Our Fourth Annual User Conference in Florida

It seems like only yesterday that we were soaking up sun and seminars at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in Florida. You traveled from far and wide to meet, learn and grow in this hacienda-style setting, and we were pleased to see so many of you in attendance! Congratulations to our photo contest winners, for your creative shots of those Windmill ball caps in action. First prize went to Daniel and Gerald from Foyer Richelieu, whose ball cap on steroids provided shelter for two sleepy residents. The guys won a $300 gift card and a free PM Worx UC 2010 registration.

 Our second prize winner, featuring an off-duty ball cap sailing into  uncharted waters, went to Jay Gerrish from The Park  Danforth, who wins a $100 gift certificate and 50% off  2010 registration. Beverly from Glenmoor came in a  close third, with her cool pooch photo, complete with  Florida shades. Beverly wins a $75 gift card and 25% off 2010 registration.

 And, let’s not forget the photo that started it all…Kyle’s cat,  Diego, who clearly took advantage of the early bird special!

Popular Data Audits
The data audits were a popular feature at our hands-on Pre-Conference Clinic. We were so pleased to see such spectacular results, with far fewer data errors than in previous years — which of course is a prerequisite for good reporting. It’s obvious that many of you are using your PM Worx data to help manage your business, and we’ve seen a sharp rise in the number of work requests that are being captured through the system. It’s just fabulous! (For more on dealing with large volumes of work requests, see Kyle’s article, “Can You Handle 600,000 Work Requests”).

Behind-the-Scenes Innovation Tour
 A nasty cold forced me to miss the behind-the- scenes tour by the Disney Institute. By all  accounts, it was a fascinating glimpse into life  backstage. Participants got to visit one of the  largest laundry facilities in the world, as well as the  utility corridor that supports the park operations  overhead. And then there were those world- famous topiaries. Kyle and Josh look pleased as  punch, so I guess they must have created this  one of Mickey themselves!
 
Jeff Busch, from Still Hopes, kindly stepped in as my representative and became official photographer for the evening. He was our very first Mobile Worx user four years ago, and now uses a dozen handhelds.  Jeff sure swears by their value, and can’t believe than anyone would be crazy enough not to use Mobile Worx.

Session Summaries
My keynote session at this year’s User Conference, The Discipline of Execution, was inspired by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan’s book, “Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done.” The seminar explored why rigorous attention to execution is the key to delivering on your department’s objectives.  If you’d like to find out more about how to ensure a disciplined focus on execution, as well as why everyone likes to be recognized for winning, take a look at my article on Scoreboards, “Keep Score to See Productivity Soar.”

Metrics
During Day 1 of the conference, we talked about the importance of data exploration:

•  For more efficient and effective daily operations
•  To improve your business in significant ways

We discussed how asset and work order information can help us make repair vs. replace decisions and decide what we should outsource, or bring/keep in-house. It can also inform us about what training we need to provide, or how well vendors are performing. 

The possibilities are endless.

During the session, we introduced a handy list of the most common reports maintenance departments use.

Worx IQ
As most of you know, the latest major addition to the PM Worx family is Worx IQ — a powerful analytics tool that compares data across time, buildings, workers, and even different communities.  Everyone at the conference got to have their data loaded into Worx IQ, which produced some really interesting results that we explored during a pair of breakout sessions.  Did you know that you’re processing an average of nearly two work orders per month for each of your resident units? Or that conference attendees complete 71% of all work orders within one day? That’s impressive!

Quality Surveys
Who could forget the bloopers that opened Joe Zannini’s presentation about Quality Surveys? First came the urinals that were just a little too close for comfort, then the room without a view, followed by the driveway that looked more like a ski slope. All vivid examples of poor quality that made folks laugh.  Joe’s message was clear. Measure quality, so you know where you’re at, and know how to interpret the results to help your case. 

You can view his entire presentation here:

“Monitoring Quality Through Resident Surveys”

See You Next Year!
We’re already looking forward to the Fifth Annual PM Worx User Conference, and will keep you posted about dates and venue. In the meantime, we’ve put together a selection of photos from this year’s three-day conference, and you can head on over to our Members Only site to take a look.