you lived in that shoes? Because it's extremely hard to have empathy if you haven't lived in that shoes. Where your website's down, or you got this and I'm dealing with an image issue And you know when, when you've lived in that world and they call you up and you know, or somebody's trying to close their books tomorrow and they've been a controller and like I got to get this deck to my board, and when you've been that controller, you're like, oh, i know what you're at, i'm gonna drop this and we're gonna get it out the door, you know. So to me that empathy is really cool. But how do you see you know companies because they're always say start at the top. You know it's rare to ever see a great customer-focused department. You know our business not have a start at the top because it takes so much energy and it takes an investment. You know, like I said, you see an investor relationship, it's a customer relationship. How do you see those get that down to that next level? Have you ever run across where you see a good transformation from here down to here?

Speaker 2: 20:49

Yeah, i think that Peter Drucker quote you know that management guru, peter Drucker that said you know a culture strategy for breakfast. Yeah, peter Drucker, michael Porter, one of those two, but that culture piece you know, the most strategic, smartest, amazing. you know business plan analyst, blah, blah, blah. But you know how does the CEO treat the person in the front desk? Yeah, how do they treat a vendor, or, to your point, and then how do they treat, you know, a junior intern right, and I think that all just kind of like will emanate out. And in this new world post COVID, i mean, people have lots of options where to work. they expect a lot more in terms of the cultures they work in. Yeah, and so you know there's. you know that old, you know nice guys finish last. I would argue that you know.

Speaker 1: 21:34

That's changed.

Speaker 2: 21:35

That's changed a lot. That's changed a lot. Yeah, exactly So yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:40

And to me, what's interesting is, as we talk about this whole industry and the paradigm is, in some way, e-commerce really started to drive that, because so much of this self-service, i can get more data, i can give more feedback, i can give all that that. There is this 360 degree loop. Now that wasn't there before. You know, you didn't have all that.

Speaker 2: 22:04

Yeah, i think and depending especially in B2B, like some of that speed if you come up natively in e-com, like you know, and then you know if you're seeing like a Warby Parker or Albers, they're kind of going the other way right, come up in e-com and then they back into stores. But that culture coming up in e-com is built on agility, speed. You know, scientific methodology applied on like a 24 hour basis, you know. I mean they're going through that And then you know they'll back into traditional retail that way. And so for other companies, i think we're in an interesting time where we're seeing a lot of baby boomers and people retire. There's a whole digital thing coming And some of our clients like, oh, i don't want to deal with that, and they're either building a succession plan, you know that next generation that believes in tech and data and all those things, the ones that don't I think they're. It's going to be a really interesting opportunity the next few years because, you know, coming post COVID, we all got trained to buy something on our phone And you look at the buying power of Gen Z and you know if you have it, if you're selling electrical supplies and you're an electrician and you're 25 years old on a job site as a journeyman, who are you gonna you know, i need these outlets covers, whatever. You're gonna do that on your phone, probably increasingly. Just use AR to take a picture, download, load and get a shipping confirmation for your boss And like, if I have to call or fact, i mean, i mean it's almost yeah. So I think there's a huge opportunity in B2B and kind of these transformations coming.

Speaker 1: 23:29

Yeah, and I agree when we talked about that a lot is that so much gets pushed towards the B2C. You know the B2C, but that B2B and just thinking about, you know, putting the mindset of let's just use cell phones, imagine your life without a cell phone. Yeah, It's just like you can't go back. You know, your brain is expanded and to me, once, those companies that are done or doing, or still doing and building out their B2B, you can't go back, you know, because there's just no better way to do some of that, you know.

Speaker 2: 24:07

Yeah, And it's gonna start at the core with data, right, If I'm that electrician on a ladder, do you have it in stock? Can I get it overnight? It's holding up the whole job site, Correct. And then if it says there's 45 in stock, live in the ERP, pushed to the front like you got that sale or better yet, it's an auto subscription model. We know you need electrical outlets every 15 days you're on the thousand, you know, yeah, yeah, so yeah, No, that's very All sorts of real estate opportunities, i think coming from that space.

Speaker 1: 24:38

Yeah, and that leads into my next question is I always say that you know, on your, from your perspective, you have a totally different perspective than a CFO, ceo, you know, director of marketing that's working with you, just because of your experience and what you guys do, and you know I see it all the time that you know, as an S&P consultant, if I was running a business, i have a totally different perspective because I've sat on this side of the bed for nine years And to me and at times we try to actively do that through our consulting and our managed application services okay, hey, i used to own my own business, so I know this is tougher, et cetera, et cetera. So what is the thing that you're sitting on your side, you know, not talking to any specific customer? you're like, hey, if I were in your shoes, i'm like, do this or don't do that. What is the perspective that you see that never working in your job before? what do you see that your customers should see?

Speaker 2: 25:40

I'm trying to tie together the two themes we just spoke about. One is empathy for your customer. Really get out and see it through their eyes. Is that a demographic that's changing? What are their habits are going? really, we're in a really turbulent, interesting time, right now in the industry, the market share is up for grabs for who's gonna win and build the best experience. And once you have done that work with your executive team or your board and you have conviction around that, then go deploy the technology to deliver an experience that will meet that customer's expectations And be patient. That's gonna take a few years to do it, and so, and underlying that, i think, is AI And you know, i think, the biggest thing I've seen and been working in space for a long time but chat GPT is the first thing where people non-technical nerds can get in there and see what it can do. And we've had different waves of technology. We had broadband, we got the cloud, we had mobile. This is that next wave. And if you have the data and you're building on it back to like I think you know we talked earlier about second-hand this is a wave to paddle out for for sure.

Speaker 1: 26:44

So chat, gpt is this? I mean, in 10 years from now, are we gonna look back and say this is when everybody pivoted.

Speaker 2: 26:55

I think it's a great example. People get you know and then they obviously have to be a little bit like oh, it's sentient beings And you know it's not like. you know, we're not quite in the Terminator stage here, but I think there's things here of like, when you look at AI, a lot of people thought AI would come for the radiologist or the finance people, like that's the first piece that would get automated out. And what AI has actually shocked everybody is it's gone after creative Things that like creating images or writing a book or writing text. and you look at Codex which OpenAI has. you like, just talk to the computer and it writes the quick it will write code back for you, right? So there's some incredible things and moving really, really quick on that And so, and that's what robots should do, that's what automations have done throughout history, right? So instead of, like you know, saddling the horses to ride to town over an hour, we can do it in five minutes, which frees us up to go. you know human beings to go do other like fun, creative things. So I don't think it's something everybody. there is some whole ethical issues on this, but I think it's. yeah, it's an amazing wave, it's here.

Speaker 1: 28:00

Yeah, and to me and let's go a little deeper in the AI because I think it's a really interesting subject. You have a little bit more context than I think the average person does on it. What do you see? You know you mentioned finance, you know stuff like that. Where do you see the practical application? You know there's that knee jerk well, we're gonna lose the AI battle through the machines, terminator, stuff like that But what is the practical? Where do you see the practical application of AI?

Speaker 2: 28:29

Yeah, that's a great question. So let's start with a very common thing How much more money are we gonna make in two or three years? Yeah, right, and you would say that you probably could say you know, it's probably gonna be driven to some degree off how much we made two or three years ago. Yeah, yeah Right. And so you know this is linear or linear regression. What we would call it in different times but basically, what's the slope of that line gonna be? Yeah, we were, we built this into one of our tools, a forecasting tool where we can take what they call time series data, where we take a date, you know a date, we sold this much right, time series date stamps, right. And then this lives in any transactional data set you can find, yeah, and you can run it through these really powerful algorithms and it does some incredibly amazing math underneath the hood that will abstract out things like Black Friday, cyber Monday or you know what. We had an inventory hiccup three years ago. We were out of stock for 90 days that the robot can figure out. Ooh, how much do I weight that into the model and all this kind of stuff? And what it spits back is it's like upper and lower bounds And typically when you're in the analysis it'll kind of fan out because the robots are super accurate five years out, right, yeah, but it can be darn accurate in the first 12 to 24 months. And if you have like five years of transactional data you can have, like we're gonna be in this range. So if I'm the CFO, it's like ooh, i feel comfortable pulling a line of credit, knowing these are the upper and lower bounds of what we might do for revenue. Yeah, and so you can use that data to kind of think and make some good financial decisions off of. A very common problem everybody has is how much are we gonna grow Or are we gonna grow? And you'll see. Do the other thing too, like ooh, it's kind of flat but it's tanking. In three years you're gonna be down 30%. And that can be kind of shocking too, because it's buried in the data the butterflies flapping its wings, that's creating the hurricane and the robots are helping us figure out where those hurricanes are gonna originate.

Speaker 1: 30:16

You know, there's so many questions that when you talk through some of the stuff that asked, well, the first one is like and we've talked about this before one of the things that draw on each other is those businesses. is that, you know, Nesweet, you don't have to be a large, mid-market or enterprise to be able to afford an ERP. Okay, You know, and so it's really opened the door for those smaller to medium-sized businesses to say I'm gonna be on a true ERP system that has a lot of horsepower in it to process my operation and stuff like that. So when we talk AI, you know, is that same truth that it doesn't have just to be for a big business or a large market? Is that available on a practical scale for smaller businesses?

Speaker 2: 31:02

That's our whole mission behind Tadpole. The same tools as an Amazon or a Netflix or a Walmart has to build that we wanna equip. You know we say we're kind of. Our job is to try and be Gandalf. We're just helping Frodo get the ring to Mount Doom. Yeah, yeah, we're just really like Gandalf And I think that you know, helping the hobbits, yeah, fly back and like or Luke Skywalker or whatever, like we're kind of the Obi-Wan Kenobi's where like, ultimately, we wanna give them the lightsaber to fight this stuff, And so, yeah, it's absolutely within the reach. The thing is is this stuff sounds hard and nerdy and what is machine learning and you know neural networks and it has all this buzzwords and acronyms, yeah, but I think about the internet, consumer internet 20 years ago, and it was, you know, http, blah, blah protocols and like that was nerdy, It's like okay, you know it's the way we can send some information over connection. Yeah, and so I think the forward thinking leaders are. I don't understand AI. I don't quite understand get it, but could it do this? And that's what I think. I think we try and work with our execs or our boards or people that just assuming. if you had a magic wand and you had this, what would you wanna be able to predict? Yeah, what patterns would you wanna identify? And if you start with a really open-ended question like, oh gosh, how much do we lose in stockouts? Yeah, yeah, well, if we have that ERP data, you can run a model on that really quick and say, well, the demand loss on that is hundreds of thousands of dollars. And now we have some data to drive a business decision on how to deploy the capital.

Speaker 1: 32:25

So So do you see, from just I'm just trying to baseline just an average. Do you feel like an average next week customer has enough data So long as they have some longevity, you know, take some time. Do they have enough data to feed those AI models?

Speaker 2: 32:40

Absolutely. You can do some very simple thing with customer transaction logs and a friend of ours, dr Peter Fader wonderful human being basically has done a lot of the bleeding edge work in the world around this. A lot of his and Dan McCarthy's work is around using customer transaction data to predict the value of the company. You basically start at the atomic level of the customer How much do they purchase, how frequently they purchase, how recently do they purchase In each one of those little things, the time between when they purchased, how much it was and what the cadence of that is. You can develop off margin data, a discounted cash flow analysis on an individual customer basis, wow And you roll that all up in a group or a cohort. Year over year you can start to see what the value of the company is And if you ever want to shop at or raise money or whatever, you've already got that in your back pocket as an operator And that's just basically very simple order data. That was in NetSuite.

Speaker 1: 33:42

So and I know you work a lot with PE firms or those PE firms using some of the stuff that you guys have built out to help kind of identify that value of that.

Speaker 2: 33:52

So we'll start big, broad brushstrokes with that machine learning to predict traffic, revenue, revenue to the site, and then that's kind of the top. And then we'll kind of zero in on the individual customer base And we might find that, wow, the customer base in 2019, total garbage, like they're not loyal, we're losing, 95% haven't bought again. By the way, we spent massive amounts on online marketing. Acquisition costs for our lifetime value is like way out of whack. But 2020, whatever we did then And then like oh, it turns out we actually used email more than paid ads And we built an email to like nurture those. We weren't buying those customers after we had them for a repeat purchase And so yeah, so that's kind of there's kind of layers we'll peel back of the onion to get to.

Speaker 1: 34:34

To get there And then. So then to me, you know we talk a lot about change management. You know, whether it's an ERP or any tool, is your your? your moving people's cheeses. You're looking, asking people to look at different things, and one of those keys is like knowing where you're going to be, you know. So if you had somebody that's like, hey, okay, i want to go down this AI path, i'm going to spend X amount of dollars to get there, What does my world look like in like two years? I'm just curious what does that world look like for those companies that successfully do that?

Speaker 2: 35:06

I think you can start to have some well. First of all, you can sleep a little. Ai is not perfect, right? There's? always yeah, So that's one thing sometimes people feel like Oh, this is like GPS And it's like you know it's, it's it's ordinal directions, right, but it can be pretty accurate And it's like it's all going to cut off that data. So the better data we have, the more accurate. It will predict to some degree. So yeah part of it, I think, in fact follow up with Zillow. you know, Zillow let the robots buy houses and then basically they had to lay off 25% of their staff. So yeah yeah, and, but the robots had never seen something like the COVID housing bump right. So the models were trained and they never seen and it's just running and running and running. So it's like bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, and then yeah, yeah. So there's there's some cautionary tales, but there's a kind of a crawl off of running AI And the first step is build a data warehouse or just build good, clean data And we say it's just like an insurance policy, it's really cost effective. And if you follow what Apple did to Facebook, if you don't think there's value in owning your data, i mean Mark Zuckerberg's got a huge problem right now because Apple can cut off access to their data and their entire business models and Jeopardy. Yeah, so that's the first step. And then from that, once you have the data clean and organized, working with like a GVO to get that clean and organized, then you can bring in the nerds to say you want to be able to understand how much well customers buy in a couple of years, how much are we losing with stockouts? That's, our margins. Should we run ads for products and what's the right ratio based on the margin data? Yeah, and then from that you can kind of like, kind of level up and the clients that kind of buy into that vision. You know, we've seen incredibly. It takes years, especially in, you know, seasonal swings, but three or four years you see incredible compounding.

Speaker 1: 36:50

Yeah, and to me what's interesting is, you know, as soon as I ask a question, you know my head is like, well, covid, and you know, no AI, no tool is going to predict COVID. But for me, from my perspective, the thing is, is that when you get to COVID, if you do have that data and you need to pivot, at least you have data to help assist in how to pivot. And those that don't have that, that are forced to make those decisions without having any data. when you get to that injunction point, then it goes purely off feelings and gut And then you start. that's the rolling of the dice.

Speaker 2: 37:29

Yeah, that's your analogy of a patient. You know, my knee hurt, i tweaked it. You know I fell on the ice. Well, we're just going to cut it open and see kind of what's going on in there, And you'd be like you know, like you know, you want an MRI and an X-ray And you want to see, you know. So there's a part of it of, like, you know, if the business is the patient, you got to have a way to diagnose, you know, do the diagnostics on it And so, yeah, that's where I think people get a little overwhelmed, which is understandable, just if you can think, you know, if you take one thing away, just get the data clean, get it organized and start building that as an asset. And why? that's not gap principles. I do feel personally and I've talked to Pete about this at Orton a lot, i do think, changing accounting standards. where you look at data as some component of the balance sheet, i think it's hard to put a value. but when you look at customer lifetime value or individual customers, we're already moving in that direction in the research And what's fascinating is the models they ran. they're within. I mean, they're incredibly accurate for, like Wayfair, they're pulling Wayfair's public data sets and they're predicting like 2% or 3% of earnings calls. So again, we're already there. The futures here is just not widely distributed, as the old saying goes.

Speaker 1: 38:37

You know and I know we're both big fans of MPS or Net Promoter Score, and to me that was one of the things that from a NestWeep perspective, we had certain customers that were doing that were. We were doing email surveys, mps surveys out of NestWeep periodically to be to be customers and things like that and recording what they were as a customer are they a detractor, a promoter, all those things And we're storing that on the customer record. And to me, what was so exciting is that you're able to go look at your sales for the year, since you have your customer records And not only is it just a number of okay, our MPS is 77. Well, that's great. What percentage of your sales are to promoters? What percentage of your sales are detractors? Because that maybe you may have a 77, but your top five customers that 80, 20 rule 80% of your business come from your top 20. What if those top 20 are detractors? But the bottom is like that's my promoters, but if you lose two or three of those, to me that was the best when you started to see that blending of a technology to try to put some measure to what that value is, and I know you can do more with it, like you said, but that's really to me it was a great start of like hey, we got the customer data, we know what they are, we got their sales data, we know what items they were buying, we know what the impact is on our balance sheet.

Speaker 2: 40:18

Yes.

Speaker 1: 40:18

Now let's start to blend that together And I think that's really interesting. when you start looking at that And to me, if I was buying an organization, from my perspective, you're like, hey, what would I do differently Before? I never buy a system. there's a lot of things you have to sign, but I'm like, let me see your data.

Speaker 2: 40:34

Absolutely. I'm going to start with customer data. It's that blended. there's kind of a trifecta, at least in e-commerce, of data. You can use customer data, the campaign they came from, how you acquire them. Really, you need to have the product catalog, the ERP data A lot of people have campaign data. They don't really marry that well with customer data. Only the best of the best. This is what Amazon has done for 20 years. They married that with the catalog data. But you have a great point there. I think MPS is a really good way to get changing cultures. Yes, our software will capture MPS at checkout and then if someone gives us a two out of 10, the promo code didn't work I got an email we can catch for that. E-mails goes out at 10.02, it's going to work across the globe. Oh, shoot, go in, fix this thing. You're catching it at 10.05, and you don't disappoint any of your customers. That can be one thing. That feedback loop of the actual customer can change cultures a lot. We have a really good point in that too, which we call customer heterogeneity, which is a really fancy mouthful, basically saying like can you look at values? it's all spiky right. There's not like this smooth distribution. Yeah, what are our detractors? We had MPS. Blah, blah, blah, ooh. Did we Our promoters? we're not growing promoters year over year, we're actually losing promoters. Well, there's another one of those EKG signals like we've got some high cholesterol here. we got to change our diet and get going Yeah.

Speaker 1: 41:58

To me and I really do agree that you look at it is to me I've always thought that, like MPS, gets you in the ballpark because you're starting to see where you're at. What's interesting and I know we talked about this a little bit in the past that, from a net sweep perspective, one of the I call it the canary in the coal mine, it's the park cases, because in that suite on the case record, you can actually track that item. Now I have my item. I know what my case issue is broken product, late delivery, blah, blah, blah. Manufactured defect, what have you? well, now I can tie that to an item. Okay, well, my item is connected to a vendor record in net suite. So now I can say, okay, looking at historically in 2022, here are my top item defects. Now these are related to my vendor and how many support cases do I have based off that, which gives me a lot more ammunition as I go to my vendor. But also started to identify those trends And to me, like the support cases, like hey, you got to do all these phenomenal things, but I'm like, no, just track the data points on the support case, which is gonna facilitate a lot of things, but it's just that, one little thing that allows you to say I know from a CEO and I log in to net suite and I can see my support key issues, manufactured bad products. Click on that. How many cases do I have? And all of that information, because it is, goes back to your tombstone analogy what happened in this last week?

Speaker 2: 43:33

What died What died, and I think and that's just a great example of using the data to start to change the culture Correct, and we're talking about empathy for vendors. But if a vendor is like, hey, you're putting my business at risk by not delivering product on time or high quality, and I have a, and then in oh no, we're ship on time, we hit it. And when you say no, over the last five quarters you've declined our lead times are increasing 20%. So we need to have a conversation around this, because we know from our other data set of lost sales by stockouts or whatever, right, and I think that's it's so much easier to start with an objective conversation to have when you have that data and the trend line data especially.

Speaker 1: 44:10

Yeah, well, that's really cool. Well, i know we're coming up here on time. That to me. My last question I have for you, jake, is if somebody wanted to start working with you guys to start in this area, what are those first steps that they need to take? What do they do?

Speaker 2: 44:26

You know the first thing we'll do is we say we move at the speed of trust And so we have a very we try to design a very affordable option. You'll have some data science dropped into this. You don't need to know what this stuff does. But, you know, for a very normal amount we will go through and basically audit all the analytics. We'll run some time series or some predictions on what we can think. Well, also, people think through the staffing, like an org chart, for example, and then we can kind of say, okay, what do you need Here, here, here, and at the end of that they have a really good blueprint for what they need to do over the next three years. And if TAPL is a part of that, you know, like we say, we're gonna kind of try to win that business as we grow. But versus showing up with some hey, we got this big vision and this, you know, sticker shock type of thing. It's like let's bring everybody along, cause again, e-commerce is so new It's not taught really in MBA programs. You can't go get an exec ed training. We're working on some exec ed training programs for this, but it's a very nascent field And it's so interdisciplinary with finance and ops and marketing, that you know we're gonna try and bring you along over two or three weeks with some of these principles that we teach it in some of our grad courses. And then from there you know our clients have a really good stance And sometimes it's like hey, we're not quite ready for that kind of horsepower, we're gonna wait a year. Some clients, especially with PE, it's like sweet, we've got 12 sites, we're gonna do these three this month or this year or whatever, and then we can kind of stage, gate it and then put it at a minimum. We're dropping the software and build the data sets And that stuff, but it's built again from. We'll go first. We tend to use it as a loss leader, but we'll use the data and our methodology and our IP to hopefully win the business At a way where I think our clients we care about lifetime value a lot And so we don't want clients that are in or out and this stuff takes time to compound. So that's what we start And then from there it's like, oh, we need some help with the RP. Well, we're gonna give Todd and his team a call over there, and we've done that a lot of times And we'll need to. On the other side, we're kind of like a baseball team. We need a pitcher and we're kind of the cashier So.

Speaker 1: 46:22

Yeah, And to me and those people that haven't had a one-on-one call with with Taphole, highly recommended. They bring so much to the table and I've said in other podcasts and other things like great consultants just don't provide knowledge. They ask great questions And I know that, Jake, with just the conversations we've had that have been customer specific, just the questions really do make you start to think in a different way. I've always enjoyed those conversations because I've always felt like every time we've been on a joint call I've walked away knowing more than I did prior to that call, So thankful for that Likewise.

Speaker 2: 47:00

Yeah, no, i think of us as a general practitioner, but we're gonna call on the orthopedic surgeons. Yeah To the RP.

Speaker 1: 47:05

Yeah, so how do they get a hold of you, jake? If they want to get more information, how do they get a hold of you?

Speaker 2: 47:12

At tadpolecom T-A-D-P-U-L-Lcom. The poll stands for empathy, pulling customers, pulling data in and using that to scale businesses. So yeah, tadpolecom, jenny and Chris would love to chat with you. They have a whole easy step through quick 15, 20 minutes walk through what we do and, if we can help you, as we say, try to turn data into dollars.

Speaker 1: 47:32

So yeah, yeah, and they're fun to work with. I've worked with both of those And for those that are new to a GVO, go to shellofficecom. We also have a LinkedIn group called Boost Your ERP. Go ahead and go there. We have a lot of tips and tricks, new concepts. Just posted an article in there on support cases. Like I said, one of the most flexible records in Neswy and Moffton, most overlooked in Neswy, and you already paid for it, so use it. But with that, jake, as always, pleasure. Wish you the best and we'll talk to you soon. Awesome Thanks, todd. Appreciate it, man, no problem.

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Boost Your ERP podcast. Today we have on Jenny Hoffman from accountingdepartmentcom. As with all of our podcasts, this really is designed for you, as Nesweet users, to have insight to our Nesweet ecosystem, the different processes that people use, best practices, things like that. We've dealt with accountingdepartmentcom. We've had shared customers and we've had great experiences. Today we wanted to bring on Jenny to really talk about what her view is from the accounting side when it comes to Nesweet and that. Welcome, jenny. Welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:40

Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: 0:43

Let's get started with just a little bit about you. Why don't you just give a little background about yourself first, and then about accountingdepartmentcom? Sure Love to.

Speaker 2: 0:53

I live about 30 miles southwest of Chicago. I grew up in Southeast Wisconsin and pretty much stayed in this whole area my entire life. I went to college at Northern Illinois University. That's where I graduated from and received my CPA from there shortly afterwards.

Speaker 1: 1:12

Oh, cool, cool. So you're Husky. Is that Husky?

Speaker 2: 1:16

Yeah, at the time we're not very good in football, but they've reclaimed that, yeah, great little program there. We proud now.

Speaker 1: 1:23

Yeah, cool. So how about accountingdepartmentcom? Tell me a little bit about them.

Speaker 2: 1:28

Yeah, So I've been with accountingdepartmentcom now for about 11 years. We started out as a Quick Book Shop So we did business outsourcing, So mostly your bookkeeping and controller outsourcing services And in the last two, three years we decided to go into Nesweet and really open up our opportunities to work with clients that have ERP systems, larger systems and just Quick Books.

Speaker 1: 1:55

Got it Cool. So how did you get into the industry? How did you like one get into accountingdepartmentcom? How'd you get into being a? Tell me a little bit about that.

Speaker 2: 2:06

It's actually funny because I, If you know knowing me, I went to college actually to be in marketing, which is actually really funny. So I was at Northern and one of my really close friends was in the accounting program And to be anything in business you have to take accounting And as an undergrad, And so she had to take the accounting qualifying exam to get into the accounting program And so I said I would help her. I had two years of accounting from high school. So, we studied together and I helped her and we took the test together and I passed it when a lot of people didn't, and I thought, well, maybe that's what I should be doing. I really enjoy it and I like actually like teaching it, and so I changed my major to accounting after that.

Speaker 1: 2:47

Oh I can say there's probably not a lot of people that went from marketing to accounting and did that successfully.

Speaker 2: 2:54

It was a great high school and college was marketing. But you never get to see in marketing.

Speaker 1: 3:01

So what did you do after college then? So you get into accounting and go in. So tell me about that. What did you do then?

Speaker 2: 3:07

Yeah, finished up, went, like a lot of people do, straight to public accounting. They kind of groom you for that.

Speaker 1: 3:13

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:14

And I was in public accounting for about nine years And then decided I didn't want to be a partner in a public accounting firm That just wasn't for me And went to work for an industry and for a privately owned company and with their controller for seven years And it was. I wish I already had the experience to work like in a business before they're auditing a business, because I learned so much more about how a business operates And then just coming in and doing an audit And then after about seven years of that I was starting to get bored because it's the same thing every day.

Speaker 1: 3:48

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:49

I liked a lot of the aspects of public accounting.

Speaker 1: 3:51

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:52

Of meeting new people, being in different places, and so I found accountingdepartmentcom and it was like it was literally a perfect match for me, because I had my accounting background. I'm able to utilize that, challenged with different industries, different clients, and it's something different every day. So while it's still accounting, it's every day can be different.

Speaker 1: 4:15

So, going back to, I'm curious. So what did you learn being a public accountant? What did you take away from there?

Speaker 2: 4:23

Honestly, the confidence is a piece of that, because you're in somewhere different. You really don't know. Yeah, you know accounting rules, but you don't know how it actually all works in real life until you go in. And one of the biggest takeaways, honestly, for me from public accounting I had a partner I worked with a lot. And we were in a client one day And we were going over their end of engagement results and talking to them about the findings and going through the reports And he was the partner that was like a third year And, as he's telling them things, they kept looking to me like looking for that head mad, looking for that insurance. I could tell when they didn't understand something and I would try to like rephrase it to something that they could understand. And when we left, the partner pulled me aside and said don't lose that. And I was like, lose what He's like you relate to people. And he goes your that skill set will serve you well. And he's like so don't be afraid to like be that relatable with people. And so that was probably out of my whole experience there, because it is hard in public accounting, very demanding, but I always went into engagements where I got to know the people that I was working with.

Speaker 1: 5:36

Yeah, and I spent a couple of years at an accounting firm early part of my career And the one thing I took away from it is learning the language of business. When you work in an accounting firm, a public account and it's the business of business and just understanding so much and the value and there's great value in public accounts and just knowing that detail of business And when you get that right partner or the right account that you're working with that and understand that business and apply that and really have that bridge between those two worlds, that's really, it's really valuable, such a great relationship when you get that built up, so that's really cool. So so you did the public and went to be a controller. What did you learn as a controller?

Speaker 2: 6:31

There was a whole lot more about running a business than accounting.

Speaker 1: 6:35

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:36

So I as the. it was a small company, so I was responsible for not just accounting but HR in some facilities, and so I learned a lot about, before you recording an invoice, what goes into that, what happened before that, that occurred, collections, making those hard decisions about when there's seasonality in a business or when that big project that we thought we were gonna get we didn't get. How did we adapt and how do you pivot from that? So, it was. I learned a ton being there. It was probably, on experience-wise, more beneficial probably than public accounting. If I could have flipped them, it probably would have meant more.

Speaker 1: 7:19

Yeah, that totally makes sense, Cause also then as a controller with a public account and dealing with a controller, you're just focusing on finances. As a controller, you're being forced to interact with every department and how to interact with each department and personalities within as well. So, yeah, so then you go to accountingdepartmentcom. So what was that transition like? What was the first thing that really stood out to you on that?

Speaker 2: 7:46

Well, first it was I mean, i've been here for a long time that there was really an opportunity to work remote and it was real.

Speaker 1: 7:53

You know they had a lot of work from home job back in that time that weren't real.

Speaker 2: 7:59

And we are, because we've always been 100% remote. We're incredibly disciplined. There's a lot of procedures in place for us to be successful, so we have the same messaging, so we communicate. We see things the same way, we name them the same way. So the first thing I noticed was just an abundance of processes. That taught me how important those processes are with pretty much everything you do.

Speaker 1: 8:24

Yeah, yeah. Definitely applicable outside, even of work, but That's super cool And I can see that. You know, and as we've grown as a company, those processes when you're a smaller company you can get away, you know with, but when you just got all of those and different people that are coming in and have account, you know just those processes are.

Speaker 2: 8:45

It's not optional you know to do it professionally you know. It ensures our accuracy but also our high. You know what we demand of ourselves a high quality of work, because everybody we know what's acceptable and what isn't acceptable.

Speaker 1: 9:00

Yeah, yeah, totally. So what type of clients do you guys normally deal with? You know, is there a certain vertical or size?

Speaker 2: 9:07

There is. That's a good question, because we used to be really industry agnostic and we are still to that extent where we have all different types of industries that we work with but we internally have silos. So if you are, you know, warehouse supply, you're in one silo. If you're a law firm, you're in a different kind of silo. So that way the controllers who work with clients, they're really more industry specific.

Speaker 1: 9:34

Yeah, and to me, what I've always found is that you know, in our industry, coming into Nesweep people like, oh hey, we're a warehouse distribution, do you do a lot of that, or service or what have you? Or like we only want to work with somebody that's done service. And to me it's always been part of an education process, because what's really interesting is there's truth. Have you worked in a vertical? and there's just certain things that you can't fake, nor would you want to fake, but you're just like boy. I need to understand that. But one of the benefits I've always found is that we do work in so many different verticals And as we process, engineer and solution design and bring things to the table, there's so many times where I have background in service and I'm doing it with somebody in a warehouse distribution, i'm like have you thought about doing this principle from service? and like what are you talking about? I'm like if you go to a service industry, they do this. Can you go ahead and model that? And it's like boy, i've never thought about that. So to me there is some truth to having experience in that vertical, but also we're like industries in some ways and that you do deal with a lot of different verticals, that you can bring those things to the table and say, hey, why don't you look at it from this perspective And, as we all know the last two or three years, especially that product companies are adding services, service companies are adding products, and how do you? our subscriptions are things of that nature, and it really is a blending of those verticals. So it's really interesting, so okay, so I guess the next question I have for you, the first really like technical question, is what was the best technology advice anybody ever gave you?

Speaker 2: 11:21

I was saying backup and document. I'm probably the first to It's painful as the documentation is how critically important it is. But, honestly, the best advice was probably don't assume you know everything about. Yeah, because not only especially in the counting space. I have to say, like probably more than ever, there's more counting technology than ever before. It's moving faster. You're seeing a lot more players in the market. With Netsuite, you're seeing a lot more add-ons, a lot more entities that come in and say, oh, we can connect to Netsuite and do this And being able to use that skill set of like I know, business processes. So I can talk to you and say, okay, but do you do this And give up this piece and trying to help find the one that does it right. That's what we think we do very well Because we have that experience. But just don't not making the assumption that because you're using one system and one thing that's not going to change, it's always changing.

Speaker 1: 12:25

What are some of the? you mentioned all the different technology and I agree there's a plethora. What are some of the good ones that you think of? I mean, we're buys, we're not sweet, but I'm like, doesn't that mean that? What are some of the things that you're seeing out? there is like technology. I'm like, yeah, this is kind of cool or worse out there.

Speaker 2: 12:43

So with NetSuite I mean because we're a quick bookshop and a NetSuite shop, So I have references for both It's more in like what they're trying to solve. So on the invoicing side, solving the clients, our clients, customers can see their invoices real time. Can see their history, can pay their bills pay by credit card change their payment information, all of that. So we have you know, biller Jean is really great. On the Quick Book side, versapay is a good one on the yeah, they're great Yeah. Bill payments, not just paying the bills but approval, routing, all of that. So we work really closely with billcom. We also work with Ramp. We have other partners and then the biggest one where we're seeing a lot more players is the expense reporting. And so you know with billcom and Divi's relationship, and then Expensify and Tally and Ramp has an expense app now and all of that can be built into NetSuite. So that's a question that I've been asked as well. Why this if it's in NetSuite? Sometimes it's a matter of what's actually more user friendly for you.

Speaker 1: 13:53

Do you?

Speaker 2: 13:53

really need all those people in. NetSuite if they can just log into another app and do what you want them to do. So, but there are so many different solutions out there.

Speaker 1: 14:04

You know, and that's a really good point And at times I've asked the same question as when you go to Sweet World and you walk to floor and you see Expensify, you see all these different third party products, i'm like, yeah, they're in the same room as NetSuite, who technically does the same thing. So what is it? I think that that's the one really good thing for those listening, that you know sometimes you know a NetSuite license isn't free, you know. So can you go with a different third party product that allows them to live outside with that and be really specific and specialize within that process? Because you know NetSuite is a monster of a product in a good way, that there's so much in that when you do, okay, i just need to focus on expenses Okay, do you need to be entered into this vast kingdom of NetSuite, when maybe you just really only need this aspect of it?

Speaker 2: 15:00

Exactly.

Speaker 1: 15:01

Yeah, and in VersaVe. You know we dealt with VersaVe for a long time and great staff and love working with them as well. So, yeah, i definitely love that. I see a lot, so okay. Next question, you know really is like what's some of the best business advice? So go back to your public accounting control or account. I mean, you've had the opportunity to see all of this, all these different businesses outside of technology. I mean, what's some of the best business advice you've seen or heard?

Speaker 2: 15:32

Like what I'm seeing too, and I don't know if it's just where we are as a company. There's a lot of professional organizations out there now. There's you know Vistage and EO and Young Entrepreneurs and there's just a lot out there for people to use. So where it bridges for us is like do what you do best. And so if you are, if you have a business and this is what you're doing and what you're passionate about accounting is most likely not what you're passionate about. So, let somebody who is passionate about it do that piece of it and let them synergize with you. Yeah, Talking to people, I think that's becoming more acceptable to say that I can't do it all and that we can bring in somebody else who can help us out. And it doesn't have to 100% be homegrown. That's probably like for business. Advice would be. Let a lot of people who know what they're doing best do that piece of it and find those good partners to work with.

Speaker 1: 16:28

You know, as you and I were talking in the past, that you know you don't know what you don't know. I know it's very cliche And when you do have those people like yourselves that know accounting very intrinsically, in that space there's going to be things that you're going to ask. And I've always said the mark of a great consultant in what we do is not spewing knowledge but asking great questions. And if you ever want to know a great question, you know great consultants. When they ask a question, everybody just stops and goes, oh, i've never thought about that. That's a really good point. And really getting to that, getting to those people that can ask those questions that really force you to say, boy, i don't have this process baked out yet, i'm not ready to implement or modify or do what I have to like, have that. And then to me, i found that the turnout to be really good advocates and in challenge, you know on that, but that takes trust, you know as well, to not be like, oh, you know, it's really developing that trust And over time you really got to know that So um, so okay. So then that with all these different people, you've learned all this different stuff Once that you know we all have our client list. Anybody who's worked you have a good clients is some not so great clients, stuff like that Usually, at least for my perspective. At times you just see it wow, they're really good because of this or they're doing that. What are the best people out there doing that from your perspective? when you're looking at like through my lens of accounting, what are the best people doing out there?

Speaker 2: 18:08

I think they are realizing that they don't know it all. I think the ones who are like saying, okay, I can connect with, like an accounting department to account, I can connect with GBO and maybe I already have NetSuite but I'm not using it like full list and looking to others to help in building that network, I think is what the best ones are probably doing.

Speaker 1: 18:31

Yeah, okay, and then, kind of alongside that, like I said, you don't know what you don't know unless you worked on that side. What would you tell somebody that, hey, from my side you guys don't see it, but from my side this is what I'm seeing. Is there anything that like jumps out that you're like, hey, this is something you guys could really learn from? Is there anything? That's a tough question.

Speaker 2: 18:56

I know I'm trying to think of anything else. That's a good one. I have so many different like partial examples.

Speaker 1: 19:07

I'm trying to get one, that's.

Speaker 2: 19:11

I think sometimes it's in that cross industry knowledge helps, like you were saying. Yeah, sometimes I have some clients that are in nonprofit and then clients that aren't. Then when you're in the nonprofit space you think nonprofit and there's times where there's some applicability of other things that you can plug in to make things work. I think of a really good example of that.

Speaker 1: 19:35

But in one the knowledge is in my thing. I'll share one just for my example is that in our industry, the one thing that in everything it's dollars, we're time, we're built for time and things of that nature is having really clear requirements before you really start going down a path was people is really efficient. The process of writing down what those requirements are really is therapeutic, because you're like, well, what about this or what about that? To me, going along with that is like writing. I know people don't have time to write down requirements, but they don't write down test cases. To me, when you're like I want to do this and like when we get it done with that script or what have you, we need to test this, this and this. To me, that's what has been so much of it. And like we're great at putting the nuts and bolts together to solidify a process or automate a process. We're here, we have ideas on how to do that, but so much of them. We need those requirements When people can start at the point of we've met with our team and this is what we want, and starting there is so efficient for us and, ultimately, for the customer as well.

Speaker 2: 20:59

Well, that's honestly my biggest net suite From QuickBooks to NetSuite. My biggest learning experience for me has been about that documentation and that requirements upfront. With QuickBooks there's not a lot to configure NetSuite. We had a client that was all on board, very involved with the process but didn't have the right people involved in your team. We had misses on how important some functionality was. That they said that's okay if it's two-step-three but it was really a requirement for step one. That was something like 100 percent being more direct about what those requirements are upfront, gathering them, making sure that they're coming in on that. It's probably for me, one of the most things I've learned with between those applications and moving to an ERP, it's how important all the different areas are to come together.

Speaker 1: 22:01

Yeah To me. And QuickBooks is a great product. We do NetSuite and there's fists for both. That's really one of the challenges that we see at times that you go from QuickBooks where this is how you use it There isn't five ways to do this or at scripting. And to me, when you move into that NetSuite world, they're like, well, what do you mean? Okay, well, if you don't like that process, you can do it differently. What does that entail? But it's really a different mindset to say, okay, now I've been let out to Pash or I can go all these different ways in this little scary at times, but it doesn't. Not everybody has that business analyst mindset to figure that out. So that's part of those things that people sometimes it's beneficial to learn a little bit of that BA mindset to the questions I should be asking how am I documenting When people talk about the five ways, why are you doing this, why are you doing that? And really, for those that really at times have a specific budget that they need to stay in, from our side it's just like okay, it can be really efficient, we'll help you where you need help, but we got to get to the end of the five ways before we bake that out, and sometimes that could be a little bit. It takes a little time and, like I said, time is money. So now that leads me to my next question is kind of like I don't care what it is about those expensive high billcom versus pay you us. We're all in the business of change management.

Speaker 2: 23:39

Yes.

Speaker 1: 23:40

You know, in that you know, and I know for my experience as much as the challenges of what we do is is managing change management. How do you guys do that? because I mean you really are, you're really helping people like totally change your business. So how do you? guys do that.

Speaker 2: 23:57

Yeah, and we were all we joke in implementation So we are Change kid. I mean, it's always difficult to be downright hard, sometimes right. So we have clients that come in that As much as they have gone through our Yeah, sales process, they know what we're about There are still clients who are like, oh, you're gonna change that?

Speaker 1: 24:18

Yeah, oh, you want to talk about that We've always done it this way. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 24:23

And I think it all comes down to communication. Yeah empathy piece that you talked about, of understanding why they did it the way they did it Yeah, Yeah and being able to bridge that to where you think it can go and where they can be.

Speaker 1: 24:36

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 24:36

I'm see the benefit of that. So, yes, this is how you've been doing it, but there's a huge benefit if you're doing it this way, and this is that benefit. Being patient Yeah, there's a lot of patients. You don't want to Not change and not move them along that path, but you also have some. You know, sometimes you have to say things a couple times or a couple different ways or show it.

Speaker 1: 24:56

So a lot of it's.

Speaker 2: 24:57

How do they need to hear it or see it.

Speaker 1: 24:58

Yeah, are they?

Speaker 2: 24:59

a visual, what you know? how are they need to hear it? and, yeah, we use a task management system, so we're, you know, putting milestones in front of the client. We're being as transparent as we can about yeah here's where we are. Here's where we're going. Yeah this is what it's gonna look like. We're very time intensive for a client when they first come aboard Yeah, a lot of questions, you know a lot of things that need to happen and then when they move on to our client services team, then it's a more recurring and it's more comfortable. But we're very upfront. You know, at first it's a lot.

Speaker 1: 25:32

It's a big mountain decline to find and and. To me and that's where you know We share, especially when I talk to our delivery team that does implementations and our managed applications team that takes over after that delivery That is always the the mindset that you have to remember that people had a full-time job before you asked them to change the system. And You know you have somebody who's probably really busy in their 40 45 hours a week to get everything done. I don't know anybody in the professional world This is I. You know I. I surf the web 20 hours a week. I don't know anybody who does this. So you have somebody who says that that compressed work schedule and now you're saying We're going to holy, you know we're gonna implement net suite or gonna implement this or that, that they have to do that On top of that 40 hour job that they do. That does cause a lot of friction and you know it takes a lot of time. So, yeah, i love a lot of things that you called out there and to me is getting that vision of why you know and you know I'm you and I talked in different times that you know, like salespeople, you know stuff for, like CRM, you know for people, that you know businesses, that they had a disparate sales force and they had quick books. They weren't attached. Now They're together. You know, and really the one of the things that we see that's been most effective with adoption of CRM is Really educating the salesperson on all the benefits of having a 360 degree view of that. Okay, well, do you know that you can go in and see support cases, you can see whether that has been delivered, you can see where that sales order is and you can see all that data? You know in one system. You know, but it does take effort, but there is a payoff, you know, in the end on that. So that's that's really cool. Thanks for that. And I guess so you know from your vantage point. You know, looking forward in 2023, early 2023, what are some of the opportunities you see out there for people?

Speaker 2: 27:36

Yeah, i know, for I mean for us. I know I'm excited you know that suite is a newer vertical for us you know, and so I'm excited just about Meeting these prospects, talking to them. It's one of my favorite things that I get to do is talk with Prospects as they're coming in, asking questions, learning about them and, yeah, i just see a lot of growth opportunity for us and in that space, yeah, and I also see For staffing, because now you have individuals who maybe got a taste of working from home. Maybe it wasn't for them. Yeah and now they realize that there is opportunities out there where you can work from home And do what you love to do, and so I I think there's a lot of opportunities. Covid may have also given businesses the ability to see that they needed help, so maybe people weren't in or people left and they needed outsourced and it was successful. So it's okay to ask for help and it's okay. If your accounting doesn't reside within your brick and mortar and it's somewhere else, it's okay. And so I think we have a lot of opportunities, i think, ahead of us in 2023.

Speaker 1: 28:50

Yeah, sorry, i agree that there is. And to me, i know as a partner group at GVO that, looking back, that we came out of COVID better than we went into it And it really did force a lot of people to analyze how they do business, how their staff works, how you measure and what are the metrics that you look at and things of that nature, and it really forced a lot of businesses to say I have to do business differently to keep up. But yeah, and I think a lot of people have figured out the big chunks of it, but I still think there's some opportunities to do that. And to me, the last question I had for you is I know a little bit, and that's one of the reasons why I think we work well together as partners is that you guys have a fairly intense process to get to know, and we do too. We don't like to do anything and in that sweet account, unless we know the topography. You know it's really easy to step out of landmines when you don't know their landmines there. But, like, when people like, how do people start with, like what you guys do, how does that look like?

Speaker 2: 30:02

It is. it is intensive And so, but it's so successful We need. if somebody's interested, we have a prospect. they can connect to us. you know calling us around our website, But once they go through a demo and they are interested in more we do, We have a CPA, a dedicated CPA and a file a financial nails analyst and then myself too, if it's in that sweet, and we meet with the prospect and we, like a two hour phone call, kind of dig deep in the financials. We go through their cycles, you know the revenue cycle, their payable cycle, inventory, payroll. We really kind of I mean we can't go super deep into it, yeah. Yeah, deep enough to kind of know, ok, where do, where there are some significant issues, where can we help the most, where is it at? And then we go through the financials with them And we walk through the balance sheet, we walk through the PNL, kind of get a good idea as to what the scope of our services would be Again, being recurring, but keeping in control or ship. And then we put together a proposal. It's reviewed internally and then we present it to the client and we really walk through. So our proposals are very detailed in terms of in each section Client does this, we do this, client does this. And so we make sure. Again, the effort of transparency and communication, it's really clear. And then if a client chooses to, a prospect chooses to work with us, they sign the proposal And we usually give them a couple options, a budgeting forecast included or not. But then they start, they sign up and our implementation team, which I'm a member of. Yeah the first group they work with and we get them on boarded. We discuss all of their processes that affect accounting. And we get everything documented, then we turn them over to our client services team.

Speaker 1: 31:49

Awesome.

Speaker 2: 31:50

Yeah, it's pretty involved, but it's it's very successful. We've had a lot of prospects, whether they've chose to go with us or they have said that this process was very informative for them and very enlightening, and that they really understand how much effort we put in.

Speaker 1: 32:05

Yeah, and I think, like you mentioned I mentioned before great questions. You know, as a great consultant, ask great questions and make you think about that. So, like when you guys do your proposals, i'm like do they have the opportunity to like, ok, well, hey, we want to retain, we still want to do this, but you guys do that. Do you guys like mix that up, or how does that go? We do, we can.

Speaker 2: 32:25

Absolutely One of the areas. Most is like things that touch HR, like payroll. Sometimes clients will say you know what? we have hourly staff. We want to keep payroll. A lot of times That makes sense.

Speaker 1: 32:35

They want to be able to approve time. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 32:38

And so we can carve that out. What? we try to do is keep as, because we are full charge. So we don't want to be where they have somebody internally who's doing everything and we're just reviewing.

Speaker 1: 32:49

Yeah, that's hard, that's a hard place to put us in. Yeah, that's what we're designing.

Speaker 2: 32:54

It's not your fit.

Speaker 1: 32:55

Yeah, yeah, that makes that totally makes sense, so OK. So so, if anybody is interested, what's the best way to get hold of you guys?

Speaker 2: 33:02

Honestly, our website is probably the best way. It's just accounting departmentcom And there's contact us on the top, or there's a little thought bubble, you know, on the bottom Chat bubble.

Speaker 1: 33:12

Yeah, on there. Yeah, well, cool. Well, and also from from the GVO side. If anybody wants to get ahold of us, you know we're govirtualofficecom. Also, we have a boost your ERP LinkedIn group, where this and other things will be posted. But well, jenny, thank you very much. As always, we always thoroughly enjoy working with you guys and also the conversation, so so thank you very much and being a part And everybody. I hope you have a great day. Thank you, talk to you later, bye, bye.