blue arrows, change

QAD Chief Marketing Officer Carter Lloyds recently sat down with Dave Vellante, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s studio in Boston. There he discussed QAD’s story, the company’s overall cloud strategy and core customer requirements.

Fast Fish, Slow Fish

During Carter’s interview, Dave Vellante asked how QAD competes with the “big whale” software companies in the market. Carter responded with a quote from Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum: “In the old days, it used to be the big fish that would eat the small fish. But in today’s world, it’s the fast fish that eats the slow fish.” This way of thinking can be applied not only to the software industry but across all industries.

When we think of the manufacturing industry today, the fast fish is enabled by agile systems. Manufacturers seek the ability to easily upgrade an existing system, extend their current functionality and incorporate a low-code, no-code environment to keep pace with evolving business requirements. With a customer-focused mentality, QAD developed the QAD Enterprise Platform to help manufacturers stay current and to reduce the gaps between individual business needs and ERP functionality.

Rapid, Agile and Effective

These serve as the core customer requirements QAD has identified as being the most critical within the manufacturing industry. However, changes in the marketplace have presented new challenges and legacy systems just can’t keep up. Instead of delivering a framework on which to build business processes, QAD comes to the table with the very best industry best practices based on decades of industry experience.

“With all the rapid change that’s going on, it’s not about how big you are in economies of scale, it’s about how resilient you are and how fast you can adapt.” – Carter Lloyds, QAD CMO

There is often a disconnect between current business requirements and what ERP systems are able to provide. As business challenges change over time, a company’s ERP should adapt with that change. Though it’s not just the technology that moves companies forward. Each company is slightly different, so QAD has embedded industry best practices into its cloud ERP solutions. After all, sharing best practices isn’t just practical, it enables companies to better compete.

Industry Disruption

As the interview progressed, the topic of industry disruption came up. With so much change happening across all industries, there are a number of disruptive forces in the marketplace today affecting manufacturing supply chains. QAD has narrowed these down to three key areas of business disruption:

Anything as a Service (XaaS) – A business model where outcomes are sold instead of products, resulting in a shift in what manufacturers offer.

Make to Scale at Order (Mass Customization) – End users’ expectation that products and services will be personalized to meet their unique needs and requirements.

Digital Transformation of Manufacturing (Industry 4.0) – Acquisition of enterprise-wide and value chain data for the purpose of measuring and optimizing company processes to deliver greater company performance in a rapidly changing business environment.

QAD is constantly tracking and addressing industry disruptors and helping its customers to adapt quickly and turn them into competitive advantages.

All About the Customer

At the heart of QAD is a strong and loyal customer community. So, when asked to speak to some of QAD’s successes, it was easy for Carter to refer to the company’s growing customer base. QAD takes into account all business requirements and is constantly listening to its customers and implementing feedback directly into the software.

“Our customers are in the manufacturing business, they’re not in the software business, and part of that value proposition is allowing our customers to do what they do best, which is to make great products and serve their customers.” – Carter Lloyds, QAD CMO

Carter wrapped his interview with a nod to QAD’s annual customer conference, Explore. QAD Explore is a three-day event that focuses on the customer community and sharing best practices to improve their business processes. With keynote sessions from industry experts and QAD executives, Explore is the chance to discuss the future of manufacturing as well as the future of business.

For more information and the full interview with theCUBE, read the full story.

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