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Hi All
Ok here it is…The reply from bromsgrove :
Day Delegate Rate of £32.00 per person
Bed and Breakfast @ £65.00 per room per night single occupancy,
£75.00 double occupancy.more expensive for doubles and more for the deligate rate.syndicate room @ £150.00
Bromsgrove was’nt very helpfull or keen to get the business..god knows why..but i have reserved the room needed at present without commitment.
The bug bear that is about coventry was the lack of area for drinking together and our volume ..
It has been muted around and it has been said that the coventry would open up a mobile bar upstairs in the conference suite area for ourselves only which would mean we have the confy seats also.
This is just an idea…dont shoot the messenger !!
Bryan
Re: SEPTEMBER 2010 MEETING
After revisiting the millers again,I really think we need to sort this out ,If were able to get the business suite seating with a bar at Coventry that would be ideal .
Then do the alternate UKW engineers non suit meeting at the millers ?
Thoughts ….Re: SEPTEMBER 2010 MEETING
Uh Oh!
Lawrence has asked for thoughts… Here goes! 🙂
I make no secret in the fact that Coventry is ideal for the day, with a buffet upstairs ILO a meal for lunch, can’t beat it really, but for the evenings (and most people stay 2 nights), it’s uncomfortabe downstairs, is badly laid out & I personally can’t really ‘Relax’. I find it awkward sat there with people arriving and departing behind me.
At least with Bromsgrove, it has the SAME daytime facilities, but the evening area is much more ‘private’ if you like. There is lots of room for us at the lower bar, and also, as a smoker, spending time in the more private smoking area is 100x better than standing at the foyer! (I know smokers don’t dictate, but there are a few, and Bromsgrove have heaters outside too, so us dirty habbiters, should be considered)?!
I think we already know that the Millers is the place for the ‘informal’ engineers meetings, maybe try Bromsgrove once? Suck it & see?
BUT, saying that, if it is at Coventry, I’m still attending! So my opinion is aired, I’ll go with the flow 🙂
Re: SEPTEMBER 2010 MEETING
Some options after a little use of Google…
Fairlawns, interesting and private option. Also, very highly rated.
Grimstock Hotel, another private option with free wi-fi.
Moor Hall, Best Western but well rated and seems okay.
Three Queens a bit further North but looks pretty good. Can’t see how many rooms that they have though.
Bosworth Hall not that far from the Millers. Looks okay.
Lea Marston independent, no more expensive that the chains and pretty funky looking place.
Barcelo Hinckley Island also looks pretty funky with good facilities.
And that took me about a half hour or so. There are loads of choices…. 😉
K.
Re: SEPTEMBER 2010 MEETING
Enquiries for pricing etc. gone to both Lea Marston and Hinckley Island.
K.
Re: SEPTEMBER 2010 MEETING
Bob is a mythical engineer. Unless you were at the Feb meeting of 2009 you and he would not have been acquainted.
But, I think I’m reasonably happy with the opening slide for part 3 of Bob…
Like any good tale however, it requires a bit or work to make it as good as it can be, for the storyline to pan out, make sense and take the few obligatory turns and twists along the ways.
When I say, “a bit of work”, I actually mean a f*******g sh**load of work!
I’ve got about four months less holidays and general downtime or, time spent having to do other things that actually pay bills, to get this all sorted out and the show ready to go. This is not exactly an unsurmountable task, if I were left in a dark room with a couple of people to just get on with what needs doing without interruption. Life however, isn’t quite that kind.
Ade doing the COP with Lawrence is a weight off. But, Ade is in hospital ATM trying his best to look like the elephant man due to teeth trouble and, no, I don’t think a jealous boyfriend bopped him one… oh, did I tap that out loud… 😆
I have a site redesign to sort. A back end CRM system to sort for ISE. A funky assed stock control system to do. The ISE website to sort and, just because I’m bored, I’ve got it into my head to makeover the WTA website as well.
John’s on the case with the messaging for the WTA site. That will be done ASAP but please, please, please, bear in mind that there’s a couple other things going off what with all the above, Amica and… well, that’s just the stuff I’m allowed to tell you about.
Let’s just leave it with, I’ve got enough to keep me busy for the rest of the year but don’t think for a minute I’m sat with my feet up, a coffee and watching the world go by.
These meets, the big ones, usually require that I have at least one month’s worth of prep time. This one requires that I start now so I can adapt and develop to the point it actually takes place. That’s just another thing I have to be getting on with.
K.
Re: SEPTEMBER 2010 MEETING
kwatt wrote:
I have a site redesign to sort. A back end CRM system to sort for ISE. A funky assed stock control system to do. The ISE website to sort and, just because I’m bored, I’ve got it into my head to makeover the WTA website as well.K.
Hi Ken
Why dont you look at this, http://www.datapos.co.uk
Has everything from stock control, call logging, diary full epos retail / service CRM.
I have been looking for a while at several CRM systems but as you know can be very costly.
I only just got started with it myself recently, and it takes a while just to enter the basic stock and suppliers etc, it has taken over a month just to play around and get used to my self, let alone a whole system from scratch. So not afive minte job.
He is a friend of mine who i have known for years, who was in the TV and WGoods trade built this up taken over 15 years to get where it is.
I didnt realise until recently when i spoke and said i was looking for something like this he had this system running in two shops.It has been adapted for different types of businesses so flairly flexible.
when they showed it at a show one year I think it was Cromwell who are big in CRMs were there demo ing theirs and even they were fairly impressed with the amount of stock in the system how quick it was to search for parts.
Some Retra members also use it.If intersted they have a demo you can download, which is the full package to check it out for a month.
I was going to promote it more once i had mine up and running fully as there are always guys on the site looking for such a thing.
I know you said you had something yourself in the pipe line, but its not a over night job, and this may save you some of your valuble time. 😉
The price is affordable as well.
Steven
Re: SEPTEMBER 2010 MEETING
Ken
Have you got copies of slides Bob 1 & 2 as a reminder for those who missed it can check it out?
Maybe we will be able to give you some ideas for Bob III.
Steven
Re: SEPTEMBER 2010 MEETING
I’ll have the Bob thing somewhere. How much sense it will make without the speaking to go with… no clue.
It’s a LOT of info if you were paying attention. 😉
Bob 2 hasn’t (yet) seen the light of day. It will in September.
Stock control… Windows only, no use. No barcode facility, no use. No remote access, no use. EPOS is a bonus and not required for most repairers or anyone that doesn’t have call for a fair amount of counter sales. I therefore have resigned myself to roll my own.
CRM can be done in open source. But, it depends what you mean and, more importantly, what you want from a CRM system.
(forgive the sounding like Yoda here)
The fact of it is that most service CRM systems are designed around industries that bear no more than a passing resemblance to WG servicing. What happens is that it’s usually designed around browngoods servicing where field service isn’t the primary concern then get “adapted” to suit a field service application. The other popular one is boiler and heating servicing. But, in any event, the point is that the roots of the system lie elsewhere and, by default, so does the focus of the package.
So, we end up with an adapted system that isn’t tailored to the industry that it purports to represent. Add into that the fact that most software designers will do as they are asked, they lack the ability to actually apply any industry knowledge to what they design. They don’t know how calls are taken, they don’t know how sh*t engineers are at actually giving information and they don’t understand that the people that use these systems are not geeks in a darkened room that love IT.
As geeks do they then overcomplicate things. They add layer upon layer to cover the increasing list of “It’d be nice if…” requests.
A glaring example of this is the system we use as a call handling and CRM system…
Five screens to take a single service call!!!???
I mean FFS, how hard is it?
Multiple mouse movements. Tab orders way out of kilter with reality. Information taken in the wrong order, mainly because there’s too many damned screens doing too many simple tasks that could easily be simplified.
But see, you got me started on how w**k most of these systems are!
The problems with them are blindingly obvious when you dig into them a bit… overly complex. Not designed for the task. Poorly written. Not properly tested or evaluated. And, that’s just the start of it, it’s best summed up by this simple appraisal, “fundamentally flawed out the gate”.
The caveat being, “for our industry and what we do”.
Whenever I evaluate software I ask some very simple questions. The most important of which is, “Why should I change a successful business practice to fit a bit of software?”. Which leads to, “Why does the software not adapt to my business practices?”
I don’t like rigid, un-adaptable systems. Sadly, that’s what most are.
Instead of ripping up the rule book and using all the new technologies that are available most persist in using code and design based on systems when the x2/386 processors ruled the world. In IT terms that’s like when the dinosaurs ruled the Earth and we were cavemen, scribbling on the walls of a cave was considered to be advanced.
Why do they not make use of modern methods, APIs and databases that are open source? Why make it so bl00dy hard?
I can’t say I’ve looked at a single stock control or service call handling system that I consider to be remotely up to date. And, as you may have sussed, this annoys me ever so slightly.
CRM systems are a whole different kettle of fish but, it comes back to what you consider a CRM system when you apply that term to our industry. I’d need a clear definition to comment.
K.
Re: SEPTEMBER 2010 MEETING
Not having a great knowledge of computers and certain sytems is sometimes beyond me. I can switch it it on and get by 😳
The system i think is only windows, so you being a MAC man wont help.
It does have bar code scanner, it is updated by remote and has remote back up, full stock control.
This system has been developed over 15 years while Paul was working in the trade, he sold and services white and brown goods, electrical and computing stuff, so this has really been developed for our trade.
So when he got with his IT guy and said it needs to do this and that he has updated as he gone along.
It has diary (basic), sales, service , workshop job logging customers print your job sheets, invoices, quotes, suppliers raise purchase orders, make up bar codes, print euro hangers, Weee tickets, it does have a lot on it and its not that complicated to navigate.
As said only just got it and if i can actually get round it with my lack of brains then anyone can.Entering a customer is really one click.
Even can add extras, post code software, links to sage, sms customers, connects to phone line so when a customer calls it tells you who is calling (if a regular customer).Its seems easier than service base.
But you know more about these things than i do, you can only try it, apart from the scanner and till printer, you can still see it fully working if you have windows.
Only thinking of you and your time 😉
In your honest opinion would you not rate this?
Re: SEPTEMBER 2010 MEETING
I did look at it Steven but I find it too limiting in many ways.
I can’t seem to find what it’s built on but it looks like MS Access which means it’s limited in some respects. Speed, portability and number of records are all limited in Access, as is layout and design in many ways.
The reason I think that is the link to ODBC (Open DataBase Connectivity), a Windows only standard. Which, sadly, limits the software to being run on local Windows boxes only that, for me, is much too limiting. It is also a standard used very annoyingly by Sage and others as well.
Thing is that, like stupid (lazy) coders that build stuff for the web that only works on IE (Windows) they seem to forget that now 40{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of all internet users don’t use a Windows based system or browser. So when you see a site that’s not compatible you just move on to the next one that is, potentially losing 40{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of your traffic or customers. It’s a bit stupid really.
So, if I want to work remotely I have to tap in using a remote desktop, can’t do it over the web any other way. If Nicola wants to complete sheets at home, she can’t as RDC is too slow. If Robert (engineer) wants to print sheets locally or update, he can’t as it’s too slow and, in any event only one user can be logged into RDC at any one time.
Meanwhile me, on a Mac, has to run a Windows installation as a virtual machine locally, then remote desktop via VPN or whatever and then suffer an intolerably cruel and slow system.
So it could be used, but it’d drive me mad within a few days.
But my biggest gripe with most systems like this is this…
It’s my data and I will choose how, why and in what format I wish to use it in. I will not be wanting to be constricted by some technology that can’t talk to other things easily and be used across different platforms and/or the data ported in a way that I can use it wherever I want.
Most of these prepackaged systems do not allow you to do that and are built on proprietary technologies, such as in this case, the use of Windows only based systems.
I’m quite sure that you could export the data to CSV or whatever but, will it do it on the fly to allow the information to, for example, generate an HTML based terminal application? Will it talk back the way as well and, if it can, is it through ODBC because, if that’s the case then you’re stuck using MS software all the way.
Most of these sorts of systems allow you to export the data but, to update you have to export form the other database then re-import to the original one. This is hardly ideal or even remotely practical for most applications. Although Wasp Barcodes seem to think it’s perfectly acceptable, even when it’s several thousand line entries… muppets.
Not a big deal for you perhaps with a few thousand or even a few tens of thousand records but, when you scale up onto pukka servers and server class software this can ramp the costs up by an unimaginable degree as you deal with more and more data. Like you can be into the tens of thousands just for the software licensing!
That’s what I’m talking about when I’m on about scalability.
The dude at datapos is talking a few hundred thousand records tested with it but I dunno what sort or how many line entries that is, I’m talking about the possibility of millions of lines.
Plus talking to a remote server that only runs a dBase is far, far faster especially on a local basis let alone remotely as all it’s doing is providing the data. The local method of access is only a way to manipulate the data and display it so humans can understand it. This makes the local application very light and fast. Fast is good. 😉
There’s a whole host of things in my head on this subject and I am somewhat opinionated on it as well. 😉
K.
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