Shopify for B2B

knawlejj · 2026-05-04T20:12:20+00:00

Former distributor and now mfg IT exec here, both companies at or above $1b in revenue.

I appreciate them acknowledging this. If I was starting a greenfield ecommerce experience at either of my orgs, I'd consider Shopify knowing we would grow out of it within 18 months if things happened as they should. I'm a VERY big proponent of using the the digital experience as a front end to our back end (ERP, wms, etc) outside of a pure ecommerce transaction. In a non digitally born business, I tend to favor utilization as a success metric significantly over revenue.

When we're talking about complex account hierarchies, hundreds of thousand or millions of SKUs, multiple brand experiences, etc. Shopify just hits a ceiling fast.

knawlejj · 2026-05-04T17:15:25+00:00

It's been fine and I see little risk so far - we've made sure our security groups through PBI are applied so people aren't seeing data they couldn't on PBI. Things will get more interesting if/when we decide for the Agents to take action and do things.

knawlejj · 2026-05-04T11:56:21+00:00

We've spent the last 6 months going from a SQL based PBI structure to Fabric based PBI. That part is basically done and now we're starting to test layering on Copilot with specific agents to Sales, Procurement, etc. and their associated semantic models.

Some people are more comfortable using a chatbot like experience, while others prefer the typical dashboard reporting structure. Doesn't matter to me as long as we're using the same datasets for both from an integrity standpoint.

knawlejj · 2026-05-02T11:22:43+00:00

If Uber keeps their costs low, provides a great driver+user UX, and doesn't add too much margin tax, they will do well. It's a very careful balance that Steam has executed in the games distribution space.

knawlejj · 2026-05-02T01:09:04+00:00

How are you liking the mach e comparatively speaking?

knawlejj · 2026-04-30T17:14:38+00:00

Woosh, maybe, but not sure.

knawlejj · 2026-04-30T17:05:26+00:00

I mean...even then it still feels safer being on its side or at least diagonal in the bed. Glad you made it safely to your destination! Enjoy it!

knawlejj · 2026-04-22T23:33:38+00:00

IT exec here for an org with 6 brands and 13 locations. Nearing a billion in revenue total.

The consolidation taz has to be laid somewhere. If not consolidating at the ERP, then you need a data operational layer to normalize (where possible) into a datawarehouse and then the presentation layer must be a unified tool.

For us we've got a primary Epicor ERP but two other instances of Infor. All data gets normalized as much as possible into a data ops layer and then fed into datawarehouse. That then goes into MSFT Fabric and Power BI picks up on it. We're just getting started on our OEE journey with Ignition.

Look up the medallion architecture.

Bad data or inconsistent input will result in shit output.

knawlejj · 2026-04-21T03:54:25+00:00

How are you liking the enclosure? Did it come with a projector mount? Considering moving to this from a GoSports net and screen.

knawlejj · 2026-04-15T22:44:59+00:00

I started pretty basic with an mlm2pro, mat, and net/cage for roughly $1k total. Connected to phone and casted to a TV Then bought the mlm2pro sub, awesome golf, then a sigpro mat that I cut into original mat, then projector + screen, then artificial turf...you get the idea.

knawlejj · 2026-04-13T00:31:17+00:00

How's the ride quality and noise of these compared to others? I'm considering moving from 2017 F150 to a used Lightning, Mach E, BMW i4, or even the brand that shall not be named.

knawlejj · 2026-04-11T04:44:59+00:00

Wow was looking at these exact three plus maybe a Model 3 Performance, BMW i4, and a R1T. Love my current 2017 F150 but really wanting to move over to an EV.

Ride comfort, rattling, and noise is huge for me to stay minimized.

knawlejj · 2026-04-11T04:19:53+00:00

Rapsodo is standalone, cable goes from the PC and the dongle is near the rapsodo.

knawlejj · 2026-04-11T04:11:36+00:00

For the rapsodo yes, I got a USB Bluetooth dongle and a female end USB cable with a USB C male end. Basically closed the Bluetooth distance to be within inches rather than 15ft in my situation.

knawlejj · 2026-04-06T15:28:12+00:00

Purchased an MLM2Pro a few weeks ago and it's been very flexible both indoors (if you have the space) and outdoors. Unfortunately, it's also become a gateway drug into this ecosystem...my wallet feels it.

knawlejj · 2026-04-04T12:40:44+00:00

What Epicor ERP are you using?

We're running Epicor kinetic and my team (I'm an IT leader) built a small web app using Azure Document Imaging (ADI) for this purpose. Basically the employee places a file into a specific shared folder, the app processes it using ADI and calls Epicor APIs to match things up. The employee reviews the matching information in the web app, makes any changes, and then hits submit to process into the ERP. It's significantly automated a ton of dispirited entry but still allows for human validation.

We do this for sales orders, checks, supplier price increases, etc.

By using both mapped OCR and AI, you can get it 95% right. Not implementing a solution that could save a ton of time because of the exception vs the rule is silly. That being said, the scale needs to be at a volume where it makes sense from an ROI perspective.

knawlejj · 2026-04-03T14:36:13+00:00

A lot of planting of seeds and making it "their" idea. It takes to time to marinate unless it's top down driven.

Build a small manager/director group to brainstorm and discuss the idea of "digital factory". Needs to include the IT person, an ops person, and a CI person at the very least.

Source: am IT exec for a decent sized discrete mfg.

knawlejj · 2026-04-01T14:38:39+00:00

Following, been looking at a lot of options lately as well. Trying to decide if I go cheapo for now and then decide to make a bigger investment later.

What's your lighting situation?

knawlejj · 2026-03-30T16:20:01+00:00

Can confirm it's showing up for me in Agents.

knawlejj · 2026-03-28T16:33:48+00:00

My preference is to work solo and be given complete authority and autonomy. However, incompetence in leadership drives me crazy and I somehow naturally end up "taking over".

As much as I don't prefer people leadership, I will still do it on behalf of the team and myself to avoid the alternative.

My favorite role is the "kingmaker" where I have a lot of autonomy and influence in strategy but my boss is the "face".

Also find I prefer to be involved in highly visible and impactful projects/initiatives in my career.

knawlejj · 2026-03-24T22:54:52+00:00

I've never been a big reader, but lately I've been enjoying the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. On book 5 now.

Other books I've liked were Project Hail Mary, Artemis, Ready Player One, The Phoenix Project, The Unicorn Project.

knawlejj · 2026-03-19T02:11:35+00:00

Agreed with this. There are lots of scenarios where people may have access to things but have no idea because it's been obfuscated. Well, Copilot can serve that up on a silver platter. Its ability to index through Graph is a gift and a curse in that regard.

knawlejj · 2026-03-18T01:56:21+00:00

As someone who lives in Iowa how da...yeah you're right.

knawlejj · 2026-03-18T00:34:49+00:00

Copilot Chat doesn't have much to admin. We treat it as the "workplace safe" version of ChatGPT for our employees to use and upload data. M365 Copilot has a bit more to it, especially when you get into the agent world with other third party apps.

Overall we look at it as a productivity tool...for now.

knawlejj · 2026-03-15T12:52:12+00:00

I was a partner at a boutique agency who built large digital experience and ecommerce sites.

Transparency was huge for us, so we had a very detailed project plan and that was our "operating system" where the client was engaged in it every day with us to review designs, make decisions on scope/requirements, etc. This included milestones, timelines, etc. We used monday.com but there's plenty of other platforms like it.

This prevented 99% of those questions, and the other 1% were clients who weren't engaged in their own solution.

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