Early-Bird Special!
Register by Jan. 20 to get $50 off registration!
The goal of e-automate Elevate is to facilitate a conversation among a broad range of e-automate users (from lower frequency to Super Users), touching on a variety of topics such as product functionality, common concerns and troubleshooting best practices.
Attendees can choose to attend breakout sessions in multiple tracks:
Accounting, CEO Juice, Contracts, Inventory, Order Processing, Service and System Admin.
The event will wrap up with an Ask the Experts session where all speakers will answer questions and have a best-practices discussion. Questions from the pre-event survey will also be answered.
Registration includes the educational sessions, lunch and refreshment breaks, as well as registration to BTA's Spring Break event.
Dealer Registration:
$299
8:40 to 9:40 a.m.
Track
Session Information
Accounting
Audits, AP Vendor Payments & Vendor Unapplied Payments
Barbara Bragger, president, B&B Professional Consulting
In this session, learn about AR unapplied customer payments, bad debt write-offs, and sales tax on customers and contracts.
Inventory
Inventory Optimization: Part 1
Jack Duncan, owner, Jack Duncan Consulting
In this session, learn industry benchmarks, the importance of inventory control, and how to handle obsolescences and write-offs.
CEO Juice
AI for Equipment Orders
Gary Lavin & Mike Kirkpatrick, partners, CEO Juice
Learn how to take a Six Sigma approach to automating the "deal."
9:45 to 10:45 a.m.
Track
Session Information
System Admin/
Order Processing
e-info, PO Processor & Custom Properties
Adam Jones, system administrator, CopyPro Inc.
In this session, learn about the installation, configuration and use of e-info, PO Processor and e-automate Custom Properties. Jones will discuss best practices and how to get the most out of your e-automate order processing products.
Inventory
Inventory Optimization: Part 2
Jack Duncan, owner, Jack Duncan Consulting
Learn how to use automation to increase efficiency in restock and reorder.
CEO Juice
AI for Accounts Receivable
Gary Lavin & Mike Kirkpatrick, partners, CEO Juice
Learn how to fully automate the accounts receivable process.
11 a.m. to Noon
Track
Session Information
Contracts
Contracts: Part 1
Barbara Bragger, president, B&B Professional Consulting
Audit your coding, streamline setup, review Billing Queue, rate schedules, GL codes and month-end balancing
Inventory
Inventory Optimization: Part 1
Jack Duncan, owner, Jack Duncan Consulting
In this session, learn industry benchmarks, the importance of inventory control, and how to handle obsolescences and write-offs.
CEO Juice
AI for ATRs
Gary Lavin & Mike Kirkpatrick, partners, CEO Juice
Even A3s can be drop-shipped now. In this session, learn how to fully automate the process.
1:20 to 2:20 p.m.
Track
Session Information
Contracts
Contracts: Part 2
Barbara Bragger, president, B&B Professional Consulting
Contract profitability; correcting meters; incorporating automatic meters; and leasing company pass-throughs
Inventory
Inventory Optimization: Part 2
Jack Duncan, owner, Jack Duncan Consulting
Learn how to use automation to increase efficiency in restock and reorder.
System Admin
Printanista — Managed Accounts & Reporting
Adam Jones, system administrator, CopyPro Inc.
In this session, learn how to make Printanista work for you with managed accounts and reporting. Jones will discuss the functions of managed accounts and how it affects reporting. He will also discuss the default reporting in Printanista and how you can use the API to retrieve data to create your own reports.
2:40 to 3:50 p.m.
Track
Session Information
Service
The Journey from Good to Great
Jack Duncan, owner, Jack Duncan Consulting, & Richie Creech, director of service, CopyPro Inc.
How to align territories, manpower and car stock. Learn how one dealership went from 35% FCE to 75% and its impact on profitability.
CEO Juice
AI for Sales & Support
Gary Lavin & Mike Kirkpatrick, partners, CEO Juice
Learn where to start when using AI for sales and support.
System Admin
Eviews & Excel Training
Adam Jones, system administrator, CopyPro Inc.
Learn how to create Eviews using Excel to analyze data from e-automate. Learn about pivot tables and Vlookup.
3:55 to 5 p.m.
Track
Session Information
All Tracks
Ask the Experts
All of the e-automate Elevate speakers will be in attendance answer your questions and have a best-practices discussion. Questions from the pre-event survey will also be answered.
Barbara Bragger
President, B&B Professional Consulting LLC
Bragger's experience includes 11 years of day-to-day operations as a controller/operations manager for an office technology dealership from 1989-2000. In 2000, she started her firm, B&B Professional Consulting, as an independent systems/business consultant for the office technology industry. During the past 24 years, Bragger has worked with clients on OMD and e-automate with a wide range of services. This includes training, auditing, troubleshooting, month-end balancing, as well as conversions and acquisitions, depending on the clients' needs. In April 2024, B&B Professional Consulting merged with Terry Chapman's consulting company, John Hollister LLC. This has given dealers a larger network of consultants to work with, ensuring they get the best results.
Richie Creech
Director of Service, CopyPro Inc.
Creech has been employed with CopyPro Inc., located in Greenville, North Carolina, since May 1999. He started with the company as a setup and delivery technician, and has held several positions since then, including field technician, team leader, field service supervisor and, finally, his current role of director of service.
As director of service, Creech oversees all field service activity and is responsible for ensuring that CopyPro maintains its excellent standard of service. Over the years, he has accrued vast industry knowledge. Creech's ability to troubleshoot and quickly solve problems in the field has allowed the company to rise above the competition. He has won awards for Technician of the Year, Konica Minolta Technician of the Month and Service Manager of the Year. In 2022, Creech joined the BTA Southeast Advisory Board and now serves as president-elect of BTA Southeast.
Jack Duncan
Owner, Jack Duncan Consulting
After returning from the Vietnam War, Duncan began his career in the office technology industry as a service manager at Tri State Copy Systems in Kansas City, Missouri. After several years there, he moved to Modern Business Systems, where he rose to the position of service manager for the Kansas City branch. In the years following Modern Business Systems, Duncan spent five years with Ricoh as a senior regional technical manager, followed by 14 years as director of service and, finally, vice president of service for City Business Machines in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1999, Duncan moved to Dallas, Texas, to work for ASI Business Solutions, where he helped set up and implement OMD as well as many departmental policies and procedures while on his way to becoming vice president of service.
In 2004, Duncan founded his own consulting business, JDC Jack Duncan Consulting, where he built and taught Service Managers University, working with users of both OMD and e-automate. Duncan also developed the interface between e-automate and US Fleet Tracking's GPS program.
With more than 50 years in the industry and 20 of those as a consultant and coach who enjoys teaching and solving problems, he is still actively working with several clients.
Adam Jones
System Administrator, CopyPro Inc.
With 22 years in the office technology industry, Jones has worked in and helped improve processes in all departments. He is the system administrator for CopyPro's e-automate and related products such as Printanista, MobileTech, etc. Jones excels in diving deep into processes and coming up with creative solutions.
Mike Kirkpatrick
Partner, CEO Juice
Kirkpatrick started working in the office technology industry in 1982 as a consultant working on installs for a product called FasTrack. He was IT director at AEG Olympia during the early 1990s for a few years and was a partner in Critical Network Technologies, reselling and troubleshooting 500- to 1,000-plus-user Novell networks. He then went to work as CIO for Standard Office Systems of Atlanta (SOS). In 1997, SOS signed up for e-automate and Kirkpatrick spent two years with the lead e-automate developer to add all the FasTrack features to the software. He was the primary catalyst in starting the e-automate Users Group (EUG) and was its president for the first few years. Kirkpatrick met Lavin at EUG and the two formed CEO Juice in 2009.
Gary Lavin
Partner, CEO Juice
Born and raised in Ireland, Lavin started selling copiers for Xerox in 1983. In 1993, he moved to San Diego, California, where he founded Color Systems, a dealership focused on the color copier/MFP marketplace with a separate division focused on IT services. Lavin grew it to $10 million in revenue in five years, and added locations in Los Angeles and the Bay Area before selling the company in 1999. In 2003, he started Imaging Technologies. Lavin grew this business to $6 million in just over four years before selling it to KMA in 2008. He invested in e-automate back when it was known as Cash Ops, installing version 1 and became an avid fan of Digital Task Force (DTF) shortly after it was launched by Mike Kirkpatrick. Passionate about using technology to solve problems and understanding the need for process in a successful business, Lavin connected with Kirkpatrick at the e-automate User Group where they discussed the potential DTF had and the challenges in implementing it. They formed CEO Juice together in 2009 to overcome those challenges. Today, CEO Juice has 98% of medium/large office technology dealerships as clients.