Inside the ISV Community: “Our Developers are 20% More Productive” Working Virtually

The RSPA Niche & Startup ISV Community helps software developer executives meet and network with fellow RSPA ISV members in a vendor-neutral setting. Founded in 2019, the group has grown to nearly 90 members.

By: RSPA Niche & Startup ISV Community

The RSPA Niche & Startup ISV Community has quickly become where ISVs gather online, with dozens of software developer executives connecting every 6-8 weeks via video conference call. And RetailNOW has become the place where ISVs gather in person, with a record-setting 320+ software developer executives attending this year’s show, a 40% jump from RetailNOW 2021. Nearly half of the exhibitors on the RetailNOW 2022 show floor were software-focused, and many of them attended the first-ever Niche & Startup ISV Community Reception which kicked off the conference Sunday night. 

Another RetailNOW first was a four-session education track dedicated to ISV leaders. Those sessions included: 

  • ISV Opportunities and Challenges in Today’s Market featuring Danny Mikhail of Zuza, Jason Richelson of Bookkeep, Jeremy Julian of CBS NorthStar, and Nadav Solomon of Tabit 
  • What ISVs and VARs Can Learn from the Launch of Apple Pay with Jon Decker of BlockChyp 
  • Creating Innovative Technology for Companies with Scale with Brian Booth of Enroll & Pay 
  • Challenges of a Virtual/Hybrid Workplace and How to Overcome Them featuring Brett Bennett of POSitive Technology/OpSuite, Jeff Riley of Retail Management Hero, Richard Rotbard of SOOP, and Rick Feuling of RITE Enterprises/Cloud Retailer 

Here are some of the top quotes from that final panel about the challenges of hybrid workplaces: 

  • “Focus on people, systems, and processes when setting up a virtual work culture. And people are the most important. They have to have initiative.” Riley 
  • “We’re constantly evaluating the value proposition we’re offering to our employees. It’s harder in a hybrid environment to know if they’re happy or not.” Bennett 
  • “The key word I’m hearing is ‘deliberate.’ You have to be deliberate as a leader to know the career goals of all your people. If you don’t know their goals, how can you be aligned with them?” Feuling 
  • “Virtual work can be better simply because there’s much less gossiping.” Riley  
  • “Simplify your systems, simplify your thinking when you shift to virtual. Then document those systems and procedures — there’s no learning by osmosis anymore.” Bennett 
  • “We were forced to go virtual years ago because of snowstorms and hurricanes. You can’t lose half your support team helping customers just because they can’t make it into the office.” Rotbard 
  • “The key is hiring the right personality and mindset. You can teach everything else.” Riley 
  • “The bargain between employee and employer is different today.” Feuling 
  • “With a virtual work environment, I’d say our developers are 20% more productive.” Bennett 

To join or sponsor the RSPA Niche & Startup ISV Community, email Membership@GoRSPA.org.