“Yella” is Arabic for “Come on, let’s go!”—and that’s exactly the attitude last month’s Third Annual Laserfiche International Conference inspired in the 150 attendees from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific Region who were eager to learn how they could maximize the value of Laserfiche to their organizations.

The Laserfiche International Conference returned for the second year in a row to Beirut, Lebanon, co-hosted by Laserfiche and Middle East and North Africa Laserfiche distributor BMB sal. It offered four tracks personalized to the needs of users, administrators, developers and resellers with hands-on labs and product overviews covering every aspect of Rio enterprise content management and Avante business process management. “Last year, we had just two tracks, so doubling the tracks this year made a huge difference. All the attendees were impressed,” says BMB Sales Manager Roula Chehab. “There was a chance to learn more as they got divided into smaller groups. Attendees also liked how diverse the demonstrations and topics covered in the labs and lectures were.”

Attendees at the International Conference checking in

Mohamed Al-Baff, IT Manager of Millennium Group Services, agrees. “The conference made me exchange ideas and see the best tools on a range of perspectives about Laserfiche that affect my daily work,” he explains. “It also gave me the opportunity to engage in lab sessions where I could work directly on virtual servers to test all features and see results immediately, something that I wouldn’t do on my own server.

“We’ve been working with BMB on upgrading to Avante and had seen many demos that recreated our main business processes, so it was certainly interesting to attend sessions about Workflow since we’ll be using it soon,” Al-Baff adds.

Chehab notes that attendees’ enthusiasm was matched only by their eagerness to expand their use of Laserfiche. “A lot of companies have Process Reengineering Units or Quality Departments whose main focus is to design and establish all the business processes enterprise-wide, and they’re looking to Workflow to do it,” she says. “The Workflow labs were all packed, because people really wanted to use and test Workflow themselves. Although I have to say what people liked the most about it was the simplicity of the Workflow Designer.”

Laserfiche staff that travelled to Beirut was likewise impressed and encouraged by the enthusiasm of attendees. “Everyone understood that Laserfiche is easy to administer and easy to install, so it confirmed that everything we say about Laserfiche makes sense to everyone,” says Laserfiche Presales Engineer Justin Jones.

A packed class at the International Conference

Another message that struck home was Agile ECM engineered with Laserfiche and Microsoft technology, says Chehab. “People are really beginning to understand the value of a single system that can accommodate deployments over multiple locations, work with an existing portal strategy like Microsoft SharePoint, allow for unlimited servers with named users, and offer Workflow and Web Access and advanced auditing. The conference gives people a chance to really experience first-hand what that functionality would look and feel like within their organizations – not just now but in the future.”

One such attendee was Abed-el-Kader Amine, Information Technology System and Application Administrator for BankMed sal. “The conference brought an added value to my knowledge of Laserfiche, especially lab sessions covering the Workflow and the integration with SharePoint,” he says.

At the conference, the following users were recognized with Visionary Awards for their demonstrated dedication to excellence, leadership and innovation in implementing Laserfiche solutions:

• Mobile Interim Company 2 (now known as MTC Lebanon).
• BankMed, Lebanon.
• National Transportation Authority, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
• Ministry of Defense and Aviation Medical Services Department, Saudi Arabia.
• Saudi Arabian Airlines.

Laserfiche's Sean Tang with Visionary Award winners

“The winners of this year’s Laserfiche Visionary Awards could not have achieved such a high level of success without the knowledge and experience their resellers brought to the table,” says Laserfiche International Business Director Sean Tang. “We’re very impressed with all that they’ve achieved.”

After the success of this year’s conference, the stage is set for the Fourth Annual Laserfiche International Conference. “We’re already looking forward to next year’s conference,” Tang says. “We’re planning on another vibrant gathering of our international community from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific Region.”

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Tags: Laserfiche International Conference

Posted on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 4:25 pm under UserNews. You can comment on this post.