In the latest episode of ADDcast, Alec Hulbert of Tiger Fuel and Severine Gimenez of Port Consolidated, chairs of the new ADD User Group Finance Committee, introduce its intent and their plans to create an impactful group. They go over how the Finance Committee formed, what topics it will focus on, and, due to the nature of finance touching many different functional areas, how they plan to partner with other AUG committees for joint discussions.
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Brian Cohen: Welcome to ADDcast. I’m ADD Systems’ Multimedia Specialist, Brian Cohen. Joining me today is Alec Hulbert, Controller at Tiger Fuel, and Severine Gimenez, Senior Financial Business Analyst at Port Consolidated. Alec and Severine, thank you both for taking the time to speak with me today.
Alec Hulbert: Of course.
Severine Gimenez: Thank you for having us.
Brian: Alec, can you start by telling us a little bit about Tiger Fuel and what your role is there?
Alec: Absolutely. So Tiger Fuel is a fuel distribution marketer with a division of convenience store, deli convenience stores, and TigerWashes, as well as a division for solar and renewable energy. We’re primarily based here in the Central Virginia region, but we have wholesale partners ranging from Maryland down through North Carolina. My role here, as you said, is the Controller, so I help shepherd all of the accounting and finance department and all that encompasses.
Brian: And Severine, can you tell us about Port Consolidated and what your role is there?
Severine: Port Consolidated is a wholesale fuel and branded lubricant distributor in Florida. We’re in nine different locations around the state, and we carry six different brands of lubricants. So we are very skew heavy. And my role, I’ve been with the company 21 years. I’m the Senior Financial Analyst. I handle reporting ERP applications as well as gross profit management.
Brian: All right. And this next question is for both of you. How long have you each been a member of the ADD User Group? And what has your experience been like with the group? Alec, we’ll start with you.
Alec: Yeah, absolutely. So I’ve only been a member of the AUG for a few years. It started at the Business Tech Conference back in 2023 which was my first real exposure to the ADD User Group. And I joined shortly thereafter, and have been participating in some of the meetings in the monthly committee reviews, as well as this year was the first year that I attended the annual meeting in New Jersey back in May.
Brian: And Severine?
Severine: It’s coming up on a year. I joined just when we started our conversion to E3 and so we are still in the middle of the conversion. So why I joined is because the more information you have, the better you get. I did go to the same meeting in May. That was my first experience with the ADD User Group in a live setting.
Brian: Well, excellent. And today we’re going to focus on the creation of the AUG Finance Committee. Can you talk about what prompted you both to form this committee?
Alec: Sure, I can start. So it really I think began in a lot of people’s minds over the last few years. You know, if you think about the way that the AUG is structured, each major module or system of processes within E3 and, really, outside of that into eStore, has a separate standing committee except for finance. So I think what the AUG members had seen up to that point was, you know, a lot of financial topics in either the Best Practices or general groups and committees, but no real dedicated space for finance in particular, which I always found interesting because, you know, whatever business you have, whether you’re really into the lubricants or the wholesale or the convenience stores, every organization has some type of financial department and financial requirements. So during that AUG Annual Meeting back in May, just chatting with Megan and Justin, and it’s been on their minds. And I guess Severine and I were just there in the room. So they were like, “Hey, we need some people to shepherd this.” So that’s from my perspective.
Severine: Yeah, that happened exactly like that. We were in the meeting and, you know, finance and accounting are – at Port Consolidated, we call ourselves the bottom of the funnel, right? Everything falls downwards and it ends up in our lap. So it’s the committee for coordinating everything else that happens in your business.
Brian: Great. Now, what kind of ADD users are you both hoping the committee will attract to the group?
Severine: I see this committee as more all of your accounting and treasury professionals – people who have to be the bridge between the inventory and the ops managers that take all the information that’s in the system and then have to produce financials or perfect reporting and requirements from vendors and all kinds of other entities.
Alec: Yeah, exactly. I think anybody who is primarily in accounting and finance would benefit greatly from joining the committee, but even if you have a tangential relationship with finance, or you partner with them, I’d say you’d still be able to get some value out of the topics we plan to discuss.
Brian: And so far, how has the interest been from the ADD User Group community?
Alec: So I think it’s been pretty well received within the first week of the launch. I think we got, you know, north of 30 plus people that signed up for it, which, I don’t know how that racks and stacks against the other longer-standing committees, but I’d say we got a good dispersion of more than 10 or 15 different organizations represented in 30 initial members. So I’d say it’s taken off pretty well.
Severine: I would agree. I think that we’re gonna hit a need across the board, so we’re gonna have some good responses and involvement from the members.
Brian: So can you talk about the frequency and general format of your meetings moving forward?
Alec: Yeah, absolutely. I’m happy to take that one. So we will be meeting monthly. It’s currently scheduled to be the fourth Tuesday of every month, from 2 to 3 pm Eastern Standard Time. And the format is really going to be structured around what the needs of the committee members are. We have some initial topics kind of sketched out, but based on just good discussion at these meetings and what people are experiencing, whether it’s new releases or new product highlights, and how it impacts what we do in accounting finance every day. It’s really largely driven by the group, and what the consensus need is, is generally the format we’d like to take.
Brian: Now, like you mentioned that you had some topics, so let’s dig a little deeper there. Can you give ADD users an idea of some of the topics you’re going to be covering at some of your upcoming meetings?
Alec: Absolutely. One of the biggest topics that I think is really relevant is how E3 and eStore connect to the other systems that the accounting and finance professionals use. You know, what type of accounting system integrates? How does that integration work? And all of the things that flow into that. Obviously, we’re in an inventory-heavy industry, so lots of good topics on industry being in fuel in that as well, lots of taxes, and there’s a lot of tax configuration and impacts within the system. So that’ll be good topics of discussion. Customer-facing and customer relationship, whether it’s invoicing or statements or payments and billing, and all of those things are all things that we’re looking to talk about as a group and share best practices, as well as maybe help other members solve some problems. And, you know, really, anything that anybody experiences day-to-day within E3 and eStore is a potential topic for us to tackle.
Severine: I think the other part is that accounting and finance professionals have always tackled wages – the demand for data and reports from a variety of sources. And on the lubricant side, the vendors are more and more data hungry. They want to know where, when, what, how much, and how often. So that’s become over the last, I would say, 5 to 10 years, like the demand of data back to vendors – it’s been tremendous. And so that has fallen on the accounting and finance people.
Alec: Absolutely. And to piggyback off of what Severine said there, you know, there is a BI (business intelligence) and Reporting Committee, and we’ve already started conversations about partnering with them and linking up our committee with that committee, and others, just because of the nature of finance and how it does touch all of the aspects of all the different functions. So we’ll be partnering particularly the BI and Reporting Committee, but as well as others to really share and get the most out of everyone’s different experiences.
Brian: Now, Alec, you mentioned at the beginning of our conversation that you were introduced to the ADD User Group at the 2023 BTC. So with the 2026 BTC coming up in May, do you have any plans for the committee in terms of meeting and networking at the conference then?
Alec: That’s a really good question, Brian, because I hadn’t considered that until you just said it, but that’s a really good opportunity. You know, there’s a lot of new people who attend that conference, and I do think that there’s a really good need to bring people together and provide that forum to make
the introductions, shake hands, and physically meet the people that we interact with, and maybe ask questions in that detailed way. So I don’t have any current plans, but I will discuss with the other AUG leadership team members and see what has worked for them in the past and what they recommend as far as giving the Finance Committee an opportunity in a forum to have that conversation. So great question, and it’s something that I’ll take away from this and make sure to talk about in future sessions as well, just to make sure everybody’s on the same page.
Brian: So if anybody was on the fence about joining the committee, what advice would you give them?
Severine: I would say if you’re on the fence about joining the committee, just come out and check us out. Log into one meeting or contact Alec and me and say, “This is what I do for my company. These are the challenges that I face.” And we may already have the topic lined up, coming up, or it could be something that’s very interesting to bring to the committee in the future. So if you’re on the fence, come check us out.
Brian: And if somebody wants to get in touch with each of you, how would they go about doing so?
Alec: Yeah, absolutely. So our contact information is provided to members of the new committee. So the ADD team does a really good job for any new members, whether you’re an existing AUG member as part of a different committee, or you’re brand new to the ADD ecosystem and want to get started with the Finance Committee in your first way, register on the ADD Systems website, and somebody from the ADD team will put you in contact with us. Of course, if you’re already an AUG member, reach out to your committee chair, or anybody at the AUG who knows how to get in contact with Severine and me, and we’ll take it from there and make sure that you’ve got all the things that you need. And we really look forward to interacting and building that network across all ADD users to really just help everybody get better.
Brian: Well, Alec and Severine, I thank you both for taking the time to speak with me today.
Alec: Thanks, Brian. Appreciate the opportunity.
Severine: Thank you.
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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