MISys staffer Terry Merrill and yours truly, Al Alessi, just returned from the Quickbook Enterprise Users Conference in lovely Chandler, Arizona. There is a Sheraton there called Wild Horse Pass that sits on the Gila River Indian Reservation, home to the Pima Indians, and it was a unique environment for a conference. We liked it on a physical level [except that it was 40 degrees hotter than I'm used to in ol' Vermont], but the energy at the conference was great as well.
There is no doubt in our minds that SBM is a great fit for the Quickbooks Enterprise users involved in manufacturing, and we had many demos for many interested parties. We learned as well talking with end-users, Quickbooks Pro Advisors and Intuit staff (sometimes all at once!). I also got to talk with prospects I had already been in touch with over the phone, and it's always a special pleasure to meet potential SBM users face-to-face. We met makers of hurrican shutters (Ocean Shutters), trailers (Best Trailers), skin nutrition (BioSkin), boats (Performance Cruising), pumps (Cortech), aviation oxygen systems (MH), wine (New Mexico Wineries), TV appliances (TV Ears), composites (ICE), furniture (DStyle), fencing (Cedar Rustic) among many others. It was, as I said, a great learning experience to understand what kind of issues each manufacturer struggled with.
I also got to meet Doug Sleeter, a leading voice in the Quickbooks universe, and we demoed the product together. Again, I learned at least as much as he did. We'll see Doug again at the Sleeter conference in Vegas. I'll try my best to keep this blog going, please share your comments and thoughts to let me know my efforts are not in vain. I'd enjoy this 1000 times more if it was a two way dialogue!
