Q&A

As Terry, from Ottawa Library, and I were getting some tea two staff members from SirsiDynix walked by and one asked the other "Are you ready for the barbecue?" They were not talking about ribs and cornbread, they were talking about the Question and Answer period that usually ends the conference. Up on stage were 4 executives from SD and the conference attendees got to ask any questions that were not touched upon at the conference. There were questions about when new functionality would be available, when current functionality would be phased out, when more staff would be hired and the like. Once again Mr. Davidson was vague about why the CEO resigned. "Change is inevitable" he said.

I found out that Kansas City was considered as a site for next year, but KC did not make an effort for the business, whereas Detroit did. In 2009 the conference will be in the fall and the short list of sites includes Orlando.

Let's Share

Today I attended the Reports Sharing session where I learned how to login to the forums and also make suggestions for new report features. There is also a Wiki created by UUGI where users of Sirsi's software can contribute tips. I will have to look at that later.

The Outreach session that I went to was an information session on how to use the Outreach module. During the session the presenter used the Java client which might help Rosa Lee. It looked like it gave the title and author of the items in the interest lists. At least I have a name and e-mail address of someone at Sirsi who might be willing to help.

I also heard real life project management experiences in one session. The presenter actually has a degree in project management. I didn't know that existed. She said that 80% of good project management is good communication. http://www.pmi.org

Welcome

The first session of the day was presented by Bill Davidson, the chief sales officer for SirsiDynix. He did mentioned that CEO Sommers left, but did not elaborate. He said the staff was said to see him go, but change is always inevitable. Nice and vague.

Now on to some numbers: 850 users are attending this conference plus 75 members of the SirsiDynix staff. SirsiDynix (SD) currently has 629 employees.

I also learned today SD is not providing any new functionality to WebCat. I would imagine that they are hoping everyone moves to iBistro or iLink in the next year or two. Also, the Workflows interface we are using is call the C client. SD plans an End Of Life for that product in mid 2008. We will need to look into the Java client instead. The Java client is available to us at no charge, but I have heard complaints from other users about it so I have not really looked into it. Plus our circulation computers currently do not meet the minimum requirements.

At the Unicorn User's Group meeting I learned that next year's conference will be in Detroit, Michigan. The organizers said that the meeting space would be larger, less expensive and closer to Canada. (In case we need to make a run for it? I don't know.)

Instead of sub releases, SD is now providing patch clusters. They are small software programs that update the server with only a few steps. These patches are quicker to run than an upgrade.

The weather is cool and sunny. The Broadmoor Hotel is very nice.

Changes are afoot!

While registering for the conference I heard talk that the CEO of SirsiDynix, Patrick Sommers, had resigned. I checked my e-mail and sure enough there is a message from Sirsi confirming it. He was supposed to be one of the first speakers tomorrow and there is an introduction from him in our program that mentioned nothing of his soon-to-be resignation. I am sure I will find out more tomoorrow.

Snow Patrol

I made it to Platte City, Missouri safely, but it took me awhile with the snow storm. I am glad I left work early because I did not get to my motel until 6:30. The weather was the worst around Topeka and Lawrence. Cars were in the ditches but since I had a room reserved in Missouri I decided to keep going until I made it. At times I was only going 30 miles an hour, but there was enough traffic on the road that a path was kept open. I took the Turnpike thinking it would be clearer.

The snow delayed my 9:14 a.m. flight out of Kansas City two hours so, Northwest moved me to standby on two American Airlines flights. I was able to make both flights and got into the Springs at 3:00 p.m. with a connection through Dallas. If I had not made the standby flights I would of gotten in at 8:30 p.m. That is a lot of time to spend in airports. The staff from Ottawa Public Library did not get into the Springs until midnight central time. I was lucky.