Like Sew Will Support TRS Indefinitely

Q&A with Robert Pirone

I've been working in technical support and call centers for just over 30 years. My first two jobs were with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA and the Walt Disney Company. I worked at both places for 10 years each. 5 years into my time at Disney, I married my wife and became a son in law of two amazing parents that owned a Quilting and Sewing store in Pasadena, CA called Bearly Stitchin. As a son in law with computer experience I was asked to help with all things computers and that meant helping with new Point of Sale software they were purchasing from JMM Software. My in laws purchased TRS at version 6. My wife also started her own business in the industry making sewing workbooks and quilt patterns. I would travel with my wife and in laws to some of the conventions and even was fortunate to take three incentive trips. During that time I met many other sewing machine dealers that had been friends with my wife's family for many years. They became my friends as well. In August of 2006, I received an email from Joe Martinez at JMM Software asking me to come and work for JMM Software. I said yes, and 10 years later here we are.

I really enjoy the relationships that I have built with people over 10 years. The people I help, I have helped over and over again through the years. Almost every call, every email is talking to someone that I've built some form of a relationship with. They've heard me at my best and occasionally at my worst. We've shared our lives together, we've laughed with each other and we've comforted each other when there is sorrow, we've prayed together, and we've rejoiced together. The people I help aren't just customers that I help, they've become my friends.

Unfortunately most people don't know the back story about the acquisitions and therefore many people think Like Sew tried to bury their competition. I know a good deal of the back story relating to JMM Software. I can honestly tell everyone more likely than not, that JMM would have struggled to continue into the near future had Like Sew not acquired it. Unfortunately the timing wasn't the best as a number of features were not in the Like Sew product. I know that the development team is working relentlessly to add features into the Like Sew Point of Sale. With over 20 years of experience in the software industry I can tell you first hand that development takes time. It's amazing how easy people think it would be to program a feature they want, when in reality it's not. Even what would seem like the simplest of features takes time.

Yes. One of the things that was always a pain with TRS was we had some ideas for great features. Our developer would program those features into TRS and then we'd have to wait until we did the next major release of the software. Even though we wanted to come out with major releases every year it would normally take 2 to 3 years. That meant that those features were just sitting around waiting not being used. Also, once a major release did happen if someone did not pay to get the new upgrade they didn't get any of the new features. Worse yet, if someone didn't pay to get the new upgrade then any bug fixes that were released they did not get as well. The great thing about the cloud based software that Like Sew uses is that once a feature or bug fix is ready it's pushed out and everyone has immediate access to it. All customers are running the same software. Quite honestly it also makes support a lot easier. With TRS at times I had to support old versions of software that I'd never even seen before. With Like Sew, the support staff is always dealing with the same software day in and day out. The other really great advantage to the cloud based model that Like Sew uses is for people that are running both the Point of Sale and Website products. With Like Sew both of those products are talking to the same database. Over the last two years, TRS had been working with Websites for Quilters to make TRS talk to people’s websites, but in that scenario there were actually three databases involved. TRS and Website for Quilters both had their own databases and each of them would talk to a man in the middle database. It makes for all kinds of errors and issues. Also, when there is a problem, sometimes it can become a finger pointing exercise on the back end with each of the support departments. In the end the cloud based model is much more efficient and really helps stores get their products online and in front of both new and existing customers.