July 8, 2025 34:49 bonus

AI-Powered Construction: From Blueprint Analysis to Bid Management

There may be errors in spelling, grammar, and accuracy in this machine-generated transcript.

Matt Lescault: So, Julie? Yes. Really happy to have you on the on the show.

Julie Adams: Yeah. This is great.

Matt Lescault: How how's it going? I mean, we're at the last day of the of the conference here.

Julie Adams: Yes. And it has been action packed, for sure.

Matt Lescault: Yeah. I'm a little tired.

Julie Adams: Uh, yeah. That's why I have my coffee. My coffee.

Emily Madere: How are you feeling? Have you learned a lot?

Julie Adams: Um, yeah. Of course. I mean, I think, um, meeting with our [00:00:30] partners. Meeting with our customers, um, you know, seeing what we're doing across all of the different verticals. As you know, I concentrate on the construction vertical. Um, but this is when it all kind of comes together, and we we kind of see all of the great things that we've been able to accomplish across all of these different product lines, all of these different products. I mean, there's a lot there's a lot going on. Yeah. And so it's pretty it's exciting.

Matt Lescault: So we have Sage Fest here tonight.

Emily Madere: We do have Sage Fest. I think there are [00:01:00] three different event types are going on like a country, a pop, and like a 70s and 80s.

Matt Lescault: I'm guessing your country, I'm guessing.

Emily Madere: No. All I know is I have a dirty shirt and I have sparkle freckles I'm going to put on my face.

Julie Adams: Oh my God. I didn't know that we had to dress up and nobody told me that. I didn't get that. I didn't get that memo.

Matt Lescault: I don't think we have to. I'm not dressing up.

Julie Adams: I would have totally dressed up.

Matt Lescault: Wait a second. Are you gonna put sparkles on my face?

Emily Madere: Do you want sparkles on your face?

Matt Lescault: I don't know. My daughter would make me do it.

Emily Madere: I [00:01:30] can, I can if you want, but, um, to all of our listeners, welcome. This is the unofficial Sage Intacct podcast. We're happy that you're listening. Um, we have a really good podcast, you know, ready for you all today. Um, we're here with Julie Adams. Julie, would you mind introducing yourself?

Julie Adams: Sure. Um, so Julie Adams, I'm senior vice president of construction and real estate product. And so we have a portfolio of products for the construction industry here at Sage. And, um, I guess my team and [00:02:00] I, we kind of, uh, drive it forward and, uh, look at how do we enable our customers to be more efficient, more effective, grow their business, solve problems for them, take new technologies and help them do things and change the way they work. Um, you know, it's it's all good stuff. Um.

Matt Lescault: Huh. Now, am I right that the Cree is the is currently the fastest growing industry at Sage Intacct right now?

Julie Adams: That's correct.

Matt Lescault: Is that all because of you?

Julie Adams: Oh, gosh. No no [00:02:30] no no. Um. Sage has actually had a pretty long history of innovation in construction. Right?

Emily Madere: Started with Sage 300.

Julie Adams: Yes. Sage 300. Cree and Sage 100. Contractor. Their market leading solutions with tens of thousands of customers. And we've been in markets since I don't know how long. It's been decades. Um, Sage Intacct construction is our latest and fastest growing product line. It is really the only We truly [00:03:00] born in the cloud solution built for construction that's in the market, and we're seeing a lot of excitement around it. A lot of success, a lot of growth. Um, and, uh, it's it's, uh, it's, um, it's it's, uh, one of the fastest growing verticals here at Sage. Um, and, um, we're planning on I mean, we just really have barely scratched the surface, if you really think about it.

Emily Madere: Um, because when was, um, Sage Intacct construction released? Only a couple [00:03:30] years ago.

Julie Adams: Well, it was it was released in 2020. It was actually released at a at an event which ended up closing down because Covid.

Matt Lescault: Covid.

Julie Adams: Yes. And so, I mean, it was.

Emily Madere: The scary C word.

Julie Adams: Yeah. Yeah. It was pretty tough.

Emily Madere: Probably been in every conversation I've had. Yeah. Today.

Julie Adams: Yeah. Really?

Emily Madere: Yeah. People are still talking about it.

Julie Adams: Yeah. No, I mean, it was kind of a, um. Not the best time to launch a product right at the beginning of COVID.

Matt Lescault: We'll [00:04:00] say unfortunate time, right?

Julie Adams: Yes yes yes, yes. But I mean, we've been building the momentum since then. Um, not only we started off focused on construction, financials built on our intact platform, which is, you know, that born in the cloud accounting AICPA endorsed, uh, world, uh, world class accounting platform. And we really took construction, the construction expertise that was at Sage the decade's worth of construction expertise [00:04:30] at Sage. And we combined the best of both worlds. We took true born in the cloud DNA, um, and that deep domain expertise in construction and real estate. And we brought it together. We we took the engineers and the product team from that um cre uh, heritage, together with the product and engineering folks on intact. And we created Sage Intacct Construction Financials. So that's where we started. And since then we've really expanded beyond financials [00:05:00] because customers are really looking to us to provide more of that end to end experience. Um, they want financials, but they also want payroll. They also want pre-construction capabilities, and they also want construction management capabilities. So like the project managers out there in the field actually doing the building. And so they want this from Sage because they want to simplify their application strategy. You know like you don't want like 50 vendors and 50 [00:05:30] different solutions that they're going to have to stitch together.

Julie Adams: They want a more end to end backbone, if you will, for their application infrastructure. And so that's what we provide now. At the same time as expanding our breadth and depth of solutions for construction, we're also 100% committed to being an open platform. And that's super important because if you look out into the marketplace, there is so much innovation going on out there. And if you also look at the construction space. There's a lot [00:06:00] of different needs, a lot of different types of companies, and they all have specialized things that they need from us and from there their technology. And so by being that open platform and by providing that end to end backbone, we could give our customers the best of both worlds. Simplify. And then also be in a position to always take advantage of the latest and greatest innovations and kind of plug it into their it, their application strategy. [00:06:30] So they're always in a position to take the best of Sage take the best of, of of what's in the marketplace, have a solution that works for them today. And it's future proofed because they know that they can always evolve and, and, uh, and grow and take advantage of all of the things that are happening across the market.

Matt Lescault: I mean, we saw a couple of days ago on the main stage where Dan Miller kind of walked through some of that, uh, what I call construction operations capability within intact. [00:07:00] And I know that we talked a little bit last night, and I mentioned that I have a kind of a love for construction. I kind of came out of that a long, long time ago. And I remember the days of I was on spreadsheets, certified payroll, on, uh, on word docs that you were filling out manually. And I just go, my life would have been a heck of a lot easier if I had if I had the intact solution at that time.

Julie Adams: Yep. Absolutely. And I think that, you know, construction has a reputation for being laggards in terms of adopting digital [00:07:30] technology. But that is really changing now to.

Matt Lescault: Are we in a county conference because I thought the accountants were the laggards.

Emily Madere: Yeah. But but you're but you're right. I mean, I work with construction clients and prospects every day. And they are I feel like the last to bring adoption but also have really good solutions catered towards them.

Julie Adams: Yes, absolutely. So there's a lot of really interesting, cool investment in technology in construction, and there's an increased appetite in the market to adopt those technologies, [00:08:00] because if you think about it like some of the workers that are now entering the market, well, one, there's the labor shortage. And so what do you do when you have labor shortage? You have to be more efficient, and you have to kind of change the way that you work because you don't have people to do it right. So how are you going to get the work done and how are you going to grow your business? Well, technology is a key part of enabling you to do that. And then the other aspect of it is that the workers that are coming into the workforce, like they grew up with technology and they're like, okay, wait, what? You're doing this on what? [00:08:30] You know, this I need to be able to do this on my mobile device. I need to be able to use my laptop. I'm not going to fill out this form on paper, you know. So there's an expectation of the new generation coming in that they're not going to do it the old way. And so, um, and then the generational shift, right, is really also driving that change in adoption of technology. So it's an exciting time to be in construction technology for sure.

Matt Lescault: Well, you know, the one thing that you didn't hit on, but I have to imagine [00:09:00] is at least 20 years ago when I was doing it, highly competitive. We have construction companies that are bidding against each other on these projects, trying to shave every cost that they can to to deliver the project. And if you don't have a smart system, you your, your, your costs can get out of hand.

Julie Adams: Oh, absolutely.

Matt Lescault: And I think what, what Dan showed on stage really did talk to how with copilot it can go and look at the previous bids. [00:09:30] The previous projects provide insights.

Julie Adams: Yes. Yeah. We are doing some really cool stuff in Pre-con. Okay.

Emily Madere: And how about you tell us what are you doing?

Julie Adams: So in pre-construction, um, we're adding AI powered bid management. Um, to put like, that's kind of at the center. So some of the things that it can do, um, it can take a look at all of the different projects that you've done in the past and estimated in the past, and based on that looking at like projects. So [00:10:00] maybe you specialize in hospitals or you've built like ten hospitals in the past. And based on all of this insight from all of the data that you've done, um, projects that you've done in the past, you could then if I'm now bidding on a new hospital in this particular location and I can look at similar projects in the past, I can start to recommend, well, it seems like these subcontractors might be good subcontractors that you will want to work with on this particular project because of all of that. [00:10:30] And then we go a step further with those, um, those subcontractors. You can now predict what their bid might be for the work. And so that can serve in multiple ways. One, you can do like some high level, okay, I can really get a better handle on how much this is really going to cost me, but it also positions you to identify anomalies. So in [00:11:00] terms of winning projects, it's not just about coming in with the lowest bid because you can lose your shirt.

Julie Adams: Right. It's about winning projects at the right price. Right. And so with, um, some of the AI powered, uh, insights that we can provide in terms of what expected what you're expecting this subcontractor to bid if it comes in and it's really way off, like it's 30% lower than what you would would have predicted, you'll go look [00:11:30] at it a little bit closer. And so there's an example like one of the, one of the prospects that we had shown this to in terms of like what we're building. They're like, wow, I could have totally used that because I just did a project. It was a three story building of some sort. And the drywall contractor, they chose the lowest bid. Well, they're in the middle of the project, and it turns out they found out that it was low because they left the drywall off the third floor. And [00:12:00] so that is not the time you want to find out about those mistakes. And so, um, so it really helps to kind of make sure that you're doing the right bidding at the right price, um, and winning the projects that will make you profitable. Right.

Emily Madere: Um, and so we talked about in a couple of our podcasts, just the use of AI. So in this case, like AI is not coming for someone's job, right? Aaron has talked a lot about AI. This is truly an in addition to your job, to making sure that you're making those [00:12:30] smarter financial decisions.

Julie Adams: Absolutely.

Matt Lescault: That is value add.

Emily Madere: Yes, it most definitely is.

Julie Adams: Yeah. I mean it's it's about helping people. It's not about replacing them. Absolutely. And then um, we have that example. We also have an example. And Dan didn't really show it because I mean he had like two minutes right.

Julie Adams: Yeah. Right.

Matt Lescault: It was quick.

Julie Adams: It was it was really quick. But the um, another example of what we're and Aaron talked about it too in his keynote. So the, um, the other I example is actually in construction management [00:13:00] and it's around AI powered drawing management. So you have your 20 page drawing doc if you will. And we use AI to kind of burst it and then um, kind of extract data from it so that you can easily search and find the information you need. Um, and then we automatically when you have revisions on drawings, we kind of already kind of can tell like it's the revision on this particular page. You know, we just organize all of that for you. So [00:13:30] the idea, of course, is to make sure that everybody has access to the most accurate, most current drawings and they can find the information easily. And that is a huge money saver because a lot of errors and rework happen because they just didn't have the right information. Right. And so, um, that's another way in which AI is going to help the industry. It's not going to replace anybody. It's going to help them be much more effective [00:14:00] and efficient with what they're doing and have more profitable projects.

Matt Lescault: Well, in those complex jobs, there's so much detail in those drawings.

Matt Lescault: That have to be considered. And, you know, you have drawings for every vendor, you know, electrical, plumbing, you know, especially when you have new build that I can imagine that that really allows people to fact check their own takeoffs when they're when they're doing estimates on on that or.

Julie Adams: We have AI power takeoff too, by the way.

Matt Lescault: Oh okay.

Matt Lescault: Talk a little about that.

Julie Adams: So, um, it's basically, [00:14:30] uh, we we've embedded some, um, AI technology with a partner from ours to, uh, toggle AI. They've done some really interesting things. You could give it a bunch of blueprints, and then it kind of takes off all of the quantities, right? So, um, you know how many toilets and how many sinks and how many feet of pipe and all of that stuff, and it it digests that for you, but it's not enough to just say, hey, I do the work. It also enables, we've built it and embedded [00:15:00] in such a way that you can now look at it, the results, and then you can say, okay, wait, highlight the toilets and then you can see it light up. Or which you know what? Like how much square foot of carpet is it? And you can you can light it up so that you can basically make sure that it's all captured correctly. Cross reference. Right. Of course. And so and so that saves tons of time. I mean like before you were like people like these highly skilled people were like drawing, like tracing blueprints [00:15:30] in order to get the, get the, get the quantity takeoff to happen. So that's a huge time saver. And nobody goes to school to learn how to, like, draw, trace, trace blueprints. Right. That's not that's not what they, they, they want to do. That's not something that they find pleasure in doing. So having I do that grunt work is huge.

Matt Lescault: So what I find interesting here is. What what I is providing is just this more [00:16:00] competitive edge for anybody that's using intact.

Emily Madere: I agree, well, not just intact, of course, like the financial aspect of it, but what are you just talking about is guys out in the field?

Julie Adams: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So this is the pre-con space well beyond financials. And then the, um, the project managers that are out there. Right. And so we arm them with mobile devices so they can take pictures. They can do their daily logs, they can do their rfis all of that is captured. It gets communicated into [00:16:30] the office and all of the change management change requests, all of that happens. I mean, part of the scenario that we had painted was, hey, you have a guy out in the field, expect the unexpected. Something bad happened. They they found something crazy with the water table in the. And it was it's going to totally mess up their plans for how they were going to build that foundation. So takes a picture with the mobile device HCM on the mobile device creates an RFI. Project manager [00:17:00] brings it up. It gets alerted that there's new RFI, takes a look at it and he's like, oh my God, this is a big deal. I'm going to go and have my estimator work this up. So the estimator works it up again using all of that AI powered mid management. Figures out what that price will be. And then the notifies the project manager. Project manager takes a look at the estimate and says okay all right. Now I'm going to turn that into a change request. Send [00:17:30] it out for all of the signatures. Now it gets posted into finance. And now I have a revised estimate. And I can now effectively bill for for the work. And so much of revenue leakage comes from change orders that never ever make it into the system.

Matt Lescault: Or submitted.

Julie Adams: Or. Yes, exactly. And so, I mean, you know, it's still people. They still need to do the work. But what we want to do is make it super [00:18:00] easy. Let's reduce the friction so that they're going to, you know, get that information so that everyone could kind of be a part of the team to make sure that we're we're driving towards profitability.

Matt Lescault: Now, I would love to know if there's data on how much more competitive or how many more bids get won for from firms that use the Sage products versus firms that don't. And I didn't ask this question beforehand, so I'm not putting you on the spot to know that.

Julie Adams: You said no. Gotcha question.

Emily Madere: Yeah. [00:18:30]

Matt Lescault: That's why I said I'd love to know. Not. Yeah.

Julie Adams: No, I mean, we, I, I'm sure we have some stats. I don't have them off the top of my head, but like it is it is absolutely. I mean the ROI we have a we have an ROI and actually no, we we don't have aggregate stats, but we do have stats for specific customers. And we actually have an ROI calculator. If you think about if it lets you win one bid, right? Right.

Matt Lescault: Pays for itself, right?

Julie Adams: It more than pays. The ROI is astronomical, [00:19:00] and so it more than pays for the software. So, um, just one more bit. One more, you know, $2 million project, right? I mean, you're paying pennies.

Emily Madere: And your people are happier, too, because they're not having to do the spreadsheets and work in siloed workflows. Um, but we talked about a couple solutions here. So I just want our listeners to kind of get the full aspect of kind of the name of these products and what they're for. So at the top you have Sage Intacct financials.

Julie Adams: Sage Intacct construction financials, which [00:19:30] is, which is Sage Intacct. Yes. Construction specific, um, capabilities that are kind of bundled in there. And then, uh, for payroll, we have Sage Intacct construction payroll, um, and that, uh, is available as part of our intent suite. But we also have a whole set of partner community around construction payroll if you want to do some co-sourcing or outsourcing of payroll. All of those are options available for you. And then on the pre-con space, we have, um, [00:20:00] we have, uh, Sage, uh, estimating. And that comes bundled with like some very rich, richly featured estimating capabilities, together with, um, a bid management, AI powered bid management that all comes together in the estimating solution. And then we have Sage construction Management, which helps you manage leads um, through to awarded projects. And then it has a whole set of capabilities to deliver [00:20:30] projects including a mobile device, time capture. You know, you can do the rfis daily reports on in on the mobile device. Uh, it has a whole browser interface for managing projects as well. And it, um, and then it also has the financial, uh, uh, tie because a lot of these change orders. Right. They come and get initiated in the field by project management.

Julie Adams: And then that's where it all kind of flows [00:21:00] with the back end in terms of finance. So those are kind of the main components of what we offer. If you go into sub verticals we have additional modules. So if you go into the specialty contractor space we have Sage field operations. So these are for subcontractors that also do service. So your mechanical electrical plumbing contractors right. So they do construction but they also do work orders. And so we have a whole service module that is available to [00:21:30] that particular subvertical for real estate developers. They they manage properties. Right. So we have Sage Intacct real estate which helps you manage property leases. Um, and then we have, uh, let me see. And then we have some partners like for GCS, like the estimating solution that we have, the deep estimating solution that has a lot of attach in the GC space. Residential, they kind of look a little bit like a mix of GC and and [00:22:00] specialty contractors. So you know, they they leverage those solutions. And we have some really interesting partnerships that we're building on for the civil heavy highway space.

Emily Madere: Yeah, I've had a lot of those interesting conversations this week.

Julie Adams: Oh.

Emily Madere: Have you. Yeah. I, um I remember their name. Um, I took notes on them, but they, they. That's the space in which. Yes, yes.

Julie Adams: They're doing some really cool stuff.

Emily Madere: They were.

Julie Adams: Yeah. So we're we are um, we're we're partners with Tractics [00:22:30] and Civil Heavy Highway. That kind of operational solution is very, very different than what you use for vertical construction. So it's, uh, they're a great partner for us to get into that space. And they, they really they are also, uh, they're startup, but they have, um, built it from the ground up for the cloud. Right? So born in the cloud solution. And a lot of solutions that are out there are um, uh, not as modern, right? [00:23:00]

Matt Lescault: Legacy.

Emily Madere: Yeah.

Julie Adams: Not as modern. So, um, there's a lot of excitement in our partnership with Tractics to go after civil.

Matt Lescault: So as much as you can share, what can we expect kind of in the future, in the next, in the next iterations of of the releases coming up?

Emily Madere: Yeah. There's been a lot of new functionality in all the releases thus far.

Julie Adams: Yeah, absolutely. So I mean, if you think about it in three ways or three key themes, take a look at everything that we [00:23:30] offer across all of our pillars. Um, I always tell people they're like, well, what are you going to be done with this? And I'm like, we're never done.

Emily Madere: Yeah.

Julie Adams: I mean, the roadmap goes on and on and on. And so it really is about. Yeah. I mean, think about Sage Intacct. How long has it been in market? Are we done? Are we done yet? No we're not. We have a quite an extensive roadmap. So it really is about taking all of our key modules that we offer today and just making them richer, [00:24:00] deeper, um, responding to the customer feedback, responding to our, our, our partner feedback, and just going deeper and making them easier to use, um, and solve more problems. And then the other aspect of what we're really focused on is making sure that, um, we're building out functionality that really connects and aligns everybody, not only within the company, but also across [00:24:30] company boundaries. So there's functional barriers within a company, your pre-con guys and your operations guys and your finance guys. Right. You need to get them to be on the same page. And so how do we create that common alignment, enable collaboration between them so that they're always working together and on the same page. So that's one element of connection. Then the other element of connection is across companies. [00:25:00] It's hard to connect across functions within the same company.

Julie Adams: But now you take it in construction. By definition you're talking about cross company, right? Like there's no project, you know, like there's no construction project where you don't have multiple specialties coming in there. Right? And like the GC like it's it's a complicated thing. And so, um, how do you enable Cross Company. And so we have things like, um team [00:25:30] link portals, we have things like um pay apps, we have um, things where we're starting to connect finance um, to sureties. Right. And automating some of that. So there's a whole set of innovations that we're doing to kind of cross company connections, if you will, and cross company workflow enablement. So connect is the second major theme. So go deep connect and then innovate. And the innovate is [00:26:00] really all of those amazing technologies like AI Copilot like how do they how yeah they're buzzwords, but how do they really end up in our solutions to solve problems that our customers have? And so, um, that is another very big theme of where we're focused and what we're investing in and what we're building out a lot.

Emily Madere: Yeah, yeah, it is a lot.

Julie Adams: Yeah, it is a lot. We have a great team. Um, [00:26:30] you know, like I said, we have a lot of construction chops, if you will, in Sage. Um, I'm relatively new to construction. Um, but my team is absolutely amazing. They are just, uh, they're they're amazing. And so, um, they're they're, uh, they're executing on all cylinders across all of those different pillars.

Matt Lescault: So help me out. You said it. You're new into the construction space. That's right. Where were you focused before? When did you come?

Julie Adams: I came to Sage [00:27:00] through the intact acquisition, and I was running product management across verticals. And about three, four years ago, um, I think I switched roles. And instead of being more on the function of product management, I switched to a focus on construction and real estate as a, as a business unit. And so now my role is around owning the multiple, um, the product portfolio, um, product [00:27:30] management and engineering and delivery and then really working cross-functionally with our partners and with our go to market teams, and to really build the business and make sure that we're building things and working with them. Cross-functionally to grow the construction and real estate business.

Matt Lescault: I mean what I find exciting and I'm making assumptions here, but I always thought that that construction was one of the more complex accounting. It [00:28:00] is industries.

Julie Adams: Yes.

Matt Lescault: And that I was fortunate enough to be in that, in that sort of gave me the basis for learning multiple.

Julie Adams: Yes. That's what you were. Yeah.

Matt Lescault: Yeah, yeah. Um, and some of the capabilities that you've been building in the Cree, I'm excited for how that could be deployed into other.

Julie Adams: Oh, absolutely.

Matt Lescault: Or industries with within the ecosystem.

Julie Adams: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that that's really the power of how we've built construction Sage Intacct construction for Sage Intacct construction financials. It's on the Intacct [00:28:30] platform. So what that means is all the investments that we're making in Intacct financials, our construction customers, they get it. Okay. All the innovations that we're building into Intacct before construction, we are leveraging and able to leverage what we're investing across the different verticals. That makes where it makes sense, because it's not like there's there's the things that we're doing in construction [00:29:00] can be applied to other industries.

Emily Madere: And so so you're not siloing.

Julie Adams: No, we're not siloing. And that's the power. It's like, you know, the power of all of that investment going into that one platform. Um, it's it's a it's a multiplier, if you will.

Matt Lescault: And that's exciting for me.

Emily Madere: Yeah. No, I, I 100% agree. I think, uh, you know, construction is one of the fastest growing, you know, places where intact can solve for. And and I definitely see that out in the market selling construction. Um, so I think this is just it's very exciting. [00:29:30] But we've asked you a lot of questions. Um, and I kind of want to ask you some ones that, like, necessarily aren't into your construction, um, as we wrap up. Um, so we're at Sage future. So what's your what's your favorite swag that you've received this week?

Julie Adams: Gosh, I didn't get any swag. You got swag.

Emily Madere: They were.

Julie Adams: How Did I miss that? No, I didn't get any.

Emily Madere: Okay, well, we don't want to get that big.

Matt Lescault: Well, hold on, hold on. It's not swag, but we do have a present for you. Yes. So this will be your first one.

Julie Adams: Oh, right.

Matt Lescault: This is a cookie. [00:30:00] Oh, excellent. That we do the QR code there is for. For the podcast. It actually works. All right. The cookie is not just pretty. It is a very good cookie. One of our team members that's here at Future bakes these for us.

Julie Adams: Oh, fantastic.

Julie Adams: So you know what my favorite swag is?

Emily Madere: Oh.

Emily Madere: The cookie. Yes.

Julie Adams: There you go.

Matt Lescault: I love it.

Emily Madere: So one of my favorite questions to ask my clients people on the podcast is like, what does your family think you do at work?

Julie Adams: Oh my gosh. You know, [00:30:30] I, um, I think they think I'm just as bossy.

Matt Lescault: I'm not going.

Matt Lescault: To touch that one.

Julie Adams: Yeah, I have no idea what they think. Oh, my. My older son, he thinks that we're Were like, I is super dangerous.

Julie Adams: Okay. He's like.

Julie Adams: What are you doing, mom? AI what A Are you serious? Like so he has a I don't know, maybe he's been watching Terminator [00:31:00] too much or something.

Matt Lescault: Can I ask how old he is?

Julie Adams: He is. He just graduated from high school.

Matt Lescault: Oh, congratulations.

Emily Madere: About to go to college.

Julie Adams: Yes he is.

Emily Madere: That's that's.

Emily Madere: Exciting. Exciting time for anybody.

Matt Lescault: That's a that's a that's a change in in dynamic for the household.

Julie Adams: Yes it is. And I'm really not ready for him to.

Julie Adams: Leave to be.

Julie Adams: Honest, I really am not. But yeah I guess it has to happen.

Emily Madere: It has to happen.

Emily Madere: Ask your ask your family what they think you do. I'm telling you, you're going to get some interesting answers.

Julie Adams: Oh yeah. No, no, they know I do [00:31:30] something with computers.

Emily Madere: And okay that's enough that's close enough.

Julie Adams: Ah.So.

Emily Madere: So we've asked you a lot of questions. Do you have any questions for us?

Julie Adams: Um, what was your what was your favorite part of Sage future?

Emily Madere: How would you go? First? Let me think about that.

Matt Lescault: I mean, I said this to Dan. He asked the same question.

Matt Lescault: Um,

Emily Madere: Yeah. You'll ask the same question.

Julie Adams: How unoriginal of me. [00:32:00]

Matt Lescault: No no no no no no, it's.

Matt Lescault: Look, there's there's so many relationships that as partners, we maintain. And being able to be here and meet people face to face. And I think this is the first time I'm meeting you. Um, at Sage. Obviously, we've met each other last night. Not just at this table. Um, but, uh, really, uh, really getting to build on those relationships and having that face time, you know, uh, teams or zoom or whatever platform you use [00:32:30] to, to do virtual meetings is a great tool, but you're still it's it's not the same thing. You don't you don't get to have that those moments, those connection moments as much. Um, and so for me, it has really been driving down, uh, driving down those relationships and getting the Given the opportunity, I might like to talk as.

Emily Madere: That's what he's saying. He's saying he likes to talk. I actually really enjoyed the, uh, the Discovery Center Sage Discovery Center last night.

Julie Adams: Oh, cool.

Matt Lescault: Oh, yea that was. [00:33:00]

Emily Madere: Yeah, that was pretty cool. So for our listeners, we we toured the Discovery Center here in Ponte City, Atlanta.

Julie Adams: The Sage discovery.

Emily Madere: Sage Discovery Center.

Emily Madere: And it was really cool. They talked a lot about sustainability and how they they built the building with sustainability in mind. Um, and it's a really cool spot for, I think, customers and prospects to learn more about Sage.

Matt Lescault: It's a very engaging, uh, area with, with all those screens that can really talk towards the customer experience and everything else. I had a great time last night with that.

Julie Adams: And yeah.

Matt Lescault: I [00:33:30] really enjoyed getting a chance to meet you and some of the other, uh, other people.

Julie Adams: It was a good mixer.

Emily Madere: Yeah. And they had Riesling, which most events don't have. Riesling, but I'm a big fan.

Julie Adams: Okay. Awesome. All right. Great.

Emily Madere: Okay. Um, well, we like to end the podcast with a dad joke.

Julie Adams: Oh. Okay.

Emily Madere: Do you happen to not have?

Julie Adams: I'm terrible with jokes.

Emily Madere: Okay.

Emily Madere: I'm terrible with jokes too. But in the in the season of I, I asked ChatGPT to give me a construction joke and so they [00:34:00] gave me quite a few. Okay. What's a construction workers favorite type of music?

Matt Lescault: Rock and roll.

Emily Madere: Close. Heavy metal.

Julie Adams: Heavy metal, oh rock and roll. Both of those would be good answers.

Emily Madere: They were good. They were good.

Matt Lescault: I don't usually get a good answer. I'm usually like uhh

Emily Madere: Yeah, I'm like I don't know either

Julie Adams: Like I was.

Matt Lescault: That's about, you know, every other episode.

Julie Adams: Okay.

Emily Madere: Well listeners, thank you so much for listening. Thank you, Julie, for being on the [00:34:30] podcast.

Julie Adams: Yeah, it was fun.

Emily Madere: Matt. Always thanks for yapping.