‘Pinnacle Conference’ held in Boston
Boston The theme for the Pinnacle Conference was winning -- specifically, “Winning city. Winning conference. Winning team.” While technology and efficiency were the major topics at the Activant users group meeting held here, there was also a good amount of old-fashioned money-saving business strategies.
More than 750 attendees from pro dealers, hardware stores and home centers took part in the three-day conference. That number “demonstrates the commitment of this marketplace to the future,” said Steve Bieszczat, senior vp and general manger of Activant’s hardlines and lumber divisions, during the opening session. While he pointed to softness for pro dealers, he described the hardware and home center businesses as holding steady.
“On the LBM side, people are looking to get greater automation and efficiencies and less dependency on adding head count,” Bieszczat said. “In hardware and home center, what you see is an inordinate amount of demand for all things retail -- having the same kind of POS as some of the more innovative chains and those taking customer relationships to a new level.”
Some of the educational sessions accentuated some positive news from the housing industry: specifically, the growing population. Household growth from 2005 to 2014, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, should exceed by 2 million the growth of housing during the boom years 1995 to 2004.
Still, the conference spoke to the difficult market partly through a session titled, “Customer success strategies for succeeding in today’s market.” The session pointed to a number of tactics companies can employ right now to optimize operations during tough times.
In addition to limiting hours and reducing head count, the ideas brought forth included implementing more aggressive measures in accounts receivable, raising deductibles for health insurance plans, using bank issued payment cards that offer rebates and even replacing company e-mail systems with free Google e-mail.
“If it doesn’t add value, quit doing it,” said Johan van Tilburg, president and CEO of Knoxville, Tenn.-based Tindell’s Building Materials.