Sandwiched between two stormy days, twenty-six people met on Tuesday, March 28, 2006 in Pittsburg, KS for OZDUG (Ozarks Dynix User Group) Regional meetings. Presenters included Jim Taylor, of JTData.Com in the morning, and Bill Routt and Steve Orton, Regional Sales Contacts for the South Central and “Mid-Atlantic” regions of Sirsi-Dynix in the afternoon. At least, that’s the region we think Steve is representing, since he’s the Missouri rep, although the folks in Missouri are rather amused that the Mid-Atlantic region appears to reach to the easternmost borders of Kansas! (Do we dare ask “where’s the beach??!) And since poor Steve’s name doesn’t really even make the map, and the map really isn’t on the web site, and very few SD system administrators or directors have even seen the map or know it exists, it’s hard to say what the state of sales is. They’re lovely people and we thank them for coming to see us, but things are in a bit of disarray, we think!
Jim Taylor, who provides value-added products that other customers readily use, provided information on his JTACQ, JTURL, JTDataEntry, and JTMail programs. Jim brought along son Jonathan, who was by far the youngest member of OZDUG to ever sit through a meeting attentively!
Valerie Chase, graciously presented by speakerphone and gave us an overview of the expanded reports now included in WebReporter. The announcement on March 30, 2006 of the release of WebReporter 1.4, while extremely welcome, still raises questions regarding server specifications for it. A handout, provided by sales staff, brought a resounding “thud” to the proceedings as attendees tried to figure out the relationship between the feature designations for “reporter”, “analyst”, and “professional” functionality (dated, by the way, November 14, 2003) and their relation to pricing which was described in terms of “light”, “medium”, and “super”. Yellow highlighting, we decided, just meant these were the most expensive options that the company wanted you to buy! We hope that this particular handout goes back to the drawing board quickly, because while it attempted to address the training packages and licensing, it, in fact, confused us more and managed to completely ignore server specifications.
We were happy to hear that 1.4 would support CSV formated files, and that Narrowcast is now included in all basic packages. SQL gurus were also pleased to see the ability to use free-form SQL statements within the 1.4 functionality.
Server specifications were also lacking for HIP 4.x. We understand that benchmarking has not been completed, but the time frame needed to budget and purchase new HIP servers is not a fast process, causing chaos in the heartland.
Other discussion included where the ISBN-13 hotfix is for classic sites, where the ISBN-13 patch for Horizon sites not on 7.4 is, where the benchmarking for 8.x is, the need for 24×7 support, and the inability to get to a real person and get past the front-line support to a real person who can solve the issue in a timely fashion.
Two philosophical questions were asked, without a real sense of answer, that is, 1) are Dynix reps/developers/support staff allowed/encouraged to attend the librarian meetings at events such as PLA and ALA, or are they severely limited in their ability to attend sessions, see other products, ideas, mingle, and speak with librarians in the profession; and 2) What has become of Jack Blount’s plan several years ago to ensure that staff get “out of the office and into the library” and visit sites, work front desks, and experience library issues on a day-to-day basis in order to improve the work flow and functionality of the software.
Another issue was the amount of communication — on the updates of functionality, software delivery, new products, future products, server specifications, budgeting awareness, training — and the group was sorely disappointed in the amount and quality of communication from the company as a whole. Two members went so far as to rate the company on a scale of 0-10, with 10 being highest, as a “3″ and as a “1″. Which is a shame, really, as there are some wonderful people who work for the company, and who can (and frequently do) assist SirsiDynix customers are great deal in their daily work.
Issues with setup and the “migration” to 8.0 for existing Horizon clients is also a big unknown. This, coupled with both the uncertainty of the delivery date of 8.0/8.1 and the quality of the release functionality for 8.0/8.1 has really left people in a quandry. We did learn one finite fact, that Debt Collect would not be available until at least 8.1.
While the group greatly appreciated the afternoon allotment of time from SirsiDynix reps, and Valerie’s conference call time, the company must realize that when the majority of regional attendees must drive anywhere from 2-5 hours to attend these meetings, we do expect people to be physically present at the meetings and find the prospect of driving for several hours to stare at a speakerphone not the optimum communication experience. We sincerely hope the inability to schedule regular regional meetings or provide presenters of expertise “in the flesh” does not develop into a company trend.
All SirsiDynix presenters should be keenly aware that with Webex, with WebReporter, with any demo of any sort, please SIZE THE FONTS UP. The screen shots mean nothing if the person standing 10 feet away from the projection screen can’t read it. The only thing being worse having to drive 5 hours to listen to someone on a speakerphone is having to sit through a demonstration where you cannot read the details on the screen.
If you participate in other regional meetings and wish to post your comments, thoughts, about them, please drop me a note — this is not meant to supercede the great site set up at http://www.codi.org/newusersgroups.html, but perhaps will provide a way to get more reactions or comments out and about…
