This year’s annual Perspective Users’ Conference focused on the changing world of Incident Management—specifically on how Mobility, Integration and Information Security are affecting our clients.

Clients who joined us this year got a well-rounded introduction to where Perspective is currently at; a sneak peek at what they can expect to see in upcoming releases; introductions to the partners we are working with to provide more functionality; and insight into how the changes we are making and the modules we are introducing will help them move forward.

            

Popular Sessions

For our General Sessions, our ‘What’s New in Perspective’ session really stood out! It was exciting for the PPM team to showcase what we accomplished this year in terms of product releases—especially as we got to share what we accomplished in comparison to the road map we presented at the 2011 Users’ Conference (we were bang on!).

The Conference also included a number of successful Breakout Sessions, two of which received amazing feedback…

The first was a session that we tried out for the first time this year—the ‘Perspective in Action: Client Discussion Panel.’ It was a dynamic discussion as the panelists shared their experiences, opinions and insights with the audience jumping in with questions on everything from SaaS, to brand protection, to merging data from other internal systems. As we were walking out, an attendee who was back for his third Users’ Conference shared how the panel was his favorite session ever! The goal of the Panel was to mirror the great conversations that we have with attendees throughout the event… just in a format that enabled everyone else to listen in and ask questions. We succeeded!

The other session that our clients truly enjoyed was ‘Activity Tracking vs. Incident Reporting.’ With the release of Perspective Version 3.0, we introduced a brand new data form for Activity Reporting, and this session discussed ways to make use of this new feature while zeroing in on what should be tracked as an Activity and what should be tracked as an Incident. As one client put it, “Some parts of our organization need to track what they do with their time but not necessarily enter that as an incident—this is perfect for them!”

Keynote Address by Shayne Bates

Shayne Bates, CPP, of Microsoft Global Security, took our attendees through how security technology is moving into the cloud—and why. Two phrases courtesy of Shayne that came up during his session were ‘culture of no’ and ‘end user bypass.’ Do you have any idea what he was referring to?

For ‘culture of no,’ Shayne was referring to the IT departments of most organizations where the easy answer (admittedly, sometimes with very good reason) is ‘no.’ In the past, you couldn’t get around it. Now, you can, and with an ‘end user bypass’, you circumvent the IT group by going straight to the cloud. As amusing as this may be to anyone who has ever had a tough time with IT, the best way is, of course, for IT and Corporate Security to work together. And, throughout his keynote, Shayne touched on the importance of a partnership with IT as he shared some general cloud knowledge with the attendees while appealing to their security sensibilities by sharing the cloud strategy currently in place at Microsoft Global Security.

With technology moving into the cloud at a fast pace (even here at PPM), we wanted our attendees to take back knowledge on how the cloud can be beneficial—and what you need to know about.

            

And the Best Part of the Conference was…

As always, our Hands-On Training is integral to our Users’ Conference and an opportunity that each and every attendee takes advantage of. Something else that stood out this year, though, was the networking between users. Attendees were searching out other attendees in their same industry or, even, from the same city. And, while we always offer a variety of networking events (including lunches, dinners, etc.), we’re definitely going to formalize it next year and bring in a few sessions where attendees really get to connect with one another.

Attendee Feedback

In closing, we would like to share some comments we received from some of our Users' Conference attendees:

• The PPM team is great! They are very interactive with everyone. If you have a question they have an answer… and if they don't, they will find out.
• The entire team is friendly, fun and always willing to talk shop and share experiences. Also, they are great at helping those of us from similar industries find each other!
• I met a lot of great people and made some new friends during the conference. Everyone is very willing to share their experiences with Perspective. Great exchange of information.
• Overall, I learned lots, developed great relationships and am hoping to return next year.
• I enjoyed the Power of Integration Services Breakout. This session got my gears turning—there are many systems that we can integrate into Perspective, and I believe Integration Services can get us there!
• The ‘Ask the Experts’ was very useful and provided some beneficial sharing of ideas.
• Introduction to Perspective Version 3.0 was the best Hands-On Session. Whenever you have a new upgrade around the time of the Users’ Conference, this is a perfect way to see—in a snapshot forum—what's changed.
• I definitely enjoyed the session highlighting ‘What's New in Perspective.’ It's always very exciting to see new features and improvements within the application.

-Lenora Thomas, Director, Customer Service & Technical Support Services