The Worldwide Laserfiche Community
January 23rd, 2008 Comment on this articleCEO Nien-Ling Wacker opened the 2008 Laserfiche Institute Conference with a keynote speech devoted to the Laserfiche community’s past, present and future.
In the 1980s, she explained, she dreamed of creating a digital document management system that would enable people to find information in seconds, without requiring them to change the way they work. With Laserfiche, she knew she’d created an easy-to-use, highly-scalable system that would help people better manage information. She now had to get the word out.
“We had to educate people about Laserfiche, and show them how easy it is to use, install and administer,” she said. She praised the hard work of the company’s employees, who traveled around the country to meet with prospects and conduct Laserfiche workshops. She also explained the important role user innovation has played in the company’s success: Both Workflow™ and Quick Fields™, for example, were created to meet specific needs she observed when visiting Laserfiche users and learning about the day-to-day problems they faced.
As the Laserfiche community grew, Wacker noted, users began to take an increasingly active role in working together to share best practices and solve common problems. She specifically mentioned the many users who currently contribute to the forums on the Laserfiche Support Site, and she invited users to share integrations and customizations by posting them to the Laserfiche Code Library™.
No matter how large the Laserfiche community becomes, Wacker said, one of the keys to the company’s success will always be the enthusiasm of individual Laserfiche users. “I’m always pleased when I hear about users who tell their friends and colleagues about Laserfiche, and about how the software can help them work more productively,” she said.
Wacker ended her address by inviting attendees to become Laserfiche Luminaries. Luminaries, she explained, will play an important role in helping Laserfiche gain even greater critical mass in the years ahead. “At this conference, we’ll have a number of presentations and labs devoted to Laserfiche 8,” she said. “I know that everyone is excited to learn about all the enhancements and to upgrade to the new version of the software. But we can’t forget the people who are still ‘in the dark ages’—meaning that they’re still digging through filing cabinets to find information or shuffling paper documents from one department to another.
“Luminaries can really help these people to ‘get connected,’” she continued, referring to the conference’s theme: Power Up and Get Connected. “By working together, we can not only spread the word about Laserfiche and help everyone work more efficiently; we can also create an even stronger worldwide community, which ultimately benefits everyone.”