It already sounds cliché to say that these are unprecedented times, but in my 30+ year career I have nothing to which I can compare this exogenous set of events and consequent circumstances. None of us could have been prepared for the sudden impact that all of this is having on the hospitality and foodservice sectors. I have already witnessed many of you making swift adjustments to your plans, underscoring your intent to ride this out and be here for the long-haul. The same is true of AQ; we plan to be here – even stronger than before – to support the inevitable recovery.
If you haven’t already checked it out, we have put up a page on our new website to help you track activity in the industry. We will continue to update this each week. We are also rolling out a program called “AQ Cares.” This program consists of new AQ product features that will assist your now-remote workforce, education programs to keep your teams productive, and flexibility in our payment terms. In addition, we have announced to the AQ team that we will not be initiating layoffs or furloughs. Instead, we will use this time to accelerate the development of new features and products so we are ready to help you grow revenue and manage expenses as the Foodservice and FES sectors regain footing.
I also want to acknowledge a technical issue that prevented some of our users from logging into the AQ platform during the period 3/21-3/23. This was caused by a change to a third-party software component. We were able to issue a patch early in the US business day on Monday the 23rd that prevented this from becoming a material issue for most users. My apologies for any impact this might have had at your firm. Be assured that we have taken action to prevent this issue from occurring in the future.
I hope that you, your team members and families are safe and healthy. We’ll get through this.
With best regards,
