Inside ASI-AP

Week 12

This week I was interstate visiting staff – Linda in Toronto and Fernando in Austin.

Visited three customers with Linda – Toronto Board of Trade, Purchasing Management Association of Canada and Deborah Hannah of NiUG & The Association of Municipalities of Ontario. Due to flight cancellations, I only managed to visit one customer with Fernando – The State Bar of Texas. All meetings were productive with the customers future direction the discussion topic, and mini Customer Care roadmaps to be produced by Linda for her meetings. I also had dinner with Linda and Andy Sherwin (Canada Country Manager) on Monday night (picture attached).

I finished my review of the latest cut of iMIS 15 pricing for new unbundled pricing against the pricing examples that Customer Care has already produced. Also I worked with Carol and Edward on the distribution process for iMIS 15 and an online web page for customers to view the licence. Initially this will not be an interactive pricing calculator as I thought last week. This is due to time restrictions.

The US price book should be released in the next week or so and I may provide some input on the upgrade sections to reduce some of the old information.

Personally it was a busy week with all the travel. I experienced what Texas weather does to flight schedules – my flight from Toronto to Austin via Dallas was cancelled and I had to go a day late via Houston. The flight out of Toronto spent an hour on the tarmac waiting for people to get through immigration (it took me 1.5 hours but I started early). Then the flight out of Houston was on the tarmac for 1 hour while we waited for a thunderstorm to pass. I didn’t have much more luck with the flight out of Austin to DC via Chicago – the plane got into Austin 1.5 hours late, and I only had 1 hour between connections in Chicago – so I ended up missing it and catching a plane the next day. All of this was blamed on thunderstorms in Texas. Mental notes for next time – allow 2-3 hours between flights, and avoid Dallas.

I spent some time walking around Toronto and going up the CN tower which was celebrating its 31st birthday when I was there. It has been 13 years since I have been to Toronto and I went when it was HOT. It was like Brisbane weather hot and humid around 35 deg feeling like 40. It was my first time in Austin, and I was lucky to have Courtney as a tour guide. Friday night we went to the Oasis near Lake Austin for dinner with Donna Sayegh and her friends. Then Saturday we drove to San Antonio and The Alamo – pictures attached. Saturday night we went to a theatre comedy on 6th Street – it is amazing the street is blocked off for people to walk between bars. The following Saturday is 07/07/07 so there are a lot of weddings – we counted 26 Hen’s Nights groups. Sunday was quiet with a sleep in; change a tyre (nail); breakfast at IHOP (International House of Pancakes) and pictures in front of the Capitol.

This is my final week of the 3 month stint in the US office. I fly home Friday night and will be on holidays next week and back in the Melbourne office July 16.