Just to provide an alternative view.....
What you get from Perspectives largely depends on the effort you put into getting info from it. The majority of the value I receive form attending is not in the regular sessions but rather in one-on-one conversaiton with other users - whether at lunch tables, evening events, or even before/after sessions. The other critical piece is the labs - I have never seen a "sales pitch" in a lab session. If I am really struggling for a technical or operational answers it has never been very hard to pin down one of the technical people in the Hall of Solutions. Sure, they are always showing off the latest version and modules but they do still have experience with the current (as in most widely used) and older versions and they have never once told me to get lost.
Sometimes it takes me a bit of work other times some fairly spectacular high-payoff ideas fall in my lap. I have never attended and then not come back with a list of things to do that did not pay back the entire cost of attending (travel and all) in fairly short order. If the sessions get a bit "salesy" I ignore it like I ignore commercials on TV. I still contend it is the best cheapest Vantage education I can get.
Do I have some self interest in promoting attendance...you bet! Because every site that does not have someone there is one less I (and everyone else attending) can maybe learn a trick or two from. 2001 in Orlando (right after 9/11) was pretty poorly attended but was still OK - last year was very well attended and was great even with all the 8.0 promotion.
If a site abslutely will not attend Perspectives and really really wants to eliminate the "sales" aspects they should keep a lookout for the next User-4-User Conference. Epicor employees were not allowed to attend at all. 95% user interaction (and 5% independant consultants, but they never once tried to sell their services). But for me...the more education the better (I need all the help I can get) and I'll attend both.
-Todd C.
-----Original Message-----
From:
vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:
vantage@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of Ron LaHolt
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2005 11:13 AM
To:
vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Perspectives: Financial Attendees?
Epicor Perspectives and the Dataworks "user" conferences are and were
primarily a sales function, which leaves only a small portion of time
for education, and precious little if any time for problem solving. That
is why we as a company made a conscious effort to save the resources we
spend on those sales meetings to help pay the exorbitant service
contract fees.
-----Original Message-----
From:
vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:
vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Frank Zeigafuse
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2005 10:53 AM
To: Epicor Vantage Onelist
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Perspectives: Financial Attendees?
Philosophy Problems
I believe they should focus on Vantage and its core problems and not
buying more software and trying to merge it into Vantage, the new HR and
Quality Packages are recent examples of this.I make a case that Epicor
is not doing a 10 job Developing and SUPPORTING Vantage but they still
add on.
Last year I went to perspectives with the sole purpose to meet with my
cam only to find out I hade new one and the bottom line is we did not
meet!
Furthermore, the CEO message was to the users that they listen to their
customers, while he may personally believe that. It is my personal
experience that there is 0 evidence that they value customer input. My
cam changes every year so they do not know me or my business. To
suggest software suggestions is a ridiculous time wasting process.
Support is really good or worthless, I hate when I have a complex
business process issue and the support person is reading from the help
screen. I do not have time to teach a consultant the nuances of my
business either and they are not cheap either. In the beginning you get
very little documentation, they push their consulting/custom programming
to much.
Software functional problems
In 6.1 the CRM is worthless period, 0 value.
Very little canned reports, like for instance no inventory turns report.
Very little on screen metrics, like for instance annual part usage and
lead time.
Mass change prior 8 is non-existent.
Costing/Security is very basic even in 8.
Configurator requires that all parts are setup in the part master no on
the fly bom generation Phantom boms do not work with kanban.
I am not saying the grass is greener, and I do not expect to find the
be-all end-all ERP software solution. I just want to go graze in the
pasture, dream a little and hopefully when I am done, find something
that fits my business a little better.
Frank Zeigafuse
Innovative Office Products
General Manager
Direct Phone: 610-559-6369
Email:
fzeigafuse@...
Visit www.one.org to see how the world can be changed one person at a
time.
-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Snyder [mailto:
dan.snyder@...]
Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2005 9:37 AM
To: Frank Zeigafuse
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Perspectives: Financial Attendees?
Frank,
Just curious...
Why are you "not sure of your long term partnership with Epicor"?
Thanks,
Dan Snyder
IT Manager
Mercury Electronics
717-854-9557 ext.224
-----Original Message-----
From:
vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:
vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of
Frank Zeigafuse
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 1:48 PM
To:
vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Perspectives: Financial Attendees?
0 from Innovative. We are not sure of our long term "partnership" with
epicor.
Frank Zeigafuse
Innovative Office Products
General Manager
Direct Phone: 610-559-6369
Email:
fzeigafuse@...
Visit www.one.org to see how the world can be changed one person at a
time.
-----Original Message-----
From: halm180 [mailto:
Mis@...]
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 1:36 PM
To:
vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Perspectives: Financial Attendees?
I am encouraging our CFO to attend Perpsectives this year and he is
reluctant to do so. He is guessing that Perspectives is under-attended
by the Accounting/Financial community. I would like to poll the group
and see how many financial folks will be attending, a show of hands
please. Thank you!
Peter Dunbar
Halm Industries Co., Inc.
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Yahoo! Groups Links
Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must have already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
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