My initiation into the blogosphere: SPC 2009
OK, time to jump into the blog scene. It’s either that or start “tweeting”—and I’m just not there yet. I was asked to start a blog, so here goes…
The biggest hurdle I’ve faced re. starting a blog is Where To Start. There is so much to talk about! Most of the things I expect to blog about are recurring themes from conversations I have with customers—it will be great to document and share these. Other blogs will cover random topics that I feel would be of interest to you. So my first blog will be a hybrid of the two, with the subject being our upcoming SPC (Synergex Success Partner Conference). Some of you may remember that the original name of the SPC was DC for “Developer Conference.” Today, still, the conference primarily targets developers, but the overall theme is, as it always has been, “Partnering with our customers to help them succeed.” (On that note, stay tuned for a future blog about our new tagline: “Advancing Applications. Partnering for Success.”) While most of our customer contact is with the actual developers of Synergy/DE-based software, Synergy/DE products also impact those in an organization who are not developers. It is for that reason that we strive to partner with several different types of players in an organization to help the company overall make the best use of our products.
To that end, we have expanded our communications this year to target those different players specifically. Our Marketing team has developed four characters: Jodah Veloper, Mark Etting,Manny Jurr, and Bigbah Smann. Each character is an exaggerated representation of his role’s interests within an organization and how they may interact with those of another role’s. So far, we have had some good success with this expansion of communication and are having a lot of fun with the characters. (Look for them on Facebook!)
The message is that no matter what role you play in your organization, the SPC will benefit you – by providing a firsthand look at how easily you can advance your applications with today’s Synergy/DE; by helping you hone your development skills; and/or by showing you the new features your development team should be taking advantage of.
- Presidents, CEOs, VPs, General Managers—basically those who are responsible for your P/L (AKA Bigbah Smann): Your Synergy/DE-based application(s) are among your company’s most important assets. I recommend you attend at least the first day of the conference so you can get a firsthand view of all of the functionality that can be immediately attained to make your applications more powerful, and for ISVs, more marketable. I’m confident you’ll be very surprised. In fact, I’ll even comp the first day of the conference for any CEO/CIO/CTO/GM who accompanies a developer to the SPC.
- Those who are responsible for the sales and marketing of your Synergy/DE based applications (AKA Mark Etting): Like the person (above) who is responsible for the bottom line, you can gain significant benefits by attending the conference. It’s a great opportunity to see what your application is capable of, and what other Synergy/DE customers have done to make their applications more marketable.
- And of course the people responsible for the development of your applications (AKA Jodah Veloper and Manny Jurr): I recommend you attend all three days of the conference – this will enable you to take away the skills and knowledge required to quickly and easily advance your applications.
So, whatever role you play in your organization, I look forward to catching up with you at the conference, or meeting you if we have not yet had the opportunity.
OK, that first blog was relatively painless! I look forward to blogging again soon.
