The ERP Suites team had another great year at the Blueprint 4D Conference in Dallas this May. We were thrilled to see so many of our peers turn out for our presentations this year, and our team brought back lots of great insights from all of their sessions. Here’s our top three takeaways:
1) AI is Here to Stay
From an Intro to AI session from IBM to Oracle Digital Assistant and everything in between and beyond, AI is the name of the business game for those who want to set themselves up for future success and continued relevance.
We’re helping one of our clients, Ford Meter Box, utilize the ODA to help optimize their MRP, and we got an incredible shout-out from Cheryl Working, their assistant manager of IT. We have been working with FMB for over five years, helping them with everything from implementing a new barcode scanning solution (our own Scanability) to this latest project assisting them with understanding how to harness and utilize their AI potential.
“My favorite session was Ford Meter Box presenting on the possibilities of AI in JDE, because it generated a high level of energy with an audience that is curious about how AI could apply to them.” – Brian Stepanek, ERP Suites Enterprise Sales Executive
“I think IBM did a phenomenal job highlighting where they are with customers. They are 7+ years into AI so they have a great AI foundation. And I like that we are at the forefront with everything Oracle is trying to do with the Digital Assistant.” – Drew Robb, ERP Suites Solutions Engineer
2) ERP Suites Represented Well
The exhibitor floor, daily sessions, afterparties; the ERP Suites team was everywhere, all the time, all week during Blueprint 4D.
Exhibitor Floor
We have spent a lot of time recently pivoting some of our focus to the burgeoning world of AI and Generative AI. We believe in proactivity, and we want to help set our customers up for the ultimate success when it comes to using Generative AI as it expands in popularity and potential. We showcased the possibilities of using the Oracle Digital Assistant at our booth throughout the entire conference, and were thrilled to see so many new faces stop by to get the inside scoop.
Daily Sessions
ERP Suites’ director of JD Edwards technology, Frank Jordan, returned for another year to give another full-house presentation on Orchestrator Tricks and Tips. Frank is one of the foremost JD Edwards experts, with over 25 years of CNC experience and more than 350 customers. His presentation focused on, among other areas, architecture configuration, and troubleshooting.
Our director of JDE Security, Brian Connor, is also a cybersecurity architect and highly qualified in the field. He presented 5 Steps for Surviving a Cyber Attack, with an assist from senior director of technology Josh Tibbs. Every second counts when a cyber attack is perpetrated, and with the pro-tips provided by Brian and Josh, we know attendees left feeling a little more reassured about handling such an attack and accelerating their disaster recovery plan.
And speaking of security, Brian was particularly pleased with the OCI Disaster Recovery session.
“They highlighted an offering that has been available for about 18 months that can greatly simplify and automate the DR (disaster recovery) process, and the OCI FSDR (Full Stack Disaster Recover) offering,” said Brian.
3) Together Forever (is Better)
It’s no secret that live events aren’t quite at their pre-COVID capacity yet – but they are well on their way. It’s also no secret that team members work better and thrive more when they feel connected to other folks on their respective team.
Our ERP Suites team had our biggest Blueprint 4D presence yet with 13 team members in attendance, including four sales members, a marketing director, a product champion, a CNC, three technology and security directors, a vice president, and two C-suite members. Each member of our team mentioned “networking” as one of the top values of attending Blueprint 4D.
Here’s what a few of them had to say:
“Attending Blueprint was important because you can see and understand what options for your business are available that you may not have considered yet, get ideas for business improvements from vendors like ERP Suites, and you can network with industry peers and other vendors.” – Brian Connor
“It’s great to learn about the cutting-edge technology and networking with other vendors and customers. I also think it’s great that we are demoing and presenting on where our company wants to go.” – Drew Robb
“There is no substitute for face-to-face bonding with the teams that we work with throughout the year, especially in our ‘virtual first’ post-COVID world.” – Brian Stepanek
We also place a high value on partnerships. We partnered with KlikIT, iLearn ERP and ALLOut Security to throw a first-night shindig at Rodeo Goat on May 7, and were excited to meet and greet more than 100 Blueprint attendees. A huge thanks to our co-presenters for all their contributions to making the night a huge success.
We believe it’s essential to have all parts of our company learning from and growing along with our peers, and staying at the forefront of all things Oracle and JD Edwards – because when we do, we give our clients a best-of-show experience that will make them customers for life.
Interested in learning more about how we can help you succeed in a future-facing world? Please reach out. We’d love to help you succeed.
