In this episode, Softeon CEO Jim Hoefflin and CTO Mark Fralick discuss Softeon’s concept of micro-tuning, philosophy for upgrades, and commitment to creating more value for customers and partners as quickly as possible. Plus, a look back at how the executives’ preseason predictions for their favorite NFL teams, the Packers and Eagles, measure up in December!
Kicking off the final episode of 2024, the Pioneers share their definition of micro-tuning and and its transformative impact on customers.
“To me, micro-tuning means we can make the most granular changes to how the application maps to your operations so that it reduces the number of keystrokes. If you capture all of that, it makes 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 % difference in productivity.”
Jim Hoefflin, CEO, Softeon
“Everyone has limits. Micro-tuning through no code or a low code approach lets you get beyond the limits of most of the other providers out there. It’s what lets you capture that 5% of productivity, which is a big deal for operations.”
Mark Fralick adds that micro-tuning helps avoid ROI leaks – some big and some small.
“The small ones over a thousand times a day equals real-time. The advantage we have is to minimize those ROI leaks over the haul of a system. I think of a WMS as competing operational microflows in a business. If you say let’s tune the receiving, the put-away, the picking, the outbound process, if you can tune each one of those, that equals real ROI.”
Mark Fralick, CTO, Softeon
When thinking about a WMS as a multi-decade investment, from product platform philosophy, the Pioneers explain their surgical approach to allowing customers to upgrade when they want to.
“We see it as our job as the software provider to protect your investment and path to the future, and it’s your job as the customer to tell us when you want to take advantage of that.”
Jim Hoefflin, CEO, Softeon
“The way that happens is we release our product on a regular schedule. We don’t inflict that on a customer but make it available on their time when it makes sense for them. It’s pretty automatic.”
As far as future proofing, Softeon provides enablement tools separate from release cycles that evolve more rapidly so customers can take advantage.
“A lot of our tech pieces are independent of the software releases so you can maneuver them much quicker when you want to take on more things,” says Mark Fralick, CTO, Softeon. “This allows our customers an extra bit of flexibility so that they can add value without doing an upgrade.”
Hoefflin adds, “we take firm responsibility and know it’s our obligation to create more value for our customers and partners as quickly as we can, and it’s their decision on when they take them and leverage them.”
To learn more about how Softeon can create unique workflows aligned to your business requirements to create more value and just how much the executive team knows football, subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, or other popular podcast channels.
Bonus: Preseason NFL Predictions Revealed
Jim and Mark discussed the then-upcoming NFL season while recording. See what they predicted below.
- Jim’s Packers preseason prediction: 11 wins (10-4 as of 12/17/2024)
- Mark’s Packers preseason prediction: 10 or 11 wins, make playoffs as Wild-Card (10-4 as of 12/17/2024)
- Patrick’s Eagles preseason prediction: 15-2 or 2-15 (12-2 as of 12/17/2024)
