Inside ASI-AP

This week was spent in 2 halves. Monday and Tuesday were spent primarily working with Jane and Nick, outlining to them how we run the Roadmap sessions, agreeing on how we are going to work as a global team and putting together some of the logistics for how and when we are going to communicate. There were lots of questions and it was a real eye opener for me as to exactly how much work I need to do in the detail of IBEF – the real step-by-step processes for delivery of every component of the program.

And this turned out to be a great lead in to what lay ahead in the second iBEF executive forum, which was held in Orlando, Florida. We attached our meeting onto the end of a NiUG chapter meeting that was in Orlando from Monday – Wednesday. It was certainly a popular idea because most of the attendees travelled in to the session to get out of the cold, from places like Detroit and Chicago. It had been -12 in Chicago!

First, my trite observation for the week: An Australian gives a presentation, says it will take 30 minutes and finishes early. An American gives a presentation, says it will take 30 minutes and runs over. They both think they’ve exceeded expectations.

I got here Monday night after the usual 30 hour trial. There just has to be a better way of doing this trip. All I could think of was the guys who get sent into space in 2001 and get put into suspended animation for the entire trip. And it is cold here. Every night it’s got down to at least -5. There’s been snow, sleet and ice. I thought I’d go for a run to blow off the cobwebs when I got here, walked out the door, ran about 20 metres and turned around.

After being in cold London for a week, I arrived in DC Sunday evening and although the temperature was lower, it felt warmer – at least for the first day. The week started off cool (-2 to 1 C) then got cold (-4 to -1 C) and then by Sunday warmed up (-1 to 11 C) - completely different to Melbourne.

It was a busy week with meetings. I started Monday with Moji going through some process and other training items in using the Customer Care Dashboard and opportunity management. I met with Beau Harbin regarding iMIS Training as he is now managing the schedule in the US – we spent time discussing strategy for getting more customers to training, including courses, segmentation and promotion. The rest of the day was spent time catching up on emails.

Friday night I flew from Melbourne to London via Hong Kong. Although I have done this long flight before, it is normally on the way home to oz not towards work. I arrived in London to stay with a friend who is a school teacher there. The weather all week ranged from -2 to 5 degrees Celsius. Sunday we took the opportunity to walk around the city and even took a ride on a ‘duck’ boat on the Thames.

Monday I was in the London office meeting with Niroo Rad (ASI Europe MD) regarding our Customer Care staff meeting that week. In the afternoon I took the train to the Steyning office which is just over an hour train ride. The Steyning office is based in a small town with the office above a Butcher and Pet store.

Jay, Marla and myself are off to Perth this week to do the iBEF strategic roadmap workshops with IFAP (www.ifap.asn.au). IFAP have been using iMIS for almost 2 years now and are ready to look ahead and plan next steps to leverage their investment in iMIS. The iBEF (iMIS Business Excellence Framework) program is just the right framework to start that journey.

To date the iBEF strategic roadmap workshops have been run by Mick and myself. But with the iBEF program expanding we need to engage other senior ASI'ers to host these workshops and give us more coverage. This week it will be Jay assisting me lead the strategic discussions, and Marla being introduced to the role of project co-ordinator which will ensure execution of iBEF outcomes.

I was in Sydney last Thursday and Friday trying to get back to a regular monthly visit to Sydney. On Thursday I met up with Finsia for a brief project status update following their renewals being run, and then I attended the project kick off meeting for National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Friday I met for breakfast with Nasser - who used to work with ASI Consulting - and has now setup his own consulting business (Avion Software www.avion-software.com) and has signed up as an iMIS Authorised Consultant. We are already using Nasser for a number of ASI projects and will continue to help him build his iMIS business as he starts to work directly with iMIS customers. Nasser's business partner is Sashank Kotcherlakota; and Sashank is also iMIS experienced as he worked for a few years at CPA Australia as a developer and he worked on both iMIS web and marketing suite projects while there.

Bob will be in Melbourne and Sydney later this month - arriving into the Melbourne on Monday 19 May, then heading to Sydney on Saturday 24 May prior to flying home on Sunday 25 May. While in Melbourne his main responsibility is to host the Annual Executive Round Table for our invitation-only largest customers; he will also be in the office for a couple of days on Thursday and Friday catching up with me, my review and AP business plans and budget reviews. And if there are no delays to his incoming flight he should also be joining us in person for the quarterly pizza lunch and CEO address on the Monday 19th.

Sunday I flew Brisbane to LA – a 14 hour flight with me only getting about 1-2 hours sleep. Not to be encouraged. I arrived in LA at 7am with almost 8 hours between flights. I was happy that David Riffle and Marilyn were coming to meet me at the airport so we could get breakfast on the Sunset Strip. It was funny going to a restaurant with Marilyn, David and Greg and feeling that Marilyn and I would be treated as Aussies – but then Marilyn does have a US accent so she was treated as a local again and I was the only foreigner. Pancakes as big as manholes were on the menu. Hmm, I am so glad that the waitress suggested Marilyn and I share a stack since we were both ordering plain stacks. HUGE. I have attached a picture of David’s.

We have a substantial number of AP staff travelling to the US over the coming weeks to attend our "Innovations" (www.advsol.com/innovations) staff and partner conference, as well as attend other scheduled meetings held at the same time. This is the only time of the year a large number of ASI global staff (100+) come together at the same time for training and product updates. I have decided to send 8 people from the AP team this year - our most ever - to ensure we make the most of iMIS 15 related activities for customers and potential customers. It is a substantial investment but I am already very positive about the outcomes and the opportunities that iMIS 15 brings to everyone.

The on-time performance for planes on the Melbourne-Sydney route dropped this month to 64%. That's almost every second plane running late. To make matters worse, the east-west runway of Sydney airport will be closing from April for six months or so, and that means Sydney airport will close completely up to twice a month when strong east-west winds are blowing - and planes will be diverted. So if you absolutely need to be in a meeting in Sydney or Melbourne by 9am, you may want to consider coming in the night before. Or reschedule the meeting to start at 10am or after.

And of course, don't forget video conference - which eliminates travel altogether. Our travel expenses already in 2008 have jumped up over last year, so please think twice about the need to be there in person.

Before heading up to Singapore on Tuesday evening, I spent the whole day of the 2nd October with Marilyn at REIQ in Brisbane. REIQ are now in the user acceptance testing phase of their implementation project – which has been going well in all areas except the education department. So part of my time was meeting with the senior team – including Dan the CEO – to remove the roadblock holding up the education testing.

My other job was to do a presentation to the majority of the REIQ office staff – split into 2 sessions – on what to expect after going live, particularly looking ahead the next 2 years. It was timely to remind people – especially as they are caught up in the grind of testing – why they bought iMIS and where the project is going.

The initial training is now completed for our new Singapore AiSP - TAK Systems. In the last few weeks David Riffle and Keith visited with TAK for 5 days to complete 3 days of sales training and a couple of days of sales calls. Jason has also completed his 2 trips to Singapore where he completed 3 days of iMIS Overview training (first trip) and 3 days of iMIS Implementation training (second trip). Next on the agenda is for myself to visit and meet with TAK in the first week of October, and then a series of seminars later in November.

The removalists were at Julie’s apartment on Friday packing her stuff and sending it back to Brisbane. Julie is staying at her son’s house, and then a serviced apartment, until she finds a more permanent home. For the next few weeks Julie will not have her IP phone connected, so call her on her mobile.

After a year in Melbourne, Julie needs to move back to Brisbane for personal reasons - a combination of health (cold weather not helping) and family. Julie will continue in her current role for the foreseeable future while we assess how well her job function can be performed as a telecommuter. She will come to the Melbourne office about once a month to handle the face-to-face meetings she needs to have for her HR role.

Julie is currently planning to relocate sometime in October.

In Sydney this week for a couple of days for my monthly Sydney visit. I time these so that I can do my Wednesday meetings face-to-face with Amanda S and Jason, and then do the Melbourne team on video (which is the opposite of my normal week). Plus I also get to see Peter and Amanda K.

Also did some customer visits - including Taxation Institute, Property Council, Asthma. And some potential customers including Finsia. And Jon from Millpost. And Bruce from iServices was in our office too working with Amanda K.

The mood around town is very upbeat!