Konnect17 – a two-day customer conference held recently for users of K8 software – was the best-attended Kerridge Commercial Systems (KCS) customer conference yet, with 35% more customers present than at last year’s event.

More than 200 merchants and distributor customers attended the conference, learning about the various updates and changes to the company’s software. Visitors learned that 34,000 man-days had been invested by the company in developing the latest version of K8, with a focus on producing solutions such as apps that make it easier for their customers to engage with them.

Delegates also heard that people who have only ever worked in a digital environment are merchants’ fastest growing customer group, who expect to compare products, fill in forms and place click and collect orders on their smartphones.

Andrew Wilkinson, European sales director at KCS, said: “One of the key messages for our customers to take away was that in challenging trading environments, they can rely on K8 and the KCS team to support their businesses – and that we’re here to ensure they get the most out of their investment in our solutions. It was very satisfying to have so many customers engaging with us, sharing their success stories, and hearing how K8 has become central to their interconnected business systems strategy.”

New K8 features announced at the event included enhanced reporting dashboards, warehouse management features and mobile delivery solutions, as well as an on-line e-learning system.