Harmony at TUG CONNECTS 2026

The past year has seen lots of developments in AI/LLM tooling for software development that dramatically improve productivity. At Expertek, we’ve been building coding agent AI tooling and workflows for CSD extensions and backend systems. In this presentation, we will do a walkthrough on what tools are available, and how to get the most value coding agents. The discussion will include an overview of “harness” development, skills, and pitfalls to avoid.

Holly Horner from Central Pro Supply shares the measurable impact Phocas has had across her distribution business — from recovering missed rebate dollars and improving margin visibility, to elevating sales performance and identifying entirely new revenue categories. Along the way, she'll share how Phocas helped transform Central Pro Supply into a data-driven organization where every department speaks the same language.

When Central Pro implemented Phocas Rebates, they quickly discovered they had never reached their second rebate band with a key vendor — and used that visibility to renegotiate better terms. They also began shifting purchasing between manufacturers based on rebate positioning, turning what used to be a passive annual check into an active margin strategy.

On the sales side, reps now walk into customer meetings armed with buying history and insights from Phocas, acting as trusted advisors rather than order-takers. One rep independently used Phocas to identify his best late-season ice melt customers and built a proactive outreach plan entirely on his own.

The impact goes beyond day-to-day performance. By spotting an emerging pattern in their sales data, Central Pro made the strategic decision to hire a dedicated drainage team — opening up an entirely new revenue stream that simply wouldn't have been visible without Phocas.

Turtle partnered with Americaneagle.com to drive alignment and momentum across a connected set of ecommerce, ERP, CRM, and marketing initiatives. This session will show how Turtle's leadership team turned a defined set of priorities into a practical roadmap focused on measurable near-term progress, ROI visibility, and phased execution.

You will see how stakeholder workshops, site audits, backlog prioritization, and business-case framing created clarity, built internal alignment, and defined funded next steps. This session is designed for organizations managing multiple technology initiatives and building the business case for where to invest first.

In this session we will have a conversation with the leadership team at Tropic Supply regarding their technology journey, their drive to modernize operations both internally and for their customers, and the challenges and successes that they’ve experienced along the way. In addition, we will discuss how this multi-generational, family owned business is leveraging the Kodaris platform to simplify their tech footprint and reduce costs, while driving a tier-1 experience for their customers that competes with the enterprise distributors investing millions into their tech strategy.


Three Take Aways:

• A real-world modernization story: Hear directly from Tropic Supply's leadership team about their technology journey, including the challenges and successes they've experienced while modernizing operations internally and for their customers.
• Competing with the enterprise: Discover how Tropic Supply is leveraging Kodaris to deliver a tier-1 customer experience that competes with enterprise distributors investing millions into their technology strategy.
• Doing more with less: Learn how this multi-generational, family owned business is using the Kodaris platform to simplify their tech footprint and reduce costs without sacrificing capability.

A fast-moving synthesis of the day's most important conversations — surfacing common threads, calling out the tensions worth carrying forward, and closing with one ask of every leader in the room: what's the one commitment you're taking back to your organization? We'll also share how TUG will carry your feedback directly to Infor's product and executive teams before the next summit.