Meet Eric Ware, VP of Product

What is your role??

The short answer is, I’m guiding the future of our product lines.??

I joined Anvil in June 2022 to lead the product and development teams that develop the applications and features found our solutions, from vision though launch. I enhance our product strategy and define what’s coming next. Additionally, I provide experience that adds color to our organizational processes, helping solidify our foundation in a way that will allow us stable growth, for which I am truly excited.

Why did you join Anvil??

I have a lot of experience in the market that Anvil’s solutions focus on today, and I’m knowledgeable in the areas that our customers look to us for help in. With my background in software and how it can help solve companies’ woes, as well as in-depth experience in software development and lifecycle management planning, this is a big part of the answer, but not the entire reason. I absolutely love being a part of and witnessing technology being leveraged to help an organization perform better. This is what Anvil App Works does, and that’s why I joined Anvil.??

What excites you most about this opportunity??

Helping our customers and our future customers grow. Anvil App Works is great for the agricultural dealership market that we started in. However, our solutions can extend beyond it, and I’m excited to see what other opportunities we explore as part of our journey.?

What makes you unique in your profession??

I don’t think it makes me absolutely unique, but I think my background is important. While I’ve spent a lot of time in IT, I didn’t start here. Very early in my professional career, IT was taking off and organizations needed people willing to learn. I took advantage of that and it gave me was a good mix of technical skill and know-how, but I still relate and communicate with those that are not in tech.?

What Anvil feature is most overlooked??

Anvil Messenger, which is our text messaging feature. I’m surprised it’s not used more often. It gives dealers the ability to text customers from within their system and keeps a record of those communications. It’s a very powerful feature that allows?our dealers to?reach?their customers through?the?preferred?method of communication?for?a lot of people today.?

In our next release, we are implementing a feature that gives our partners the ability to send invoices to their customers via text, and offers the ability to pay those invoices directly from their phone.????

Can you share a sneak peek of any new features??

Inventory tracking. We’re rolling out a feature that will allow inventory managers to?go out on the lot with their phone, scan the serial number on a piece of equipment and mark its location on the lot using GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Mapping. So, when sales or service reps look up a piece of equipment, they’ll not only know all the information about it, but they’ll also know the last place it was scanned on their lot.?

We’re also expanding our integration packages to work with more back-end systems. Our intent is to have Anvil’s software ready to plug into any back-end system. We understand that each dealership is unique, and some have limitations with their business systems. Our solution is built to help, regardless of their current system restraints. If their system can fully integrate, wonderful, if not, we can set up Anvil a standalone or hybrid system.???

Describe your passions outside of the office.

I’m very family oriented. I’m a ginormous Chicago Cubs fan. I love travelling, mostly in the U.S. And, I love music — both playing and going to live events. I play guitar, bass, mandolin, banjo, lap steel and Irish bazookie. My musical genres are all over the board from hard rock, metal to deep backwoods bluegrass. I’m also working on visiting each MLB stadium and will maybe even write a book about it.???

Do you follow any specific blogs or podcasts?

I don’t really follow any specific blog, podcast or person. But when I’m learning something, I just start digging and immerse myself in the topic. It really depends on what I’m interested in at the moment. I do enjoy listening to?Tasting History?with Max Miller. He finds a historical dish and recipe and figures out how to make it. I find that fascinating.?

What is an important skill or trait to have to succeed??

Determination. For anything you have to be committed in what you’re set out to do.?