I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes up.
This time it is Bill Berutti, CEO and Jerry Foster, CTO of Plex Systems. Plex is a cloud ERP and MES vendor, but this conversation is not just for manufacturing customers. They talk about how they closed two deals in March virtually - without visiting prospects. That's unheard of in enterprise software. They describe acrobatics in their customer base - so many of them pivoted to make parts for medical ventilators, masks and other PPE gear and hand sanitizers.
The piece de resistance is a set of slides starting around 9:55 where Jerry shows a summarization of production data across the Plex customer base. The dramatic drop in production in the auto sector, a bit less so in food and beverage, then the promising resurgence. As he says, just watching the few weeks in a few slides, especially the V shaped rebound in Chinese production provides hope for everyone.
They also discuss how the cloud made work from home so much easier for their customer base. They cover the theme of not being too dependent on "one thread" in the global supply chain. And what the "new normal" for the factory floor may look like.
Like I said, even if you are not in the manufacturing sector this will give you some great ideas and make you more optimistic about the re-opening of the economy.
