Practical AI for real business results, the Phocas AI vision

At Phocas, we've always believed that data should empower everyone. Our mission is to make people feel good about data, and our AI strategy is a natural extension of that commitment. We're building on our foundation of strong integrations and intuitive user interfaces, now amplified by the transformative power of artificial intelligence, to help manufacturing, distribution and retail businesses run even more efficiently.

Technology trends come and go and for the founder and CEO of Phocas, Myles Glashier has been privy to many hype cycles. But Glashier along with many other technology leaders believes AI is different because “it has teeth”.

“The sheer talent, investment and effort being poured into this field promises incredible advancements. At Phocas, we're harnessing this potential to simplify and multiply the way customers can work, delivering tangible benefits that directly impact the bottom line,” explains Myles.

Phocas is uniquely positioned to revolutionize how distributors, manufacturers and retailers use data to run their businesses better. We grew up with these businesses so know their data, systems and understand their ongoing challenges, which we continue to address in our software design.

We launched Phocas AI last year, a natural language query in Analytics to 40,000 users globally.

This AI feature lets all users ask questions about top customers, sales performance and product trends and get instant insights. This feature is highly beneficial for new users as they learn the software as they go. Phocas AI outlines the steps taken to obtain concise answers, creating a fast-learning curve for newbies to sales analysis.

What is a large language model?

For those who are unsure of large language models (LLM), they are a type of pattern matching algorithm that has been trained on vast datasets from the internet or specific information. This massive scale of training allows them to recognize intricate patterns and relationships, enabling them to understand and generate human-like text and answer complex questions. Essentially, they build a deep understanding of language by processing and learning from an unprecedented volume of information, which is a key factor in their ability to understand complex natural language queries.

In practical terms, LLMs are changing how we interact with and process information, especially large volumes of data. By understanding the nuances of language and the context embedded within massive datasets, they can automate tasks that previously required human intervention, such as summarizing documents, extracting key information, or, as in our case, we are currently training the Phocas LLM to interpret sales results and input complex rebate rules. This ability to sift through and comprehend immense amounts of data drastically reduces manual effort and minimizes errors, allowing business people to focus on more high value work.

Why data matters in AI?

Trustworthy data is the backbone of artificial intelligence. Garbage in, garbage out remains a basic truth and AI is only as effective as the data it’s built on. For business people to make reliable decisions, they need a robust data infrastructure that ensures accuracy, consistency and real-time updates of all their business data.

Phocas began with our foundational Analytics product many years ago as we knew data was the backbone to business success. Since then the importance of data has grown exponentially like our product offering.

Phocas effectively integrates and consolidates customers' data helping to solve one of the most significant challenges businesses face which is fragmented data or data silos. Many organizations store information across multiple systems, making it difficult to bring them all together to get a complete and accurate picture. Phocas has worked for years to streamline this process by integrating with over 200 data sources, including ERP systems that are central to manufacturing, distribution and retail.

Our integration processes ensure that all relevant databases in Phocas update automatically whenever the source data changes. As a result, business users always work with the most current information.

But data consolidation isn’t just about aggregation, it’s also about data quality. Phocas uses rigorous data cleaning processes to eliminate duplicates and standardize formats, ensuring consistency and reliability every day. This commitment to data accuracy is rare in the AI world but essential. It means that our customers can trust their AI insights.

Proactive sales “Insights” with automated action plans

This year Phocas will offer a new AI enabled product called Insights, a game-changer for inside sales teams across manufacturing, distribution and retail. Salespeople will log in to Phocas each day to access their personalized action plan—showing them who to sell to and what to sell—driven by their latest sales data, product trends, and customer buying behavior. They won’t need to drill into the data as Phocas will serve up the insights they need, when they need them, enabling them to proactively manage your customers.

We're also leveraging our large language model to automate data input for rebate rules, streamlining a traditionally time-consuming and complex process. This is just the beginning. We're committed to automating the busy work, freeing up your team to focus on communicating with customers and ensuring they reach their rebate targets.

AI agents set to augment and transform your workforce

Looking ahead, AI Agents will be purpose-built for specific use cases, beginning with sales—where they'll turn insights into actions . The AI agents will sit above the LLM. Agents extend your capabilities by augmenting—or even replacing—manual data tasks, enabling you to achieve more with fewer resources and potentially reducing headcount costs. Again, this is about empowering your team by offering new ways to complete necessary but time-consuming tasks such as sending emails, inputting data or ordering stock.

We are building the future of AI solutions together with our customers and partners. Our open platform and APIs offer businesses the flexibility to connect and extend Phocas in ways that best suit their needs There are hundreds of applications for AI agents across your industries. They can help reduce downtime and improve quality control in manufacturing, streamline inventory management in distribution and personalize customer service in retail.

Phocas is not just a BI and FP&A software provider; we're a trusted partner that knows the manufacturing, distribution and retail sectors well. We are dedicated to making data accessible and user-friendly, with AI as a key tool for future success in the industries we serve. Our goal is to deliver practical AI solutions that provide measurable business results.