From Podcast Host to first-time interviewee: Adam Peek on building Label King Utah with CERM from day one

Most startups wait. They use spreadsheet. They patch systems together. They promise themselves they’ll “fix it later”. Label King Utah didn’t.

Before the first job shipped, before customer volume scaled, Adam made a decision: build the operational backbone first. Rather than listening only to sales pitches, Adam researched fast-growing, successful label converters who had built from scratch. A pattern emerged – many of them were running CERM.

But this wasn’t a relationship decision. Adam had known the CERM team for years through industry events like LabelExpo Americas or LabelExpo Europe. When it came time to “cut POs and write checks,” testimonials from real users made the difference.

He saw companies not just managing software – but growing their business with it.

Go-Live week: stressful, necessary, worth it

Go-Live week is never easy. And CERM go-live week at Label king Utah was no exception. “It’s going to take longer than you think,” Esteban had warned early on. He was right.

Implementing a full MIS/ERP isn’t plug-and-play. It requires understanding workflows, data structure, material logic, estimating models, scheduling rules – and translating real-world production into digital architecture.

Adam quickly realized something critical:

The heavy lift happens upfront. The payoff comes later. With CERM’s implementation specialist onsite, the team stress-tested the system aggressively.

“Break it,” Adam told his operators. “Let’s break it now so we can fix it.” The mindset – challenge it early - turned stress into confidence.

One central source of truth

For Adam, the power of CERM isn’t just features. It’s consolidation.

Estimating. Orders. Scheduling. Inventory. Production. Invoicing. Data visibility. All in one place.

Disparate systems create disparate data. And disparate data creates customer frustration. At Label King, the goal is simplicity that drives efficiency – not complexity disguised as innovation. A centralized MIS allows:

• Real-time order visibility

• Transparent customer communication

• Reduced manual touchpoints

• Scalable workflows

They’re no fully optimized yet – and that’s intentional. Growth is staged. But the foundation is built to scale. And that changes everything.

Automation: let computers compute

Adam has been outspoken about automation long before opening Label King Utah. His philosophy is simple:

Label printing is an art form. It requires creativity, judgment, communication, and adaptability. But estimating calculations? Scheduling algorithms? Invoice matching? Material lookups? That’s computation.

Automation reduces repetitive mental load so teams can focus on:

• Complex decision-making

• Customer service

• Quality improvement

• Innovation

As CERM continues developing AI-driven tools – including intelligent document processing and workflows automation – Adam sees massive opportunity. Not to replace people but to elevate them.

Scheduling: where complexity lives

One of the most eye-opening realizations for Adam came around scheduling. Before owning a printing operation, he underestimated its complexity. Material width. Waste factors. Lead times. Shipping dates. Press availability. Finishing constraints. Inventory status.

Each job has dozens of decisions layers.

At LabelExpo Europe in Barcelona, Adam saw CERM ‘s new Scheduling Optimizer unveiled – and immediately recognized is importance. As volume grows, manual scheduling becomes a bottleneck. With automated scheduling logic inside CERM:

• Jobs are placed based on real constraints

• Capacity becomes visible

• Delivery promises become reliable

• Margin protection improves

Human flexibility still matters. But the baseline computation is handled by the system. And that’s a growth multiplier.

Prepress integration: the next step

Label King Utah doesn’t yet have prepress fully integrated into CERM – but it’s on the roadmap. And for Adam, integration isn’t optional long term.

Every unconnected system creates fiction:

“Did we send the art?”

“Did prepress receive it?”

“Where is the file?”

Those questions cost time. CERM’s ability to integrate with leading prepress solutions provides future-proof confidence. When they’re ready, the infrastructure supports it. Integration isn’t a feature; it’s a scaling strategy.

Partnership over software

Adam emphasized something that often gets overlooked in ERP conversations: partnership. Implementation support mattered. Onsite expertise mattered. Working with people who had sat in production chairs before mattered.

CERM’s team doesn’t just understand software. They understand label printing. And that creates credibility.

Adam and Esteban’s relationship started years ago when Adam was in sales and Esteban was in operations. That mutual understanding of each other’s challenges built trust long before contracts were signed. In an industry that values relationships – from TLMI meetings to User Groups – that alignment matters.

Looking ahead: AI, User Groups, and year one success

This month, Adam will attended the CERM User Group in Dallas – this time not as a content creator, but as a user. And he was excited not just for feature updates but for peer conversations. The label industry has a rare collaborative spirit. Competitors help competitors. Knowledge is snared. One year from now, what does success look like? Not just revenue. Not just efficiency. Success looks like:

• Employees who enjoy their jobs

• Customers who become advocates

• Revenue per employee increasing

• Automation enabling smarter growth

• Data transparency driving trust

CERM is the infrastructure supporting that vision. But people remain the mission.

Label King Utah could have started scrappy. They could have fixed processes later. They didn’t. They chose to build structured from day one. And that decision changes the trajectory of growth. For new label converters – or established ones considering modernization – there’s a powerful lesson here:

Investing early in scalable systems isn’t about software. It’s about building a company that can grow without breaking. From podcast host to first-time interview, Adam Peek made on thing clear: technology supports growth. But people drive it. And when you align both from day one – that’s when something special happens.