Perspective Users' Conference

2011 Perspective Users' Conference Recap

This year’s annual Perspective Users’ Conference focused on how to Unleash the Power of Perspective—and based on the feedback we received—we helped our attendees work towards that exact objective!

Clients who joined us this year got a well rounded introduction to where Perspective is currently at, what they can expect to see in upcoming releases, the partners that we are working with to provide more functionality, and how we can help Perspective users effectively turn data into actionable intelligence to improve business processes.

Integration Services & Partner Showcases

A big focus for a number of our sessions this year was on Integration Services which was introduced with the release of Perspective Version 2.5. As a .NET Web service that leverages Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Integration Services is an open API that defines how data is moved between Perspective and other business and security applications. Integration Services has removed the boundaries between applications and in turn has allowed us to work with partners like Brivo, CNL, G4S, i2, IDV Solutions and Infoglide.

During our Partner Showcase, attendees were able to learn about the links that have been built between Perspective and G4S’s Secure Trax, Brivo’s ACS WebService and Infoglide’s Identity Resolution Engine (IRE). This session revealed how easy it can be to share data across systems and the possibilities that this opens up for the end user looking to reduce redundancies across disparate systems.

Integration Services also gives us the ability to help clients integrate with existing systems such as HR databases or to create custom applications like search tools and new reporting options. We were sure to give our attendees a sneak peak at the different types of functionality now available to them during our Perspective Integration Services session.

Popular Sessions

The conference also included a number of successful Breakout Sessions, but we received overwhelmingly positive feedback on two of the sessions in particular.

The first was our introduction to the Power of Perspective Workflow (the latest module to be added to the Perspective product line). Dale Yushchyshyn, our Director of Implementation Services and resident Workflow expert, had a standing room only crowd anxious to hear all about it. He covered what it is, how it works and even featured some great examples of past Workflow implementations. After the session, many clients shared their excitement about Workflow and how they could potentially benefit from more process automation.

The other session that our clients truly enjoyed was hearing about the deployment of Perspective from three of our Perspective power users. We were very appreciative that we had three such amazing presenters who were able to share their Perspective experiences, including the challenges that they ran into during implementation, and how they were able to overcome them! Hearing how others use Perspective is always great for our clients—and I must extend a big ’thank you’ to Sam Putnam, Adam Harting and Hadley McCann for imparting their insights! I might be biased being in Customer Service, but this was my favourite session because I always enjoy hearing about successful and creative client implementations!

Keynote Address by Phillip Banks

The conference's Keynote Address on Risk-Based Security Data Collection and Analysis by Phillip Banks of the Banks Group was well received by our attendees and certainly provided everyone with food for thought. Phill’s understanding of security operations and his experience in security performance measurement and maturity modeling for corporate security programs definitely came through during his presentation.  As one attendee put it,

“The keynote address was particularly excellent this year and really made me think about my operation”.

Phill focused on how to understand where your organization is at when judging the maturity of your information gathering, how information analysis can be used to reduce the ambiguity of situations, and how you should review your intelligence gathering methods and analysis to make the most of your security measures.

Best Part of the Conference…

And as in per previous years, the conference's Hands-On Training Labs were deemed a resounding success. Judging from our recent survey aimed at conference attendees… the Hands-On Training was regarded as the best part of the conference (especially the Introduction to Version 2.5 session)!

Attendee Feedback

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

• I want to thank the PPM 2000 team for doing such a great job and making my first experience at the PPM 2000 conference excellent.
  
  
• The PPM conference is truly a rare event in our industry because PPM wants to make products for us (their clients) from our directly communicated needs. Most companies push products on the basis of what they think we need and never ask us what we actually need. PPM asks those questions of their clients and the conference is living proof.
  
  
• I have never worked with vendors that are so responsive to our needs and requests. Good job!
  
  
• The Users’ Conference had a lot of good information, plenty of networking time and was a fabulous place to enjoy the sunshine.
  
  
• The PPM staff is wonderful. They are knowledgeable, friendly, approachable and FUN!
  
  
• I enjoyed all the sessions I attended. They were very informative.
  
  
• You all do a marvellous job in maintaining your relationship with me and my team. Keep up the wonderful work! It's always a pleasure to interact with each and every one of you.

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