Convergence 2013 Recap

Written By Nicole Sexton, Social
Media Coordinator at Rockton Software

Rockton www.rocktonsoftware.com employees have returned from a fun-filled week at Convergence 2013! We set up our bar, and we were ready to go; we also had a total of eleven employees attend, which was a new high for us.

Convergence has always been a great place for us to meet with our customers and partners face-to-face, as well as show the fun, vibrant side of Rockton to new, prospective customers. A few of us also attended different sessions, which proved to be very beneficial. We got the chance to enjoy the expo, which let us catch up with companies like Click Dimensions that we use in our day-to-day business. Personally, one of my favorite aspects of the expo hall was the Social Media Wall! It was amazing—such a great way to see what was being posted online about Convergence.

Rockton also sponsored the spOt party, which was a tribute to the Blues Brothers. And, we didn't miss out on the closing party, where MatchBox Twenty played. It was a great night, a little chilly, but definitely a great night. We also walked around the aquarium, which provided some extra fun. After the party, I begged the rest of the team to head to Bourbon Street with me; being newly twenty-one, I had never been, so I thought it would be a great, last Convergence celebration!

All in all, I would say this Convergence was a success. Now it is time to follow up with prospects, and start getting excited for Convergence 2014 in Atlanta!

If you haven't already, follow Rockton on twitter! https://twitter.com/RocktonSoftware

Building Trust in Relationships– Why I'm Not a Salesperson

Written By Martie Mitchell,
Sales Manager at Rockton Software

“I HATE Salespeople!”
Have you ever heard anyone say that?  Have you ever said that?

I know I have . . . and at the time I meant it!

What is it that we all dislike about the proverbial used car salesman?
Well, for me it’s that they don’t give me time to do my own research and narrow my selection.
Freely translated:  get comfortable with what I’m looking for and what’s available

They circle like vultures, swooping in the moment I park my car.  Then they begin . . . “Hi!  What’s your name?  How can we help you today? How much are you thinking of spending?  Is that your trade-in?  I’m so-and-so, and let me show you around….”   And, I’m thinking to myself, NOOO STOP!

What impression am I left with?
They’re in it for them. They want to get me to spend as much as I have, and take it from me as quickly as possible. They won’t know—or care—who I am tomorrow (unless of course, I’m buying another car).
Bottom Line: I don’t believe them, and more importantly, I don’t trust them; this happens in the first five minutes, and it keeps going downhill from there.

Now ask me what I do for a living?  I sell Rockton Software, but I’m NOT a salesperson.
Ok.  So maybe this is random rationalization in my own head, but this is what I AM. I am seriously interested in helping people. I genuinely like meeting new people and discovering our commonalities. I passionately believe that our products and services are incomparable in our industry. I love the challenge of solving problems.

So how do I go about doing all this without selling like the aforementioned car dealer?
For me, it starts with serious listening—not just hearing, but actually listening to what people are saying.  I don’t cold call, so I don’t have to overcome the hurdle of convincing anyone why they should look at my wares to begin with. Rockton customers http://www.rocktonsoftware.com/Sales/CaseStudies.aspx have already reached out in some way; even if it’s just a few questions on a fact-finding mission, or they’ve received a recommendation from a friend or consultant.

Then, I begin to ask questions—real questions.  Relevant questions, about their business needs.  This is how to build trust.  How can I possibly recommend Rockton products with integrity until I know about their business, issues and concerns?  Sometimes my recommendation is that Rockton products are NOT the answer they’re looking for.  That’s honesty.

We must all remember to listen, be truthful, and not over-promise in our zeal to close a sale.  When the customer begins to believe that we really do have their best interests as our priority, they begin to trust what we share with them.

Finally, I always put myself in my customer’s shoes.  I have a brain.  I’m reasonably intelligent.  I don’t like to be patronized.   I can generally tell when someone’s pulling the wool over my eyes.  I want to be treated with dignity and respect, and I believe that my customers deserve nothing less. I am an expert in my field of how Rockton products can enhance the GP experience, and I’m happy to share this knowledge so my customer can run a more efficient operation by removing one problem area in their business.

Treat your customer like your best friend and no less sincerely than you want to be treated and you will not only grow your sales, you’ll make new friends.  Who can top that?

Experience Rockton's Convergence Booths Through the Years

Written By Kelli Sexton,
CEO of Rockton Software

When Rockton Software started showing up at Convergence, we had one goal: make the biggest impact possible. In the sea of third-party Microsoft Dynamics GP ISVs, we were small. We recognized that our market niche was much more horizontal than many other ISVs–our products benefit nearly all Microsoft Dynamics GP customers. Therefore, we didn't want any to pass us by. It also helps that our biggest champion, Rockton President Mark Rockwell, majored in Theatre in college, and was able to see our booth as an actual stage to promote our company and our products.

Initially, our themes revolved around our name Rockton Software. The first theme, Rockton Rocks like a rock star, we were able to get Rockstar Energy Drinks to supply us with our giveaways.  We followed the next year with good old-fashioned rock n roll, with Mark donning the Elvis attire and the gals in poodle skirts. We went back to the rock ages with our caveman theme.  Then there was “The Rock” theme that tied us to being prisoners in Alcatraz. Our main theme has always been how can we have fun, attract attention, and get our prospects to stop by and find out more.

All in all, our themes have been phenomenally successful.  But then we hit a bump in the road . . . we began questioning whether the effort to produce an entertaining and eye catching, thematic booth was worth the time, cost, and investment. Or were we better off doing a more standard booth and focus our energy on building the rest of the business outside of the trade show booth? In the end, we decided on building a booth that we could use for a number of years, but still reflected our overall culture of dedication to fun and customer service. That’s when we decided to create the Bar Theme, which is our current theme. This came about because I tend to think of Rockton like the TV show Cheers, “where everyone knows your name, and they’re always glad you came.” With that being said, we hope you feel welcome and at home in our booth; so this year, feel free to pull up a chair and stay awhile!

Experience Rockton Convergence Booth Themes Throughout the Years:

2005: Rockton Rocks like a Rockstar! in San Diego

2006: Rockton Rocks Around the Clock with the 50s and 60s in Dallas

2007: Bedrock Rockton, Flintstones Cavemen, in San Diego

2008: Like a Rock Rockton, Jailhouse Theme, in Orlando

2009: Wyatt ERP, Cowboy Theme, in New Orleans

2010: Pirate Theme, in Atlanta

2011: Viking Theme, in Atlanta

2012: Cheers!, Bar Theme, in Houston

2013: Cheers!, Bar Theme, in New Orleans

Don't forget to Meet the Rockton Team Before Convergence 2013!


Leave a comment, and tell us which is your favorite! We would love to know for the future!

Before Convergence 2013, Meet the Rockton Team featuring Alina Filipczak!

Written By Alina Filipczak,
Marketing Manager at Rockton Software

Rockton’s booth at Convergence has had some pretty crazy themes, what has been your favorite?

My favorite booth theme, so far, has been our Pirate Ship at Convergence 2010 in Atlanta. It was my first Convergence, and I was very surprised at what we, Rockton Software www.rocktonsoftware.com, had in our booth compared to other sponsors. Our 10x20 space was transformed into an incredible ship with a tall mast in the center, which displayed our TV screens for demos. We had treasure chests with gold coins—chocolate, of course—and jewelry; our backdrop was an image of an island in the distance with an old ship that had wrecked in the sea. The wood-grain floor, vinyl, and the pirate flags above made you feel as if you were at sea on a pirate ship many years ago. No seasickness, though! Maybe some sore feet! My coworkers and I were dressed in pirate-themed apparel that would catch the eyes of many passing by. Many attendees came by our booth just to catch a glimpse at what theme we had going on that year, and some even asked for photographs with the Rockton team! Many attendees get caught up in the theatrics of it all, but some have asked, “What do you do in the Microsoft Dynamics Community?” This is key reason why we go to Convergence!

No matter what theme we have each year, we are there to have fun with coworkers, cosponsors, and attendees. We are part of the Microsoft Dynamics Community, and we love what we do! See you in New Orleans at our Booth #1851!

GP Optimizer Winter 2013: Making Receivables Easier to Manage

Written By ICAN Software Solutions for GP
Optimizer Winter 2013 Edition by Rockton Software

Microsoft Dynamics GP users who deal with a large volume of receivables know the pain of having to apply a large number of credit documents like payments, returns, or credit memos against debit documents like invoices.

One Microsoft Dynamics GP user often has to apply a payment against thousands of invoices.  Mass Apply Receivables allows them to import in a CSV file that they created from Excel with all of the apply details.  They then can run a routine that allows them to preview and process all of those applies with one click.

Other users of Microsoft Dynamics GP often have many leftover payments, returns, or credit memos with amounts remaining that they wish to auto apply purely based on document date (rather than the GP auto apply logic which applies by document type first, then by due date or number).  Mass Apply Receivables allows them to auto apply across a range of customers and document date, and provides the ability to restrict on customer class and a maximum credit document amount threshold.

When customers have to deal with multicurrency payments, they are forced to use the manual apply window which can be time-consuming and tedious.  Mass Apply Receivables allows for automation of the apply process in these cases saving users time and effort.

And when customers would like to have returns automatically applied to the correct invoice, they can make this happen by using another feature of Mass Apply Receivables.  If the invoice number, to which the return should be applied, is stored in the Customer PO Number field on the return, then Mass Apply Receivables can be run to automatically apply all such returns with one click.

Mass Apply Receivables is just one of many great products from ICAN Software Solutions. We make solutions that turn hours into minutes…

We Work Late So You Won’t Have To!

Want more information? View Mass Apply Receivables Demo!

Download GP Optimizer Winter 2013 Edition by clicking here! 

Before Convergence 2013, Meet the Rockton Team featuring Kris Berger!

Written By Kris Berger, QA
Development Lead at Rockton Software

What sessions do you hope to catch at Convergence 2013 in New Orleans?

I was browsing through the listing of sessions available in New Orleans for Convergence 2013 and am very excited to attend a number of them.  Check out this link for details on all of the great sessions that will be available:

Here is a breakdown of the sessions I hope to attend this year:

• Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Overview: 

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 has over 150 features in this release.  This session is going to give an overview of the top features in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013.  What a great way to capture all of the best that GP 2013 has to offer!

• Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Web Client Overview: 

With Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013, a new option for accessing the system is available through the web using Web Services. This session is going to provide an overview of the web client functionality and information on implementing it. I am looking forward to learning more about this new feature and how it can be useful in organizations.

• Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Web Client For Smaller Companies: 

This session is going to focus on deploying and maintaining a web client geared towards smaller companies who do not have a large IT department. This sounds like a great session to see what is possible with the web client and what is realistic for your company.

• 50 Tips in 50 Minutes for Microsoft Dynamics GP: The Next Generation: 

Who couldn't use new and helpful tips for the latest Microsoft Dynamics GP release?  This session is going to cover existing functionality, as well as what's new in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013. This is a session I look forward to each Convergence!

• NEW! Performance & Scalability in Microsoft Dynamics GP: 

Who wouldn't want their system to run faster and perform better?  This session is going to give us tips on ensuring our systems are running at peak performance.

• Getting Better Reporting with Business Analyzer for Microsoft Dynamics GP: 

Within Microsoft Dynamics GP, Business Analyzer is a very important reporting tool that allows users to view reports to best fit their specific reporting needs. This would be a great session to learn more about Business Analyzer and how to deploy and implement at your office. .

• The Microsoft Dynamics GP Support Debugging Tool: 

As the online description for this session says, “The Support Debugging Tool is cool. Period!”  This is a super cool tool that has a lot to offer.  I look forward to learning more about the tool, as well as information about the new features released that will bring more value.

• Introduction to Microsoft SQL Reporting Services for Microsoft Dynamics GP: 

This is an introduction to Microsoft SQL Reporting Services and will give information on how it can be used to get better reporting from Microsoft Dynamics GP.  And, since Microsoft SQL Reporting Services works with Rockton’s Dynamics Report Manager tool, I look forward to learning more about it.

What sessions do you plan to attend?  Feel free to stop at the Rockton Booth #1851 and share any of your session highlights during the expo hours. Feel free to tweet about it throughout the event using the hashtag: #Conv13!

Rockton Disney World Retreat Retrospective

Written By Jenn Schoemer,
Project Manager at Rockton Software

Retrospective
ADJECTIVE 
1. reviewing past: looking back over things in the past
2. applying to past events: applying to things that have happened in the past as well as the present

Here at Rockton www.rocktonsoftware.com, retrospectives have become a normal part of our business and development process, so I only found it fitting to apply it to my recent travels to Walt Disney World.

For years I’ve been traveling solo, so I think I just slip into auto-pilot and go through motions.  But when we had the opportunity to take my husband and two oldest children along with me to Disney World for the Rockton Retreat, I jumped at it. However, I have to say I was a little nervous it would throw me off my traveling game.

We did a little planning by asking friends and Disney veterans a ton of questions, and I don’t think we did too bad for our first run.  The kids loved it so much.  They were a little heartbroken that we didn’t bring their baby sister, who is two years old, so they are already busy planning our next trip.

I found it fitting to do a retrospective of our trip, so when the time comes to go to Disney World, again, our planning is not fogged by the years, and we are able to learn from our first trip.

At Rockton, to start our retrospectives, we make two lists—pluses and deltas. The pluses are everything we loved, would do again, and would recommend to others. The deltas are the things we would like to change or would not recommend to another person.


Pluses: 

• Plan, plan and plan some more  -  We had a general plan of which park we would go to each day, and then each night we would list out which rides and attractions we were going to go to.  We used the ‘PassPorter’s’ Disney travel book.  They had a great itinerary for each park.  One for if you were traveling with kids and another for just adults.  We would use this as a guideline and make modifications based on what we wanted to make sure to see. 
• Advice – Ask others.  We got a lot of great information from friends and Disney veterans.  We were lucky that our sources had kids who were similar in age to ours.
• PhotoPass
• Park Hopper passes
• Fastpasses – A must.  If there are rides you know you will want to go on multiple times one idea is to get a fastpass for the ride, get in line, ride the ride, and then go back and ride it again. 
• Stay on property – if you can swing it, stay on property.  Here are a few benefits we found from staying on property: 
• Magic hours – where the park is open early or later for guests staying on property.  We benefitted from this a few times.  One we were able to sign our son up for Jedi Training (Hollywood Studios), get fast passes to some of the very popular rides (rides which normally have 1 -3 hr. wait times,) and walked on to other rides because the park was closed to other guests.
• Disney Magic Express (DME) – LOVED this!  This service picks you up at the airport and brings you to your hotel.  We didn’t have to worry about getting our bags when we arrived in Orlando.  Instead the DME picked up our bags and brought them to our room.  When we headed home we were able to check our bags at the DME curbside check-in right at the hotel and didn’t have to worry about checking them ourselves at the airport.  This was a HUGE help when traveling with kids.
• Your room card doubles as a credit card – We didn’t have to carry around extra cards because we always knew we would be able to charge purchases back to our room if we needed/wanted to.
• Parking – we didn’t have the added expense or worry about parking
• Groceries - We had groceries delivered right to the hotel via Garden Grocer. We ordered things like, yogurt, cheese, lunch meat, Peanut butter, jelly, crackers, bread, trail mix and water.  All things which could be used for a meal or a snack.
• Snacks – We brought snacks and water into the parks. This doubled as a money and a time saver. 
• Backpack/cooler/water bottles – We brought a soft-sided cooler and ice packs with us in our backpack.
• Phone Apps – Disney Magic or Disney Wait times worked great for us
• Daily allowance/Budget – We set a daily allowance for what each child could spend.  This helped reduce them asking for everything under the sun and made them really think about what they wanted to buy.  We also had an overall daily budget.  I have to say bringing snacks and water into the park helped us spend less than half of what we budgeted. 
• Disney apparel – Buying Disney apparel and even souvenirs where a ton cheaper online. We bought the kids shirts, pjs and a few other Disney items before we even left and brought them with us.
• Stroller rental
• Shows - We loved all the shows we were able to catch.  Originally, we focused on hitting the nightly shows, which are must sees.  My daughter and I took in a Beauty and the Beast show at Hollywood Studios that ended up being a great little break in our day and very entertaining.
• Jedi Training – If you have a Star Wars fan this is a must.  Hollywood Studios offers training but you have to sign up.  They offer a set number of show/training times.  Here is one time where the Magic hours saved us.  The park opened at 9:00am, Magic hours started at 8:00am, we were in line at 8:30ish and the soonest we could get our son in as the 2:00pm show. We also lucked out and got some great pictures of the training because of our pre-purchased PhotoPass.
• Epcot – Epcot was a great park to hit all the character spots for us. Given the ages of our children—six and four years old—we had a much smaller laundry list of attractions to hit at Epcot.  So taking advantage of seeing the characters here was great!

Deltas:

• Stay longer – We only had 4 day, next time we will be going for no less than a week.
• Travel day - Do not try to squeeze in an entire park the first day or night you get there.  Instead either go to the pool, Downtown Disney, or try hitting one of the evening shows at one of the parks.
• Dining Reservations – Make these at least 3 months in advance or more if you can.  For us I’m going to find a few places we really want to go to, not necessarily every day or night, but at least the places we really want to make sure to go to. 
• Multiple Days per Park – Make sure we have at least two days to go to the Magic Kingdom or the parks important to you.
• Sea World – Make sure there is time to go to Sea World.
• Be flexible – Have some flexibility to change your schedule or make adjustments for weather/crowd size and other situations that might pop-up.
• Go to Cinderella’s castle – Believe it or not, we admired the castle from a far, but we never went right up to it.  
• Transportation – Plan extra time for transportation, it always takes longer than we planned for.
• Rain gear – Bring it!
• Break – My husband, and many others I talk to, said he or they would plan breaks mid-day to take naps and then head back to the park.  I’m a wake up and don’t-stop-until- you-drop kind of girl, so I will still need to think implementing this one.

Doing a retrospective will tremendously help our next vacation there, so we don’t make the same mistakes twice. This is why we implemented it at Rockton; retrospectives help us, here at Rockton, keep on track with our daily work, as well as major projects.

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