For the third year in a row, Unilog hosted a conference for its CIMM2 customers to share ideas, learn about new tools and find solutions for their ever-changing commerce needs. The theme of the meeting was “e-volve” because, no matter what point a business is at in its eCommerce journey, it must constantly evolve in order to succeed in the marketplace. “Our CIMM2 platform allows you to grow, which is partly why we did this conference the way we did…it’s about evolving,” said Aung Latt, VP of Sales Operations at Unilog. “There are people who are live, people who are going to be here two years down the road, and all of them will want to know what else they need to do. It’s not a destination, it’s a journey.”
Nearly 150 professionals from 75 different companies attended the conference to learn more about the CIMM2 platform, meet with experts and collaborate with peers. “This is our third year attending the CIMM2 users’ conference,” remarked attendee Brad Garrett of Southern Pipe & Supply. “It’s a great round table where you get to talk to people who are going through the same things as you’re going through, have gone through or are going to go through. There’s a sharing of ideas which makes it a great experience.”
Held at Las Vegas’ Red Rock Resort Casino & Spa, the 2017 users group meeting offered classes tailored to each stage of the eCommerce journey, with pre-go live tracks targeting companies in the implementation stages of their online store, and post-go live tracks for customers whose sites are up and running.
Those new to eCommerce learned the importance of master data management, metrics and a content management system (CMS), and were taught strategies for gaining eCommerce adoption. “We went live with CIMM2 in December of 2016, so one of my big goals is customer adoption,” explained Megan Fox with Norco, Inc. “Unilog gave me some good ideas about getting people engaged and incentivizing both our sales team and our customers to join in and really show the true benefit of the tool for them.”
For businesses who have successfully implemented CIMM2, Unilog suggested ways to develop their sites by integrating personalization and content marketing strategies, and improving content with continual data management.
Along with the pre- and post-go live tracks, Unilog also featured educational classes on the new CIMM2Touch platform, site search, analytics within CIMM2, plus technical sessions designed specifically for AD eContent program members.
“What I love is that there are a lot of distributors who are now live and we’re all collaborating about what’s next: data, analytics, how to get new customers on board; collaboration with the other folks here has been huge, and everyone is open to it,” said Mike Powers of Hill & Markes Inc.
Industry experts also joined the stage to offer their knowledge, advice and growing B2B trends. Andy Hoar, Principal Analyst for Forrester Research, discussed the channel shift in the B2B marketplace and the opportunities eCommerce brings, sharing impactful statistics with attendees. In addition, Adam Singer and Louis Gray from Google presented their best practices for digital analytics, focusing on three main components: people, process and platform.
After two power-packed days, attendees left with greater insight, resources and enthusiasm to evolve their online storefront into a valuable resource both for their customers and employees. “We’ve learned a lot here,” commented Michael Eichinger of Bay Fastening Systems. “Our recent endeavor with Unilog and CIMM2 has been our greatest success to date, so I’m very happy we made that decision.”
A big thank you goes out to this year’s sponsors – Affiliated Distributors, Dancik International, Avalara, Apruve, IDEA, Conexiom and WebPresented. Their expertise, insight and synergy helped make the 3rd Annual CIMM2 Users Group Meeting a huge success.