User Groups for EDS Applications

[Steve Roe]

Is there any possibility of having user group forums for EDS products? These could be teleconferences with managers of dealerships on what ideas work best for dealerships. There are always a limited number of EDS dealerships and it would allow us to communicate among managers with best practices, user tips, etc. They could setup by application such as Imager, SDS, etc. Time away from the dealership would be none since it would be on a conference call.

[aksales]

Howdy,
This is Jason Wilhelm with Alaska Sales and Service. I Belive this is a wonderful idea, have you by chance asked your sales rep?

[Matt Parsons]

Steve and Jason,

We would agree that user group forums are an excellent idea. EDS has hosted a number of these as we have developed and launched new applications and offerings into the marketplace.

The whole reason behind creating this forum was to allow clients, prospects, and interested others to communicate about EDS offerings, services, etc. Some people thought that this type of public forum was risky, in that EDS could not control what was discussed. My view was that this type of forum allows for an open exchange of ideas (positive and negative) and allows access to virtually everyone.

So far we have been pleased with this venue. The one area that has been disappointing is that more people are not using it...yet. We continue to publicize the forum through direct mail to our clients, on our web site, through the EDS Quarterly Newsletter, broadcast messages to the AS/400, our call center on-hold messages, and through our field/sales representatives.

Any suggestions that you or anyone else has in terms of increasing the participation would be appreciated.

Please keep in mind that you can start a forum track on any subject. If you would like a track on Scheduling and Dispatching (SDS) or Executive Assistant (EA)for example, feel free to start it and see what type of responses you get.

Matt