Need help to allow me to attend Insights 2019

Wow greatly appreciated !!! :wink:

Now if all vote for me, I will put that as part of my case… at the end…the decision maker… they could not refuse to send me then!!!

LOL

1 Like

Add in to your case, “And I think they’re getting tired of answering all my questions…” :wink:

Never be shy about leaving a session if you realize you’re in the wrong one. I always have 2-3 session per hour on my agenda in case during the first 5-10 min I realize this isn’t what I am looking for (wrong Epicor product :)) or it is either too basic or too complex for where my knowledge lever are today. Move onto the next class on your list and soak in all the availalbe learning opportunities.

2 Likes

Actually, going to insights just opens up doors for more questions.

Before you go to insights, you don’t know what you don’t know (ignorance is bliss right?) then when you get back at least you know what you don’t know, and can ask the questions to start being able know it. lol.


2 Likes

image

3 Likes

@Hogardy
I have to agree with everyone here. I went in 2017, ended up paying myself after nearly 10 years of asking at my previous employer. It was the best experience, meeting people and learning new things, although it was pretty overwhelming, at some points I just didn’t know which way to look! Adding in that 17hrs time difference, it was a great adventure.

The content and actually being able to actually put a face to a name after stalking the vantage yahoo group and e10 help, from the dark side of the world for so long was a great help.

As mentioned earlier. Your company will get the investment back in spades. It’s all those “Aha” moments that you will have.

Epicor 10 is such a huge product you can’t know everything and Insights is THE place (apart from here) to help you pickup those tidbits that really make the difference.

In actual fact your business should send a team. I really was impressed by @Randy and his company they sent three people all with different business backgrounds which I sure helped them get the most out of their investment.

Yep that happened to me…Exit stage right to a company committed to implementing E10.

1 Like

So many responses here.

First @Hogardy there is usually a white paper put out on why to attend Insights so check with your cam for it. Honestly the responses up here are probably as accurate and better stated in many cases. Their real life experiences echo what I have witnessed over 18 years of Insights.

It also aligns with my strategies when I attend a Msft Build out similar event :

  • Attend for breadth. What do you not know? Overviews give you prioritized homework. We all know that when you signed up for an IT role you signed up for doing homework every day for the rest of your life. Do it smart and prioritize.
  • Having three courses picked out per time slot. Sometimes the cover does not reflect the book. Your time is valuable so go find value if it’s not working for you
  • One on One’s. Abuse the booth staff. You may need to make a couple of trips to find some one on duty that is the subject matter expert (or the person who wrote the code). Setup time with product owners or choose presenters over lunch or dinner. Get biz cards and folllow up. The human connection is still needed in this day of video conferencing. Have your pain points ready to discuss so any hiccups in resolution can be jump started. Any brainstorming about direction can be effective.
  • Give feedback in the app. Those responses get a lot of play. Use them.
  • Community. You are unique just like everyone else. You probably have similar challenges as others. Sites like this and EUG are excellent but face to face over lunch is a great place to learn lessons and more importantly ANTI-patterns.

Good luck!

4 Likes

Oh and how silly of me. Hands on labs! Epicor University has dozens of computers setup and all the instructors there to guide you thru the training courses one on one. That would probably pay for the price of admission alone

3 Likes

Pierre;

This is always a tough thing to do and until someone goes it is hard to pinpoint one specific advantage. However, There is or should be a ROI calculator on the Insights web page that will allow you to calculate the value. Also not sure where you are located but, i am the Regional Consulting Manager for Epicor in New England, New Work and Eastern Canada. I would be more than happy to discuss with your management or get your Epicor Customer Account Manager to help you “Sell This” to your management.

Terry McGrady

1 Like

Are the Fundamentals breakout sessions geared towards a specific E9 or E10 version? Will these Fundamentals apply and be helpful for those still on E9? Just wondering how different the two versions are for these Fundamentals sessions if there is some benefit to attending them.

Playing devils advocate:

I’m in the UK and unlikely to ever attend. My perception, having been there, is that Vegas is a party town - those in the US can tell me if it is also known as a conference location. My perception may be what management are applying to your request - $6k for a glorified jolly with lots of subjective benefit.

Maybe it the location of the event that is creating the reticence.

Vegas is a party town, yes. But they also do have world class level conference resources simply because they do have so much tourism. Flights are usually cheap and hotel rooms are plentiful. Honestly, if your goal is to go to a bar and get drunk, you can do that in pretty much every city and town in the world. Like pretty much anything, it’s what you make of it. If your employer won’t let you go simply because Vegas is a party town, your employer has trust issues. Now, if he thinks his employees won’t take it seriously, they shouldn’t go no matter where it’s held.

1 Like

Don’t know what to say besides I agree.

  1. It’s all about networking, putting a face to a name can save your company 50,000$/yr because now you are in the circle. Whatever that means to you. People trust you, you trust a few people; you share solutions.
  2. Your company will fail by not letting you attend ever, it’s the Cost of Ownership. Dont know what to say, its sad that companies think poorly of conferences.
  3. By the time you are done with the Conference 8am - 5pm; your brain is FRIED, you fall asleep in a second.
  4. The inspiration from the event alone is just a SURGE of Energy and Hope. I am sure you all talk crap about Epicor how its buggy and its Epicor’s fault hehe, been there done that, but realizing how huge some of these events are - are eye openers.
  5. I usually find a list of classes with a mission in mind like for example; when we did EDI - I booked almost every EDI course with Gary Robinson. Perhaps you have to play it with a mission in mind; It’s even harder for me to go now, because they assume I know it all, lol.

The company I work for, unfortunately feels the same way, while the previous employer despite earning a fraction what a major corporation does, they invested in it - full 5 day event.

If you are a manager or budget influencer - a Mental Break to your Team, IT, Developers will yield more ROI than you think, your team member will feel invested in. Therefore, consider it! It’s not even about Vegas, some companies couldn’t even send their people to Nashville, some even within driving distance!

3 Likes

I really like the E10Help dinners!

My random thoughts.

The geek talk and seeing how others are using EPICOR is worth more than 10K, so for 6K you are getting a deal!!! Each modification learned could be worth more then that. Plus there is no way you would be able to implement everything you learn right away. Even small things go a long way. Like oh you can do that in a BPM, BAQ, or customization.

In the end the folks you connect with at Insights will go a long way. We have this site which is huge. Those of you who are independents, don’t underestimate the client potential. Though we don’t use consultants here day to day, I have a short list of folks I would call based on my interactions at Insights.

1 Like

the most resilient org cultures I have experienced were not a result of “rational” approaches. Someone cared deeply and made long bets that didn’t make sense in the short term. They had the funding/backing to avoid short-term pressures. They cared about getting it right.

We all work for a broad range of organisations with different cultures. Many will keep tight control on indirect spend, particularly for overhead functions, which whoever maintains Epicor fall into.

Thus far Brandon is only person who has answered Pierre’s point in any quantifiable manner (money spent attending offset by not needing consultancy). There seems to be a load of generic benefits (networking, faces to names, re-energising/re-enthusing ERP staff) being touted as some kind of justification but these are completely subjective - my assumption is that your manager and their fellow managers already knows what happens at these kinds of conferences/symposiums and is taken them as a given but needs something far more tangible that attendance will deliver versus using the $6k for consultancy or giving you some formal quiet time during the working week (for example a half day each week) to do research/development in Epicor.

Pierre you need to take it back to what are YOUR biggest challenges around Epicor, YOUR ability to support and develop Epicor and if there is any functionality that YOU don’t currently or would like to use. From there you start to build your bullet list of justifications and I would limit the amount of “what’s in it for me’s”

I am not doubting anyone attending these events is putting their time to full value but the flippancy of my original post was based on you needing to deal with the internal trolls in your organisation who when they find out you are out of the office to attend a week long Epicor technical conference in Las Vegas only hear “out of office, week, Vegas” and weigh their own business function needs which aren’t being met, against it.

3 Likes

Totally agree.