Six members of the CAL Business Solutions team traveled from Connecticut to Atlanta for Convergence 2011 along with a record 13 of our clients! At dinner tonight at the Georgia Aquarium/Coca Cola Center I took the opportunity to ask each of our clients why they decided to attend Convergence 2011.
Overwhelmingly, the clients are here to take advantage of the ISV expo. Our client in the is here to look for a solution for complex billing scenarios as well as a commission calculation and online expense reporting add on for Dynamics GP. A brand new client in the is here to find a warehouse management solution. We already have him lined up to see SalesPad, VSync, Data Mason, Redtail, Radio Beacon and Panatrack. A client in the education industry is interested in Management Reporting as well as a solid expense reporting system. She said they have 80 employees using company credit cards and need a better way to manage the tracking process. A client in the waste management industry wants to meet other users of Analytical Accounting. My favorite answer from a client in the distribution industry was “I am here to learn how to make our company 15% more productive without adding a new person”. This client is a Convergence regular and really knows how to take advantage of every minute of the event, so I have no doubt he will find a way. And of course our soon to be famous client who will be spotlighted in tomorrow’s keynote session is here to do customer panels and press interviews for Microsoft. And between press interviews he has picked out several training sessions to attend on the leadership track, especially the Dale Carnegie sessions.
It was nice for our team to have a chance to connect with our partners on a personal level here at the event. Everyone could see our little group walking around behind the CAL sign. One customer attached herself to our group because her partner never even acknowledged that she was attending. My sole responsibility here at the event is to make sure our clients are happy and have everything they need, and I think this is a testament to the importance my company puts on customer service. So I have to say I am proud to work at a Partner organization like that.
A few highlights for me today were the ISV speed dating session and the Dynamics Community team feedback session. I really feel that the is really “the best new show that nobody knows about”. Even though they hit 50,000 users this week, I still feel that very few Dynamics users or partners take full advantage of all the benefits it offers. The site gets approximately 60 forum questions per day with 150 answers. And 900 blog posts a month. I got great tips on how I can use the tool to generate leads for my partner organization. I know that Dynamics users would find tremendous value in the forums and blogs.
And of course it is fun for me to see so many of my fellow bloggers from ERP Software Blog and
Tomorrow is the official opening day. Breakfast with clients at 7:30 and can’t wait for the keynote at 8:30. Watch for the video of our client,
By Anya Ciecierski, CAL Business Solutions, at Convergence 2011
