Terry Rossi has been a part of the Explore experience for more than a decade and truly understands the needs of QAD users. In this article, he discusses what he has seen over the years and talks about how you can make the most of your experience at the conference.

Q) For how many years have you attended Explore?
We first began going to QAD Global Conferences in 1992. Rich and I were driving forces in the turnaround of QAD’s support organization as their business exploded.
Our first Explore as PICS was in 1995. We had a small client base at that time, but we used Explore as a way to meet face to face with customers and prospects.

Q) How should QAD users make the most of their time at the conference?
Attend all the sessions you can and make the most of the Solutions Expo and Meal Roundtables. You can spend quality time with our consultants and developers at both of these places.

Q) How has the conference evolved since you first started attending?
Today’s Explore is a much better experience for QAD customers and for PICS. Explore has different tracks that allow QAD users to maximize their time and participate in sessions that are pertinent to them. We use the conference as an opportunity to meet with current and future customers, listen to their business challenges and offer suggestions about how we can assist them.

Q) Can you tell me about PICS’ role at the conference now versus when you first started attending?
PICS has played an increasingly prominent role. You may have noticed that we now use the motto Your Partner in Technology, which really expresses the culture we have worked hard to implement. We view ourselves as our customers’ partner and want to make sure everyone from PICS comes to Explore armed with the knowledge and collateral for explaining our value to Explore attendees.

Q) As principals of PICS, what have you done at the conference?
Part of the Explore experience is seeing people that you only see face-to-face once a year, so we work hard to build and retain relationships. We treat Explore as our time to talk with our long-time and future customers and our business partners. Explore is one of the few times we have the opportunity to meet with everyone at one time. We spend a lot of time listening to our customers and business partners and discussing strategies to work better with them during the upcoming year. Often we will have strategic meetings with our customers to set direction pertaining to large projects, QAD upgrades, mergers and acquisitions.

Q) What QAD trends—and technology trends in general—have you seen over the years?
QAD has always used Explore as the place to announce new functionality: V6 brought site functionality, V7 Multiple Databases and Entities, Field Service and DRP. V7.4/8.4 was the dawn of GUI and more recently we have seen the announcement of Desktop2, NetUI, Enhanced Financials and Localized versions of MFG/PRO.

PICS’ technology has also evolved. One of the newest additions to our service offerings is our remote database administration. With this service we act as the UNIX, Progress and QAD administrator for our customers’ QAD environments and provide remote monitoring around the clock for their QAD systems.

Q) Why should attendees make time to visit PICS at Explore?

We’re an agile company with seasoned professionals who know how to implement QAD and work efficiently with our customers. Just ask Explore attendees: We’ve worked with more than 70 percent of them.
We work with both large and small QAD environments and have pricing that can be very affordable considering the possible reduction or redirection of existing staff.