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Monetate rebuilds

"It's fun when your software development is working"

Monetate, the Conshohocken-based retailing software maker, held its sixth yearly customer "Summit" at the Loews on Market St. in Center City this week. Focus this year was "on users," says boss Lucinda Duncalfe, a past comrade of Monetate cofounder Dave Brussin (from TurnTide days in the early 2000s) before she took the top job two years ago with a mandate to clean house and refocus the business.

On display were big corporate clients like Office Depot, currently rethinking its online strategies since its planned sale to online leader Staples blew up (after Office Depot had closed scores of stores). "They are one of our most advanced users, in Euorpe and the U.S.," Duncalfe Holt says. "It is a tough business and they have great interest in optimizing" mobile and online sales.

Also Kate Spade (women's accessories), which says it's trying to reproduce that in-store feel and experience away from the store.

"We were one of the first firms in our industry to retrench," and have rebuilt the tech development group under an open platform, Duncalfe Holt told me. The team, under veteran chief archtitect Jeff Persch, now includes principal architect Brian O'Neill, a health-systems veteran, and managing v.p. Eric St. Jean. (Corrected)

"It's fun when software development is working," the boss says. Not outsourced? "We're religious about doing it in house. Most of the team is in Conshohocken," though homeworkers are accomodated.

Total headcount is around 200, less than the 2014 peak. Engineering, sales and marketing are up from that time, while "we do less servicing," Duncalfe Holt says. "That was 20% done by clients, now it's more like 80%." The job now includes equipping customers to update and expand systems and build new applications directly.