Touring America for the Prophix Roadshows

Prophix Roadshows: Seattle, Houston, Manhattan, Boston, and Tampa Bay

In 2016, I’ve been blessed to present at Prophix roadshows in Seattle, Houston, Manhattan, Boston, and Tampa Bay. In case you haven’t heard, Prophix runs roadshows across the United States, presenting the stories of innovative Finance Teams and showcasing software to companies that are curious about the effects of automating budgeting, reporting, and forecasting. We also offer business leaders the opportunity to network in incredible locations.

Here are some of my favorite moments from the events so far:

In Seattle, we heard from three Prophix customers, representing the Port of Tacoma, Boyd’s Coffee Company, and Terex, the company that makes the Genie series of construction equipment. Al Cleaves told us about the impact of ending Port of Tacoma’s reliance on 50+ spreadsheets; Andreas Loeffler from Boyd’s spoke about switching to Prophix from another CPM software provider and integrating with his ERP to pump financial information straight into his Prophix solution; and Bryan Tretheway explained how the Finance Team at Terex uses complex allocations to model the profitability of their products. I can’t lie – hosting the event at a microbrewery (Outer Planet Craft Brewing) was amazing. I had never been to Seattle, and I loved seeing public art displays in the downtown core. Too bad the Mariners were out of town!

Houston’s show was highlighted by an appearance from Jeff Schultz, VP, Finance, of Atlantic Methanol. In Equatorial Guinea, Atlantic Methanol operates one of the largest and lowest cost methanol plants in the world. Jeff helped the group understand how tracking budgets to actuals on an ongoing basis has led to dramatic cost savings for his organization. Also, I couldn’t help notice that the Mexican food at Lupe Tortilla, our event location in Houston, was better than anything I could compare it to in Toronto. Delicious!

The roadshow in Manhattan gave me a chance to try Shake Shack for the first time – because that’s where we hosted our event! Did you think I was slacking off? And, of course, Shake Shack is a proud Prophix customer. We had an impressive turnout, and we got to hear about the broad base of customers in the New York area.

With its dark interior and a menu filled with Asian delicacies, Boston’s Red Lantern restaurant felt like a throwback to a different era. We had a couple of industry analysts in town who spoke with us about trends in the CPM software space, and the companies considering Prophix’s software offered eye-opening assessments of their current business challenges. The Prophix team showcased a local success story, AAA Northeast, who automates their core financial processes, tracks the profitability of their branch locations, and even helps to determine the optimal service routes for their drivers. The Red Sox were out of town, but I shall return someday soon to cheer on the Jays and annoy the local fans!

Tampa Bay in springtime is remarkable. See my photos from our event in St. Petersburg if you don’t believe me. Rebecca Evans from Women’s Tennis Association spoke to the group about the value of automating WTA’s budgeting and reporting, and she explained how their Prophix solution could become even more important as they build out their long term strategic planning to coincide with the organization’s global expansion. And, yes, the Tampa Bay Rays were in town. I had no trouble buying $50 tickets at game time for seats behind the first base dugout. Indoor baseball in Florida!

So what do I do at these shows? I speak about customers across the globe who have developed unique and impressive uses of Prophix’s software. A few examples: Microsoft’s Global Business Group integrates with 200 separate source systems and models a combination of financial data and non-numerical data to understand the most efficient and profitable ways to staff their call centers across the world; Skanska USA Building automates the overhead budgeting and reporting for their multi-billion dollar construction business; and Jackson Hole Mountain Resort conducts advanced forecasting based on historical data to predict how many ski instructors they’ll need on the slopes and how many chefs they’ll hire to work at their restaurants.

Next up, Prophix heads back out on the road in September. We’ll release our tour dates soon – and we hope to see you in one of America’s great cities.