On a client meeting. We had four adilas folks on and they had three or so of their staff. We bounced all over the place. These are some of my notes:

- Too long to check out a customer. They want it faster with less clicks. As a note, if the items are in the system and they have a valid quantity, it goes really fast and smooth. Just scan it and it adds it to the cart.

- Being able to sell items that they don't have. Basically, we have them doing sub inventory for full inventory and cost controls. That's pretty tight and dosen't allow for selling into the negative. They haven't really checked to make sure everything is in the system and have already gone live (using it with their actual customers for full invoice creation and checkout). When something isn't in there, it is taking them a bit of time to enter it and get the customer out the door. They have to call a manager over and get the item into the system. In my mind, that's trying to go too fast without checking to make sure that their items are in there.

- They wanted full enterprise functionality - they have multiple stores and want to be able to change things in one place and then have that data cascade down to the other stores (separate systems or worlds). Some of that functionality already exists but some of that is still in the works.

- They are struggling and need help. They want us to be right there holding their hands. We had one of our guys onsite for over a week. This is now a couple of weeks later. Not everybody got trained.

- One of their needs is to be able to take EBT (electronic benefit transfers) - government payment type like modern food stamps. One of our guys is working on a solution that already has that integrated into the payment process and gateway stuff.

- Talking about expectations and requirements.

- One of our developers is helping them with a new QuickBooks API setup. We have never done this before and it's pretty deep. Basically, they sell items using adilas and then it does a nightly post out to the QuickBooks API web app. Lots of moving parts and customer mappings (matching up categories, items, id numbers, tokens, etc.)

- They are feeling an urgency level. I fully understand but they need to communicate. We jump on things as soon as we can but they want it right now.

- There are some terminology differences (almost barriers). We call things one thing and they call certain things another thing. That is a huge piece of the puzzle. We love to help our clients speak their own language (through settings); we just need to know (communication breakdown).

- We got most of the main employees trained. However, there is a lack of training for managers. That's good to know. We didn't know that there was a gap.

- Looking for speed at every action or transaction

- Wanting min and max quantity buffers. Not just mins and maxes, but also reorder mins and maxes based on case sizes and packaging. Deeper controls.

- Faster checkout options

- Be able to auto open the next subs (child packages), Be able to open and close subs through settings or automation. If they have problems with subs, they are calling over a manager and that takes time. If it's all in there, it goes pretty fast. They had us bulk update (aka fake the quantities) to get them using it quickly. Now that is biting both of us (them and us) as not everything is really ready to go. If it's there and in the system, the system is playing just fine. It's where the items aren't in the system or they don't really have the quantities in correctly. Once again, they asked us to help bulk update things for them to get them going. No one is really managing the input side so it makes it look like it's running out of quantity.

- They have 16,000 SKU's. That's a lot of items and products. Also, not all are the same or treated the same.

- There are so many ways to set things up (settings) - that's good and bad. If you get the settings correct, you are good to go. If not, you are fighting against the system. It comes down to education and setup. Most things are possible or have a flow but you have to know how to set it up in order to take advantage of the functionally that is built in.

- Talking about labels and subs - they want full control but want to run everything from a manufacture's barcode. You can do that, but you need to be on top of it. The other option is to label everything and then you don't have to worry because everything has its sub label and points to the correct sub or child package.

- Possible new settings or sub inventory rules - Maybe selling out of the oldest sub package if the item has multiple packages. Currently, if there are multiple packages, the system prompts for which one to use. They don't want their cashiers doing anything other than taking monies. It comes down to - how tight do you want your inventory levels?, Costs, margins, etc.?

- We talked about inventory items and how to treat them (unlimited, parent only, subs or child packages - parent/child)

- Almost wanting mini conversions (without all of the pain of setting those things up). Mini conversion are dealing with cases, packaging, sub amounts, and how do you buy it, and how do you sell it? What's the lowest common denominator? Drops, cups, quarts, gallons, pieces, singles, cases, bundles, etc.

- Each company has different business processes (how deep, loose, tight, etc.). This topic can get really deep.

- They are really wanting to know what their costs are (with all kinds of items). It gets tricky with deli level costing (unlimited items and COGS on the P&L through expenses), talks about operations and accounting and how we (they) mix those pieces, what are the rules? They want to look at a sales report and see all of the margins (not all the way to the accounting side of things), they want strict control for 95% of their items and super flexible on the other 5% of their items. We have some options for that, but you need to set things up (training, education, and consulting).

- They are missing some steps (clicking to make new sub inventory packages). They are altering things on the fly vs having a normal or standard proceedure.

- For PO's - they would love bulk tools (reverse shopping cart page - including new sub inventory - in bulk). They want the reorder process to be more automated and easier. It's all there, you just have to use the existing tools. They almost want an AI (artificial intelligence) level to help them restock and reorder. That would be cool, but we don't have that yet.

- Talking about processes for their stores

- Going back to maybe a new setting for flexible subs (open and closing subs behind the scenes)

- Quick payment and checkout options

- On credit card settings - making them stick - they have had to change it back and forth a couple of times (which terminal is associated with which register). Along with credit card stuff, they would like more error handling for card processing (swipe, EMV chip, visa gift card, etc.). Basically, if the system sees a credit card, it can handle any type without human interaction. We totally can do these different types, but the user has to help the system know which way to process things. One things that has been a little tough has been Visa gift cards (non EMV cards on EMV reader terminal).

- On their PO's - they want the part reference number to show up and be able to toggle on/off certain columns. They also want the new columns to show up on the searches and the printable PO's. We had the idea to maybe add an if/then logic piece looking for the part reference fields. They would like to duplicate PO's with subs (children), bulk upload of new inventory (csv based) - template based, and have more bulk updating tools (all kinds of things). They want it faster and more versatile. They want to be able to update costs, prices, vendors, etc. - all in bulk. We offer some of that, but you have to be careful if everything ties back to the accounting. You can't just change things like that. Costs and vendors are tied to payables, financials, and inventory value levels. You can't just change stuff like that without cause and effect relationships being affected.

- They would like to be able to change a vendor on an item (you can do it, but they want it easier).

- There was a request for a save and upload over and over again (a template and then bulk update the pieces). Basically, instead of using the system, using spreadsheets to control things in bulk. That sounds great but creates major disconnects between inventory values, accounting for costs, and matching up different systems. The best option is in-application bulk tools vs trying to crisscross and use spreadsheets for bulk updates.

- They want us to loop over one of their vendors (Walnut Creek) and update all barcodes to 12 digits. When they gave us the data, the system took off all of the zeros padding the numbers. For example: Say the barcode was 000000055555, it saw it as a number and only put in the 55555 value and took off the seven front 0's.

- This was new, they have a standalone deli scale(s) that print complex barcodes on the fly. They scan it and then they wonder why the system can't read that complex barcode. It can, it just doesn't know what to do with it. We have to teach it or setup a way to parse or break the barcode apart. For example: which characters are the item, the cost, the quantity, etc. We need to complex barcode mapping. Sean will help track that down and work with the client. This was a new requirement that we didn't know about until today at the meeting.

- Reorder mins and maxes (more than just numbers - dealing with cases and even at the ordering level) - not just quantities - also tied to case sizes (for example a case of 12 per order), on the mins and maxes - be able to record that per item and then have that show up on either PO search results or PO bulk tools (almost a suggested order size). Basically, some advanced min/max quantity and reorder buffers.

- What are the timelines to get things done? We need to figure that out.

After the client left, we just had the adilas team on the meeting. Here are a few other notes:

- Making the PO process even faster (almost AI type level) - helping and making suggestions.

- Maybe allowing subs to go into the negative (tied to possible setting - we may want to think about this)

- They are trying to mix locations and sales (sales from the main store with sales from the warehouse without having it show up on the correct store).

- Auto close/open subs

- Everything that they are talking about is based on settings, new settings on subs - go to the next one and just sell it from there (regardless of what the package availability is)

- We can tell, the clock is ticking. What is our first priority and how can we help them? Development, training, education, settings, etc.?

- Being able to parse the deli scale barcode, we already do some complex labels (being able to decode that info), Sean is going to ask them about the complex deli labels.

- On the new sub settings... help setup the rules (ways to help us play), what about negative subs (what could we do there?), negative subs could cause problems with accounting

- ICC's (internal cost controls or internal cost corrections) - older project to update parent costs (backwards - looking up inbound quantities and costs and matching things up to outbound costs and quantities) - this would end up doing an auto leveling of things out.

- We talked about possible deal breakers

- We were talking accounting and costs. Average cost is or has a number of problems. We also talked about LIFO (last in first out) and FIFO (first in first out), and cost over time (stepped actual).

- Talking about bins and actual costs (bulk inventory or specific packages)

- We are planning to stay with the subs (child inventory) and loosen it up a bit.

- Talking about the reverse shopping cart (building a bulk PO or order or re-order), easy ordering process with mins and maxes and reorder quantity (case sizes and such).

- Good inventory requires maintenance. How can we help with some of the maintenance issues on the inventory control side of things?

- Prioritize things and then chip away on things

- We may want a re-order homepage (help them out)

- Speed to do things (automating things) - keep making it faster and faster and easier and easier.

- Enterprise things (updates) up and down (costs and barcodes). Automating processes across corporations or across worlds.

Anyways, kinda a long meeting. There was some good information and great feature and product requests that were made. I know it hurts sometimes, but if we actually listen to our clients, they will tell us what they want and need. We then harvest those ideas (idea farming) and keep building a better and better product, application, and platform. Good stuff!