Feb 19, 2016

Welcome to the 2016 IFA Convention and the New FranConnect!

Written by Christopher Fountain

Welcome to all as we kick off IFA 2016. As I started to think about the next few days in San Antonio and the announcements we will be making, it triggered some reminiscing on my part about the past 12 months.

Since joining FranConnect in early 2015, the first thing on my agenda was to get on the road and meet one on one with our customers. It was important for me to have a strong understanding as to what drives our customers’ business and how FranConnect can continue to be both an innovative software provider and a strategic partner.

I had a series of “a-ha” moments during my travels that triggered the decisive move for FranConnect to consolidate and rebrand itself. And, as I waited for my flights in airports across the country, I found myself asking – while trying to define business success in a changing world  how do I lead FranConnect into the future? What I do know for certain is that we are living through a period of rapidly changing technology, which is creating many new opportunities. This requires companies, like ours, to be more innovative and customer focused than ever.

Over the course of many months, I had numerous engaging and insightful conversations with our customers and other franchise businesses; here’s a compacted summary of the things I heard:

  • Unit growth, franchisee engagement, and unit performance are our customers’ top priority.
  • Many companies’ current tools fall short, resulting in frustration around managing, tracking, and reporting on their businesses.
  • The desire for technology solutions that have more out-of-the-box functionality that is built specifically for franchising and evolves without requiring re-implementation is very high.
  • It is critical to maintain an open dialogue to ensure we continue to deliver products and services that our customers value.

Collectively, through my conversations and the many other conversations our team members have had with leading franchise businesses, we responded by developing a new product that leverages our long history and synthesizes what we heard. Today, we are unveiling FranConnect Sky, our new cloud-based enterprise franchise management software product designed exclusively for franchise businesses. There is a wealth of information about this exciting product available in our booth at the IFA Convention (Booth #439) and at www.FranConnect.com.

As we come together at IFA, I personally look forward to seeing everyone and having the opportunity to introduce you to FranConnect Sky.

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About the author

Christopher Fountain

Christopher Fountain, CFE, is the CEO of FranConnect. He has an extensive track record of leading and growing privately held information technology companies in both the United States and the United Kingdom. During his 25+ year career, Chris has successfully led efforts that include raising capital, recruiting high performance teams, completing successful mergers and acquisitions, actively serving on corporate boards and serving as a senior executive through the IPO process. As FranConnect’s CEO, Chris leads all aspects of operations and strategy for a team 250+ employees who serve more than 600 brands and their associated 110,000 plus franchisees.