May 5, 2026 • 43 mins
Recorded LIVE from the 2026 Punchmark Client Workshop in Charlotte, NC!
Mike sits down with Lenny Prion, the voice and educator so many jewelers know as “Lenny from The Edge,” to talk about the early days of The EDGE Point of Sale system and what he learned from working for many years in a retail jewelry store. We dig into how reporting, reorders, inventory aging, and smart automation can make a store run calmer, faster, and more profitably.
He also teases the biggest feature update to The EDGE in the last 25 years... you wont want to miss this!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_03 (00:01):
Welcome back everybody to In the Loop.
What is up everybody?
My name is Michael Burpo.
Thanks again for listening to Inthe Loop.
And this week, man, we got one.
It's one of my white whales.
It's Lenny from the Edge.
And if you don't know LennyBrian, uh, you probably already
(00:21):
do, you just don't know thatit's him.
He is the uh one of the faces ofthe Edge point of sale system.
He's been with them since thevery beginning, and I got a
chance to interview him live atthe Punchmark Client Workshop in
Charlotte, North Carolina.
This was a really coolconversation because there are
few people who uh are not adirect owner or founder of a
(00:43):
company or as ubiquitously knownuh for that company like Letty.
Uh he is definitely someone whoI admire for the industry.
He has a wonderful presence, andpeople absolutely adore him.
He's the director of educationand operations at uh The Edge,
and he talks about how the pointof sale system has kind of
(01:03):
molded and adapted uh over theyears, and what he's learned
from working as a retailer atone point, and how he carries
that into his day-to-day ofeducating retailers.
It really is one of my favoriteconversations.
He's fantastic on the mic, andreally is one of those people
who I feel like is driving theindustry forward, and people
(01:24):
look to for uh you know a lot ofleadership, whether they have
him as an account manager ornot.
All that to be said, pleaseenjoy my conversation with Lenny
from the Edge.
SPEAKER_00 (01:36):
This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the
jewelry industry's favoritewebsite platform and digital
growth agency.
Our mission reaches way beyondtechnology.
With decades of experience andlong-lasting industry
relationships, Punchmark enablesjewelry businesses to flourish
in any marketplace.
We consider our clients ourfriends, as many of them have
(01:56):
been friends way before becomingclients.
Punchmark's own success comesfrom the fact that we have a
much deeper need and obligationto help our friends succeed.
Whether you're looking forbetter e-commerce performance,
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It's never too late to transformyour business and stitch
(02:18):
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Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmark.com slash go.
And now back to the show.
SPEAKER_03 (02:36):
Alright, everybody.
So we're gonna do our secondone.
And this one, I made a joke,it's at the very beginning of my
first episode of this season.
We're in season seven.
So my first episode, I actuallystarted the episode of with this
year, I'm going white whalehunting.
And what I mean by that is I'mfinding all the people I've
always wanted to interview thathave not yet said yes, and I'm
(02:59):
going to get them to come on thepodcast.
So this is my first white whale.
I'm very excited.
You all already know it's Lennyfrom the edge.
How are you guys?
So what's funny is you end up ifyou're in the industry long
enough, you kind of build this,like your last name just becomes
from the company that you'rewith.
So we have Jason from Punchmarkand we have Lenny from the Edge.
(03:20):
Um when you introduce yourself,how do you do it?
I am Lenny from the Edge.
There you go.
SPEAKER_01 (03:27):
That's literally what it is.
Um that's how most people knowwho I am.
SPEAKER_03 (03:31):
Yeah.
And the edge is um, I was sayingit's a bigger word than I
normally use, but it's prettyubiquitous with the uh with the
Julie industry.
Um, what's like the overall likeelevator pitch for the edge
right now?
SPEAKER_01 (03:43):
So we've been around a long time.
Um the edge itself has beenaround since 2000, so we're 26
years there.
But even before that, Dickstarted his original software
back in 87.
Wow.
So we've been doing this a very,very long time.
So our biggest thing is not onlydo we do everything that a store
needs to run, but we know whoyou guys are.
(04:04):
We've been in the industry, andwe have the the biggest team
there to help you.
There's 50 of us sitting underour roof that are there, and
most of them are in support andtraining.
So we're there to do that.
And we're also, there's not asingle other person in this
space that you're gonna talk tothat actually has a training
department, that actually hassomeone that teaches you how to
(04:25):
do this.
Yes, they get on and they'll tryto get you through things, but
we actually have a trainingdepartment.
That's what their whole job is.
So for us, it's always been theservice behind it, and and we're
always just looking to push thisindustry further forward and
help them because the more wehelp you guys and and get you to
the points that you should beat, the better off we don't.
So it's all comes back at thatway.
(04:47):
So you're the director ofeducation.
SPEAKER_03 (04:49):
Director of education and operations.
In operations.
So when it comes to theeducation aspect, I'm sure that
there is a business mind to itwhere a well-educated client is
uh is a high retention client,someone that comes through.
Do you find that if you areeducating these clients, it's
also improving their business,or do you find that POS systems
in like the success of abusiness are more or less
(05:11):
independent?
SPEAKER_01 (05:12):
So it depends.
Um, in my situation and oursoftware, yes, if you know how
to use my software, yourbusiness is gonna be 100%
better.
Because we're not just a pointof sale system, we're not just
there keeping track of what'shappening so you can pull those
numbers and figure things out.
We have a whole reporting systembuilt behind it.
We have all your weekly andmonthly reorderings built in.
(05:34):
If you follow those steps thatare using your numbers and
what's happening in your store,and you just follow that lead
and do what it's suggesting thatyou do, you can't get worse.
You could only get better.
Yeah.
So if you know how to use theedge and you know what these
numbers mean and you know wherethese reports are, there is no
way you can't do better in yourbusiness.
(05:55):
So, yeah, so for our purposesand what we do, it's more of a
management software than just apoint of sales software.
Yeah.
And if you do that daily stuffand you take care of your things
and you're putting your data incorrectly, it's easy enough to
hit a button every week thatsays, this is what we need to
do.
This is our buying plan for nextweek, and it's all based on what
just happened.
Yeah.
So, you know, everyone that'sbeen here has been talking about
(06:17):
trends and fast sellers and howthings are moving.
We are a fashion industry,whether we want to believe that
or not, things change.
So the best thing to do is lookat what happened last week to
figure out what we should bedoing this week and moving
forward.
So, and again, if you're justdoing your normal stuff and
getting your data in there andjust following along with that,
(06:38):
hitting those buttons takes eh15, 20 minutes a uh a week, and
all of your reorders for thatfollowing week come in and
they're better than they werelast week.
Yeah.
So you're always improving.
SPEAKER_03 (06:49):
I always I always joke about there's these uh like
real like um terms that peoplejust say all the time, they beat
them to death.
And you one of the ones I alwaysbring up actually came from you,
which is order your fastsellers, reorder your fast
sellers, and then the other oneis get rid of your aged
inventory.
And I think that the edgeactually speaks to both of them.
SPEAKER_01 (07:09):
Yeah, so not only do we have that weekly reordering
and and and continually showingyou what you should do, but part
of our monthly is helping youreduce that old inventory.
So old inventory, it's the vein.
Everybody knows that.
We don't need to beat that overthe head.
What's considered old?
Depends on your store.
Um, every store's a littledifferent.
I mean, if you wanted if youwanted me to, if if I was to
(07:30):
give you a general number, Iwould probably say 365.
That's that's when we're gonnacall that number and go forward.
Even in a single store, there'sgonna be categories of things
that age quicker and age slower.
So if you have a very fashionforward silver line, that should
never reach 365.
(07:51):
Yeah.
Because it's changing, it'smoving, and they are always
adding new things that are goingto be changing with the fashion.
So those things age quicker.
Something staple, diamond studs,diamond hoops, they may last a
little longer because the justof what they are.
So it it's really based on thestore, what type of store it is.
Destination stores are differentthan uh tourist stores and
(08:12):
things like that.
So everyone's got a little bitof a different thing.
And it's as you start to usethese things and see them, and
you start looking at your returnon investment and looking at
your reports and seeing wherethings are, that's gonna help
you learn where your age falls.
So just following those thosereports and watching them,
they're they're basically youruh testing points of what is
(08:33):
old.
Because once once you'restarting to lose your return on
investment, that's the age forthat thing.
And again, if it's a fashionthing, you may say that your
return on investment startsgoing lower after 10 months.
Yeah.
Well, that's your age mark.
We want to get it out by 10months, and if not, we want to
do something to get it and getsomething else in there that
fits.
So it's really, really personalto that store.
(08:53):
So it's really kind ofinteresting.
SPEAKER_03 (08:55):
You're talking about these reports, and there's so
many reports and so much dataand so much information that can
come out of the edge that you'vealready even there's another
company that literally doesexactly that with the Edge
Retail Academy.
I just had on um Becca JohnsonKibbe.
She's amazing.
Like she's the new CEO and she'sfantastic, uh, a big fan of
hers.
(09:15):
And it sounds where do you drawthe line with like what their
territory is, if you will, andwhat is needs to be like an in
the box set of data and reportsthat need to come out as opposed
to what might need to be addedon and from uh you know add-on.
SPEAKER_01 (09:31):
So they don't they don't change anything.
They don't change anything.
Um what Edge Retail Academy doesas our sister company is they
teach you how to use theinformation from the edge
reports to actually manage yourstory where these things should
happen.
So when they see that you haveold inventory, instead of just
being the edge saying, hey,these are things that we could
do, they're gonna see that, ohcrap, you have 853 pieces that
(09:55):
are over 540 days old.
I see.
So we're not even at a year,we're at 18 months, and there's
so many things.
They're gonna give youstrategies of working that down
because the edge, we can helpstop things from becoming old.
We can warn you when things aregetting to this point, we can
tell you you need to dosomething, but that's from the
beginning.
Once you have 60% of yourinventory at age, there's not a
(10:18):
lot I can tell you this is thisis all age, but I don't that the
edge itself can't say hit thesethings first.
So that's where you need someonelike Edge Retail Academy to come
in and say, okay, these are ourgoals right now.
Let's work on getting some ofthis stuff here taken down.
But now from this point on, forall new stuff that's getting
entered, let's use the edge tostop accumulating the old
(10:40):
inventory.
And that's where the edge comesto play.
We can help stop it.
We just can't do something onceit's already there.
I see.
Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_03 (10:46):
Yeah, I think so.
But it sounds like, I mean, youyou were just talking about like
the archetypes of jewelrystores.
And one of the things I'vegetting a jewelry to fill out a
survey is really difficult,unfortunately.
And I've always wanted to uhbreak down, we we talk about
personas in user experiencewhere we actually have personas
for our our clients, and uhwhether we share them publicly
(11:07):
or not, it's like we have peoplethat are relying on custom
jewelry, and we have people thatare relying on e-commerce or our
luxury or that kind of thing.
But what's you guys probablyhave something where you can you
were just talking about adestination store versus a
probably someone in a strip mallversus in something else.
Uh you have a background inworking in a store.
Yes.
Uh what kind of store were youworking in and what was that
(11:29):
like?
SPEAKER_01 (11:29):
So I worked in uh more of a uh a smaller downtown
regional store.
So um been doing this 28 years.
Um when I first got into it, Iwas actually a computer person.
I I that's what I went into theindustry.
I I went into computer science.
I was hired originally back atIBIS, which was Dick's first
(11:50):
company, um, as tech support.
So I started working there andliterally just jumped on the
phones.
I was the fourth person in thecompany um and just started
answering questions.
But my first call ever, I'llnever forget it.
Uh, she was a sweetheart.
I answered the phone.
She's like, did I call the rightnumber?
Because it's been the sameperson.
It was one person in techsupport.
(12:11):
They answered the phone everysingle time.
Now there's this new voicethat's there.
So I said, Yeah, yeah, you did.
I'm brand new.
She's like, Oh, that's great.
She's like, um, okay, so I can'tfigure out where to put the
culet.
And I'm like, Okay, yeah, Icould probably help you with
that.
Um, what's a culet?
And where does it belong?
Because I have no idea about thejewelry industry.
So she was sweet, she laughedwith me.
(12:31):
Uh, she explained what it was.
She's like, He's a little pointat the bottom of the diamond.
I said, Oh, so it should be inthe inventory in some kind of
details there.
She's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And hopefully she doesn't hearthis, but all I did was we were
DOS at that point.
But if you looked at the programand you just followed the
directions, it said go to twofor inventory, one for items.
And when you got to the item,there's literally a little bar
(12:52):
at the bottom that said press F7for stone details that would pop
up and it wasn't there.
She's like, Yeah, that's where Iwent, it's not there.
But if you looked at the bottomagain, it said press F10 for
more details, and I said pressF10.
She's like, Oh my god, you getyou're amazing.
SPEAKER_03 (13:04):
And the rest is history.
SPEAKER_01 (13:06):
That was it.
All I did was read the screens.
Nice.
So that's a long way to see.
I I didn't know a lot aboutjewelry at all.
So I asked more questions inthat first year than probably
they asked me.
But what I decided was that Ireally wanted to understand
what's happening.
SPEAKER_02 (13:24):
Wow.
SPEAKER_01 (13:25):
Um, we had a new customer that had come up that
was not far from where ouroffice was.
And we were on the phone, wewere talking about tag printers
and tags, and uh she's like,Yeah, I'm looking for holiday
help.
So this was probably end ofAugust, beginning of September.
I'm like, Oh, really?
And uh and she said, Yeah.
And I said, Well, you know, I'dI'd really actually be
interested in that because I'vebeen trying to figure out what
(13:48):
you guys do on a daily basis andunderstanding what half of these
words are that you're talking tome about that I don't know.
And she's like, Yeah,definitely.
So in August of '99, I went infor holiday help.
And uh I gave my notice inOctober of 2007.
Wow.
That uh I was just working waytoo much and uh three kids at
(14:11):
that point, and I had 12 daysoff that year.
I'm like, yeah, I really need tolet something go.
And obviously, I worked at theedge the whole time too, so I
wasn't letting that go.
But uh, so my last uh my lastday of work was actually
Christmas of uh 2007.
Wow.
So I ended up working at thatstore for eight years.
Were they an edge client?
(14:32):
Yeah, absolutely.
That's actually how that's how Igot to know them.
Wow, it was when we were on thephone.
Actually, it was it would havebeen an IDIS client at that
point, it was early enough.
Um, and then it switched over.
But um, but yeah, so I I got touse the software.
I was uh salesperson, I wasinventory, I learned how to use
a laser welder, so I did thesimple solders and things like
(14:52):
that.
I obviously changed watchbatteries, even though I would
never ever want to do that everagain.
Um but yeah, so I mean I learnedevery all aspects of the store
and did pretty much everythingin there.
SPEAKER_03 (15:03):
Man, so do you think that I I've always like toyed
with the idea of like, should Igo into like a store and see if
I can do like a crash course foruh the thing is for me to do it,
it would cost the store money,uh you know, and very much so in
the short term.
And would I like be able to goin and like work for like a
month or something like that,make a whole series on it?
(15:24):
Do you find that a lot of thetech people in um jewelry have
come from other places and evenum a lot of the the jewelry tech
people as well came from vendorsand like they've uh made the
transition.
Do you think that like if morepeople had retail store
experiences that they would uhJulian issue would be like, you
know, more well-rounded?
(15:44):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (15:45):
Um all of my guys that I bring out as trainers, I
try to get them to go visit atleast one of my local stores.
SPEAKER_03 (15:55):
Oh, really?
SPEAKER_01 (15:55):
Yeah.
Um it's I have a couple storesthat I know really, really well
in Connecticut, and I willliterally just send them down
and they'll just they'll justsit behind the counter and watch
what they do and listen to whatthey say.
There is no better way tounderstand what our customers
need than to be in their shoesfor a day.
SPEAKER_02 (16:16):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (16:17):
Um, I try to push that knowledge on because again,
I worked in a store for eightyears.
I actually still have manyfriends where if I'm in their
town and something crazy isgoing on, I'll work the store
for a day.
SPEAKER_02 (16:27):
Wow.
SPEAKER_01 (16:27):
You know, they'll have a crazy event, a grand
opening, they're like, hey, yougonna be around?
I'm like, actually, I would loveto come to your grand opening.
Oh, that's so good.
And not only do I go to thegrand opening, I'm like, uh,
here's a set of keys, go havefun.
I'm like, uh, sure, I didn'tknow I was coming to work, but I
I actually do, I I I really missworking in the stores, so I
enjoy when I get to do that.
Yeah, it's a lot of fun.
So what was like you've beenwhat was it called?
(16:49):
Ibis?
Ibis.
So our our our company was Ibis,and our software was the
jeweler.
The jeweler, okay.
So what's the what was the maindifferences that prompted the
edge?
So so there was partners.
Um so when I started with Ibis,uh Dick and Paul King were
partners, and Dick was the themain salesperson and driver to
(17:10):
gab it, was the driver of the ofthe software.
Paul King was doing the writing.
Um and we were doing we wentfrom DOS to Windows, um, we we
brought up a new Windowsprogram.
But as it got further andfurther, they just their their
thoughts were in different ways.
Paul was kind of stuck in hisway, and Dick was always trying
to think of what the next bestthing is going to be.
So they split in 2000.
(17:32):
Um, and that's actually whereDick got uh partnered with Joe
Shapiro and then started writingthe Edge software.
So in 2000 is when the Edgefirst started.
2002 is technically when thefirst sales happened for the
Edge.
Um, I was still with IBIS at thetime.
I had um by the time in 2006,Paul King had sold back to Dick,
(17:56):
the company.
Uh he sold like our clients andour software rights.
Um at that point, we had alittle over a thousand customers
at IBIS.
Um, and my first year and a halfjob was to bring my customers
from the jeweler to the edge.
SPEAKER_03 (18:12):
Oh gosh.
SPEAKER_01 (18:13):
And in the first year and a half, I brought
roughly around 750 of mycustomers from IBIS to Edge.
Wow.
So that's the early days.
SPEAKER_03 (18:22):
And I one thing I've I've learned is that there's uh
no one here, obviously.
A lot of uh jewelers that uhwere using quite the archaic
system for inventory managementand looking at and like keeping
their books in like pencil andpencil and paper.
SPEAKER_01 (18:36):
So so again, I started back in '99 and there
are 98, sorry, there are acouple people in here that I've
known for quite a long time.
Yeah.
Um, I've known them for probablysince 99, 98.
Um, but when I started, when wewere selling jewelry stores, the
software, their inventorymanagement, and some of you guys
(19:00):
may know this, were green barbooks.
Oh yeah.
So they were these books thathad leather front and backs with
these big old pins on the end.
And that you'd unscrew them andyou flip the cover off and you
add more pages to it.
And they were massive 11 by 14pages with dark green and light
green lines with all columnsacross, and that's how they
(19:21):
would keep their inventory.
Oh my gosh.
When they sold something, theywould find the right line on the
green bar graph and they wouldcross it off and then put the
sale number and who sold it andwho it sold to, and that's how
they kept inventory.
Oh my gosh.
It was the craziest thing I'veseen of my life.
SPEAKER_03 (19:37):
So is that essentially what the edge was
designed to replace?
Or was it not really not likedesigned to be a replacement and
at all?
It was something entirelydifferent.
SPEAKER_01 (19:47):
So we're probably going a little further back to
Ibis days when we were replacinggreen bars.
Um when we first started, therewas not a lot of uh software out
there.
There was four main competitorsout there, and some of them were
$80,000 in 1999.
What?
Um big VAX systems with tapedrives and everything else, and
uh that was the one of the mainones.
(20:10):
And then there were two othersthat were similar to us.
Um so in that state, I would saywe were replacing all the hand
and paper.
When Edge came around, it was abetter technology, it was there
to replace the older versions ofjewelry store point of sale.
That being said, on average Ibring on 200 new clients a year.
Out of those 200 new clients,does anyone do you want to take
(20:32):
a guess how many don't havesoftware?
Oh maybe, maybe a third quarter?
Half?
Uh a little less than a half.
I would probably say about 40%of the stores that you still
bring on don't have any kind ofreal software behind.
And it's all manual kind ofthing?
Not so manual to me now, even isExcel spreadsheets.
Yeah.
(20:52):
Um so it could be physicallymanual where it's actually pen
and paper still, or it could beI have a spreadsheet where I
knock things off and that kindof thing.
But to me, that's not a softwareanymore.
Yeah.
So I mean we still have about40% that come on that don't have
any kind of uh software historyto them.
That's incredible.
SPEAKER_03 (21:10):
So like there's a whole support system as well.
So one of the things that kindof makes me laugh is that if you
call, if you call punch mark,you're going and you even if you
don't have a support, uh, youhave non-dedicated support,
that's what we call it, you'lleventually kind of find your way
through the phone tree and youcould talk to someone.
But the edge has a wholedifferent system where you get
(21:31):
these like uh it's almost likewishes with a genie.
Uh can you explain what like nono support is and what will come
through that?
SPEAKER_01 (21:38):
So we do have a serve support contract,
obviously.
That's what drives the edge.
Support is what builds ourdevelopment and everything else.
So when people are payingsupport, that's what's making us
get better.
Um you don't have to have asupport contract to use the
edge.
So if you buy the edge and youuse support for two years and
you say, you know what, I'm I'mhappy where I am.
You could be off support for awhile.
(21:59):
What happens if Something doescome up, we basically uh do the
three-strike rule.
So you have three times that youget to call me, and I'm gonna
help you out, and I'm gonna helpyou out as best as I can as long
as it doesn't involve an update.
If it involves an update, Ican't help you.
You gotta pay to get back on.
But we're gonna try and help youthrough those couple of steps.
But once you've reached thatthird mark, we're getting you
over and saying, okay, it's timeto get back onto support because
(22:20):
obviously you're not happy withwhere you are, and we need to
help you with that.
And we get you up to the newestcopy, and now we get you back on
support for a year.
But we we try as best we can tohelp everyone out and keep it
going.
But yeah, as you guys know, Iknow you do it and you don't,
you shouldn't be, but you can'trepair something forever.
(22:41):
If it keeps breaking the samespot, there's something wrong.
And if you sold it, you're gonnafix it by giving them a new
piece.
You're not gonna do the samerepair 8,000 times and lose that
money 8,000 times because youcan't.
You can't stay in business.
Same way with us.
We can't just keep supportingwithout having that background.
Because again, support, it's notsales that drives our business,
(23:03):
it's our support.
Support is what maintainseverything and keeps it going.
So we can only do a certainamount without having support.
SPEAKER_03 (23:10):
It's a really interesting kind of concept for
it where it's like the actualcommerce driver is is the
support system, but like the thesoftware is almost like the
medium for that, which is theactual product, though.
Correct.
What a cool way to like, becausefor us, I think that ours is the
product and the support is theperipheral kind of aspect of it.
(23:30):
So it's almost uh like a puttingit uh the other way around.
But what about is it is it hardsometimes?
Do people like get frustrated?
Like, no, no, I just need aquick question.
I just need like a really areally easy one.
SPEAKER_01 (23:42):
So so yes, of course, you're gonna get into
those kind of things.
Um that's where someone like megets involved.
Yeah.
Um, you know, I've I've I'veheard some fairly loud
conversations across the waybecause we are under one roof.
We're an open floor plan, so myoffice is right here, everyone
else is there, so I hear whensomething's happening, and I'll
literally just get up and walkout to the support floor and
(24:06):
I'll stand behind them listeningto see what I could hear, and
then I'll just say, I'll takethe phone.
Oh, that's great.
And then most of these peopleknow me.
They know I'm I'm a verystraightforward person.
I'm gonna help you if I can.
But if the support guy's tellingme this is the 15th time we've
called in the past three monthsand they haven't had support for
a year and a half, I'm gonnagive them that same story that I
(24:27):
just told you guys.
I can't do it.
I can't do it.
If I did it for you, I'd have todo it for everybody.
And the only way we can makeourselves better is by having
support.
And honestly, 88% of ourcustomers do support on a yearly
basis.
So we do something right andwe're constantly moving stuff
forward.
So there's not a reason to say,oh, I don't want to do this.
I see.
(24:47):
So that's kind of where I comein.
SPEAKER_03 (24:49):
So the one of the things that I have that made you
a white whale for me was itfeels like was there a conscious
decision by the Edge to developyou to be an asset for the
company?
Was there like a decision to belike because we need a face?
Well, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Well, so Dick was was one of thefaces, yep.
(25:10):
And Dick is now um older, andnow Mike is is very involved and
he's helping lead the uh he'sthere the main salesperson, I'm
assuming.
Yes, he's the main salesperson,yeah.
And then there's also this thisother guy that's employee number
four.
So what was that?
Was that a decision that you hada conversation with them about?
No.
SPEAKER_01 (25:28):
No, no, um, not at all.
Um again, it just happened thatI if it if you take anyone in my
company, I don't care who it is,head of development, all the way
down to the best support personto Dick Abbott, to anyone else,
if you ask them who knows themost about how the edge works,
runs, interacts, how it's done,it's me.
(25:51):
And it again, it is back to thedays of me running it working in
a store.
I've done this all this time.
I'm in stores teaching theseguys, I'm doing all of this.
So it just happened that whensomeone wanted someone to talk
about the edge, it ended upbeing me.
I'm shy, obviously, I don't liketo talk a lot, but um so it was
just a kind of a naturalprogression that whenever we
(26:13):
did, you know, it used to beDick all the time doing the
seminars, and I did my firstseminar, and Dick got the first
call saying, Oh God, Lenny'ssuch a great.
He's like, How come you didn'tcall when I did it last week?
And you're calling about Lenny.
So it just kind of turned intome talking a lot just because I
like to do it.
I I'm fairly engaging, I knowwhat I'm talking about, and I
(26:35):
can literally close my eyes andtell you everything about the
edge without anything there.
So it just kind of rolled intoit.
That everybody knows at theedge.
It literally, my name went fromLenny Prion to Lenny Edge.
Lenny from the Lenny from theEdge.
That's that's who I am.
If you ask anyone, do you knowLenny?
(26:56):
They're gonna say, Lenny Edge.
Absolutely.
That's how it is.
Yeah.
And that's just what it became.
And everybody knows it.
Uh Dick knows it.
He's like, they'd rather see youthan me now.
Um, and no, it wasn't ever aconscious decision.
SPEAKER_03 (27:09):
Yeah, it was just it's one of those things I I've
noticed in the in the industrythat these these some of these
companies do develop these.
Um, I don't want to call it likea figurehead, but more like like
the face of the company.
I think for a lot of us, I meanwe have our three three owners,
but they cycle who goes toshows.
But now we have Jason goes toall the shows and people knew
(27:31):
him, and he was the voice on theother end of the line for a lot
of people.
He was the only CS person thatwe had for many years.
Uh and I there's all thesevendors that I know as well.
You go to the shows, and it'slike, I don't even I assume that
they're like the CEO or like theVP or something.
It's like, no, they're just likethe sale guy.
And it's just like, oh, that'scrazy.
(27:51):
Um what about like so as we getinto this and we kind of bring
it home, I wanted to like whatare people using, like what's
like the actual main use casefor the edge?
And then what are people likesleeping on?
What is uh like the use casethat you think is actually the
value?
SPEAKER_01 (28:08):
So I mean the the real value of the edge is
getting the information out inthe end.
I mean, there's any a lot ofthings can collect your data and
just give you your numbers thatyou need to report to the taxes
and stuff like that.
But you can't do anythingwithout having that information
right first.
So I mean that is a big portionof it, getting your daily stuff
in there, inventory beingentered correctly, point of sale
happening, following thoserules, taking that money, making
(28:29):
sure you're collecting yourcustomer information.
That's all needed.
But really, where it comes intoplay, and we actually talked
about it at this seminar, isusing that information we now
have to make everything in ourlife easier.
So we talk about um CRM andfollowing up and this and that.
If you go to if I go to anystore and ask them what's the
(28:53):
one thing if you had time to dothat you would do more often, it
is always contact our customers,get a hold of our customers,
follow up with our customers.
It it we need the time, we don'talways have it.
There are certain things thoughthat if you're following the the
steps and you're putting all thedata in, there's things that the
edge can take off your plate anddo it for you in a nice way
(29:15):
where it's not just anautomatic.
So when we're talking about CRM,one of the simplest things to do
is follow up with the customerand saying, hey, how is that?
If it's a sale and things likethat, yeah, you might want to
talk about them a little bitmore and get a little involved
in it and try to get them backin for something else.
But when it's a repair, who'sgonna call every single repair
customer a week after they comein to say, hey, just check in on
(29:38):
that repair?
We'd love to.
We'd love to.
Yeah, but it's one of thoselower things on our totem full.
Well, if you're usingnotifications, text, email,
things like that, you can justtell the edge a week after a
job's picked up, follow up withthat customer by text or email,
however they decided, and say,hey, just check it in, want to
make sure everything's good.
Every single customer that doesit that uses one of those
(30:00):
notifications, he's gonna getthat message.
SPEAKER_02 (30:02):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (30:03):
We never have to think about it again.
And it's something that we wantto happen.
And yes, a lot of people want tocall and do this, but when it
comes to a repair, are you gonnacall every single person that
got a sizing done to say thankyou?
We'd love to, but it's just notgonna happen.
So letting the edge take thosekind of things over and just
automatically do it for you.
And then the other side whereit's bigger things where we do
(30:24):
want that voice to happen,instead of having the edge do it
automatically, making thatassociated task automatically,
once it happens, it says, Hey,don't forget to follow up with
that customer a week later.
So now I don't have to chase, Idon't have to go out and say,
what do I have to do today?
I click one button on mycalendar and everything that has
to happen is sitting there.
Those are the benefits that Ithink everyone's missing because
(30:45):
they get into the daily, I needto do this, I need to do this, I
need to do this, I need to dothis.
They're getting their numbersthat they need for the
accountant, for the taxes, foreverything else.
But taking that one, maybe,maybe, and I'm I'm being real
generous here, giving it a lotof time, taking that 20 minutes
to sit down once and set acouple of these things up,
(31:06):
you'll never have to think aboutit again.
It just happens.
Yeah, the amount of time savedby having that text or email go
out to every repair customer tosay, hey, just checking in, that
one person who left you whodidn't say anything when they
picked up that job, but theylooked at the piece and they
were not happy.
And now they're they're wearingit, and someone says, Oh, I uh
(31:29):
what I love that ring.
Yeah, I I went to the store andI went to have to do this.
I'm not not not that happy.
So they're just out there kindof not really digging on you,
but they're not happy.
Yeah, well, now they get thattext.
They're like, Well, you know,I'm not so happy with it.
You would never have known that.
They're not gonna call you.
(31:49):
It's not to that point where itwas something so horrible,
they're going to put a review,but they're not happy.
They're just kind of out therefestering a little bit.
But that text came out to them,or that email came out to them,
and they replied saying, Yeah,you know, I just keep getting
that prong stuck.
It's not, I'm just not happywith it.
Now you have a way of knowingthat and being able to go in and
say, come on in.
Yeah, let's let's get that done.
(32:10):
We we we want to know this,we'll get we'll make this
better.
Those are the kind of thingsthat, again, without your work,
you don't have to do anything.
And that happens.
So those are the kind of thingsthat I get excited about.
I get excited about the CRM, thefollow-up, the that kind of
stuff.
Obviously, ordering.
If you hit one button once aweek, it tells you everything
(32:32):
you need.
Your fast sellers, your belowreorders, your stuff that wasn't
old, but not it didn't, it itdidn't sell fast.
These are the places you need tofill your holes.
And by the way, these are allthe things that you were lucky
to sell because they're wellover uh a year old.
Take that money, put itsomewhere better.
And not only are we telling youto do that, we're telling you
the spots to put that money inthat are actually gonna do
something for your store basedon what you do.
(32:54):
So I mean, these are the thingsthat once you get past that
initial is how I put the stuffin, that's really where the the
the actual power of the edge is.
It's it's helping you do thethings that take a lot of time.
The comfort of it.
Yep.
SPEAKER_03 (33:09):
I so the edge is is the edge considered jewelry
specific?
Which would you say that?
So it's so it's have you everlike seen like weird, like a
fringe case of using the edge,whether it's like, hey, we use
it for like organizing, I don'tknow, like like call clubs or
something like that.
Lingerie store.
SPEAKER_01 (33:27):
Yeah.
Um really?
So I have three.
Three three three in the all thetime that I've been there.
We had a really good customerwhose wife decided she was gonna
open up a lingerie store.
Good for her.
She worked at the jewelry storeforever, never knew how to use
the edge.
And she called and asked if shecould have the edge, if she
could buy the edge for herlingerie store.
I was the one who answered thephone, and I'm like, um Let me
(33:49):
check.
Yes.
Yes.
I said, You do know likeeverything that's in there is
she's like, Yeah, I know that.
But I have the lists, I couldchange the lists to be what I
want them to be.
So instead of metal, I havelace, I have this, uh, and she's
going on and on.
My face is all bright redbecause she's talking about some
of these things that she'sputting in there, and I'm like,
oh.
(34:09):
I said, but yeah, if yep,absolutely, if you want to try
this.
And and she did.
She was in business for 10years, and she used the edge the
whole.
So that was one art gallery.
Oh, that's cool.
We actually have two or threeart galleries that use the edge.
A lot of overlap in there.
A lot of overlap.
So that that kind of made alittle bit more sense.
I said no to one.
SPEAKER_02 (34:30):
Oh, really?
SPEAKER_01 (34:32):
And I don't I don't know how they were ever thinking
this was going to work.
Same thing, jewelry store owner,I've known them forever.
And he's like, hey, my son isopening a store.
I'm like, oh, okay, great.
What you know, blah, blah, blah.
We started talking.
It was a deli.
A deli.
A deli.
I'm like, uh, no, no, that Ican't even think of a possible
way that you're gonna be able toconvert the edge into a deli
(34:56):
software.
I said, there's just gonna beway too much that they're gonna
have to ignore, they're gonnahave to change.
No, we can't do that.
Yeah, but lingerie and uh andart gallery, yes, we've done
those towns.
SPEAKER_03 (35:08):
Funny, because you know, uh probably a lot of
people don't know this, but likeso Punch Park is Julie specific.
We probably saw it.
But we do have uh we have one,we have one pizza shop, and uh
no one really knows.
We've they've been in business,they they don't have a service
plan, they've just been thereforever, and uh they they're out
in in New York uh out in Vegas,Vegas.
Yeah, in Las Vegas.
(35:29):
Shout out Joey's Pizza, yeah.
So it's so funny.
Uh you ever go in the back endof um all of our admin stuff,
and it's like, are they aretailer?
Are they a vendor?
Are they a marketer?
And there's one, it's a pizzashop.
It's in there in all of the dropdowns, and I always laugh about
that.
I always thought it was a bug,and it's not.
And then I met the guy, he'she's out there.
(35:49):
That's awesome.
Um Lynn, the one question Iwanted to ask, and this is a
personal question I wanted toask.
This is a hard one.
Okay.
Um I've always wanted to know, Ithink that there's a lot of
value in like uh a cloud-basedversion of these things.
Okay.
And because with e-commerce, weare cloud-based, and a lot of
(36:11):
our um our integration with youis reliant on having like the uh
the TPW, the transfer protocolW?
One of those ones.
Uh those it relies on therelationship with the machine
itself.
Correct.
Um, can you explain the edge'sdecision to be based off of a
(36:32):
machine, being local, as opposedto being cloud-based?
SPEAKER_01 (36:36):
Yes.
Um, so I'm gonna start off bysaying, yes, I can explain it,
and I'm going to explain it.
And then I'm gonna say, but I'malso changing my uh my pitch at
the end of it.
So again, we've always beenserver-based.
One of the biggest things aboutbeing server-based in the store
is there is nothing that cancause a speed issue unless your
(36:56):
network is down.
No outside force can slow youdown, no outside force can make
it so you can't find something.
There is nothing that can stopyou from having the edge in your
store when it's server-based.
Um does anyone in here want toguess for a jewelry store what's
the busiest time of year?
Holidays, obviously, right?
When is the absolute slowesttime for the internet in the
(37:20):
year?
The holiday season.
So if you're fully server-basedor fully cloud-based, you're
totally relying on outsideforces.
So when they're doing theirshopping and using the internet
the most, that's when yoursoftware is going to be the
slowest.
If your internet goes down andsomeone calls and says, hey, how
much do I owe you?
You don't know.
You have no idea.
You can't find anything.
(37:42):
There is also a limit on most ofthese programs for number of
records.
It's not number of records pertable, it's number of records.
So once you get to a certainpoint, there's not even an
option of saying, hey, I want tobuy more records.
You can't.
Yeah, you're done.
You have to stop there.
(38:02):
I found some things recentlythat in my head just boggle my
mind.
I have someone who's coming backfrom one of those.
So they they decided they neededcloud base.
And when I asked them why, theycouldn't tell me.
They couldn't give me an answerof why they need a cloud base.
They just needed it.
I was like, okay, fine.
They're coming back to us.
We're doing a conversion back,and they told me that they
(38:25):
needed the top 500 customersthat bought from this vendor.
I'm like, oh, okay.
They're like, they didn't have away of doing that.
They have 22 reports, and ifit's anything beyond that, we
have to send them something, andthey run it for us.
And they get it back within 24hours.
They don't add it to my softwarethough.
So if something's wrong, I gottasend it back again.
(38:46):
I'm like, you mean you getyou're stuck to 22 reports in
your system?
And they're like, yep, and if weneed another one, we have to
send it to them, and within 24hours we'll get an answer.
And if it's wrong, I gotta startover again.
Those are the kind of things inmy head that boggle my mind.
I mean, uh I get it in thebeginning when you write a
software, there's always gonnabe new things, and we're always
(39:06):
adding new things.
But there's certain things thatare pretty basic that I don't I
think if you don't have, there'sthere's a problem.
I see.
Um, but that being said, in thestage, yeah.
Uh so we are we're going hybrid.
Uh-huh.
So you will have an onlinedatabase that is accessible from
outside the edge.
Um so probably within sixmonths, our first versions of
(39:29):
that will be out there.
Wow.
Um, the first versions are justreally going to be for backup
and things like that.
So automatic backups willhappen.
You'll never have to worry aboutanything happening.
It'll be on our redundantservers and everything else like
that.
Um, once we have that out and uplike that, the next steps will
be getting access to things.
So probably first quarter ofnext year, all of that fun CRM
(39:52):
stuff that you always want toknow when you're standing with a
customer in the middle of a galaevent and they're like, hey,
remember that thing I bought?
Well, now you'll just be able togo in.
Anything that has an internetconnection, let me look it up.
Hold on.
Oh, yeah, that's the thingyou're talking about.
You'll be able to see theiraccount, their activity, all
that kind of stuff will be atyour fingertips no matter where
you are.
That your store database isstill gonna be the main one.
(40:14):
That's the one that's going tobe the controller.
So if there's something that'sdifferent between here and here,
it's good, this one's gonna win.
But if there is no internetconnection, you can still read
all that stuff that's up online.
You just won't be able to makechanges.
So you will have access outside,and eventually you'll have
almost all access from whereveryou are.
First part's gonna be that CRMstuff.
Next part's gonna be when you'reout of show.
(40:34):
If you want to look upinventory, if you want to see
what's selling, what's old,what's new.
So when you're sitting with avendor, you have all that
information in front of youversus having it reports.
So all of that stuff willeventually work its way down the
line.
But again, that first one isprobably gonna be the CRM.
And it's not even CRM outside.
You could be standing with acustomer in your store at this
case, and they say, I want toadd that to my wish list.
(40:55):
Just be able to open up yourphone, click on their customer
and scan and scan that barcodeand say, Okay, it's on your wish
list.
It's done.
So that's where we're movingtowards that.
So we will always be serverfirst, but when we move to
hybrid, you'll have access toall of that stuff from outside.
Wow, that's really exciting.
I think that is kind of the bestof both words in my in my
opinion.
SPEAKER_03 (41:14):
Yeah, for sure.
Now, Lenny, where if peoplewanted to learn, you know, learn
more or maybe give the edge atry or um maybe ask some
questions for free.
Um, where would they go and howwould they get in contact with
you?
SPEAKER_01 (41:28):
Quickest, easiest way to find us is the
edgeforjewelers.com.
Edgeforjewers.com brings you ourwebsite that this wonderful
company hosts for us.
Um their name is Punchmark, justin case you're wondering.
Um, and all of our contactinformation is there.
You can set up a demo online.
Um there's actually some videosand some core stuff up there,
but all of our contactinformation is there.
We're always willing to answerquestions to walk you through
(41:49):
stuff, but that's the easiestplace to space.
SPEAKER_03 (41:51):
That was the first website I one of the first
websites I ever designed.
I was very proud of it.
Look at that.
Yep.
So thank you so much, Lenny.
Everybody, Lenny from the Edge.
Thank you.
(42:20):
And if you haven't already, gocheck out the Edge for Jewelers.
They're fantastic, and I highlyrecommend them.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, Michael Burpo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Ross
Cocker.
Don't forget to rate the podcaston Spotify and Apple Podcasts,
and leave us feedback onpunchmark.com slash lead.
(42:42):
That's L-O-U-P-E.
We'll be back next week,Tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers.
Bye.
Welcome back everybody to In the Loop.
What is up everybody?
My name is Michael Burpo.
Thanks again for listening to Inthe Loop.
And this week, man, we got one.
It's one of my white whales.
It's Lenny from the Edge.
And if you don't know LennyBrian, uh, you probably already
(00:21):
do, you just don't know thatit's him.
He is the uh one of the faces ofthe Edge point of sale system.
He's been with them since thevery beginning, and I got a
chance to interview him live atthe Punchmark Client Workshop in
Charlotte, North Carolina.
This was a really coolconversation because there are
few people who uh are not adirect owner or founder of a
(00:43):
company or as ubiquitously knownuh for that company like Letty.
Uh he is definitely someone whoI admire for the industry.
He has a wonderful presence, andpeople absolutely adore him.
He's the director of educationand operations at uh The Edge,
and he talks about how the pointof sale system has kind of
(01:03):
molded and adapted uh over theyears, and what he's learned
from working as a retailer atone point, and how he carries
that into his day-to-day ofeducating retailers.
It really is one of my favoriteconversations.
He's fantastic on the mic, andreally is one of those people
who I feel like is driving theindustry forward, and people
(01:24):
look to for uh you know a lot ofleadership, whether they have
him as an account manager ornot.
All that to be said, pleaseenjoy my conversation with Lenny
from the Edge.
SPEAKER_00 (01:36):
This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the
jewelry industry's favoritewebsite platform and digital
growth agency.
Our mission reaches way beyondtechnology.
With decades of experience andlong-lasting industry
relationships, Punchmark enablesjewelry businesses to flourish
in any marketplace.
We consider our clients ourfriends, as many of them have
(01:56):
been friends way before becomingclients.
Punchmark's own success comesfrom the fact that we have a
much deeper need and obligationto help our friends succeed.
Whether you're looking forbetter e-commerce performance,
business growth, or campaignsthat drive traffic and sales,
Punchmark's website andmarketing services were made
just for you.
It's never too late to transformyour business and stitch
(02:18):
together your digital andphysical worlds in a way that
achieves tremendous growth andresults.
Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmark.com slash go.
And now back to the show.
SPEAKER_03 (02:36):
Alright, everybody.
So we're gonna do our secondone.
And this one, I made a joke,it's at the very beginning of my
first episode of this season.
We're in season seven.
So my first episode, I actuallystarted the episode of with this
year, I'm going white whalehunting.
And what I mean by that is I'mfinding all the people I've
always wanted to interview thathave not yet said yes, and I'm
(02:59):
going to get them to come on thepodcast.
So this is my first white whale.
I'm very excited.
You all already know it's Lennyfrom the edge.
How are you guys?
So what's funny is you end up ifyou're in the industry long
enough, you kind of build this,like your last name just becomes
from the company that you'rewith.
So we have Jason from Punchmarkand we have Lenny from the Edge.
(03:20):
Um when you introduce yourself,how do you do it?
I am Lenny from the Edge.
There you go.
SPEAKER_01 (03:27):
That's literally what it is.
Um that's how most people knowwho I am.
SPEAKER_03 (03:31):
Yeah.
And the edge is um, I was sayingit's a bigger word than I
normally use, but it's prettyubiquitous with the uh with the
Julie industry.
Um, what's like the overall likeelevator pitch for the edge
right now?
SPEAKER_01 (03:43):
So we've been around a long time.
Um the edge itself has beenaround since 2000, so we're 26
years there.
But even before that, Dickstarted his original software
back in 87.
Wow.
So we've been doing this a very,very long time.
So our biggest thing is not onlydo we do everything that a store
needs to run, but we know whoyou guys are.
(04:04):
We've been in the industry, andwe have the the biggest team
there to help you.
There's 50 of us sitting underour roof that are there, and
most of them are in support andtraining.
So we're there to do that.
And we're also, there's not asingle other person in this
space that you're gonna talk tothat actually has a training
department, that actually hassomeone that teaches you how to
(04:25):
do this.
Yes, they get on and they'll tryto get you through things, but
we actually have a trainingdepartment.
That's what their whole job is.
So for us, it's always been theservice behind it, and and we're
always just looking to push thisindustry further forward and
help them because the more wehelp you guys and and get you to
the points that you should beat, the better off we don't.
So it's all comes back at thatway.
(04:47):
So you're the director ofeducation.
SPEAKER_03 (04:49):
Director of education and operations.
In operations.
So when it comes to theeducation aspect, I'm sure that
there is a business mind to itwhere a well-educated client is
uh is a high retention client,someone that comes through.
Do you find that if you areeducating these clients, it's
also improving their business,or do you find that POS systems
in like the success of abusiness are more or less
(05:11):
independent?
SPEAKER_01 (05:12):
So it depends.
Um, in my situation and oursoftware, yes, if you know how
to use my software, yourbusiness is gonna be 100%
better.
Because we're not just a pointof sale system, we're not just
there keeping track of what'shappening so you can pull those
numbers and figure things out.
We have a whole reporting systembuilt behind it.
We have all your weekly andmonthly reorderings built in.
(05:34):
If you follow those steps thatare using your numbers and
what's happening in your store,and you just follow that lead
and do what it's suggesting thatyou do, you can't get worse.
You could only get better.
Yeah.
So if you know how to use theedge and you know what these
numbers mean and you know wherethese reports are, there is no
way you can't do better in yourbusiness.
(05:55):
So, yeah, so for our purposesand what we do, it's more of a
management software than just apoint of sales software.
Yeah.
And if you do that daily stuffand you take care of your things
and you're putting your data incorrectly, it's easy enough to
hit a button every week thatsays, this is what we need to
do.
This is our buying plan for nextweek, and it's all based on what
just happened.
Yeah.
So, you know, everyone that'sbeen here has been talking about
(06:17):
trends and fast sellers and howthings are moving.
We are a fashion industry,whether we want to believe that
or not, things change.
So the best thing to do is lookat what happened last week to
figure out what we should bedoing this week and moving
forward.
So, and again, if you're justdoing your normal stuff and
getting your data in there andjust following along with that,
(06:38):
hitting those buttons takes eh15, 20 minutes a uh a week, and
all of your reorders for thatfollowing week come in and
they're better than they werelast week.
Yeah.
So you're always improving.
SPEAKER_03 (06:49):
I always I always joke about there's these uh like
real like um terms that peoplejust say all the time, they beat
them to death.
And you one of the ones I alwaysbring up actually came from you,
which is order your fastsellers, reorder your fast
sellers, and then the other oneis get rid of your aged
inventory.
And I think that the edgeactually speaks to both of them.
SPEAKER_01 (07:09):
Yeah, so not only do we have that weekly reordering
and and and continually showingyou what you should do, but part
of our monthly is helping youreduce that old inventory.
So old inventory, it's the vein.
Everybody knows that.
We don't need to beat that overthe head.
What's considered old?
Depends on your store.
Um, every store's a littledifferent.
I mean, if you wanted if youwanted me to, if if I was to
(07:30):
give you a general number, Iwould probably say 365.
That's that's when we're gonnacall that number and go forward.
Even in a single store, there'sgonna be categories of things
that age quicker and age slower.
So if you have a very fashionforward silver line, that should
never reach 365.
(07:51):
Yeah.
Because it's changing, it'smoving, and they are always
adding new things that are goingto be changing with the fashion.
So those things age quicker.
Something staple, diamond studs,diamond hoops, they may last a
little longer because the justof what they are.
So it it's really based on thestore, what type of store it is.
Destination stores are differentthan uh tourist stores and
(08:12):
things like that.
So everyone's got a little bitof a different thing.
And it's as you start to usethese things and see them, and
you start looking at your returnon investment and looking at
your reports and seeing wherethings are, that's gonna help
you learn where your age falls.
So just following those thosereports and watching them,
they're they're basically youruh testing points of what is
(08:33):
old.
Because once once you'restarting to lose your return on
investment, that's the age forthat thing.
And again, if it's a fashionthing, you may say that your
return on investment startsgoing lower after 10 months.
Yeah.
Well, that's your age mark.
We want to get it out by 10months, and if not, we want to
do something to get it and getsomething else in there that
fits.
So it's really, really personalto that store.
(08:53):
So it's really kind ofinteresting.
SPEAKER_03 (08:55):
You're talking about these reports, and there's so
many reports and so much dataand so much information that can
come out of the edge that you'vealready even there's another
company that literally doesexactly that with the Edge
Retail Academy.
I just had on um Becca JohnsonKibbe.
She's amazing.
Like she's the new CEO and she'sfantastic, uh, a big fan of
hers.
(09:15):
And it sounds where do you drawthe line with like what their
territory is, if you will, andwhat is needs to be like an in
the box set of data and reportsthat need to come out as opposed
to what might need to be addedon and from uh you know add-on.
SPEAKER_01 (09:31):
So they don't they don't change anything.
They don't change anything.
Um what Edge Retail Academy doesas our sister company is they
teach you how to use theinformation from the edge
reports to actually manage yourstory where these things should
happen.
So when they see that you haveold inventory, instead of just
being the edge saying, hey,these are things that we could
do, they're gonna see that, ohcrap, you have 853 pieces that
(09:55):
are over 540 days old.
I see.
So we're not even at a year,we're at 18 months, and there's
so many things.
They're gonna give youstrategies of working that down
because the edge, we can helpstop things from becoming old.
We can warn you when things aregetting to this point, we can
tell you you need to dosomething, but that's from the
beginning.
Once you have 60% of yourinventory at age, there's not a
(10:18):
lot I can tell you this is thisis all age, but I don't that the
edge itself can't say hit thesethings first.
So that's where you need someonelike Edge Retail Academy to come
in and say, okay, these are ourgoals right now.
Let's work on getting some ofthis stuff here taken down.
But now from this point on, forall new stuff that's getting
entered, let's use the edge tostop accumulating the old
(10:40):
inventory.
And that's where the edge comesto play.
We can help stop it.
We just can't do something onceit's already there.
I see.
Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_03 (10:46):
Yeah, I think so.
But it sounds like, I mean, youyou were just talking about like
the archetypes of jewelrystores.
And one of the things I'vegetting a jewelry to fill out a
survey is really difficult,unfortunately.
And I've always wanted to uhbreak down, we we talk about
personas in user experiencewhere we actually have personas
for our our clients, and uhwhether we share them publicly
(11:07):
or not, it's like we have peoplethat are relying on custom
jewelry, and we have people thatare relying on e-commerce or our
luxury or that kind of thing.
But what's you guys probablyhave something where you can you
were just talking about adestination store versus a
probably someone in a strip mallversus in something else.
Uh you have a background inworking in a store.
Yes.
Uh what kind of store were youworking in and what was that
(11:29):
like?
SPEAKER_01 (11:29):
So I worked in uh more of a uh a smaller downtown
regional store.
So um been doing this 28 years.
Um when I first got into it, Iwas actually a computer person.
I I that's what I went into theindustry.
I I went into computer science.
I was hired originally back atIBIS, which was Dick's first
(11:50):
company, um, as tech support.
So I started working there andliterally just jumped on the
phones.
I was the fourth person in thecompany um and just started
answering questions.
But my first call ever, I'llnever forget it.
Uh, she was a sweetheart.
I answered the phone.
She's like, did I call the rightnumber?
Because it's been the sameperson.
It was one person in techsupport.
(12:11):
They answered the phone everysingle time.
Now there's this new voicethat's there.
So I said, Yeah, yeah, you did.
I'm brand new.
She's like, Oh, that's great.
She's like, um, okay, so I can'tfigure out where to put the
culet.
And I'm like, Okay, yeah, Icould probably help you with
that.
Um, what's a culet?
And where does it belong?
Because I have no idea about thejewelry industry.
So she was sweet, she laughedwith me.
(12:31):
Uh, she explained what it was.
She's like, He's a little pointat the bottom of the diamond.
I said, Oh, so it should be inthe inventory in some kind of
details there.
She's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And hopefully she doesn't hearthis, but all I did was we were
DOS at that point.
But if you looked at the programand you just followed the
directions, it said go to twofor inventory, one for items.
And when you got to the item,there's literally a little bar
(12:52):
at the bottom that said press F7for stone details that would pop
up and it wasn't there.
She's like, Yeah, that's where Iwent, it's not there.
But if you looked at the bottomagain, it said press F10 for
more details, and I said pressF10.
She's like, Oh my god, you getyou're amazing.
SPEAKER_03 (13:04):
And the rest is history.
SPEAKER_01 (13:06):
That was it.
All I did was read the screens.
Nice.
So that's a long way to see.
I I didn't know a lot aboutjewelry at all.
So I asked more questions inthat first year than probably
they asked me.
But what I decided was that Ireally wanted to understand
what's happening.
SPEAKER_02 (13:24):
Wow.
SPEAKER_01 (13:25):
Um, we had a new customer that had come up that
was not far from where ouroffice was.
And we were on the phone, wewere talking about tag printers
and tags, and uh she's like,Yeah, I'm looking for holiday
help.
So this was probably end ofAugust, beginning of September.
I'm like, Oh, really?
And uh and she said, Yeah.
And I said, Well, you know, I'dI'd really actually be
interested in that because I'vebeen trying to figure out what
(13:48):
you guys do on a daily basis andunderstanding what half of these
words are that you're talking tome about that I don't know.
And she's like, Yeah,definitely.
So in August of '99, I went infor holiday help.
And uh I gave my notice inOctober of 2007.
Wow.
That uh I was just working waytoo much and uh three kids at
(14:11):
that point, and I had 12 daysoff that year.
I'm like, yeah, I really need tolet something go.
And obviously, I worked at theedge the whole time too, so I
wasn't letting that go.
But uh, so my last uh my lastday of work was actually
Christmas of uh 2007.
Wow.
So I ended up working at thatstore for eight years.
Were they an edge client?
(14:32):
Yeah, absolutely.
That's actually how that's how Igot to know them.
Wow, it was when we were on thephone.
Actually, it was it would havebeen an IDIS client at that
point, it was early enough.
Um, and then it switched over.
But um, but yeah, so I I got touse the software.
I was uh salesperson, I wasinventory, I learned how to use
a laser welder, so I did thesimple solders and things like
(14:52):
that.
I obviously changed watchbatteries, even though I would
never ever want to do that everagain.
Um but yeah, so I mean I learnedevery all aspects of the store
and did pretty much everythingin there.
SPEAKER_03 (15:03):
Man, so do you think that I I've always like toyed
with the idea of like, should Igo into like a store and see if
I can do like a crash course foruh the thing is for me to do it,
it would cost the store money,uh you know, and very much so in
the short term.
And would I like be able to goin and like work for like a
month or something like that,make a whole series on it?
(15:24):
Do you find that a lot of thetech people in um jewelry have
come from other places and evenum a lot of the the jewelry tech
people as well came from vendorsand like they've uh made the
transition.
Do you think that like if morepeople had retail store
experiences that they would uhJulian issue would be like, you
know, more well-rounded?
(15:44):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (15:45):
Um all of my guys that I bring out as trainers, I
try to get them to go visit atleast one of my local stores.
SPEAKER_03 (15:55):
Oh, really?
SPEAKER_01 (15:55):
Yeah.
Um it's I have a couple storesthat I know really, really well
in Connecticut, and I willliterally just send them down
and they'll just they'll justsit behind the counter and watch
what they do and listen to whatthey say.
There is no better way tounderstand what our customers
need than to be in their shoesfor a day.
SPEAKER_02 (16:16):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (16:17):
Um, I try to push that knowledge on because again,
I worked in a store for eightyears.
I actually still have manyfriends where if I'm in their
town and something crazy isgoing on, I'll work the store
for a day.
SPEAKER_02 (16:27):
Wow.
SPEAKER_01 (16:27):
You know, they'll have a crazy event, a grand
opening, they're like, hey, yougonna be around?
I'm like, actually, I would loveto come to your grand opening.
Oh, that's so good.
And not only do I go to thegrand opening, I'm like, uh,
here's a set of keys, go havefun.
I'm like, uh, sure, I didn'tknow I was coming to work, but I
I actually do, I I I really missworking in the stores, so I
enjoy when I get to do that.
Yeah, it's a lot of fun.
So what was like you've beenwhat was it called?
(16:49):
Ibis?
Ibis.
So our our our company was Ibis,and our software was the
jeweler.
The jeweler, okay.
So what's the what was the maindifferences that prompted the
edge?
So so there was partners.
Um so when I started with Ibis,uh Dick and Paul King were
partners, and Dick was the themain salesperson and driver to
(17:10):
gab it, was the driver of the ofthe software.
Paul King was doing the writing.
Um and we were doing we wentfrom DOS to Windows, um, we we
brought up a new Windowsprogram.
But as it got further andfurther, they just their their
thoughts were in different ways.
Paul was kind of stuck in hisway, and Dick was always trying
to think of what the next bestthing is going to be.
So they split in 2000.
(17:32):
Um, and that's actually whereDick got uh partnered with Joe
Shapiro and then started writingthe Edge software.
So in 2000 is when the Edgefirst started.
2002 is technically when thefirst sales happened for the
Edge.
Um, I was still with IBIS at thetime.
I had um by the time in 2006,Paul King had sold back to Dick,
(17:56):
the company.
Uh he sold like our clients andour software rights.
Um at that point, we had alittle over a thousand customers
at IBIS.
Um, and my first year and a halfjob was to bring my customers
from the jeweler to the edge.
SPEAKER_03 (18:12):
Oh gosh.
SPEAKER_01 (18:13):
And in the first year and a half, I brought
roughly around 750 of mycustomers from IBIS to Edge.
Wow.
So that's the early days.
SPEAKER_03 (18:22):
And I one thing I've I've learned is that there's uh
no one here, obviously.
A lot of uh jewelers that uhwere using quite the archaic
system for inventory managementand looking at and like keeping
their books in like pencil andpencil and paper.
SPEAKER_01 (18:36):
So so again, I started back in '99 and there
are 98, sorry, there are acouple people in here that I've
known for quite a long time.
Yeah.
Um, I've known them for probablysince 99, 98.
Um, but when I started, when wewere selling jewelry stores, the
software, their inventorymanagement, and some of you guys
(19:00):
may know this, were green barbooks.
Oh yeah.
So they were these books thathad leather front and backs with
these big old pins on the end.
And that you'd unscrew them andyou flip the cover off and you
add more pages to it.
And they were massive 11 by 14pages with dark green and light
green lines with all columnsacross, and that's how they
(19:21):
would keep their inventory.
Oh my gosh.
When they sold something, theywould find the right line on the
green bar graph and they wouldcross it off and then put the
sale number and who sold it andwho it sold to, and that's how
they kept inventory.
Oh my gosh.
It was the craziest thing I'veseen of my life.
SPEAKER_03 (19:37):
So is that essentially what the edge was
designed to replace?
Or was it not really not likedesigned to be a replacement and
at all?
It was something entirelydifferent.
SPEAKER_01 (19:47):
So we're probably going a little further back to
Ibis days when we were replacinggreen bars.
Um when we first started, therewas not a lot of uh software out
there.
There was four main competitorsout there, and some of them were
$80,000 in 1999.
What?
Um big VAX systems with tapedrives and everything else, and
uh that was the one of the mainones.
(20:10):
And then there were two othersthat were similar to us.
Um so in that state, I would saywe were replacing all the hand
and paper.
When Edge came around, it was abetter technology, it was there
to replace the older versions ofjewelry store point of sale.
That being said, on average Ibring on 200 new clients a year.
Out of those 200 new clients,does anyone do you want to take
(20:32):
a guess how many don't havesoftware?
Oh maybe, maybe a third quarter?
Half?
Uh a little less than a half.
I would probably say about 40%of the stores that you still
bring on don't have any kind ofreal software behind.
And it's all manual kind ofthing?
Not so manual to me now, even isExcel spreadsheets.
Yeah.
(20:52):
Um so it could be physicallymanual where it's actually pen
and paper still, or it could beI have a spreadsheet where I
knock things off and that kindof thing.
But to me, that's not a softwareanymore.
Yeah.
So I mean we still have about40% that come on that don't have
any kind of uh software historyto them.
That's incredible.
SPEAKER_03 (21:10):
So like there's a whole support system as well.
So one of the things that kindof makes me laugh is that if you
call, if you call punch mark,you're going and you even if you
don't have a support, uh, youhave non-dedicated support,
that's what we call it, you'lleventually kind of find your way
through the phone tree and youcould talk to someone.
But the edge has a wholedifferent system where you get
(21:31):
these like uh it's almost likewishes with a genie.
Uh can you explain what like nono support is and what will come
through that?
SPEAKER_01 (21:38):
So we do have a serve support contract,
obviously.
That's what drives the edge.
Support is what builds ourdevelopment and everything else.
So when people are payingsupport, that's what's making us
get better.
Um you don't have to have asupport contract to use the
edge.
So if you buy the edge and youuse support for two years and
you say, you know what, I'm I'mhappy where I am.
You could be off support for awhile.
(21:59):
What happens if Something doescome up, we basically uh do the
three-strike rule.
So you have three times that youget to call me, and I'm gonna
help you out, and I'm gonna helpyou out as best as I can as long
as it doesn't involve an update.
If it involves an update, Ican't help you.
You gotta pay to get back on.
But we're gonna try and help youthrough those couple of steps.
But once you've reached thatthird mark, we're getting you
over and saying, okay, it's timeto get back onto support because
(22:20):
obviously you're not happy withwhere you are, and we need to
help you with that.
And we get you up to the newestcopy, and now we get you back on
support for a year.
But we we try as best we can tohelp everyone out and keep it
going.
But yeah, as you guys know, Iknow you do it and you don't,
you shouldn't be, but you can'trepair something forever.
(22:41):
If it keeps breaking the samespot, there's something wrong.
And if you sold it, you're gonnafix it by giving them a new
piece.
You're not gonna do the samerepair 8,000 times and lose that
money 8,000 times because youcan't.
You can't stay in business.
Same way with us.
We can't just keep supportingwithout having that background.
Because again, support, it's notsales that drives our business,
(23:03):
it's our support.
Support is what maintainseverything and keeps it going.
So we can only do a certainamount without having support.
SPEAKER_03 (23:10):
It's a really interesting kind of concept for
it where it's like the actualcommerce driver is is the
support system, but like the thesoftware is almost like the
medium for that, which is theactual product, though.
Correct.
What a cool way to like, becausefor us, I think that ours is the
product and the support is theperipheral kind of aspect of it.
(23:30):
So it's almost uh like a puttingit uh the other way around.
But what about is it is it hardsometimes?
Do people like get frustrated?
Like, no, no, I just need aquick question.
I just need like a really areally easy one.
SPEAKER_01 (23:42):
So so yes, of course, you're gonna get into
those kind of things.
Um that's where someone like megets involved.
Yeah.
Um, you know, I've I've I'veheard some fairly loud
conversations across the waybecause we are under one roof.
We're an open floor plan, so myoffice is right here, everyone
else is there, so I hear whensomething's happening, and I'll
literally just get up and walkout to the support floor and
(24:06):
I'll stand behind them listeningto see what I could hear, and
then I'll just say, I'll takethe phone.
Oh, that's great.
And then most of these peopleknow me.
They know I'm I'm a verystraightforward person.
I'm gonna help you if I can.
But if the support guy's tellingme this is the 15th time we've
called in the past three monthsand they haven't had support for
a year and a half, I'm gonnagive them that same story that I
(24:27):
just told you guys.
I can't do it.
I can't do it.
If I did it for you, I'd have todo it for everybody.
And the only way we can makeourselves better is by having
support.
And honestly, 88% of ourcustomers do support on a yearly
basis.
So we do something right andwe're constantly moving stuff
forward.
So there's not a reason to say,oh, I don't want to do this.
I see.
(24:47):
So that's kind of where I comein.
SPEAKER_03 (24:49):
So the one of the things that I have that made you
a white whale for me was itfeels like was there a conscious
decision by the Edge to developyou to be an asset for the
company?
Was there like a decision to belike because we need a face?
Well, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Well, so Dick was was one of thefaces, yep.
(25:10):
And Dick is now um older, andnow Mike is is very involved and
he's helping lead the uh he'sthere the main salesperson, I'm
assuming.
Yes, he's the main salesperson,yeah.
And then there's also this thisother guy that's employee number
four.
So what was that?
Was that a decision that you hada conversation with them about?
No.
SPEAKER_01 (25:28):
No, no, um, not at all.
Um again, it just happened thatI if it if you take anyone in my
company, I don't care who it is,head of development, all the way
down to the best support personto Dick Abbott, to anyone else,
if you ask them who knows themost about how the edge works,
runs, interacts, how it's done,it's me.
(25:51):
And it again, it is back to thedays of me running it working in
a store.
I've done this all this time.
I'm in stores teaching theseguys, I'm doing all of this.
So it just happened that whensomeone wanted someone to talk
about the edge, it ended upbeing me.
I'm shy, obviously, I don't liketo talk a lot, but um so it was
just a kind of a naturalprogression that whenever we
(26:13):
did, you know, it used to beDick all the time doing the
seminars, and I did my firstseminar, and Dick got the first
call saying, Oh God, Lenny'ssuch a great.
He's like, How come you didn'tcall when I did it last week?
And you're calling about Lenny.
So it just kind of turned intome talking a lot just because I
like to do it.
I I'm fairly engaging, I knowwhat I'm talking about, and I
(26:35):
can literally close my eyes andtell you everything about the
edge without anything there.
So it just kind of rolled intoit.
That everybody knows at theedge.
It literally, my name went fromLenny Prion to Lenny Edge.
Lenny from the Lenny from theEdge.
That's that's who I am.
If you ask anyone, do you knowLenny?
(26:56):
They're gonna say, Lenny Edge.
Absolutely.
That's how it is.
Yeah.
And that's just what it became.
And everybody knows it.
Uh Dick knows it.
He's like, they'd rather see youthan me now.
Um, and no, it wasn't ever aconscious decision.
SPEAKER_03 (27:09):
Yeah, it was just it's one of those things I I've
noticed in the in the industrythat these these some of these
companies do develop these.
Um, I don't want to call it likea figurehead, but more like like
the face of the company.
I think for a lot of us, I meanwe have our three three owners,
but they cycle who goes toshows.
But now we have Jason goes toall the shows and people knew
(27:31):
him, and he was the voice on theother end of the line for a lot
of people.
He was the only CS person thatwe had for many years.
Uh and I there's all thesevendors that I know as well.
You go to the shows, and it'slike, I don't even I assume that
they're like the CEO or like theVP or something.
It's like, no, they're just likethe sale guy.
And it's just like, oh, that'scrazy.
(27:51):
Um what about like so as we getinto this and we kind of bring
it home, I wanted to like whatare people using, like what's
like the actual main use casefor the edge?
And then what are people likesleeping on?
What is uh like the use casethat you think is actually the
value?
SPEAKER_01 (28:08):
So I mean the the real value of the edge is
getting the information out inthe end.
I mean, there's any a lot ofthings can collect your data and
just give you your numbers thatyou need to report to the taxes
and stuff like that.
But you can't do anythingwithout having that information
right first.
So I mean that is a big portionof it, getting your daily stuff
in there, inventory beingentered correctly, point of sale
happening, following thoserules, taking that money, making
(28:29):
sure you're collecting yourcustomer information.
That's all needed.
But really, where it comes intoplay, and we actually talked
about it at this seminar, isusing that information we now
have to make everything in ourlife easier.
So we talk about um CRM andfollowing up and this and that.
If you go to if I go to anystore and ask them what's the
(28:53):
one thing if you had time to dothat you would do more often, it
is always contact our customers,get a hold of our customers,
follow up with our customers.
It it we need the time, we don'talways have it.
There are certain things thoughthat if you're following the the
steps and you're putting all thedata in, there's things that the
edge can take off your plate anddo it for you in a nice way
(29:15):
where it's not just anautomatic.
So when we're talking about CRM,one of the simplest things to do
is follow up with the customerand saying, hey, how is that?
If it's a sale and things likethat, yeah, you might want to
talk about them a little bitmore and get a little involved
in it and try to get them backin for something else.
But when it's a repair, who'sgonna call every single repair
customer a week after they comein to say, hey, just check in on
(29:38):
that repair?
We'd love to.
We'd love to.
Yeah, but it's one of thoselower things on our totem full.
Well, if you're usingnotifications, text, email,
things like that, you can justtell the edge a week after a
job's picked up, follow up withthat customer by text or email,
however they decided, and say,hey, just check it in, want to
make sure everything's good.
Every single customer that doesit that uses one of those
(30:00):
notifications, he's gonna getthat message.
SPEAKER_02 (30:02):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (30:03):
We never have to think about it again.
And it's something that we wantto happen.
And yes, a lot of people want tocall and do this, but when it
comes to a repair, are you gonnacall every single person that
got a sizing done to say thankyou?
We'd love to, but it's just notgonna happen.
So letting the edge take thosekind of things over and just
automatically do it for you.
And then the other side whereit's bigger things where we do
(30:24):
want that voice to happen,instead of having the edge do it
automatically, making thatassociated task automatically,
once it happens, it says, Hey,don't forget to follow up with
that customer a week later.
So now I don't have to chase, Idon't have to go out and say,
what do I have to do today?
I click one button on mycalendar and everything that has
to happen is sitting there.
Those are the benefits that Ithink everyone's missing because
(30:45):
they get into the daily, I needto do this, I need to do this, I
need to do this, I need to dothis.
They're getting their numbersthat they need for the
accountant, for the taxes, foreverything else.
But taking that one, maybe,maybe, and I'm I'm being real
generous here, giving it a lotof time, taking that 20 minutes
to sit down once and set acouple of these things up,
(31:06):
you'll never have to think aboutit again.
It just happens.
Yeah, the amount of time savedby having that text or email go
out to every repair customer tosay, hey, just checking in, that
one person who left you whodidn't say anything when they
picked up that job, but theylooked at the piece and they
were not happy.
And now they're they're wearingit, and someone says, Oh, I uh
(31:29):
what I love that ring.
Yeah, I I went to the store andI went to have to do this.
I'm not not not that happy.
So they're just out there kindof not really digging on you,
but they're not happy.
Yeah, well, now they get thattext.
They're like, Well, you know,I'm not so happy with it.
You would never have known that.
They're not gonna call you.
(31:49):
It's not to that point where itwas something so horrible,
they're going to put a review,but they're not happy.
They're just kind of out therefestering a little bit.
But that text came out to them,or that email came out to them,
and they replied saying, Yeah,you know, I just keep getting
that prong stuck.
It's not, I'm just not happywith it.
Now you have a way of knowingthat and being able to go in and
say, come on in.
Yeah, let's let's get that done.
(32:10):
We we we want to know this,we'll get we'll make this
better.
Those are the kind of thingsthat, again, without your work,
you don't have to do anything.
And that happens.
So those are the kind of thingsthat I get excited about.
I get excited about the CRM, thefollow-up, the that kind of
stuff.
Obviously, ordering.
If you hit one button once aweek, it tells you everything
(32:32):
you need.
Your fast sellers, your belowreorders, your stuff that wasn't
old, but not it didn't, it itdidn't sell fast.
These are the places you need tofill your holes.
And by the way, these are allthe things that you were lucky
to sell because they're wellover uh a year old.
Take that money, put itsomewhere better.
And not only are we telling youto do that, we're telling you
the spots to put that money inthat are actually gonna do
something for your store basedon what you do.
(32:54):
So I mean, these are the thingsthat once you get past that
initial is how I put the stuffin, that's really where the the
the actual power of the edge is.
It's it's helping you do thethings that take a lot of time.
The comfort of it.
Yep.
SPEAKER_03 (33:09):
I so the edge is is the edge considered jewelry
specific?
Which would you say that?
So it's so it's have you everlike seen like weird, like a
fringe case of using the edge,whether it's like, hey, we use
it for like organizing, I don'tknow, like like call clubs or
something like that.
Lingerie store.
SPEAKER_01 (33:27):
Yeah.
Um really?
So I have three.
Three three three in the all thetime that I've been there.
We had a really good customerwhose wife decided she was gonna
open up a lingerie store.
Good for her.
She worked at the jewelry storeforever, never knew how to use
the edge.
And she called and asked if shecould have the edge, if she
could buy the edge for herlingerie store.
I was the one who answered thephone, and I'm like, um Let me
(33:49):
check.
Yes.
Yes.
I said, You do know likeeverything that's in there is
she's like, Yeah, I know that.
But I have the lists, I couldchange the lists to be what I
want them to be.
So instead of metal, I havelace, I have this, uh, and she's
going on and on.
My face is all bright redbecause she's talking about some
of these things that she'sputting in there, and I'm like,
oh.
(34:09):
I said, but yeah, if yep,absolutely, if you want to try
this.
And and she did.
She was in business for 10years, and she used the edge the
whole.
So that was one art gallery.
Oh, that's cool.
We actually have two or threeart galleries that use the edge.
A lot of overlap in there.
A lot of overlap.
So that that kind of made alittle bit more sense.
I said no to one.
SPEAKER_02 (34:30):
Oh, really?
SPEAKER_01 (34:32):
And I don't I don't know how they were ever thinking
this was going to work.
Same thing, jewelry store owner,I've known them forever.
And he's like, hey, my son isopening a store.
I'm like, oh, okay, great.
What you know, blah, blah, blah.
We started talking.
It was a deli.
A deli.
A deli.
I'm like, uh, no, no, that Ican't even think of a possible
way that you're gonna be able toconvert the edge into a deli
(34:56):
software.
I said, there's just gonna beway too much that they're gonna
have to ignore, they're gonnahave to change.
No, we can't do that.
Yeah, but lingerie and uh andart gallery, yes, we've done
those towns.
SPEAKER_03 (35:08):
Funny, because you know, uh probably a lot of
people don't know this, but likeso Punch Park is Julie specific.
We probably saw it.
But we do have uh we have one,we have one pizza shop, and uh
no one really knows.
We've they've been in business,they they don't have a service
plan, they've just been thereforever, and uh they they're out
in in New York uh out in Vegas,Vegas.
Yeah, in Las Vegas.
(35:29):
Shout out Joey's Pizza, yeah.
So it's so funny.
Uh you ever go in the back endof um all of our admin stuff,
and it's like, are they aretailer?
Are they a vendor?
Are they a marketer?
And there's one, it's a pizzashop.
It's in there in all of the dropdowns, and I always laugh about
that.
I always thought it was a bug,and it's not.
And then I met the guy, he'she's out there.
(35:49):
That's awesome.
Um Lynn, the one question Iwanted to ask, and this is a
personal question I wanted toask.
This is a hard one.
Okay.
Um I've always wanted to know, Ithink that there's a lot of
value in like uh a cloud-basedversion of these things.
Okay.
And because with e-commerce, weare cloud-based, and a lot of
(36:11):
our um our integration with youis reliant on having like the uh
the TPW, the transfer protocolW?
One of those ones.
Uh those it relies on therelationship with the machine
itself.
Correct.
Um, can you explain the edge'sdecision to be based off of a
(36:32):
machine, being local, as opposedto being cloud-based?
SPEAKER_01 (36:36):
Yes.
Um, so I'm gonna start off bysaying, yes, I can explain it,
and I'm going to explain it.
And then I'm gonna say, but I'malso changing my uh my pitch at
the end of it.
So again, we've always beenserver-based.
One of the biggest things aboutbeing server-based in the store
is there is nothing that cancause a speed issue unless your
(36:56):
network is down.
No outside force can slow youdown, no outside force can make
it so you can't find something.
There is nothing that can stopyou from having the edge in your
store when it's server-based.
Um does anyone in here want toguess for a jewelry store what's
the busiest time of year?
Holidays, obviously, right?
When is the absolute slowesttime for the internet in the
(37:20):
year?
The holiday season.
So if you're fully server-basedor fully cloud-based, you're
totally relying on outsideforces.
So when they're doing theirshopping and using the internet
the most, that's when yoursoftware is going to be the
slowest.
If your internet goes down andsomeone calls and says, hey, how
much do I owe you?
You don't know.
You have no idea.
You can't find anything.
(37:42):
There is also a limit on most ofthese programs for number of
records.
It's not number of records pertable, it's number of records.
So once you get to a certainpoint, there's not even an
option of saying, hey, I want tobuy more records.
You can't.
Yeah, you're done.
You have to stop there.
(38:02):
I found some things recentlythat in my head just boggle my
mind.
I have someone who's coming backfrom one of those.
So they they decided they neededcloud base.
And when I asked them why, theycouldn't tell me.
They couldn't give me an answerof why they need a cloud base.
They just needed it.
I was like, okay, fine.
They're coming back to us.
We're doing a conversion back,and they told me that they
(38:25):
needed the top 500 customersthat bought from this vendor.
I'm like, oh, okay.
They're like, they didn't have away of doing that.
They have 22 reports, and ifit's anything beyond that, we
have to send them something, andthey run it for us.
And they get it back within 24hours.
They don't add it to my softwarethough.
So if something's wrong, I gottasend it back again.
(38:46):
I'm like, you mean you getyou're stuck to 22 reports in
your system?
And they're like, yep, and if weneed another one, we have to
send it to them, and within 24hours we'll get an answer.
And if it's wrong, I gotta startover again.
Those are the kind of things inmy head that boggle my mind.
I mean, uh I get it in thebeginning when you write a
software, there's always gonnabe new things, and we're always
(39:06):
adding new things.
But there's certain things thatare pretty basic that I don't I
think if you don't have, there'sthere's a problem.
I see.
Um, but that being said, in thestage, yeah.
Uh so we are we're going hybrid.
Uh-huh.
So you will have an onlinedatabase that is accessible from
outside the edge.
Um so probably within sixmonths, our first versions of
(39:29):
that will be out there.
Wow.
Um, the first versions are justreally going to be for backup
and things like that.
So automatic backups willhappen.
You'll never have to worry aboutanything happening.
It'll be on our redundantservers and everything else like
that.
Um, once we have that out and uplike that, the next steps will
be getting access to things.
So probably first quarter ofnext year, all of that fun CRM
(39:52):
stuff that you always want toknow when you're standing with a
customer in the middle of a galaevent and they're like, hey,
remember that thing I bought?
Well, now you'll just be able togo in.
Anything that has an internetconnection, let me look it up.
Hold on.
Oh, yeah, that's the thingyou're talking about.
You'll be able to see theiraccount, their activity, all
that kind of stuff will be atyour fingertips no matter where
you are.
That your store database isstill gonna be the main one.
(40:14):
That's the one that's going tobe the controller.
So if there's something that'sdifferent between here and here,
it's good, this one's gonna win.
But if there is no internetconnection, you can still read
all that stuff that's up online.
You just won't be able to makechanges.
So you will have access outside,and eventually you'll have
almost all access from whereveryou are.
First part's gonna be that CRMstuff.
Next part's gonna be when you'reout of show.
(40:34):
If you want to look upinventory, if you want to see
what's selling, what's old,what's new.
So when you're sitting with avendor, you have all that
information in front of youversus having it reports.
So all of that stuff willeventually work its way down the
line.
But again, that first one isprobably gonna be the CRM.
And it's not even CRM outside.
You could be standing with acustomer in your store at this
case, and they say, I want toadd that to my wish list.
(40:55):
Just be able to open up yourphone, click on their customer
and scan and scan that barcodeand say, Okay, it's on your wish
list.
It's done.
So that's where we're movingtowards that.
So we will always be serverfirst, but when we move to
hybrid, you'll have access toall of that stuff from outside.
Wow, that's really exciting.
I think that is kind of the bestof both words in my in my
opinion.
SPEAKER_03 (41:14):
Yeah, for sure.
Now, Lenny, where if peoplewanted to learn, you know, learn
more or maybe give the edge atry or um maybe ask some
questions for free.
Um, where would they go and howwould they get in contact with
you?
SPEAKER_01 (41:28):
Quickest, easiest way to find us is the
edgeforjewelers.com.
Edgeforjewers.com brings you ourwebsite that this wonderful
company hosts for us.
Um their name is Punchmark, justin case you're wondering.
Um, and all of our contactinformation is there.
You can set up a demo online.
Um there's actually some videosand some core stuff up there,
but all of our contactinformation is there.
We're always willing to answerquestions to walk you through
(41:49):
stuff, but that's the easiestplace to space.
SPEAKER_03 (41:51):
That was the first website I one of the first
websites I ever designed.
I was very proud of it.
Look at that.
Yep.
So thank you so much, Lenny.
Everybody, Lenny from the Edge.
Thank you.
(42:20):
And if you haven't already, gocheck out the Edge for Jewelers.
They're fantastic, and I highlyrecommend them.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, Michael Burpo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Ross
Cocker.
Don't forget to rate the podcaston Spotify and Apple Podcasts,
and leave us feedback onpunchmark.com slash lead.
(42:42):
That's L-O-U-P-E.
We'll be back next week,Tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers.
Bye.
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