At the recent D-Tools User Conference in Atlanta, outgoing CEO Randy Stearns and incoming CEO G Paul Hess sat for an interactive Town Hall discussion that covered a wide range of topics. The duo answered questions from the audience on key subjects including the future product roadmap and the general economic outlook for 2026.
During the lively session, they set the table for the next two days of thought leadership at the conference, which had a crowd of nearly 150 industry professionals gathered at the Renaissance Midtown Atlanta hotel for three days from February 25-27.
“Let me take a brief look at the broader environment we’re all operating in today. I think it is always an important backdrop,” said Stearns. “We’ve come through COVID, supply-chain disruptions, and tariffs, and for the most part it seems that the turbulence is behind us.”
He continued, “The economic backdrop is rock solid from where I stand. Gowth is healthy, inflation has cooled, and corporate profits are exceptional… the stock market is showing those results. Innovations like AI and robotics are driving real productivity gains in businesses across the world and in the marketplace. Labor is a bit soft right now, but that actually plays in our favor at times. I am super optimistic about 2026—and, frankly, the next few years. I think it is going to be a really good run for us and for the rest of you as well. So hopefully you are acknowledging the business climate that we are in today and taking advantage of that.”
Bringing it down to a more micro level with D-Tools, Stearns noted that the company’s performance has been strong.
"We added nearly 500 new customers last year. It's a big number." -- Randy Stearns, D-Tools
“Last year we set an aggressive growth goal and we beat it handily. We added nearly 500 new customers last year. It’s a big number,” commented Stearns, noting that growth of that size has become “par for the course” for D-Tools. He added that the company’s recurring revenue growth over the past decade is up more than 1,000%.
“Really strong, steady growth over the past 10 years, and we are really happy with where the business sits today. Our products are getting better and better. Our team is getting larger and stronger, and in general D-Tools is in a great place,” added Stearns.
G Paul Hess Discusses AI
Following his opening remarks on the state of the industry and the company, Stearns spoke briefly about his previously announced upcoming retirement.
“Many of you have seen the news about the leadership transition in process here at D-Tools,” he noted. “I have been running businesses now for 32 years, the last 10 at the helm of D-Tools, which has honestly been my favorite chapter. Now feels like the right moment for me to downshift a bit—spending more time savoring precious moments with my 8-year-old daughter, and moving towards a less rigorous pace. That’s a big change for me, and I’m grateful to all of you for making this chapter of my career so incredibly meaningful.”
With that, Stearns introduced new CEO G Paul Hess, who took the stage to briefly run through his history in the industry, which started as an integrator using D-Tools software decades ago. He then transitioned to the supplier side, holding key roles at both Elan, SnapAV/Snap One and ADI. He outlined the key position that D-Tools plays in the industry.
“D-Tools has a unique role to play. We're in a position to help the industry improve workflow efficiency and deliver industry‑level insights,” said Hess. “Many dealers today are juggling a stack of tools: CRM, ERP, project management, accounting, service tickets, and more. None of that is wrong, but when those systems don't talk to each other, your workflows get fragmented.
"The gap between teams that embrace AI and modern workflows and teams that don't is going to widen quickly. The time to lean into AI is now. -- G Paul Hess, D-Tools
“Our job at D-Tools is to build a platform and a workflow to help you create proposals that are both profitable and competitive, to give you the visibility and insight to make better decisions, and the standardization to execute those decisions efficiently.”
Hess noted that the advent of AI across the industry has been staggering… especially in the past three months.
“The gap between teams that embrace AI and modern workflows and teams that don't is going to widen quickly. The time to lean into AI is now,” he said to the crowd of nearly 150 industry professionals.
During the Q&A session, questions from the group covered topics such as the feature parity of D-Tools System Integrator (SI) and D-Tools Cloud, when and if integrators should consider using both platforms, and why D-Tools does not parse out its features so that integrators can pay individually for them versus making the entire feature set available for a licensee.