If you have attended one of our Sage 100 or Deltek Vision user groups before then you’re probably familiar with the event survey that we send out after each meeting. Last year we received 122 such surveys and we’ve decided to implement some of those recommendations.
The biggest changes we’re making are to the content and schedule of these meetings. These meetings will continue to be open to all Sage 100 and Deltek Vision users, regardless if BCS ProSoft is your reseller or not.
Here’s what we want to change with the way we think about user group meetings in 2016:
Better Content, Less Frequent Meetings
The biggest change we’re making is to the schedule and frequency of these meetings. We know it’s not possible to satisfy everyone, but we received a lot of feedback about the timing of the March and December meetings. For attendees with, kids March is a busy month with Spring Break. Not to mention the fact that tax deadlines are just around the corner and many of you have enough on your minds. December is already busy as it is with the holidays, company parties, and Year-End reporting looming.
Furthermore, we carefully track how many people RSVP and how many people end up attending each event. March and December are by far the most popular of these events. June and September meetings see just as many RSVPs, but just 37% of people actually show up for those events.
The Solution
We decided on a happy medium to host these events. We decided to eliminate June and September user groups all together from the schedule and instead host the first meetings in later April and then move the Year-End user group to November. All user groups will have some element of product-specific Tips & Tricks as well as some other familiar items and CPE credit is still available to all attendees.
Click the drop down for a schedule of events and more information about your ERP system:
- Mar 1 – Clarity Tour – Boston, MA
- Apr 27 – Clarity Tour – Houston, TX
- May 5 – Clarity Tour – Minneapolis, MN
- Jun 7 – Clarity Tour – New York, NY
- Jun 23 – Clarity Tour – Honolulu, HI
- Sep 14 – Clarity Tour – Chicago, IL
- Oct 4 – User Group – Houston, TX
- Oct 11 – User Group – Honolulu, HI
- Oct 13 – Clarity Tour – Seattle, WA
- Oct 18 – User Group – Baton Rouge, LA
- Oct 27 – User Group – Webcast
- Nov 14-17 – Deltek Insight – Washington, DC
The Sage 100 user group meeting schedule is tentatively set to:
- Apr 26 – User Group – Houston TX
- Apr 27 – User Group – San Antonio, TX
- Apr 28 – User Group – Denver, CO
- Jul 26-28 – Sage Summit – Chicago, IL
*Use code BCS at checkout to register for $99 - May 5 – User Group – Webcast
- Nov 15 – User Group – Houston, TX
- Nov 16 – User Group – San Antonio, TX
- Nov 17 – User Group – Denver, CO
- Nov 24 – User Group – Webcast
Don’t worry, we’ll send out a reminder about these events several weeks before-hand. If you’ve already registered for one of these events in the past or if you already get these emails you can expect to see them in the near future. If you’re not receiving these emails be sure to sign up for our Deltek Vision or Sage 100 user group meeting email list.
More Relevance, Higher Engagement
The next biggest change really goes hand-in-hand with reducing the frequency of these events. We consistently heard that the timing of presentations was wrong and that they weren’t as relevant. This is especially true for more time-sensitive topics. A lot of information gets shared during these meetings and we want to help you be as proactive as possible. Some things warrant a discussion in advanced so that you have time to adjust your business processes or schedule a consultant if needed.
The Solution
Our goal is to provide higher quality and more actionable content. Meetings in the Spring will focus on what’s new and what to expect to see over the coming year. Year-End meetings will focus on close-out procedures and processes in November. That way, if you need to make any changes to your system, update tables, etc, we can have those conversations a couple months before you close out the year. Especially if you have an issue that warrants scheduling time with one of our consultants to help you out.
An Effort to Reduce Consultant Scheduling Conflicts
Last year we host more than 30 user groups in Baton Rouge, Denver, Honolulu, Houston, San Antonio and San Diego. There’s a lot of behind the scenes prep-work that goes into putting these events together and planning that many events can be a logistical challenge for a small team. We also rely on our consultants to create the content for these events as well as present the material. We frequently ran into issues where a client needed a particular consultant, but their time was already booked planning or presenting one of these meetings.
The Solution
Our consultants will still continue to add value to each of these meetings and you can still expect to see them at each event. But by holding fewer user groups it frees up their time to focus on helping you when you need them the most.
As always we welcome your feedback and would love to hear from you. Give your Account Manager a call at 800.882.6705 or contact us online.
