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Numa gives car dealerships an AI operating system that connects customer conversations with the information teams need to answer questions, book appointments, and keep business moving. By bringing voice AI, a shared inbox, and integrations with dealership systems together, Numa helps reduce missed opportunities, ease service advisors’ workloads, and catch customer concerns before they become lost relationships. In this episode, we speak with Derek Simonds, Executive Vice President of Automotive at @Numa_helps, about why missed calls, unanswered messages, and inconsistent follow-up continue to cost dealerships business—and how AI can help close those communication gaps. Drawing on more than 35 years in automotive, Simonds explains why customer satisfaction depends on keeping people informed throughout the sales and service experience. He describes the pressure on service advisors who must balance customers at the counter, conversations with technicians, and a constantly ringing phone. The discussion shows how bringing customer communications and repair information into one place can help teams respond proactively, maintain accountability, and spend more time helping the people in front of them. The conversation explores what Numa means by an AI operating system for dealerships, including how its connections to dealer management systems, CRMs, websites, and conversation history give AI the context to take useful action. Simonds explains how that information supports call routing, service updates, appointment scheduling, and sales conversations about vehicles and inventory. He also discusses automating repetitive tasks such as follow-ups about recalls, missed appointments, and previously declined services. Throughout the conversation, he emphasizes the importance of human handoffs: when an AI agent cannot resolve an issue or find a suitable appointment, dealership staff receive the conversation details so they can step in. He also explains how sentiment analysis and escalation workflows help managers identify frustrated customers while there is still an opportunity to address their concerns. The episode also examines how dealerships should evaluate AI through their own business goals, whether that means improving customer satisfaction, increasing appointment volume, or reducing the time employees spend handling routine calls. Simonds describes Numa’s consultative implementation approach and shares examples of Toyota dealerships booking more than a thousand service appointments per month through AI, along with a four-store group that booked 5,555 appointments over 90 days through automated outreach. He explains why proactive updates can reduce incoming status calls, and why recordings, transcripts, and clear performance standards are essential for holding AI accountable alongside employees. Looking ahead, he shares his caution about long-term software commitments as the market evolves. His broader message is that effective dealership AI requires context, transparency, and a partner focused on measurable improvements in communication, customer retention, and daily operations.

Bicom PBXware gives MSPs and telecom providers a customizable communications platform to deliver business telephony, collaboration, and contact center services under their own brand. With centralized multi-tenant management, CRM integrations, and automation, PBXware helps providers streamline operations and expand their services as their customer base grows. In this episode, we speak with Jasmin Dolamic, Associate Deployment and Training Engineer, and Bernis Nukic, Junior Deployment and Training Engineer at @BicomSystems, about how the right unified communications vendor helps managed service providers scale beyond their first few customers. Drawing on their experience deploying PBXware and training partners, they explain why growth becomes difficult when configurations vary between customers, onboarding depends on improvisation, and critical knowledge lives in one engineer’s head. The discussion examines how centralized management, documented processes, and a strong vendor relationship help providers build repeatable deployments, reduce support complexity, and serve more customers without increasing their workload at the same rate. The conversation explores what that repeatability looks like in practice, from defining the scope of a first deployment to using migration checklists, testing calls before and after a cutover, and creating a template for future customer onboarding. Dolamic explains how SERVERware’s virtualization and clustering capabilities support hardware expansion alongside PBXware’s multi-tenant management. The guests also discuss bringing voice, email, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and other channels into a shared agent workspace through gloCOM, allowing providers to add the channels each customer needs without assembling disconnected tools. They describe how CRM integrations connect communications to existing business workflows, giving agents access to customer information and interaction history while reducing manual recordkeeping. Nukic also explains how Event Publisher sends call events to other systems in real time, enabling workflows such as turning a missed call into a help desk ticket or automatically updating a CRM after a conversation. The episode also examines where AI can make a practical difference, including answering routine questions, handling after-hours calls, generating summaries, and giving supervisors live transcriptions and sentiment information. Nukic explains how AI agents can retrieve information from connected customer systems and transfer conversations with context, while leaving sensitive or complex issues to human agents. He recommends introducing automation gradually: start with useful call events, use transcripts to understand customer needs, and then build AI agents around clear, manageable use cases. Both guests emphasize that training, current documentation, responsive support, and ongoing ownership of AI features deserve as much attention as the product’s feature list. Their broader message is that providers should choose a partner for the business they expect to become, with the processes, integrations, infrastructure, and support needed to remain useful through each stage of growth.

Nexcess Digital Cloud gives agencies a managed hosting foundation for growing client portfolios, bringing WordPress, WooCommerce, and Magento sites together under one account with expert support. With managed migrations, security protections, automatic scaling, and volume pricing, Nexcess helps teams spend less time managing infrastructure and more time building client experiences that perform. In this episode, we speak with Miguel Balparda, Senior Product Manager at @Nexcess, about what managed hosting means when a serious security incident threatens live ecommerce stores. Drawing on his experience as a Magento community maintainer and Adobe Commerce Champion, Balparda takes us behind the scenes of Nexcess’s response to the Style Smuggler vulnerability affecting Magento and Adobe Commerce. He explains how suspicious GraphQL requests, recurring file signatures, malware scans, and information from security researchers helped the team identify a coordinated attack. The discussion shows why protecting merchants requires both a deep understanding of the application and the ability to act quickly while keeping storefronts operational and customer payment information safe. The conversation explores the difficult tradeoffs between containing an attack and preserving the functionality merchants need to process orders. Balparda explains why temporarily blocking GraphQL traffic reduced exposure but also disrupted some storefronts, prompting the team to refine its response as patches became available. He walks through the challenges of evaluating environments across different Magento versions, server configurations, and third-party extensions, and describes how Nexcess adapted security patches for older, unsupported versions. He also shares how AI helped accelerate that backporting work, while emphasizing the continued need for experienced engineers, compatibility testing, and checks on site stability. Clear communication is another central theme: merchants need to understand what their provider changed, what remains their responsibility, and why emergency patches applied directly to production must also be incorporated into their own codebase so a future deployment does not undo the protection. The episode also examines the limits of automation and the shared responsibilities involved in running a customizable ecommerce platform. Balparda discusses why heavily modified stores are difficult to patch consistently, how better-vetted extensions and more standardized environments could make maintenance easier, and why some merchants continue to choose Magento for its flexibility and control. He explains where hosting support can help and where a merchant’s developers or agency must take over, then offers practical questions for evaluating a provider’s application expertise, troubleshooting capabilities, and involvement in the broader ecosystem. His broader message is that managed hosting depends on knowledgeable people, layered defenses, transparent communication, and ongoing collaboration. By investing in security before an incident occurs, merchants can better protect their customers, reduce disruption, and avoid more costly problems down the road.

Bigly Sales gives revenue teams an AI calling platform to respond to leads, qualify prospects, and connect customers with the right people faster. By bringing voice agents, phone infrastructure, CRM integrations, and automated dialing safeguards together, Bigly helps businesses turn more inquiries into appointments and sales conversations with less manual work. In this episode, we speak with Thomas Ryan, Founder and CEO of @BiglySales, about how AI voice agents are changing the way businesses respond to leads, answer customer calls, and support their sales teams. Ryan explains the difference between unwanted outreach and a timely callback someone has requested, showing why speed matters when a customer needs insurance, financing, home services, or another immediate solution. He describes how Bigly handles inbound and outbound conversations, captures information, schedules appointments, and transfers qualified prospects to human agents. The discussion also explores the company’s MCP integration, which lets customers use tools such as Claude and ChatGPT to configure campaigns, adjust schedules, and review calling activity through natural-language requests. The conversation explores why a convincing AI voice is only one part of a successful calling operation. Ryan walks through the infrastructure behind reliable conversations, including speech recognition, language models, voice generation, carrier routing, and the need to keep response delays short. He explains how latency, connection failures, and spam labels can undermine campaigns before a sales team ever speaks with a prospect, and why monitoring those components requires more than assembling a simple voice bot. He also discusses Bigly’s approach to managing consent records, validating lead information, honoring opt-outs, synchronizing updates with CRMs, and applying calling restrictions before a number is dialed. Throughout the discussion, Ryan emphasizes the importance of understanding TCPA requirements and building safeguards into everyday operations rather than relying only on reports after calls have already happened. The episode also examines how voice interfaces can make business software and websites easier to use, particularly for people who prefer speaking to typing or struggle to navigate conventional pages. Ryan introduces TalkKit, a tool for adding conversational voice assistance to websites, and shares his outlook on newer speech-to-speech technology. He discusses examples across lending, staffing, fundraising, and other industries, while stressing that results depend on accurate lead data and relevant outreach. He also explains how businesses can use AI to revisit unfinished opportunities and reconnect prospects with their sales teams. His broader message is that AI calling should produce a useful customer experience: fast responses, clear next steps, reliable handoffs, and practical support for the people responsible for closing business.

Roofr gives roofing contractors one platform to manage their business from the first lead to the final payment, bringing measurements, estimates, proposals, and customer management together. With automated follow-ups, integrated material ordering, and digital invoicing and payments, Roofr helps teams stay organized, respond faster, and deliver a smoother homeowner experience. In this episode, we speak with Pete McKendrick, Product Strategy Lead at @GetRoofr, about how roofing companies can simplify their operations, improve customer communication, and grow without juggling a disconnected collection of software tools. Drawing on his background in construction and roofing technology, McKendrick explains Roofr’s evolution from a marketplace connecting homeowners with contractors into a platform built to manage the roofing business under one umbrella. He discusses how spreadsheets, text threads, paper forms, and separate applications can create duplicate data entry, missed handoffs, and unnecessary administrative work. The conversation also examines why responding quickly to a homeowner’s inquiry matters, and how even a simple automated acknowledgment can establish trust and professionalism before the first appointment. The conversation explores how aerial roof measurements help contractors prepare proposals earlier, reduce time spent measuring on-site, and carry the same information through to material ordering. McKendrick explains why more affordable reports changed how contractors use measurements, making them practical for incoming leads rather than only for jobs they have already won. He also discusses recommended waste factors, the flexibility to adjust material quantities, and Roofr’s DIY measurement tools for contractors using their own drone imagery. From there, the discussion turns to what makes a strong roofing proposal: clear options, transparent pricing, customer education, and a professional presentation that explains both the work and the company behind it. McKendrick emphasizes that communication must continue after a contract is signed, including updates about scheduling changes, project progress, and follow-ups that can generate reviews and referrals long after installation. The episode also examines automation, AI, and the importance of keeping software straightforward as its capabilities expand. McKendrick describes existing tools for customer messages, pipeline updates, job assignments, tasks, and checklists, along with Roofr’s AI voice agent for answering calls and booking appointments. He shares his outlook on how AI could eventually help contractors identify operational gaps and make more informed decisions, while acknowledging that adoption depends on building trust in the technology. He explains where Roofr fits for newer and growing businesses, and why ease of use helps teams adopt software successfully. His broader message is that contractors should evaluate a platform for its long-term usefulness and support: the right software should simplify daily work, strengthen the homeowner relationship, and continue serving the business as it grows.

CYBRA Edgefinity IoT gives warehouses, manufacturers, and distribution teams an RFID platform to track inventory, equipment, and assets with greater visibility and less manual effort. With automated shipment validation, configurable rules, and integration into operational workflows, Edgefinity IoT helps businesses catch errors, reduce costly chargebacks, and keep goods moving efficiently. In this episode, we speak with Brian Parrillo, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at @CYBRACorp, about how enterprise labeling, barcodes, and RFID connect physical products to the business systems that keep supply chains running. Parrillo explains why accurate labels are essential to receiving, inventory management, fulfillment, and delivery—and how incorrect information can lead to rejected shipments, retailer chargebacks, costly rework, and customer frustration. He introduces CYBRA’s MarkMagic labeling software and Edgefinity IoT RFID platform, showing how they help organizations improve accuracy and efficiency across warehouses, distribution centers, manufacturing operations, and other environments where products and information need to move together. The conversation explores what changes when labeling moves from a single desktop printer to an enterprise operation spanning multiple facilities, hundreds of printers, and different customer requirements. Parrillo explains how MarkMagic draws information directly from ERP, warehouse management, and order management systems, using predefined rules to generate the right output for each carrier, retailer, and workflow. He discusses CYBRA’s roots in IBM i, its support for Windows, Linux, and cloud deployments, and its longstanding integration with Manhattan Associates. He also explains how visual design tools let trained users update labels and business forms without writing code, reducing dependence on developers and outside vendors. The discussion then turns to RFID, which can read multiple tagged items without a direct line of sight, helping automate receiving, inventory counts, and outbound shipment verification through portals, conveyor systems, and handheld readers. The episode also examines how companies can modernize these processes while continuing to use their existing systems, equipment, and operational workflows. Parrillo describes the importance of assessing integrations, planning migrations, and testing before rollout, and shares how Brooks Brothers used MarkMagic to bring label and document design in-house, including customized packing slips with integrated shipping labels for international fulfillment. Looking ahead, he discusses expanding retailer RFID requirements and GS1’s Sunrise 2027 initiative as drivers of richer product identification, including two-dimensional barcodes that can carry additional information and connect consumers to online resources. His broader message is that labeling and tracking should receive more attention as opportunities for operational improvement: businesses can reduce manual work, improve accuracy, respond to new customer requirements, and support growth without replacing the ERP or warehouse management systems they already rely on.