I recently attended the Laserfiche Institute annual conference in Los Angeles, and I wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that it blew my mind! Intellera is a relatively new Laserfiche partner, so it was my first experience attending this conference and I didn’t know what to expect.
My first surprise was that over 1,200 Laserfiche users, administrators, IT professionals, developers, resellers, engineers and staff were in attendance – a huge group indeed. Laserfiche Founder and President, Nien-Ling Wacker noted in her keynote address that user attendance was up 54% from last year, and when you consider how tough 2009 was economically, that is a real achievement and a vote of confidence from the Laserfiche community.
Another observation I had was how pumped up and positive the attendees were about Laserfiche. While I expected that from the staff and partners in attendance, the users were also very excited and enthusiastic about the value that Laserfiche brought to their organizations. Users from all types of organizations, from municipalities to healthcare to financial institutions, were very eager to share their success stories and experiences with other Laserfiche customers. The overall feeling of community was very powerful. And considering the theme of this year’s conference was “Empower 2010” that was very fitting.
Be that as it may, there are always some negative comments that arise when you get a diverse group of people together to discuss software products. We all have heard horror stories about year-long implementations that were supposed to take weeks, or how the product was supposed to solve problem X and it only made it worse, etc. The “mind blowing” part of my experience was seeing how open everybody at Laserfiche was towards any negativity. There were no sweeping things under the rug – any comments that came up during sessions were discussed openly, ideas were shared, and solutions were offered and followed up on. Laserfiche developers and engineers were available everywhere to address technical concerns and give answers, options and share best practices. That was very cool.
All in all, being a part of this conference reinforced the fact that our decision to partner with Laserfiche was a smart one. They clearly share our philosophy that getting and keeping customers takes hard work, dedication, honesty, and respect. I feel secure that our clients will not only get the best possible solution to their Enterprise Content and Document Management needs, but one that is supported by a company that shares the same values as we do.
The Laserfiche Institute conference was also written up in “Document Imaging Report” – to read more about the conference highlights, click here.
Jonathan Maldoff is Co-Founder and CEO of Intellera.
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