Customers lead the way at Prophix’s 2014 user conference

Prophix’s user conference this week reinforced the fact that we’re a customer-focused organization. Here are some of more interesting moments involving Prophix customers in Washington.

Customer advisory board

Prophix’s customer advisory board met on the user conference Sunday. This group of 13 customers enjoyed a valuable opportunity to preview upcoming changes to the product, voice their concerns, celebrate our mutual successes, and interact with our senior leadership. Geoff Ng, Prophix’s Vice President, Product Planning & IT, led the way.

Customer-led workshops

This year’s event offered presentations from Coleman Cable, AAA, and Interstates Companies. These 90-minute sessions featured large audiences, who came to see how the speakers at each of these companies drove significant change with the help of Prophix’s innovative CPM software.

Visioning sessions

These meetings allow us to engage with our customers to help them maximize the value that they realize from their Prophix solutions and continually grow the returns they receive on their investments. At 6 separate sessions, Prophix’s reps sat with customers and learned about their business models. Recommendations from the Prophix team about the potential to drive further change with corporate performance management will arrive to them soon!

The customer case study competition

Prior to the conference, online voters chose between more than 10 case studies that we posted online. They selected three finalists, each of whom would present in front of more than 200 attendees in Washington. Here’s a look at the presentations:

Denise Feece from Coleman Cable spoke to the value of having 22 active Prophix models (or ‘cubes’) that allow her to analyze her business from a multitude of angles. With the help of Prophix, Denise found a way to address the problem of multiple perspectives on the company’s finances. Not only did she save the company 16 hours on their monthly closing processes, executive management has come to rely heavily on their work with Prophix.

Today, reps from across the business ask Denise to help them evaluate their financial performance at the very detailed level. Some examples include evaluating freight spending, tracking labor productivity, and analyzing the costs of raw materials.

David Raso and Tim McCarthy from Feeding America spoke to the value of Prophix at their organization, which assists 37 million Americans and serves 3.2 billion meals per year. One of their major planning challenges: only 5% of their revenue is predictable, with 95% coming from donor gifts.

With that in mind, Feeding America requires the ability to plan for a wide range of scenarios. Excel became outdated for their purposes after hurricane Katrina in 2005, when they grew from 20 employees to 200 employees. Oddly enough, they spoke to Coleman Cable as a reference before they selected Prophix as their vendor of choice.

Today, Feeding America’s reps state that they have a profound sense of ownership for their financial results. They no longer rely on Excel. Their end users have mastered the software and can access their financial reports on demand. Most importantly, Prophix has provided a great match for their business: they even have accurate statistics that pinpoint how a donated dollar gets spent!

Paul Vickers from PARTEQ Innovations oversees finance for his organization, which funds sustainable technology projects. Paul recognized that they required innovative software—something more advanced than spreadsheets—since, in their business, historical patterns do not indicate future performance.

Now, with the help of Prophix, PARTEQ’s financial leaders can better explain the variances between their budgets and their actuals, they understand how much cash they have on hand at any given time, and they are able to identify how they will operate with changes to their sources of funding. Overall, Prophix has helped them in their drive to succeed as an important resource for environmentally-friendly technology projects

In the end, the audience voted, declaring a resounding victory for Denise Feece and Coleman Cable. She stole the day with descriptions of an operational planning solution that affects nearly all of the areas at her company. Great job, Denise. Congratulations from everyone at Prophix!

See more pictures from the event here