In this episode of ADDcast, we delve into ADD Systems’ successful 2024, featuring over 100 product releases and thriving client relationships. We explore the vital role of the ADD User Group in shaping the future of our software. Plus, our leadership discusses the evolving energy landscape, the impact of AI, and what lies ahead for ADD Systems in 2025.
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Brian Cohen: Welcome to ADDcast. I’m Multimedia Specialist, Brian Cohen, and today, I’m joined by ADD Systems President, Bruce Bott, along with Senior Vice President and COO, Rob Culbertson. Gentlemen, thanks for joining me today.
Rob Culbertson: Thank you, Brian.
Bruce Bott: Thank you, Brian.
Brian: Rob, 2024 was a busy year at ADD Systems that presented both challenges and excitement for the future. Could you talk a little bit about how 2024 unfolded?
Rob: I sure can, Brian. Thank you. Well, 2024 was another exciting year for ADD Systems. As you know, ADD Systems is now past the half-century mark. Celebrated our 51st anniversary this year, and we continue to grow and to thrive. We continue to meet and exceed the expectations of our business, and I’m really proud of the team for all the work that they’ve put in this year. Our software product development is a 365-day a year focus. There’s no slow time of year for our product teams. By the end of this year, we will have delivered over 100 new releases of our software products. Our focus is on the energy and the c-store markets, and these releases are for all of our major products. There is an endless desire for added functionality in our products, and our teams are meeting these requests each and every day. We’ve also had great success this year with our software and solution implementations. We’ve had dozens of customers go live this year running our software products. Some of these implementations have taken months to deploy, some just a few weeks. We at ADD are very excited to get new customers using our products and finding out how they can grow and increase their profitability. We also saw growth with our existing customers either adding new products that we offer or upgrading to newer versions of the products that they’ve been using. All in all, it’s been a very busy and rewarding year.
Brian: And a great way to kick off our conversation tonight. Now, Bruce, I’d like to bring you into the discussion. Can you talk about how 2024 fared overall in comparison to the last several years?
Bruce: Sure. Well, I’ve been around, I’m going to say, close to 40 years, so this was just another busy year for ADD Systems. We onboarded a lot of new clients. We upgraded many clients from older products to the current product offering. We’ve spent some time and effort focusing on our software as a service and our hosted solutions. We continue to sell a little bit of everything, even a lot of people are still buying on-premise licenses. So very, very busy year for us overall, and I expect that to be the same going forward for the next several years.
Brian: Excellent. Now, Rob, turning back to you, could you give an overview of some of the product enhancements and highlights that took place across the ADD suite throughout 2024?
Rob: Well, Brian, as I mentioned, we delivered over 100 new product releases this year. Our mainstream products: E360, eStore, Atlas, all had multiple major and minor releases in 2024. Each release featured enhancements that were the direct result of the direct feedback of our customers. As you know, we have a very, very active ADD User Group, or AUG, for short. The members of the AUG are very instrumental in providing feedback on what features would be of most benefit to them and to their peers. Our challenge as a software company is to take this input and design the added functionality into our products to give our customers what they want and how they want it, knowing that not everyone will use each and every new feature. As in years past, the requests focus on many areas, but most follow a few central themes. Number one theme is automation and efficiency, making the software perform tasks that are currently being done by individuals while still allowing for the handling of exceptions and keeping that individual company to customer feel. Any type of automation and efficiency enhancements help drive the profitability of companies. Another major theme is technology upgrades, whether that be the latest operating systems, the latest mobile platforms, or leveraging cloud services and products. The cloud is not just a great place to store your data, but also a place where 1000s of features are available, and the integration of those features into the core ADD products is one of our major focuses.
Brian: A lot to look forward to. Now, let’s take a minute and look beyond the software. Bruce, I know it’s still a year and a half away, but the 2026 Business Tech Conference will be here before we know it. Can you talk a little bit about what’s in store thus far, and maybe what attendees can expect to take away from the next BTC?
Bruce: Sure. I think every (BTC) Business Tech Conference we hold is very, very unique and dear and different. The main goal is to keep people informed about what we’re doing with our products, and talk to clients about how we’ve integrated to other third-party providers that are in our ecosystem so to speak. 2026 is gonna be no different. We hold them every three years. It’s still very early in the planning stage. We’re 18 months out. What I can tell you is that our goal is to outdo the prior events, make it more informative and in the downtime, we were hoping to give people some excellent things to bring back to their offices and tell them about the fun things we were able to do. The special events are still being worked on. Maybe it’s gonna be a beachfront thing. Maybe it’s gonna be a surprise that we’ll have to keep close to our chest for the next several months, but it’s certainly going to be one of those events where everybody’s going to be very, very happy once they attend, and when they get back, they’re going to be looking forward to the one in 2029.
Brian: Well, I’m sure it’s going to be an incredible event once again. And one of the things that happens at the BTC is the ADD User Group Annual Meeting. So with that in mind, Rob, can you talk about some of these AUG accomplishments in 2024 and what members can look forward to in 2025?
Rob: I sure can, Brian. Well, the AUG continues to thrive. The AUG has over a dozen active committees and a very, very strong, engaged leadership team. The committees all run on their own schedule. Most of them are having monthly meetings. Some are a little bit less frequent, and a few are more frequent than that. Each of the committees will have their monthly meetings. ADD will help support and run the logistics on that side, but those meetings are one in which the topics are picked by the leadership team, picked by the committees themselves, and they really engage the group to learn more about the ADD products, to talk about industry issues and all things that are kind of related to the whole ecosystem around the ADD software package and the industries that we are serving. Our mandate here at ADD Systems is really to be consultants to the user group. The leadership team of the user group runs the group, they manage the group, they set the policies, they set the goals, they set the timelines. Every year, they have an annual meeting where we get a chance to run through all the accomplishments of the group and ADD Systems gets the chance to talk about some of the new enhancements that have been developed as a direct result of the input of the user group. So we’re really happy with it. It’s a great source of pride for us to have as many people involved in the user group as we do, and we’re looking forward to 2025 as being another year in which the group grows and becomes more and more valuable for all the users.
Brian: Well, I think it goes without saying that the AUG makes for a closer connection between ADD Systems and our clients. So on that same level, Bruce, you like to make it a point to visit with our clients in person. Were you still able to keep up with those visits throughout 2024 and do you have plans on more client visits throughout 2025?
Bruce: Yeah, Brian, like 2024 turned out to be a pretty busy year visiting clients. I think my last tally was about 34, 35 clients in total this year that I went to see, so I’m happy I was able to get out and visit with each of them. I have two or three scheduled for the remainder this year, and I’m sure 2025 is going to bring lots and lots more of those client visits. I really do enjoy meeting with the customers. I get to sit in their office for a little bit, maybe go to lunch with them, maybe have dinner with them. Sometimes over lunch or dinner, we don’t even talk about business. We talk about other things that connect us at a relationship over the years. So talking about family, talking about things that they’re encountering, where their business changes lie in the future, all very important to me, and if I don’t go out to listen to them, then I’m just missing the boat. So over the years, I’ve just kind of tuned in on I want to meet with the customers as regularly as I possibly can. So if this podcast is shared with others, our clients, I really like to remind people that I’ll come visit anybody, anytime, anyplace, just to reach out to me. One client summed it up for me at the end of a lunch meeting. They said, “You know why I like ADD Systems?” And I said, “Tell me.” The answer they gave me was they can call the president of the company, and I’ll come out and have a meal with them and sit and talk about their issues. And that’s unique. That doesn’t happen that much these days. So I think maybe I’m a little old school. Maybe I’m dating myself here a little bit, but I think it’s the best way to connect with your customers, is go meet them and understand what’s going on in their life.
Brian: Well, Rob, Bruce brought up talking with clients about challenges and opportunities. Can you talk about some of the challenges and opportunities in the industries that we serve that possibly we could be facing in 2025?
Rob: I sure can, Brian. I really think that 2025 is going to be interesting for the industries we serve. You know, we have a new administration coming into Washington in January, and they appear to be more pro-business and pro fossil fuel than the current administration. So that certainly remains to be seen. Whether this is true or not, and what impacts occur due to maybe tariffs and other policies, but I really think that overall, this will be a positive for the industries that we serve. Other challenges that our customers are facing all deal with product costs and labor costs and margins, things that are fairly typical year in and year out. Another thing that we see is this push toward electrification and renewables. I don’t think that’s going to change at all. It may slow down a little bit, but it’s going to continue. And it’s something that we at ADD Systems are aware of, and it’s impacting our software development. It’s also impacting what our customers are doing. And then the other big item that’s going on in the world of software is (AI) Artificial Intelligence. It’s really making a big impact. We’re using it here at ADD Systems in many different ways, and it’s going to continue to become more and more part of our products, part of our development process, part of our service process. Overall, I think artificial intelligence is really going to change the world to a large degree over the next three to five years.
Brian: Now, Bruce, taking what Rob just said there and turning it inward, what’s your overall outlook for ADD Systems in 2025 and beyond?
Bruce: So, yeah, taking what Rob said there, really important. We know there’s a lot of challenges in the industry, but those challenges do trickle down to ADD Systems as well. So if our customers are impacted, we’re impacted. This is the only industry we serve, the energy distribution industry, so it’s really important that our customers are successful. We are looking inward at reinvesting in ADD Systems and technology, our people, and our offerings. We’re going to continue to try and be cutting edge with everything we offer. So I do think 2025 and beyond are looking really bright. I’m excited about it.
Brian: Gentlemen, thank you both for taking the time to speak with me today.
Rob: Thank you, Brian. Have a great day.
Bruce: Thanks, 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 X. 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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