Episode 438: The future of Online Shopping with Business Central

In this episode of DynamicsCorner, join hosts Kristoffer and Brad as they discuss an innovative e-commerce solution for Business Central, featuring special guests Tom Flierl and Jeff Seidel from Amla Commerce. Discover how Artifi and Znode are revolutionizing product customization and digital commerce. From real-time virtual proofs to seamless integrations, explore the cutting-edge innovations that are setting new industry standards. Tune in for insightful discussions, laughter, and a glimpse into the future of online shopping.

Chapters

• 0:00 Hosts Kick Off And AI Vibes
• 2:50 Meet Tom And Jeff, Company Backgrounds
• 4:20 What Artify Does For Custom Products
• 8:20 From Order To Production: Files And Data
• 11:15 Beyond Embroidery And AI Setup
• 13:55 How Artify Integrates With E‑Commerce
• 16:20 Why Zenode Focuses On B2B
• 19:55 Catalogs, Pricing, And Program Portals
• 23:20 Data Architecture: PIM, Sync, And Scale
• 27:10 Warehouses, 3PLs, And B2B Logistics
• 31:20 Implementations, Replatforming, And Growth
• 36:10 Timelines, Change Management, And Events
• 39:20 How To Learn More And Wrap Up

Transcript

SPEAKER_04: 0:00

Welcome everyone to another episode of Dynamics Corner. What is an e-commerce and custom artification? I'm your co-host Chris.

SPEAKER_02: 0:11

And this is Brad. This episode was recorded on November 20th, 2025. Chris, Chris, Chris. E-commerce. Custom orders. I have so many ideas now after having that conversation. With us today, we had the opportunity to speak with Tom and Jeff about Artify and Xenode. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_01: 0:53

Hello. Hi, good afternoon. Hey, good afternoon. Doing great.

SPEAKER_02: 0:59

Uh great, great. Uh thank you for taking the time to speak with us this afternoon. Thank you. Um appreciate it. No, no, it's good. You know, I I I'm kinda just a little quiet right now. I have been AI vibe coding all week long. Wow. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable. Like I literally now just did like do a code review of this application, and I think I did a better code review than I could have done.

SPEAKER_04: 1:32

So you're vibe coding. A lot of people are doing uh vibe agent agent vibing or something like that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:38

Well, I I'm pa I I'm I'm putting it all in one bucket because I really don't know what you call it. I don't know if it's really vibing. If I know about the application and I know about the language, and I'm doing it. I think the term or the uh the vibe coding has been coined from you just kind of going with the vibes. I have to I I know the history of it, but I'm so odd at the moment that I can't think clearly about it. So it's uh it's a strange world that we're coming into. I think uh uh and it's going too quickly. Anyway, enough of my short burst of uh uh conversation.

SPEAKER_04: 2:23

Well, that vibe is applying everywhere to everything you do now.

SPEAKER_02: 2:27

It is, it is, and I think I'll have to try to go a day without talking about it or thinking about it. I think the only way to do that is to just go out into the woods and walk around and not have any cell phone or anything or talk to anybody uh to see about it. Anyway, um uh thank you both for taking the time to speak with us. Uh and before we get into the conversation, would you mind telling us a little bit? Yeah, so you bet.

SPEAKER_00: 2:50

Um by the way, I did fill out the form that was linked in the meeting with all my information. So chief commercial officer at AMLA Commerce, which is our parent company. We have two products Artify, which is for product customization. So a good example is Land Zand has a uniform division. They customize products like uh business uniforms, and our platform allows them to do that directly in an e-commerce experience and see a real-time virtual crew. And then our other product is C Node, which is a V e-commerce platform uh built in the Microsoft stack, and we work with a lot of mid-market enterprise manufacturers and distributors. And my background is I grew up in the SI world and the digital agency space before coming to our public.

SPEAKER_02: 3:37

And uh okay, great, thank you. How about you, Jeff?

SPEAKER_01: 3:40

Yeah, um, I'm Jeff Seidel. I'm the director of partnerships here at AMLACommerce for our products, Artify and Zenode. I've been in the Microsoft channel for about four years. Um, and my day-to-day is working with our Microsoft partners, our agencies or systems integrators, and our ISV partners. So thanks for having me on.

SPEAKER_02: 3:59

Oh, great, great, thank you. So you have two products on the market that you work with uh in the business central space. Um can you tell me a little bit more about each of those products and uh how that how they can be leveraged within uh somebody who has a business central implementation?

SPEAKER_00: 4:18

Sounds great. Jeffrey, you okay if I jump in on that? Yeah, so um one of our products is called Artify, A-R-T-I-F-I. Uh the URL is artifylabs.com, and Artify is for online product customization. So the use case really is in the promotional product space, the uniform industry, the safety industry, where product customization is mission critical. So a good example is uh Land Zen is a very large uniform manufacturer and they have a business uniform division where Fortune 500 companies work with Land Zen to create their uniform program. It could be an airline that allows pilots to go in and customize their airline uniform. The pilot wants to be able to see what that uniform looks like in a shopping experience. They want to see where their logos go, maybe on their shoulders or on their chest. Uh, and this those are typically pre-approved logos. Um, they may have some flexibility to add their own logo. So perhaps they're they're a vet and they have a military logo they want to add. There's different rules that can be configured or created for every different scenario with uniforms, promotional products, etc., including even having the captain write Captain Tom in embroidery on that on that uh uniform before they hit the buy button. So our product Artify actually allows, it's it sits on any platform, it's agnostic, but it allows for that customization to occur in a shopping experience. So there's a real-time virtual sample on screen before the customer hits the buy button.

SPEAKER_02: 5:59

Uh I like that. And I asked for that. I've come across the need for that before. So now if you have a product that is customizable, this gives your customer a shopping experience to where they can customize it on the web, see the results, and then it will be put into business central for you to process. And what does it create? Does it create a an assembly order, production order, purchase order, sales order?

SPEAKER_00: 6:31

How does that dynamic information get into the question? So typically that information is passed back into the e-commerce platform, and the e-commerce platform typically has both SKU level pricing and variant level pricing, and then that gets pushed into business central along with so that'd be the order file, and then along with the metadata for the actual customizations, and Artify provides a PDF output file. So think of a think of a the PDF file showing what the product is, what are the coordinates for where the different customizations occur, what are those customizations, as well as information. So, for example, if it's an embroidery file, it will actually provide the DST file, it will provide the thread color, the thread count, all of that information. That's cool. So somebody who's on the floor who's actually got to produce the product gets the output file and they punch it into a machine and they create the actual uniform or could be a promotional product, etc. So it provides all the data for the production team as well.

SPEAKER_02: 7:39

So this creates more it's so it it's more than just creating an order, it sounds like to me. It's if you have a custom product or custom in your case embroidery. Fortunately, I know, or unfortunately, I don't know if you how you call it. I know a little bit about embroidery. So so then you receive the or even other uh type of design, because I've had worked with systems this before where they had customizations and you're sending a file to feed into the machine, and then it will automatically uh adjust that product for you. And if it's embroidering, it will create the design without the operator having to set anything up. They just load the file, let the machine run, and then that product gets output. That's pretty cool. There's so many uses I could see for that. And honestly, in 2025, everybody seems to have that on demand. I want it now and I want it my way. That having that flexibility I think is creative. Um does it work with other than uh embroidery could it work with other types of products, or is it geared towards more just embroidery? And I'm getting to I can think of jewelry where people want to customize their settings. I can think of other types of uh logo type products where they maybe print. So if you have a custom t-shirt shop that you may want to uh be able to quickly create customized t-shirts for some.

SPEAKER_00: 9:05

It works with all of the above. It could be a heat transfer file, an embroidery file, an engraving file. Those are just in our world, those are decoration methods. And we have a long list of decoration methods we support. I brought up embroidery because embroidery is a very expensive decoration method to manage. Most companies have to take a logo and they have to have it digitized, which is expensive. And there's large offshore teams that do this. Before Artify, companies would actually receive the order, and a customer service rep would have to take the logo and send it to an offshore team. They would get it back five days later, then they email the customer, go in. Maybe they would have a design team create a virtual proof, you know, that'd be emailed. So your sales cycle in that time period would be anywhere from one business week to two business weeks to get one uniform completed or to get a uniform program approved. Today, today they can be done in two minutes automatically. Now, to your question, is it beyond just embroidery types? Absolutely. I mean, we have customers in the uh the Christmas card catalog where you can customize a Christmas card. We have customers that do park benches uh and and things like garbage cans for golf courses. Um but where you see I I use the term earlier, mission critical. Where you see mission critical product customization is typically in some very large categories like uniform promotional product safety. Think of all the guys on the highway and and and uh gals too that have high viz vests with the logo on the back. It's very common in those industries, but we support a very, very broad number of industries. Wow, so it saves a lot of time then.

SPEAKER_04: 10:48

I mean you you gotta think about all the uh companies that uh does this a long life, long sales cycle and and kind of compress that into minutes, sounds like it's not just a long sales cycle, it's a lot of manual labor that can be automated.

unknown: 11:06

Wow.

SPEAKER_02: 11:06

See, so it's just like it's just like vibe and embroidery, vibe and custom products. The uh I'll tell you something.

SPEAKER_00: 11:12

We were talking about AI before we got on here, but one of the we're just releasing this feature and we're starting in the promotional products category. So one of the um challenges if you have a very large catalog of SKUs and you have customization on every product is knowing the exact XY coordinates on a product. So in the promotional product space, we're actually using AI to do automatic product setup. So if you have a catalog of 5,000 products and you want to set up the XY coordinate on every different water bottle, t-shirt, uniform, we're actually automating that entire process with AI. So there's there's some really cool releases that we're uh that that we are releasing um in Artify as well that not only automate the buying process but also the the operational process in the background.

SPEAKER_02: 12:05

So with Artify, where so you had mentioned so Artify then communicates with an e-commerce solution. That e-commerce solution is it your e-commerce solution or can it work with other e-commerce solutions?

SPEAKER_00: 12:21

I'll I'll get a little bit deeper into that. Um our e-commerce solution, Zenode, absolutely. There's a pre-built integration, uh obviously because sister products. However, Artify does integrate into any other platform. We actually have partnerships with Big Commerce, uh Adobe Magento, go down the list, Shopify. Now, I want to get a little deeper on that answer. In bigger uh companies that do this where it's mission critical, such as uniforms, there's a need to stand up at typically a unique store for a customer. So, for example, if I am managing airline programs and hotel programs, I can't be sharing the same product catalog that I share with a Hilton hotel chain that I share with an American Airlines program. And typically there's a custom portal for each customer. You typically can't do that on a traditional B2C platform. So that's where Xenode really partners well with Artify because Zenode manages multi-store very, very easily, because Zenode was built for these complex B2B use cases, not for the mom and pop Shopify store owner or you know, maybe the smaller retailer that might run big commerce.

SPEAKER_02: 13:43

I understand. So in essence, your solution with Xenode is you have a different portal for each customer. Therefore, it's their product lines and their customizations that are available for their customer to purchase.

SPEAKER_00: 14:00

There's one one use case for Xenode, but Xenode does manage that use case very, very easily.

SPEAKER_02: 14:06

Okay. I like this Artify.

SPEAKER_00: 14:08

Now, with Artify, can someone upload their own design or is it already pre it has to be pre set up from the the You can do both a merchandiser can create templates and and typically you do have to have some templated rules, um so but also within those templates, then they can control a rule like let the user upload a logo. But there's still rules on like where can the logo go. Can the logo does it have to be forced to fit into a small space where it's very defined, or do you give them an op, we call it an open canvas where the logo can be moved around? So there's a bunch of rules that still go into that. Um because on the back end, the more the fewer rules you have, the more difficult it is to automate the process to set up the product when you're in a production environment. Also, most companies want to control the brand experience so their pilots don't walk onto an airplane and the uniform looks crazy because they put their name on the back of the uniform instead of on the left chest. Right. So there's some practicality to this as well. I wonder if that ever had our product, but who knows? I want to make the logo go ahead. I'll wear that.

SPEAKER_04: 15:29

Yeah, I'll wear that today, huh?

SPEAKER_02: 15:32

It's not a basketball uniform, it's a pilot's uniform, right? No, it's um so so with the setup, so we're talking about Artify and then the Zenode, uh, we'll we'll talk about maybe the setup of them both. So Zenode is uh an e-commerce solution that interfaces with Business Central. That e-commerce solution, where does that reside? Is that a cloud-based solution? Is it a solution that a customer or or a merchant that uses that would have to host themselves or host elsewhere? Uh how does that question?

SPEAKER_00: 16:09

No, it's completely cloud-based. Everything is in uh Microsoft Azure SQL, so cloud database, uh uh Azure Kubernetes for updates. It's a true SaaS platform, although the database is siloed because a lot of bigger companies don't want their data intermingled with other with other companies' data. But everything is cloud-based, true distributed SaaS model, and all all built in Microsoft.

SPEAKER_02: 16:34

Okay. And then the interface with Business Central, uh, does it work with Business Central online or Business Central on-premises?

SPEAKER_00: 16:44

Um it can work with both. Um, you know, on-prem, sometimes there are latency issues and and depends upon how customized the implementation was for the ERP. Xenode has, we call it a Commerce Connector, and within that Commerce connector, there's data exchanges. So you can simply map Xenode's API and Xenode's an API first platform with the BC API or whatever webhook is available, and you can just create touch points for them to communicate. So it's very easy to map it with a standard BC integration. If there's customization, then there's ways around that within our platform. But we have this this connector data exchange uh engine that that really powers all of that.

SPEAKER_02: 17:28

So it does work with custom. So if you have an extension within Business Central, you add fields, you can those fields can also be used to send data up to Zenode so that the experience for your customer uh or however how you may be processing it are also uh available. Yep, absolutely. Absolutely. With it being an e-commerce platform, uh payment processing, do you do the payment processing or can they use their their own payment processor? Can a merchant use their own pay payment processor uh or select from a list of those Tom, I can jump in on that.

SPEAKER_01: 18:06

Um we have a partnership with a company called Spreadly. Uh Spreedly is a payment aggregate. Um so we actually allow our customers to choose from any of those. There's about 150 different payment gateways that they can choose from, um, which really simplifies that process.

SPEAKER_00: 18:23

And that's great. Spreadly and all these payment gateways are PCI compliant. So typically an e-commerce platform doesn't actually own the payment gateway. That's a specialized product that is provided by typically large banks or financial institutions or the the companies like FIServe that provide the services underneath those banks.

SPEAKER_01: 18:47

That's great.

SPEAKER_02: 18:47

I know, I know if I had an e-commerce solution, I wouldn't want to manage the payment gateway myself. I think there's just too much to me personally, I think there would be too much risk there. I know there's others that can do it and they do it on their own, but and they do it successfully, but I would leave that to someone else because I'd rather just vibe away over here and not have to worry about that sensitive information. So a lot of liability to carry. Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Um so for an implement. So what else is in the Xenode product for e-commerce? So you mentioned that it works uh and integrates with um uh your other product. If somebody wanted to use that as a standalone e-commerce solution, is that also an option for them?

SPEAKER_00: 19:36

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Xenode has many customers integrated with Artified as many customers that aren't in those categories. We have a number of global manufacturers that run global aftermarket parts on Xenode. We have a number of manufacturers that are based in North America that create portals for their dealers. Um Xenode's just an it so there's a couple things because the e-commerce category right now is kind of confusing to understand. A lot of traditional B2C platforms have started to get into the market and say we're also B2B. Um, and they're not. And so that's where Xenode really stands out. We we really focus only on B2B. 100% of our customers are manufacturers and distributors. Um and so and we have the capabilities to help those companies manage the complexities of what manufacturers and distributors need to manage in e-commerce.

unknown: 20:36

I get it.

SPEAKER_02: 20:37

Okay, I understand that. So now there is a big difference between B2B and B2C, and I've come across that, and a lot of times someone tries to have a platform that does both, and it requires some specialization because uh customization and specific features because you may need uh and I'm I'm asking some of these questions as I go through it, is you can so then with it being B2B, you can have specific catalogs, product catalogs, pricing catalogs for a specific customer. And again, working with Artify, where you're saying you have a separate portal. I see how all that flows together.

SPEAKER_00: 21:13

Right. Um I was just saying one of the biggest um requirements in B2B is customer-specific catalogs. It could be customer-specific, like account-specific assortments, segment-specific catalogs. If you're a large distributor, you may serve plumbing electrical and industrial. Well, depending, you know, if Jeff logs in and he's uh he's an MRO purchasing agent, he may only be purchasing industrial products where if I log in and I'm an electrical contractor, I'm only gonna look at the electrical catalog potentially, right? So catalog manager management matters a lot. Now you get into extreme use cases like uniform programs or even government contracts, it's where you have to show a pre procured approved catalog to the buyer, or you're gonna lose your business with that buyer. Makes sense.

SPEAKER_04: 22:03

No, someone someone that's interested in and uh I know you have two products, right? You're Zenode and uh Rtify. Uh just going back to Artify, for for an organization that uh you know want to um not necessarily eliminate but minimize all the manual process, uh, what does it usually take for someone to implement that that product?

SPEAKER_00: 22:26

Um you know, typically uh one, they would have to have an e-commerce platform. It's hard to implement without an e-commerce platform. Although do we have some we do have some companies that actually implement it and integrate it into their ERP so their salespeople can create virtual proofs and and customizations on behalf of the customer. Think of somebody in an inside sales role. But one, you would need an e-commerce platform, and then two, you would need decent assets. Um, so think about if you're gonna do a uniform, you need to have the flat asset of the front of the uniform, the flat asset of the back of the uniform go down the list. We can also do 360 rotation if you have a graphic file. Um, and then you need to have some sense of where the rules are on those uniforms. Right? Or you have to have somebody who's going to somebody in the merchandise, they call it merchandising or um e-commerce management department who's going to know those rules and set up the products or understand how to set those up. That's that's really about it.

SPEAKER_04: 23:28

Yeah, pretty straightforward. Do you do you guys help for like organizations that maybe don't have those prepared? Because there's there's been times where I'm helping them implement something like we need these requirements, and like, I don't know what those are. Can you help me out?

SPEAKER_00: 23:44

Yeah, I mean, we we absolutely help with the a set of requirements ahead of time. Uh we are a software company, so we don't have a photo studio for flat assets. We don't have a um, you know, we do offer some product setup help, and we've automated a lot of it with AI, but we are a software company. So at the end of the day, we provide what I would say is base the base software and the some assistance with product information and setup. Gotcha. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_04: 24:12

And and so there's a requirement to get their e-commerce. Hopefully they do have e-commerce. Um do you typically then uh perhaps uh work with them if they're not happy with their e-commerce? Uh so they implement e-commerce first before uh doing Artify.

SPEAKER_00: 24:33

Typically, what happens is they will come to us and say we love Artify, but we're unhappy with our e-commerce platform. And like like literally, this is how the story goes. We have a B2C platform and we realize we need program management and we need a B2B platform. Any recommendations, and we typically say, Well, can we introduce you to Zenode? And it's not even part of our sales strategy, it literally is. There's just a lot of companies that are suffering with the the wrong e-commerce platform. So there is there's an overlap there. I think the data is like 68% of manufacturers and distributors are unhappy with their e-commerce platform and want to replatform.

SPEAKER_04: 25:12

That's it, that's fun. That's interesting because uh yeah, every time there's an e-commerce conversation, uh, they always mention that you know we want to change, we just don't know where where to go. Right. Who to go to. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 25:28

Jeff has been like a vital part of our company. Um, we see a lot of that in the Microsoft channel. I think Jeff identified that very early on as there's a lot of manufacturers and distributors, whether than BC or uh what used to be called FNO, that are struggling.

SPEAKER_02: 25:45

So is yeah, to take away from that a little bit, just from that topic, because I I think about this with a lot of applications. People struggle with their ERP software, people struggle with the e-commerce software. I struggle with uh my wallet sometimes. If you're struggling with the e-commerce platform, is it a case of growth often? Do you see uh Tom, you mentioned that Jeff, you see that space. Is it typically an issue of I outgrew the e-commerce platform? Meaning my either my business has changed, or my business model has changed, or my business volume has changed, because you may start off with um, I know you have Zenode, but you may start off with Shopify or something, or you may start off with Big Commerce. There's a lot of e-commerce platforms out there. And you started off as a B2C shop, and then you realize that there's a space for B2B, and then you try to squeeze B2B within that same platform without exploring other options or even expanding uh uh you know, expanding the use of the application. I I see this often on the ERP implementations where you go through an ERP implementation, we talked about this in previous episodes as well. When are you done? You're really never done because you need to have maintenance on that to keep up with your business. Do you find that's a often struggle for them, or do you think it's they just chose the wrong platform?

SPEAKER_01: 27:13

I think it can be both. Um I think that if you end up purchasing Shopify as your platform, or not to pick on Shopify, it could be any uh direct consumer platform, um, it's it's very simple to run that type of retail model, right? So um typically you have an MSRP price list, we all log on, see the same catalog um and pay the same price unless you have some sort of coupon code or something. Whereas with B2B, uh it's very likely you have a customer-specific catalog, customer-specific pricing. There needs to be a different data model on the e-commerce experience for that to work. So um I think that people go into the process of selecting a platform, maybe they know the brand name, Shopify, and purchased it, and then two years later they're running into issues and replatforming.

SPEAKER_00: 28:02

I I'll jump in and actually how Jeff and I met, Jeff worked uh with another company and uh in the e-commerce space, and they had a customer that actually was on BC, they still are, and they had a catalog of 1.5 million SKUs. Wow. They were making calls back and forth to BC to surface that product information, and their ERP was getting overtaxed, overburdened. E-commerce experience was very, very slow, and they actually found Zenode, and now they're they have almost six million SKUs on Zenode, and they have no performance issues. And uh, that's actually how Jeff and I got to know each other, but it was literally it wasn't a bad platform, it just wasn't a platform that's made for their B2B business model, and so they've actually my understanding is their it's their sales have increased fivefold online since moving to Zenode because they can now run a much bigger catalog and they can create uh customer-specific catalogs because they have a lot of government contracts. So there's a lot of problems that were solved that maybe didn't surface initially that now have surfaced and and we've helped them.

SPEAKER_01: 29:13

Yeah, I think that goes to the use case of they bought the right platform for themselves at the time, and then a few years later their company had grown so much that it was time to find something a little bit more scalable.

SPEAKER_04: 29:25

Yeah, that that makes sense. That's I think that's a lot of the common scenarios, um, at least from my experience, where they may be coming from an ERP system, and along the way, they're also not only they're outgrowing their ERP system, but they're also outgrowing their um e-commerce, right? And and so uh the the question becomes, you know, how much of those project you want to take on, uh, you know, because first of all, you gotta upgrade or move to an ERP system, and then at the same time trying to build an entire e commerce platform, which typically Coincides with the decision of do we stay with the existing one or look for something else? And that usually a common conversation is that yeah, you're right. Brad had mentioned and Jeff, they outgrow that. And it may not be a bad solution at that time, but eventually they'll outgrow. And they want to do other avenues.

SPEAKER_02: 30:19

Right. Right. Step back to the architecture a little bit, thinking of uh the use case of the experience for uh those that are using it. Artify is a web-based application that has data and has information in it to allow for the customization of product. Um I'll simplify it. Uh I know you it does it has a lot of features. I'm just kind of breaking it down. And then you have Zenode, which is the e-commerce or it can be any e-commerce solution in the middle, and then you have your underlying ERP software, which we're talking about with Business Central, and I heard you mentioned, and I always say this every time I say it, FNO, F A X, FNSCM, F. I can give you the whole lineage uh of names that it's had. It's had I think it's had more than Business Central, to be honest with you, uh, in a shorter period of time. We have to look that up. It's hard to keep up. It's very hard to keep up. Where does the data reside and how does the data get there? So one of the challenges that I see with implementations is we have master data management issues. That master data management can be within business central itself, across companies, across tenants, and then now you add e-commerce to it, and sometimes you have there would we have duplicate entry of data? How does the data go back and forth? You know, one system has a need for more data than another. Uh, and now we add this other layer to it. Where does the data reside and how does the data get managed?

SPEAKER_00: 31:51

Jeff, do you mind if I jump in on that? Yeah, you got it. Yeah, so it depends upon the size of the company. Um and it depends upon their e-commerce platform. One of the reasons that the scenario we were just talking about, they were having issues is because all the data resided within the ERP. And that means constant calls back and forth. Um, with Zenode, at the core of Zenode is a PIM or a product information management system. And the data is actually pushed from BC or any ERP into Zenode, into the PIM. The PIM has unlimited attributions, so a lot of Zenode customers will enrich the data there as well. Um, and then from there, that's where you can have catalog management. Because the PIM can create unlimited numbers of catalogs, and the catalogs can be applied to stores one to many, many to one. But Zenode also does multi-store very, very well. And so when you think about it, having that type of architecture allows for that ability to have six million SKUs rather than topping out at one million, right? It allows for customer-specific catalogs, and then those catalogs are applied based upon a counter profile that log in to the actual portal or the e-commerce experience.

SPEAKER_04: 33:13

Oh, so yeah, I was gonna ask about that PIM solution. So Zenode has a built-in PIM solution.

SPEAKER_00: 33:20

Correct.

SPEAKER_04: 33:21

That's amazing. Okay, very good.

SPEAKER_00: 33:22

And in the PIM is there, I just want to be clear. It's not there for if you think about traditional MDM, if you think about workflow for internal teams uh as a source of truth, it really doesn't replace a true best of breed pim. It can have a two-way sync with a best of breed pim, it can have a two-way or one-way sync with an ERP. It's really meant for ease of management of the e-commerce experience. And it also reduces your your tech stack and your tech debt because you don't have to have constant calls to a third-party PIM to get your catalog data, right? Your merchandisers are in one admin console and they're running 2,000 catalogs on one store, or they're running 2,000 stores with 4,000 catalogs all centrally in one system.

SPEAKER_04: 34:07

Yeah, that's fantastic. But it can it also work with if they if for some reason they love their PIM solution, will it, Xenode, uh, work with that with another PIM solution?

SPEAKER_00: 34:19

Absolutely. There's unlimited attribution, our connector, commerce connector we talk about, can also do full data exchanges back and forth with any PIM solution. And then in that case, the architecture typically is your ERP pushes your base product information into the PIM. Your best of breed PIM is for MDM and for workflow. So that the marketing department, the engineering department are all have a source of truth for product information. From there you would push it into Zenode, and that's where you would actually have your catalog creation and your account-specific catalogs, etc., configured in the platform.

SPEAKER_02: 35:00

Okay, so we have the product information catalog do you have within Zenode? So does it have integrations to other systems as well outside that it can use to source that? Uh so we have the e-commerce system. And I'm just thinking from data integration from many systems uh that you can bring into your e-commerce uh platform. Um does it have the opportunity to integrate with other systems, fulfillment centers uh or the like? Or even other catalog type or either other or other catalog type programs, because again, I'm thinking of in some of these cases where you may be a merchant or a provider that you you know, you think of some of these organizations that they may not necessarily source the product or they may have uh three PLs to distribute the products for them. I know in the in the case of Artify where it's custom or niche, it may be in-house, but it also may be at other facilities as well to get that information over to there. So do you have that type of access?

SPEAKER_00: 35:58

Absolutely, but that's not a catalog issue, that's at more of an order issue and a warehouse issue. So because Zenode is made for true B2B, you can have unlimited unlimited numbers of warehouses and you can assign inventory to warehouses within the platform or pull inventory from multiple warehouses. You can also display that because that affects shipping rules. Right? Yes, if I'm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and I'm buying commercial plumbing parts for a product.

SPEAKER_02: 36:28

If you are, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00: 36:33

Oh you just upset a good portion of the the northern part of the country.

SPEAKER_02: 36:40

Um I don't know about a good portion of it, but um it's cold up there.

SPEAKER_04: 36:46

I spent time up there uh January February, and man, the Milwaukee, that that's uh when I was walking over the bridge, it's like everything's frozen over. And uh yeah, it's it's too cold. Too cold for me.

SPEAKER_02: 37:00

I don't know where my dissatisfaction with Wisconsin had come in from. I I don't know. Maybe I know with Minnesota, I think it's just the two of them, Minnesota and Wisconsin. All right. Sounds like you're a Bears fan as a kid.

SPEAKER_00: 37:15

I can't solve for that. I can solve for for multi-warehouse and complex BW.

SPEAKER_02: 37:21

I'm sorry, I go on a little tangent here and there, and I I just hear some of these things and I get triggered. No, I'm definitely not a Bears fan. Come on.

SPEAKER_00: 37:28

I don't think anyone is. Most people are Packers fans. I assume you two are, right? I thought everyone was. The other one is. The Packers.

SPEAKER_02: 37:38

Are you really a Packers fan? Oh yeah. No, you're not. You're just saying that now. Listen, I've known Jeff quite a bit now, and he is definitely not a Packers fan, or he's one of those that he's a fan of whoever he's talking with. I'm definitely not a Patriots fan. I'll say that. Everybody I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll sound like Tom H. Everyone loves the Patriots. Everyone hates the Patriots. Everyone hates the Patriots because they won for so long. It's very easy to be a hater when your team loses to them all the time. We had a few rough years, but look at this year. I yes, everyone can say that we have an easy schedule, but I'll tell you, Drake May, you you you pay attention. The Pats dynasty will be back. Um I I don't know. Uh we could talk about Jeff Bob too if you want.

SPEAKER_04: 38:30

They do have an easy schedule this season.

SPEAKER_02: 38:32

Okay. Okay. They may have an easy schedule, but they're still beating all those teams. So that's true. You can only beat who is in front of you.

SPEAKER_00: 38:41

So yeah, that's it. So um we've just gone from e-commerce to ESPN.

SPEAKER_02: 38:47

Well, yeah, we we cover a wide range of uh topics here today. Now we're talking about uh uh I told you, I just sometimes I just get triggered by things, and um I'm definitely not a Green Bay Packers fan, nor a Minnesota Vikings fan.

SPEAKER_00: 39:02

Nobody is a Vikings fan, we understand.

SPEAKER_02: 39:04

No, yes, I understand that too. Uh, how many Super Bowls have uh the Packers won?

SPEAKER_01: 39:11

Four Super Bowls in 13 World Championships, I think. If you go way back back to when Tom was a kid.

SPEAKER_02: 39:24

Oh, good times. No, that's good. So yeah, I'm sorry I went there. So you you do support to have uh multi-warehouse uh 3PL type uh access uh inventory by location. I know that's not a product uh catalog type uh integration, uh, but I've um I've worked with other type of channel applications, so I was just trying to think about that used too, and that's what their product information uh catalog um uh information manager excuse me uh came to mind, and then I was thinking about even like with Shopify integrations with 3PL access uh to orders fulfillments uh to be able to help facilitate the the order process.

SPEAKER_00: 40:04

Absolutely. So with Shopify, it's probably more of a 3PL for a retailer. With us, it's more than likely a distribution center or a warehouse. And you know, think uh I was mentioning if you're it's a commercial plumbing purchase online, it's probably an order that is worth$100,000, right? For commercial plumbing products for a big a big building uh that's being built, maybe it's a stadium. Um, they're gonna want to have that ship from the warehouse where the products are closest due to weight. It's probably being shipped on pallets or truckloads. That's B2B, right? So that matters a lot, and it's a whole different thing than having your uh your tennis shoes shipped from a local 3PL because the retailer has them stored in a 3PL. Whole whole different mindset.

SPEAKER_02: 40:59

Okay, I have that. So with this, have you worked with other e uh ERP applications besides Business Central and F uh whatever the other one? FNO, FNX, FNSCM?

unknown: 41:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_02: 41:13

AX. Okay. What other product what other products have you worked with, other uh ERP applications?

SPEAKER_00: 41:19

Zenode is integrated into multiple versions of Epicore. Uh Epicore Kinetic is a manufacturing ERP that's very prominent in the Midwest. So we have lots of customers on Epicore. Uh and also Epicore's other ill uh Eclipse, which is in the distribution space we've integrated with. Well I go down the list, uh Net Suite, SAP, you know. I would say the ones that are more mid-market enterprise that serve manufacturers and distributors. But but I there's a long list of them.

SPEAKER_01: 41:52

Yeah, if you if you can name it, we've probably integrated to it, to be honest. But um the the dynamics ERPs are certainly our fastest growing user base.

SPEAKER_02: 42:03

Oh it's great. But the application itself is growing significantly. And the uh also I mean I think in 2025, again, you bring it up, which is the year we're in, uh I think. And um if you don't have some sort of e-commerce presence or online presence, it's I think it's a challenge for most businesses. I mean, there still may be some that uh quite uh aren't there yet, but I think as um technology is advancing and increasing, you know, to have that option um is important. Even if it's just for order entry, never mind selling. You know, I've I've worked with some that they've had online catalogs for just order entry. Um the whole purchase and other type process uh or payment excuse me, processing they still do uh with B2B you can still do POs and uh and bills and such like that.

SPEAKER_04: 42:53

So yeah, so so you guys uh growing in the dynamic space. Uh I do I am curious if you are going to be at directions in Orlando in April. Absolutely. You guys have you guys getting a booth?

SPEAKER_01: 43:10

We are. Yep. Oh, very good. We'll be at pretty much any Microsoft show that you can name off right now next year. No, okay.

SPEAKER_04: 43:18

You guys have signed up for all of them. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 43:21

Yeah, we'll we'll be at directions, we'll be at at Summit, um the AI Summit or whatever they're calling it now.

SPEAKER_04: 43:27

Oh, AI and Copilot Summit.

SPEAKER_01: 43:29

Yep, you got it. So any of the ones that you can name we're we're probably going to that. Yeah. No, and we'll be at convergence next month, too.

SPEAKER_04: 43:40

Consider going to convergence. Yes, uh bringing it back.

SPEAKER_02: 43:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember that, geez, many years ago when I first got into it. I think I went to a convergence. My first one was in Atlanta many, many moons ago. So we'll see how that goes. I may take the drive over to it and see uh with it being a relatively short drive um through the alligated land uh to take a look at it. Uh when it goes through an implementation, uh I know this is a tough question because I I hear this all the time myself and it's tough to answer. But what can someone expect for a typical implementation time? I know there's a lot of variables to it, but from your experience, just you think of like an average company, you know, not uh there's always ed cases, there's different sizes, there's different requirements, but generally speaking, um how how long does an implementation usually take? Is it days, hours, weeks, months, years?

SPEAKER_00: 44:39

Uh typically I would say on the low end, three to six months for a mid-market distributor manufacturer. We have had some companies that have you know four ERPs and four different e-commerce platforms, and they're centralizing everything and going through major digital transformation. That can be more than a year. Because it it has less to do with our platform and more with deprecating old systems and centralizing the data and change management and go down the list.

SPEAKER_02: 45:09

Yeah, that's I can see what that's a challenge for this because usually uh I'm saying in that case, then it's because they're doing an entire system implementation, so the time period's not necessarily implementing the product, it's getting everything implemented as a whole and the people to do that and the reorganization and the strategy versus saying I already have this in place and I can get this done and set up. Exactly. It's a it's a that's I understand that model. That's why it's it's always a tough question to ask, but uh sometimes it's good to just get an idea of the you know the simplicity of um getting it set up. Uh the strategy of it's always a challenge, and it's tough. I hear that question all the time with ERP implementations. Everyone's just like, ah, you can just set it up. But they forget about the people portion of it, they forget about the data portion of it. If you don't have change management. Oh yes, oh yeah, yeah. And then also you're still trying to, it's almost sometimes like trying to change the bus wheels as the bus is going down the freeway as you're going through this. So uh same same concerns, absolutely. Yeah, it's it's a little challenge. Well, uh Jeff and Tom, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us this afternoon. We really do appreciate it. Um I'm interested in this because I have some good ideas as well with uh the whole artify piece. The artify piece, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 46:25

That is interesting.

SPEAKER_02: 46:28

I I can't tell you how many times I've come across the need for that. And you wouldn't think about it, but we're in that world. Everybody wants the unique and on-demand type product, right? It's not just uh I mean you're you're talking about in uniforms, but it's almost like assemble to order, but variations, and you want to be able to get it out easily, quickly, and let the customers get what they want with all the different combinations and variations. So I have uh I may have to call you up. I may want to set up my own little store for something. I have a good idea for I'm not telling anybody what the idea is yet, but um they'll have to see. Jeff, I'll talk uh if the Jeff and Tom, if you guys, if I make it to um Convergence, I'll talk with you there. If not, I'll definitely see you in the directions in April. Back in Orlando. So um, but again, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us this afternoon. And if anyone would like to have more information about uh Xenode, Artify, or how this uh can be implemented with this system, what's the best way to reach you?

SPEAKER_00: 47:30

Yeah, I I think the best way go to either either of the uh URLs, artifilabs.com, or Zenode is Z N O D E.com. Uh fill out a form, request a demo, contact us. We'll have the right people follow up immediately, or you'll actually be able to hit someone's calendar and schedule time.

SPEAKER_02: 47:53

Excellent, great, thank you. And we'll also have uh links to um in the show notes for to be able to get in contact with both of you. Again, thank you, and uh look forward to seeing you soon. Ciao ciao. Thanks, Brad. Thanks. Bye. Thank you, Chris, for your time for another episode of In the Dynamics Corner Chair, and thank you to our guests for participating.

SPEAKER_04: 48:13

Thank you, Brad, for your time. It is a wonderful episode of Dynamics Corner Chair. I would also like to thank our guests for join joining us. Thank you for all of our listeners tuning in as well. You can find Brad at developerlife.com. That is D V L P R L I F E dot com. And you can interact with them via Twitter, D V L P R L I F E. You can also find me at Matalino.io, M-A-T-A-L-I-N-O.io, and my Twitter handle is Matalino 16. And see you can see those links down below in the show notes. Again, thank you everyone, thank you, and take care.