First CRMUG Pacific Northwest Regional Chapter Meeting

Jim Daly and I attended the first all-day CRMUG regional chapter meeting in Bellevue yesterday. 29 people counting 6 Microsofties attended. One person traveled all the way from Portland (Trailblazers). There were reps from Ascentium, Fluke, Madrona Solutions, Altriva, TriVenture, and TenDigits. The coffee was Starbucks. :o)

Agenda:

10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Introductions & Welcome (users introduce themselves including a brief description of their company and CRM use)

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Presentation by Tanim Ahmed, CRM Technology Specialist, Microsoft covering why CRM is value add to any company. Highlighted the work in Accelerators.

12:00 p.m. - 01:00 p.m.
Networking Lunch

01:00 p.m. - 02:30 p.m.
"Experts" Panel comprised of representatives from Microsoft, Ascentium, Altriva, Madrona Solutions, CRM On Target/Triventure, and TenDigits Software

02:30 p.m. - 03:00 p.m.
Wrap up, plan next meeting

Highlights:

• The writers of Success with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0: Implementing Customer Relationship Management were at the meeting and although they didn't present formally it was nice to meet them and talk about their book.
• Brian Paulen of Madrona Solutions had many of his customers in attendance. As we made our way around the room for introductions and during question and answer, it became apparent that Madrona Solutions had helped a lot of these people with custom solutions for our product.
• Derek Warburton said that TenDigits Software will be announcing a Mobile Solution release in the very near future.
• Jim Daly talked about the CRM UX team at Microsoft usability study and provided handouts and Renee’s business cards.
• Jim Daly was able to answer some questions about documenting workflow and pointing to his FormEditor tool which is customizable.

I was very impressed and want to thank Mark Rhodes at CRMUG for sponsoring this event and Bradley Van Peursem, iTelework for doing the MC honors.