ADD Systems’ President Bruce Bott and Senior Vice President & COO Rob Culbertson recap the 2023 Business Tech Conference & offer key takeaways, session / product highlights, and more!
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Brian Cohen: Welcome to ADDcast. I’m Multimedia Specialist Brian Cohen. And I’m joined today by ADD Systems President Bruce Bott, along with Senior Vice President and COO Rob Culbertson. Gentlemen, thank you both for joining us today.
Rob Culbertson: Thank you, Brian.
Bruce Bott: Thank you, Brian!
Brian: Believe it or not, we’re now one month removed from the 2023 BTC. And there’s still plenty of discussion still underway. I’d like to start by asking you both what you each feel the key takeaways from the 2023 BTC were.
Rob: Well, Brian, I think that some of the key things that I took away from the BTC was that it was just so nice to get together with our customers, having missed the prior one due to COVID. We really had a great time doing all those face-to-face conversations. It certainly seems as if our product strategy was very, very well accepted by the customers. And they really enjoyed the educational experience, the networking experience, and also the experiences that they had from a social standpoint down at Disney. So, all the feedback I received was very, very positive. And I think it went really well.
Bruce: Well, Brian, like Rob said, I think the feedback we got was that the conference was just phenomenal. I think it emphasizes the importance of having relationships with our clients and our partners for our mutual success going forward. So, we’re going to try and do this on an ongoing basis every three years.
Brian: Excellent. And I know you both talked to a lot of attendees throughout the week. What was kind of the overall discussion points that you were having with attendees in terms of what they were looking for in ADD Systems?
Rob: Well, Brian, as you know, we actually had record attendance. So, getting a chance to talk to everybody was certainly a big challenge. And I’m not sure I was able to talk to everybody that was down there, but I certainly tried. What I think I found from our customers was that there was an awful lot of interest in our new products, mostly our E360 product, but also our ADD Energy Assist product. And those took up a lot of discussions. ADD Energy E360 is one of those products that is going to be with us for quite some time. A whole new style, whole new view of using the software. And it really got some great, great feedback, and great reports from our customers.
Bruce: Without repeating everything that Rob said, I got the same feedback. I’d say that on a different level, a lot of our customers wanted to connect with us from an aspect of 50 years in business. Obviously, with the passing of my father recently, a lot of people were concerned with what we’re going to do as a company, but the families united. This company is going to carry on for a very, very long time. Very excited to kind of meet with them and kind of reassure them that we’re going to keep doing family business with family businesses.
Brian: Now, a lot of the talk around the conference was based on the latest updates with ADD Energy E360. Can you give us a few highlights regarding the latest release?
Rob: Sure, Brian. Well, the ADD Energy E360 product has been around now for a number of years, but we continue to make some major, major enhancements to it. One of the things that we had a special session for at the BTC conference was a feature that we call the Timeline. And the Timeline is a feature within E360, which really brings everything together. It gives the user that single place to look at all the information about that customer. Whether that information is built into the ADD Energy system, or whether that information is coming from outside sources, whether it be marketing information, whether it be phone systems, whether it be web portals. Bringing it all together really helps the person who’s answering the phone, talking to the customer really understand a lot more details about that customer. And it gives them the chance to really provide them with really superior customer service.
Brian: And, Rob, another one of the key sessions was focused on ADD e-Store’s latest enhancements. Can you talk about some of those?
Rob: Well, Brian, so far this year, we’ve had four major releases of the ADD e-Store product. And every one of those releases has features that were added in many different areas. Whether those areas be lottery, whether they be in recipes, whether they be in food service, whether they be in our point-of-sale interfaces. A lot of changes related to exception reporting and trying to make this system more user-friendly because the mountain of data that’s out there in the e-Store world is something that you really have to sift through it and manage based upon exception. There’s just too much data to manage the system otherwise.
Brian: And also spotlighted at the conference was ADD’s newest product, ADD Energy Assist. Can you walk us through what ADD Energy Assist does and what the feedback was on the product from attendees?
Rob: Yes, the ADD Energy Assist product is really a foundation product that we’ve come out with. It’s a mobile device. It has a built-in scanner, and the concept of the ADD Energy Assist product is the ability to automate the warehouse activities. So, using that scanner for end-of-month inventory counts, and automatically taking that information, feeding it back into the back-office system, so that we can really reduce the effort and time and improve the accuracy of the information coming back into the system to make that process seamless. Overall, the ADD Energy Assist product is one that we see a great future for. It’s a foundation. We envision expanding that product going forward.
Brian: Excellent. I think this next question would probably be best answered by you both because, since the BTC, there’s been an influx of new signups for both the ADD User Group (the AUG), as well as the e-Store User Group. Can you talk about the buzz surrounding both groups at the conference and what they have taken away from the 2023 BTC?
Rob: Well, Brian, one of the main focuses of the BTC conference down in Orlando was the fact that we wanted to recognize the ADD User Group and everything that they are doing for ADD Systems, for our company, and for our products. So, we really wanted to focus on highlighting the features and the capabilities of the user group, and what it really brings the individual users. We had a number of sessions, whereby the individual committee chair people for the user group, had a chance to talk about their committee, had a chance to talk about the meetings that they have and the benefits that they get out of it, and also the benefits that they provide to ADD Systems. So, those meetings, I think were extremely valuable, not only for those companies that were not part of the user group, but also for those companies that were part of the user group, but hadn’t done a lot of participation in it. And, ironically, after we had our first ADD User Group meeting at the session, we received over 25 people who signed up immediately, within that first hour. So, it was really a fantastic outcome. And we’re looking forward to the expanded population of the ADD User Group going forward.
Bruce: I think I would add, Brian, to what Rob said, was that I think people see the value in participating from the early sessions that we put on. We talked about the features that we added to our software suite. Many of them, a majority of them were because our user groups had a say. They got a chance to vote and tell us what they thought the product needed, where it needed some enhancements, where it needed us to take a completely new, revised look at things. So, again, participation kind of is just being stepped up because we’re listening. We are absolutely listening to everything our clients ask us to put into the product. The BTC was just a great venue for people to sit there and hear what we did and hear what has been added to the product, but get a chance to kind of voice their views on what needs to be put into the product in the future.
Brian: Bruce, I want to stick with you for these next few questions. This year’s BTC also coincided with ADD Systems’ 50th anniversary, which was celebrated throughout the week, as well as at the final evening’s luau event. Can you talk about the significance of 50 years in the software industry, and how far the BTC has come from the first version of the conference all the way through the one that just concluded?
Bruce: Well, we hit 50 years, and it’s not like we hit a finish line; the race is still going on. We got to continue to be offering great products that our clients want to take advantage of. So, again, it’s not like we hit a finish line, it’s just a mark in time. But for a software company to hit 50 years is just kind of unprecedented. You don’t see it happen that often. I’m happy that we’re able to keep the company moving forward without my father at the helm. We’ve got so many great people here at this company. And we’ve got so many great clients. Again, back to the user group. They’re adding their input to us, and they’re helping us make it possible to do the things we’re doing. The BTC has been an event we put on for the past 20 years. Roughly every three years, we hold the event, and it’s grown year after year. And obviously, as a company being around 50 years, it’s nice to see what we’ve done over the last 20, 25 years at these events. I can go back to the PowerPoints we put on, the sessions we put on, and see specifically what we added to the software. But sitting here today, there’s so much more we have to do. We have to continue to grow our products and our services that we offer our clients. We have to stay fresh to them. We can’t be a stale company. And so, that’s what Rob and the technical group here at this company had been tasked to do over the years. We’re going to keep doing it. Three years from now, hopefully, you’ll sit back and see what we’re doing again and say, “Wow, you’ve moved the ball forward, but you haven’t stopped.”
Brian: Well, it seems like 2026 is a long time away. But I’m sure you as well as I know that it’ll be here before we know it. So, listeners of the show, I’m sure wondering when we can find out about the 2026 BTC, if you have any news on that yet.
Bruce: I don’t have any new specific dates for the 2026 (BTC) at this point. We haven’t fully digested everything we got out of this last conference. But probably in the next 12 to 18 months, we’ll be announcing the next conference. If we have news sooner, we’ll certainly present it to everybody. But I think we’re pretty resolved to having the conference again in 2026 — three more years.
Brian: All right. And I’ve saved the hardest question for last, as it’s one I’ve heard the most as the video crew made its way around the BTC. So, I figured I’d ask each one of you separately. Did you ride Avatar Flight of Passage? And if so, what is your review?
Rob: Well, Brian, let me jump in on that first. So, the answer to the question is no, I did not ride the Avatar Flight of Passage. So, I can’t give a review other than to say that everyone that was coming off that ride had a huge smile on their face. And at least half the people that were coming off were jumping right back on to ride it again. Although I had a great networking opportunity while we were there, I, unfortunately, was not able to ride the Avatar ride.
Bruce: Well, Rob answered it. He didn’t get to go. I got to go on the ride three times. I enjoyed it every single time. It was quite a mountain to kind of climb. You had to run up the hill; it didn’t give you a shortcut to get back in line. You had to go all the way down and all the way back up. But the riding it three times, it was just very wild. It was actually things that 25, 30 years ago, you didn’t think were possible. You could be actually immersed in a ride where you feel like you are flying above some jungle. So, it was very, very cool. And again, I’d jump on it three more times if I had the chance.
Brian: Maybe in 2026 we’ll have to see. Gentlemen, thank you both for joining us today.
Bruce: Thank you, Brian.
Rob: Thank you, Brian.
Brian: To keep up with the latest happenings at ADD Systems, visit addsys.com/blog or connect with us on social media by following ADD Systems on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. If you have any questions about ADDcast, feel free to reach out to us at addcast@addsys.com. Thanks for listening, and have a great day!
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