What happens in Vegas doesn’t have to stay in Vegas. That was the attitude of the 3000-plus attendees at the 2008 ARMA International’s Conference and Expo last month at the Las Vegas Convention Center—especially the ones who made their way to the Laserfiche booth.

“ARMA attendees are really serious about learning, so we scheduled our educational sessions to coincide with their breaks,” says Laserfiche Corporate Events Manager Tala Baltazar.

Laserfiche’s Dan O’Leary demonstrating the Laserfiche and SharePoint Integration to a packed house

At the Laserfiche booth, attendees got a chance to see the Laserfiche and SharePoint Integration first hand, experience demos of Laserfiche transparent records management tools and hear the success stories of Laserfiche users including the City of St. John, NB, Canada; the City of Sun Prairie, WI; St. Tammany Parish, LA; Eaton County, MI; the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority; and the City of Anaheim, CA.

And of course, thanks to the benefits of the Laserfiche community, seasoned users like Margaret Anderson of Collin County, TX, also spent time visiting with new users like first time attendee Kim Boehr of British Columbia’s Westbank First Nation.

Anderson, who was a conference speaker, explained how Laserfiche Records Management Edition (RME) provides the records management backbone for the county’s case management system, used by the District Clerk, District Attorney and County Court at Law Clerk’s offices. She also discussed how RME has been expanded to other county departments such as Human Resources and Public Works.

Laserfiche’s Christian Talavera with Laserfiche user and conference speaker Margaret Anderson of Collin County, TX

Anderson, a Certified Records Manager, has 20 years of experience in records and information management. She taught basic records management at Brookhaven College, is a past president of the ARMA Dallas Chapter, served as ISG Government Sector Manager, and was an ARMA Southwest Region coordinator. She also presented at the 2008 Laserfiche Institute Conference.

“There was a great deal of interest in how we are implementing our system,” says Anderson. “It’s critical that the users be part of the planning process. Many attendees expressed frustration at having to implement a system without being part of it.”

User Cynthia Knox of the City of San Marcos, TX, stops by the booth to say hello

But Anderson wasn’t the only user spreading the word about Laserfiche. Chuck Chlarson of Mohave County, AZ, one of Laserfiche’s most enthusiastic advocates, spent his time inviting ARMA attendees over to the Laserfiche booth. “I always have a great time at the ARMA conferences stumping for Laserfiche,” he says.

So, why was Chlarson so inspired? “The thing I stress about Laserfiche is the ability for a user to be able to talk one-on-one with the software developers about glitches or things we would like to have in the next edition,” he explains. “This is very impressive to folks I’ve talked with.”

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the booth. We’ll see you at ARMA 2009!

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Tags: records management

Posted on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 11:20 am under UserNews. You can comment on this post.