A bunch of the guys and gals were on the meeting when I joined. Marisa, Sean, John M., Steve, and I were on there. Sean and Steve were talking about needs for the gun dealership. They need a cross between a stock/unit (serialized inventory) and a part or general inventory item (bulk or widget inventory). As they were talking, I jumped in and mentioned that we had a similar request back when we were working with Barry at GPS Autotrackers. He, Barry, wanted to be able to sell things in bulk, but still track things with specific data (say a serial number for each GPS unit). He wanted the invoice to be something simple like: Sold 400 GPS units for a certain amount. Then, somewhat hidden and/or off to the side, here are the 400 serial numbers that go along with that (extra details or extra information or data).

As we talked, we ended up pitching a couple of different ideas of how we could figure that out. Option one was just use normal stock/units (existing serialized inventory stuff). Option two was parent/child inventory with a single parent and tons of subs (existing). The third option was a parent item, a sub item with a certain number (quantity), and then hold any extra info in a special table that is setup to hold the extra details. In technical terms... a one-to-many-to-many or in basic terms a parent item, one or more sub item(s), with one or more extra detail(s) per sub. We did a number of drawings and ran through some verbal use cases and options. The option three stuff seemed to have the most potential.

We talked about an extra sub table that could hold things like: auto id, corp id, part id (parent), sub id (subs), special tracking number (serial number, vin, batch, rfid tag number, etc.). It would also have columns that we could connect it to things like a PO, an outbound invoice or quote, and maybe even a separate tie-in to a customer if needed. As a small side note, we were thinking somewhat of a mini flex grid type table (similar concept but smaller in scope).

We don't know what to call it, but there is already some prior entries and ideas called a mini unit (see other entries).  This is a cross between a stock/unit and an item or a part number.

Wayne joined the meeting and we switched gears into servers, hackers, and how to help protect ourselves. We've had some hackers circling around us this past weekend. All part of the game. Wayne is doing a great job and showed us what he is seeing using some of his tools, logs, and outside monitoring services. Good stuff and we are so grateful for his skills and help. Wayne was showing us things and Steve and I were asking questions. Some of the other guys were just listening in.

Steve asked me to run some of the mini units ideas and options by Danny, as he missed out on our conversation the other day. We did lots of drawing, scenarios, and even some typing of what we were hoping to accomplish. Nice little brainstorming and planning session. This is kinda funny, but I was pitching the ideas on mini units like it was my current project. I kept defending certain ideas and concepts, yet nobody was defending an alternate point of view. I don't know why, but I felt like I was trying to pitch something that was being opposed and/or had a conflict. It turned out fine, just not sure why I was so motivated to get the ideas and concepts across. Kinda funny.

We ended up going into options for the mini units and how they could be tied into packages of packages (cases, boxes, crates, etc.), media/content options (specific paperwork per mini unit), and tons of options on flow for how those mini units would flow through the processes (data assembly line and flex bubble stuff). This ended up sending us on a tangent to talk about the order, invoice, fulfillment, and shipping processes. Lots of ideas about bringing things in, tracking and recording inventory, selling items internally, and also selling items externally or through ecommerce. Certain places have subs, sub processes, data entry, uploading documentation, gathering other info, etc. Each side of that story (receiving, stocking, selling, shipping, etc.) all have different needs dealing with the same mini unit or serialized items. Very interesting.

We got into what some of the reports may look like, how to find and filter the records, we also talked about bulk ways to look and match-up those extra details (serial numbers per mini unit). We got into 1-to-many-to-many-to-many relationships. It got kinda deep in places. Build what is needed to track it all the way through. Very interesting.

Steve and Sean were also talking about tracking backorders and using quotes (orders), invoices, and monitoring the fulfillment of those orders. We got into concepts of joiner tables out in database land. A joiner table is a table that creates relationships between different objects. The subject for this meeting was quotes, quote line items (aka the order), and how those were fulfilled on one or more invoices, and invoice line items. We talked about ways of using a joiner table to monitor those relationships and fulfillment needs.

Good meeting, lots of concepts, pitching, planning, and drawing.

Morning meeting and Sean, Steve, John M, Eric, and I were on there. Steve and Eric were going over Metrc issues and talking about database inserts and checking for duplicate records with the Metrc integrations. We then switched gears and started talking about other projects. Sean and Steve were talking about order of operations and needs out in mini unit land (a mini unit is a cross between a part/item and a stock/unit - sell in bulk but track by serial number). Anyways, they are working on a section that deals with orders, backorders, and being able to sell in bulk but still track all of the sub details. We ended up talking about options to flag quotes, orders, and even possible steps and/or phases. Some of the questions where dealing with how to track and manage some of those pieces.

As we got deeper and deeper, we started talking about progression and how we use different tools at different phases of a project. The first tool we use is our minds and head, if we run out of space or the project gets too complicated, we switch and go with paper and pencil, word processing documents, spreadsheets, databases, and software type packages. There is a progression. We usually need the next step as things get more involved and complicated.

This conversion, about progression and what tools to use, lead to a topic of mind mapping, flow charts, use cases, and recording other possible scenarios. If you only have 1 basic path, you may not need this kind of a tool. As it gets more complex, you need better and better tools to help you dive deeper and remember things and also make sure that certain key pieces get included. Good conversation.

Serialized inventory and playing with ideas on mini units. Steve, Sean, John, and I were doing some brainstorming. We were drawing, talking, and playing with simple scenarios in Microsoft Excel. See attached for our Excel sheet (small mock up and playing). Parent inventory, sub inventory, and then clear down to what we are calling mini units (serialized subs).

Met up with Steve to go over a few things. He had some questions about doing data imports and how to best help that process. We passed some older files back and forth for vendors, customers, and items. We also got into talking about being able to use CSV files to do uploads vs pushing new records into a temp database and then migrating from the temp database to the live database. We've done tons of both. I sent Steve a number of older sample files for each process.

After that, we got into a further discussion talking about a thing we are calling mini units. This is serialized units underneath of sub inventory. See attached for where we are with some Microsoft Excel mock-ups on database tables and what not. Still playing around and trying to find out where things go and how things work. We enjoy this kind of thing.

Flash to HTML conversion testing with Cory. We made a small video and did some emailing back and forth with Spencer. After that, I helped Steve with some merge conflict stuff. He is working on the next steps for the mini units project and being able to have both parent/child inventory with options for serialized child inventory values. Pretty cool.

Multiple people on the meeting. Mostly touching base on different projects. We are still having some issues with the Flash conversion stuff. John and I merged in a custom timeout message. Steve and I looked over some database updates for the mini units. Eric, Cory, and I talked about some crazy wholesale taxing stuff. Basically, we have customers that need to do wholesale deals, but still charge one specific excise tax. Currently, the code says, if wholesale, don't tax anything. However, we kinda need this go between that allows for the normal wholesale stuff but still able to charge a certain excise tax. Sometimes those things get pretty crazy. To make it worst, more complex, they also need to skip certain compliance and state tracking things for these transactions. Crazy complex stuff. Thank you California... and other states, for keeping us on our toes. 

John was reporting on servers and tech support stuff. When people report errors or bugs, it sure helps if they give us more info then so and can't do this or that. We need to know who, what server, time of day, what where they trying to do, what the error was, can we replicate it, etc. The more information, the better.

We were also talking about trickle down costs and hidden costs on the servers and what impact certain software and hardware choices and what cause/effect that leaves on us. Trying to get control of some of those pieces.

Steve had some code questions and then we went on to serialized inventory and discussions about mini units (serialized child inventory items).

Checking in with Danny and Steve. Merged in some new code for Danny, dealing with some new custom labels. Steve had some questions and wanted to show me what he is working on with the mini units (serialized subs). John jumped on and we reviewed his payroll holiday chooser project. After that, Steve and I did a small session and looked over some clean-up logic for a project that he is working on.

There were a bunch of the guys on the meeting. Mostly just checking in here and there and running small things pass Steve and I. Wayne had some database questions, Steve was working on sub inventory with mini units (serialized units within sub inventory), and Danny was working on some new notification settings. After Danny left, Steve and Sean  went over the power of using web based customer logs as direct ecommerce marketing tools to their clients. Steve has a lot of details and vision on that. He is going to have Danny start playing and building along those lines.

Meeting with Steve to go over some ideas and plans. Steve has been on fire today. He was pitching new ideas, lining out developers on small steps to bigger projects, and showing me new code that he has been working on. Fun to see. He has a lot of vision and loves to share it and push it along. That is awesome!

Here are some random notes:

- Steve's vision is great! He's been the primary visionary person throughout the years.

- Creative direct messaging options, using HTML compatible customer log notes, that populate out in ecommerce land. This could be controlled by settings, push notification to the user's or client's phone, simple one click login, possible bulk tools on the build and send side, ways of skipping or marking things as read on the user/client side. All kinds of fun ideas. As a side note, we already allow unlimited customer logs or customer log notes. You can already mark them as show on the web, and they will show up outside in the ecommerce area. All we would need to do is tweak that tech a little bit to turn it into a two-way messaging app. If we wanted to... just an idea at this point.

- Steve is working on the mini units project for a gun and firearm dealer. They can set a flag at the part or item category level. It says use or don't use mini units. A mini unit is a sub section under child or sub inventory. The sub, or package, could have multiple subs or serialized pieces under the sub inventory. The mini units project allows for something to be sold as a sub inventory item in bulk, and then as the invoice gets fulfilled, the different serialized pieces could be added in as details of the bulk entry. To explain, say you wanted to sell 10 of a certain item... The invoice would say sold 10 of XYZ item. Then, inside the system, you could tie in special serial numbers to all 10 of those mini unit items. This becomes a mix between a normal stock/unit (one-by-one serialized inventory) and parent/child inventory with granular control and ability to sell in bulk (simple line items on an invoice, but more details held in the background).

- Steve and Sean are going through different scenarios and figuring out processes and procedures. They are then making notes and coming up with solutions. The two of them have been able to work very well together. That is awesome.

- Steve sees one of our core values as being able to listen and hopefully understand what is needed. We are then able to make a plan to fill those needs. That is what adilas has been doing for the past 20 years. The market is talking and leading out with what they want and need, how can we build and capture that market?

- Sometimes the best thing is just taking the next little step. drop by drop, inch by inch, line by line.

- How can we capitalize on what we are building and basically inventing? We love doing R&D. We just need to help it start paying for itself.

- Steve really likes building contacts and doing social networking as a way of getting the information out and selling the product. He really likes, small, on the ground sales team that work and play well together. We pitch it, we sell it, we deploy and do setup, we help train and maintain the clients. We use small internal teams to do the whole process.

- I heard Steve pitching the dependable independent model to one of our guys today. They, our guys and gals, really love that model. Having said that, it does take a special person to fully bloom there. Sometimes it takes some getting used to and/or adaptation of sorts.

- My goal is to help Steve. The two of us together can make a lot of things happen. Good stuff. Both he and I can do whatever and be ok with it. Good Batman and Robin type team.

Steve and I were looking at a data import template from Kelly. Trying to get her a good sample. She sent us some data and we sent it back with a few tweaks and requests.

After that, Steve and I looked at a new sub inventory report that he is building. It is dealing with both core part/item attributes and parent attributes (dynamic and able to cross over part categories). The report is looking good and Steve is making great progress on the report.

Part of our goal, everyday, is to keep kicking the ball (or the can) down the road - little by little. We call that progress.

Steve and Sean started going over some of the new mini unit stuff. We also did some follow-ups on sales leads, demos, and appointments.

Weekly meeting with Alan to go over projects and code stuff. Both Cory and Sean joined us on our meeting today. We started out with Alan reporting on his current projects and findings. He was working on a page and did a search and found a number of other similar pieces (say 500 ish). He is currently refactoring that part of the application and going to be replacing code so that it runs more efficiently. The code happens to be dealing with custom page settings. We use these custom settings to store both corporation specific settings as well as user defined settings for different pages and sections. We gave him the go ahead to do a little bit of maintenance and refactoring - prepping for the future. Maintenance sometimes isn't that fun, but it plays a key role in the life cycle of a system.

The last half of the meeting was turned over to Sean to show Alan, Cory, and I some of the new stuff that he and Steve have been working on. We logged into a client's site and Sean gave us a great demo and tour of the orders homepage, backorders, fulfilling orders, training amounts requested, remaining, filled, etc. Steve and Sean have been busy. Here are some other notes from the meeting.

- As new features are developed and released, we need to make sure that everybody knows about them - sometimes distributing that information is a big challenge.

- We build special quotes without having real inventory to back them up... Then as the real inventory comes in, we distribute and fill the correct orders. This is a whole new section of the application and Steve and Sean are out there pioneering things.

- The quotes just hold parent items or parent placeholders. Then as the invoices are created, the real parent/child relationships get put in place on the outbound invoices.

- The orders and backorders homepage has three main ways of viewing and sorting the data. It may be vied by quote (order), by item (what orders want what), or by customer (what other things are they still waiting for). Pretty cool!

- Lots of great demos and showing us flow, approval processes, pagination (next page of n), drill-down and filtering options.

- We are gaining some good traction by getting a client who wants something, doing some planning, putting a MVP (minimal viable product) out there, beating it up and refining it - with some hand holding, and then officially releasing it to the public as a new feature. Nice little process.

- Sean also went into some new pages and sections for mini units. This is serialized units that are within the realm of parent/child inventory. The parent is the primary placeholder. The sub inventory or child inventory are the new batches or packages. Then within the new batches or packages, the individual mini unit data is help and recorded. It also shows usage on where it came in, where it went out, etc. (PO's and invoices). The whole process has a tons of great new features.

- Lots of talk about relationships and one-to-one, one-to-many, and one-to-many-to-many. It can get deep, but sometimes that is needed. We play in bulk where possible and then record individual data (and maybe even hide it unless asked for). It makes it look simple, but the whole story is really all there, just nested and/or strategically buried or hidden.

- We spent a bit of time talking about the pains of trying to keep multiple sets of records and juggling multiple systems. We are trying to relieve this burden, but sometimes the transition process is difficult. We have found that clients are so busy, they almost always need a person or small team to help them transition and get the training that they need. Without this, they end up failing on the transitions (switching over).

- Sean did a great job. I was impressed with his demo and knowledge of the system. I can see him doing more and more of that type of thing. He gets in there and spends the time to learn things (tips, tricks, etc.). That makes a difference.

- The value of real live data and real live work flow testing. You have to have a client who will play along, but you gain a ton from that tight of an interaction and/or relationship.

Steve and I jumped on the meeting and some other guys were there as well. Small touching base and checking in session. We also did some light follow-up. Steve will be building some new advanced, choose your own fields, and filter your own reports for a client. They will also be savable reports.

We also had some discussions on info graphics and what we want and what would be cool. Steve would like to see the stack of our inventory stack - how deep it gets, 3D levels, parent and core values, sub or child inventory attributes, parent attributes, categories, mini units, PO/invoices, line items, locations, mini conversions, recipes, etc.

Wayne popped in and wanted to show us his Application.cfc code and stuff. The old code used to use an Application.cfm (small difference in the page extension .cfm to .cfc). The new .cfc code is event driven and plays more with some object oriented code with functions, methods, and event watchers.

We ended up talking a little bit about some of the old AFB (adilas for business) stuff and how things got setup and added into the system. Originally, the AFB stuff was going to be a high-end (paid) standalone package that could run on top of the classic adilas package. Sort of like a white label, but completely a paid for add on layer, if you will. Good stuff, but there is some older history there.

On Friday, June 11th, 2021 we had an internal conference day for just the adilas team. We went from sales to internal code to ideas and plans. All over the place. See attached for my notes. Many great things were discusses. Once again, this was an internal team meeting, but we don't mind sharing what we were talking about. :)

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The attached notes are better formatted, but I wanted to push some of them here for searchability:

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Group Sales Meeting

Marisa, Danny, John, Cory, Sean, Steve, Dustin, Shari O., Dawn, Brendan, Steve (mac), Brandon, Chuck, Alan, Kelly, Bryan

- Kelly was saying that there is some public records per states

- We may try to pull our own list

- Questions... who, what, where, how good, etc.

- Maybe look at a sample of 10

- We may need a more focuses approach

- What about different industries?

- We need to get the name out there

- Kelly was pitching a social presence

- Do we know anybody who wants to do the social stuff

- Word of mouth

- Testimonials

- Some new video graphics

- To the penny, to the gram, every day

- What about small streaming commercials – focused and pointed

- Kelly recommends that we maybe focus on a slightly larger pool

- Dawn – maybe focus on start-ups or that small to medium range

- Get them at the beginning – maybe even tradeshows

- It is a pain in the but to switch over – pain creates options for change

- Focus on services... deployment, oversight, consulting, training, best practices

- How can we deploy something easily and repeatable?

- It is tough to get some of the people started, but once they get all in, they tend to stay

- Kelly has done this over and over again

- Using the professional resources that are available

- From Kelly – Help get the clients all the way in – full system and platform

- Getting the success on the first implementation and then building from there

- What about focusing on those who are having trouble and/or are struggling

- Dawn loves the support, training, and feel good part of it – duplicate that feeling to others

- How quick can we respond – we jump pretty quickly on custom needs, development, training, and support

- Get more testimonials from our clients

- We have some experience to offer to those who want it

- What about pitching best business practices

- It's ok to be non-traditional

- Being Relevant!

- Focus on helping over sales – from Steve (mac)

- Simple things that bring the relevant pieces

- Social webbing – group effort

- Danny, straight up, I don't want to be the social media guy! We have to find the right person and/or persons (small little team)

- We are not QuickBooks... what does that mean? Be our own style!

- Packaging this platform based on the target audience

- Formulating a plan – ease the lift – maybe a monthly meeting with some planning

- Influencers and YouTube options

- Small info tips...

- New age marketing – we have to play to the current market

- Big Dumb Animal Pictures – super simple

- We have to do a cost analysis to see which one(s) make more sense for us

- John, what if we setup our own little social piece (aka maybe the adilas cafe) – we could allow all of our users and power users to pitch and promote – we may need to approve things, but we have tons of very knowledgeable people and users

- We are looking for engagement – back and forth – a relationship – maybe get an intern to help handle this

- Danny – Switching over to the modal message marketing

- How to save the app to your phone

- Make the email piece better

- Small web tool to help with building special html links to embed promotions, direct add to cart, discounts, campaigns, etc. A simple form to help with the backend tech of those URL's and web links.

- Maybe, we need to upgrade our email platform. It is a small holdover from years gone by.

- What about the delay on the outbound emails?

- Marisa – maybe outsource things as needed

- Steve – would like more input on the bulk tools

- Better filtering and target marketing

- Steve wants to work direct with Dawn and Branden

- Matrix and target marketing – even predictive

- Maybe a little itty bitty (super small) native app on the different phones – iOS, Android, etc.

- Steve wants to get into possible predictive marketing

- Steve – looking for great feedback and even ideas and dreams...

- Archiving, saving for later, dismissing, etc. We have the data, what do we want to do with it? – Wet clay...

- Danny – Going back to past clients

- Version 1 vs Version 2 – type attitude

- What kind of clients do we want? We may not want certain kind of clients.

- We love people who like details and are willing to play

- We love people who take things to the fullest level

- We love people who just need a small little piece – there is a gap in their current model and they need some help. We can then grow from there.

- Do a full comparison of what we offer

- Pitch what we do differently – we help deploy and maintain your ERP

- White glove approach

- Playing with the tools that we have and flipping those into marketing messages

- Chuck – maybe check out some groups on Facebook

- Blog posts, articles, info snippets, quick videos

- Talking with Kelly – how have we helped small businesses become bigger or big business – showing the potential – dreams to reality

- The small goals to achieve – steps to get to the next level

- Small goals lead to bigger goals – getting some small successes along the way

- Clients and expectations – not all money is the same – budgeting and planning – what kind of client do we want

- Reoccurring revenue vs one-time revenue

- A quote is just one of many pieces that needs to be done

- People, skills, and cogs in the wheel

- We all care... where would you and your skills fit in best

- Seeing the bigger picture

- Maybe looking at personalities and figuring out the mixing and blending of our options and resources

- Slowing down and taking the time to see where we are at? Virtual time travel – child, youth, adult – as a company

- What's the difference between a goal and dream? A plan!

- The internal group summary that we did... a great start

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Second session - Servers & Infrastructure - Refining Our Processes - Tech Support & Training - Project Management

Steve wants us to show the online label builder

- We had some good talk about where we want to go

- We pointed to our internal summary report

- Steve McNew – helping with the strategic marketing plan, technology road map, timelines to position, plans for action

- Scale – can we grow and can we shrink

- Conversation between big and small – perspective – big and small (sales, number of team members, lines of code, etc.)

- Molly – Is adilas the big guy or the small guy? Think of code (lines of code). We could be considered a big guy if you were looking at code and functionality.

- We like being small (ish), but what if we are big already

- If we want to grow, that means that we want to get better – grow in a good manner and sustainable manner

- The underlying services that support the whole

- Be your own style!

- Steve McNew – old classmate with Steve Berkenkotter – guest speaker – part of the adilas team to help us get some things more standardized – processes and procedures

- Defense contractor for the military – 28 years

- Testing, software, management, auditor

- He has already called, interviewed, and talked with a number of different team members

- He did a 20 page audit and report on what he was seeing

- Getting into some testing and processes – he would like to see more of this

- Not trying to derail the train – we are trying to polish the Ferrari (spelling – awesome car)

- Whitepapers – catering to a higher audience – going beyond stick figures and into technical docs – not everybody will want to read some of these, but there will be some that require it

- Steve B – if we try to sell our product to those who can't afford it, it doesn't really work. They have to be able to pay for what we do (really do – billing for our time and efforts)

- Fin-tech – financial technology

- Using whitepapers as part of our marketing plan

- John M – unit testing – confidence of the developer team – currently only Wayne and Alan are doing this (unit testing)

- Going to ease into this – refining our testing plan

- Version control and when do we update these systems? The older way was wild west... we may want to figure out some specific micro builds.

- It would be nice to keep track of the versions and options.

- The balance between core and custom development

- The application needs some spring cleaning – what is being used, what isn't, what is going slow, etc. – Refactoring

- Priorities – customer priorities or our internal priorities – what is the mix and blend of these pieces

- We all ware many hats... we may need to define that so that we don't overstretch ourselves

- We all use (and can use) the system in different ways – how do we translate that information to our clients, other developers, and other team members (upstream and downstream)

- 2 minute videos – no more

- Work instructions – even giving it to someone who has never done anything in the system

- Danny – Shoutout to Steve and Brandon – we have done great – what is coming next? Resources?

- Talks about earn and burn ratios

- Prices have to match the services

- We are a growing business

- Kelly – going from 1.5 to 10 (millions) – that is a huge change

- We are competing with companies that are hugely funded... what do we want to do?

- There are some real things in our path – there is tons of potential – what do we want to do with it – also, sometimes there is shelf life on potential or advantages

- We don't want debt – however, there is a time for debt – cost analysis and being smart about it

- Making choices, but also being willing to fail

- Marisa – look at our new website

- Steve – there are some percentages of adilas that are available – not looking for vulture capital (just being silly – vulture vs venture)

- Someone looking to take on some risk but helping us to get to the next level, without taking over the company

- Kelly – pitching our vision and business plan – we have to define the vision – Danny seconded the define the vision before looking for the funding – goals, sales, budgeting, maintenance, and getting a business plan.

- Adilas Trust option – co-founders

- Possible option – Maybe take some of IP (intellectual property) and sell that to a new entity and then restructure those new pieces

- Dustin – thoughts on corporate structure – we are all on our own little islands – Ferrari to a tricycle – frontend compared to backend – splitting up those pieces and functions – he wishes that we could be more collaborated.

- John – teams and buddy projects – small sub teams – full stack (all levels) vs specific skills or somewhat limited skills – this needs to be part of our plan.

- Sean – we already have some small teams that are working on some of these projects – cogs of the wheel – buddy tagging the workflow and processes

- John – the adilas docs project – and being able to go to it and also add to it – working on standardizing the pieces – filling in the gaps

- Danny – Navy Seals – two is one, and one is none – at least two on a project – two-by-two

- Kelly – scale – having a back-up

- Danny – accountability back and forth

- John – confidence levels

- Kelly – what about a succession plan?

- John and Dustin – real life buddies and how they help out each other – seeing a different angle or perspective

- Marisa – tooooooooo much weight gets put on single persons

- Kelly – relieving pressure and helping with scale

- Marisa – Cory, Kelly, and Marisa – wonderful training slides, presentation, and delivery for the conference. Awesome job!

- Alan – modularize things – able to be reused – code concepts can relate to business functions – one to many relationships – translating knowledge into real life and different scenarios

- Chuck – last summer Chuck was on a joint project with he, Russell, and a different John. It worked out awesome – Keep pushing towards that kind of rollout of the project

- Molly – thinking and coming up with ideas. Keep it going!

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Next Session - Deployment & Oversight - Design & Layout - Internal Core Development - Custom Development 

- Deployment – where are we going and how can we make this all work – team effort

- Shari O. – first touch and setup corp, Sean and Shay first hour or so, Sean helping to coordinate the next steps and pieces

- Sean does a great job of reporting back

- Report on things, record the notes, get back with us to help us keep pushing

- Doing great with testing and prototyping

- Kelly – who is on settings, who is on planning, maybe even looking at pre-deployment options

- Before Kelly even does a demo, do some consultation – figure some things out without doing any pitching or selling. This is called listening.

- What are you looking for, wanting, expecting, hoping for?

- Make the demos custom to the pain points or key wants and needs

- The prep work is huge to help them be successful

- This platform is not a turn on and go type system – there may be pre demo, consulting, custom planning and demo, then custom hand holding to get them going down the road

- Picking the point of contact... who is going to own this thing?

- Owners, managers, and users

- Users want the easy button – Steve calls this the tail wagging the dog vs the dog wagging the tail – what is and how can we get buy in?

- Tools are great, but solutions to problems and pain points are even better

- Give to get! If you give too much, it can get you into trouble.

- What is the cost to fixing things... on the other hand, failing does help with major learning – there has to be a balance

- We tend to remember pain – setting people up for success

- Often users are looking for a quick switch. This system takes work. Please sell it that way.

- Not going to custom too quickly – learning the manual way – then automating it

- User buy in – light pain and then helping them learn a better way

- Change proposals and scope of work – setting up boundaries

- Feature creep – setting that scope of work – cause and effect of what they want and what they give – expectations and timelines

- Sometimes I start with NO – interesting

- A saying no - sandwich... Yes, I'd like to, no, I can't. Yes, I would love to help do this... - people think that no is a bad word

- Having a plan to say yes, vs just saying yes

- We like to please people – that is awesome – what does that cost?

- Help make the plan to say yes. Maybe, no (first), however we could do this...

- Making things repeatable

- What are the internal costs to do deployment?

- Say $350 for a setup fee – does that cover it? If yes, great. If no, where does that put us?

- Maybe on the setup, prep, an activation fee (define this – turning on the lights), setup and deployment fee (range), training, custom code, imports, labels, etc.

- We like to cater to everyone – that had bitten us

- Actual prices and then use discounts if needed. You can't really ever raise a price after the fact.

- Back-up our prices

- Use adilas to run adilas!!! This is our communication tool, let's use it.

- We are good at the dreaming and software building part of things, we need some major loving on the service side

- There is demand!

- What pulls at our time - It is time, money, skills, etc.

- Kelly – earn has to be more than burn

- Flipping the demand to sales or services that could be provided

- MVP – minimal viable product, plan, player, etc.

- Intangibles

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Next Session – Show and tell! What are you working on?

Calvin – Advanced file and folder finder, resize images, convert images

Brandon – harvesting assets from element of time

Steve – parent attributes report, items not on a recipe (manufacturing), modal message marketing for customers, log notes for vendors and employees (payee/vendor logs), backorders homepage, mini units, auto add item (quick PO behind the scenes), bulk update on the vendor – master copy paster... :)

- Branch 122 – fun

Bryan – cfqueryparams – stop SQL XSS (database hacks – cross site scripting)  - SQL injection – converting from dynamic queries to secure dynamic queries - Example: Corp_id = #Trim(some form or URL var)# or Corp_id = <cfqueryparam etc, etc,> - this stops the SQL hacks

Bryan is also working on eChecks for eXPO, Hypur checkout in the shopping cart (eComm), new API's for delivery (with documentation and samples)

John – Payroll project to allow holiday date picking, timecard flags, timecard totals (pre summing the math to go faster and lead towards bulk payroll), new timecard reports showing grouped sums and totals.

Page templates and style guide defaults with Chuck – Going from old school tables and links to the newer grid and mobile ready code. Part of the adilas docs project. Build once, use many (effective copy and paste). Basic templates (3 new ones). New information icons and popups (modals). Style guides and usage of those pieces.

Servers with Wayne

Chuck – Huge new web site!!! Awesome Job!!!

Global Design Dashboard, adilas docs, and new presentation gallery (sales tool).

Danny – message marketing, custom labels, sales team meetings – hats off to all of us! Keep listening and keep finding solutions. Open table – follow your highest excitement and be yourself! Be happy!

Alan – enterprise level catalogs, refactoring code (custom page settings), standardizing code for speed and reliability.

Random comments – Cory really liked having access to all of the team members, right here at the conference. Marisa – great to meet everyone – keep floating the boat. Sean – he likes the team. Molly – loved watching and wants to be involved. Chuck – idea of everyone joining slack

Originally, we were going to have meeting with the Paypod folks. Cory found notes from 4/29/21 meeting with Aaron Stone and Bryan has a recording from meeting. We will review and determine steps of project/strategize. Will wait to meet with Aaron until we have next round of questions.

Just Cory, Sean, and Brandon were on the meeting. Cory asked me to help chase down a small invoice line item but. We looked and looked, but couldn't find anything. Finally, Cory found it after looking everywhere else. It ended up being on some new code that was added for mini units and sub inventory stuff. It took both Cory and I to find it. I honestly would have missed it, if it were just left up to me on this one. I was checking everywhere else, but Cory found it and we got it fixed. Great catch on her behalf.