Always looking to further develop and improve the user experience, simPRO held a full day user forum in Perth, Western Australia on Wednesday the 11th of November. This was the second event of its kind with the first being in 2008.
The purpose of the forum is to have existing users (new and experienced) as well as prospective clients come together to discuss the development and user experience, ensuring simPRO remains the market leader in trade services management software.
The forum consisted of two workshops, a presentation from Navman Wireless and how simPRO interfaces with it, highlights from the last 12 months development, an Action Coach presentation, the proposed simPRO development path and a word from the support crew.
For the first workshop everyone was split into six groups to discuss and share ideas for the future development of simPRO. The theme for the day, “The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas…” certainly rang true as this part of the program was naturally the most enthusiastic and provided some great insight into what simPRO users want. Some great ideas came out of this workshop and thanks to Navman Wireless, Trent Peterson from Cablewise received the prize of an M-Nav for the most popular development idea – specific options for quotes.
Following the development ideas workshop, which ran over time due to the flurry of ideas, Bruce Ramsay from Navman Wireless discussed the new technologies that are now available for fleet tracking. Following Bruce, Curtis Thomson, simPRO’s Technical and Operations Director demonstrated how the two systems interfaced. The exciting new partnership takes the mobility of trade services to the next level, and was not surprisingly met with great interest.
The new Navman Wireless interface is one of many, many developments achieved by simPRO in the last 12 months. There have literally been hundreds of developments in the last 12 months. Of course not all of these could have been detailed in the forum but some of the key ones were presented by Curtis being:
- the Google Maps interface,
- contractor login,
- prepaid time,
- Timesheet report exports – payroll categories, Options on projects screen to update multiple jobs at once,
- invoicing multiple jobs at once and much more.
After lunch everyone moved into different groups for the second workshop. The Issues and Resolution workshop was a chance for users to learn from one another, this was achieved by discussing any issues users had with their current system or simPRO and how it was overcome. The workshop provided a great learning opportunity, not just for users, but also for simPRO to research how to improve the implementation, training and support to make life as easier for customers as possible.
Adding a business development aspect to the day, Peter Carlin from Action Coach gave a quick presentation on how changing your marketing efforts slightly can provide a big return. Having Peter present was a good enhancement to the forum as he gave valuable information on the sales and marketing processes that are all about making a business as successful as possible.
After Peter, Curtis discussed the proposed development path for simPRO. Some of the important developments to come are:
- Quoted Materials vs Job Materials upgrade, lock in estimated values whilst wiping out all materials on converted job
- Next phase of maintenance planner -> contracts, pricing, automatic quoting, period quoting
- Multiple pricing tiers for selling items
- Technology and user experience – drag and drop, hot links etc…
There are many more developments in the pipeline than the above mentioned, and as a result of the forum there are even more to come.
Paul Prothero, the new WA State Manager and MC for the day briefly spoke about simPRO in Western Australia. He talked about the relationships that are now in place with NECA WA and the MPA, where new contractors will get a helping hand by receiving simPRO Lite free for 6 months. Paul also offered his position to be there to liaise with any of the regulatory bodies that in some instances influence the processes of a contracting business. An example of this that now exists for electrical contractors is the Western Power Service Connect Test Form, which is now able to be used with the simPRO Digital Pens.
The last agenda item of the day was a message from the support crew, which detailed the new simPRO system collaboration. Curtis discussed how users will be able to despatch jobs to sub contractors through simPRO. This will allow for the contractor to schedule jobs in the sub-contractors system, create a RCTI (recipient created tax invoice) and have all jobs details appear on the sub-contractors system. The communication between simPRO systems will allow for an efficient seamless flow of information for contractors and sub-contractors.
The official part of the day concluded at 4pm, thereafter it was time for a well earned drink at the bar, on what was a humid November day. From all accounts the forum was a big success which helped simPRO to gain a better insight and understanding of its clients’ needs and wants, and also offered a setting for users to learn from one another.
The amount of things that simPRO achieves in a year cannot be demonstrated and fit easily into one day a year, so going forward in WA there will be quarterly seminars. These will be only 2 hours long and will be held in an evening, which will hopefully be more convenient for all and provide a more regular contact with simPRO users.
With the success of the WA user forum there will be similar ones held around the country. The next will be in South Australia in February 2010.
Isn’t it funny how some ideas are shot down one year and the next year that same idea wins the best idea and the navman?
Idea’s are never shot down, though trying to prioritise is always a challenge for us as what is important for one is not always important for all! We listen and the system is under constant improvement!