Until Next Year, UGM 2019

“I always get to where I’m going by walking away from where I’ve been.”

-Winnie the Pooh

As I collect my stack of hotel notepads full of scribbled to-do items and names, and hurriedly shove my worn pile of brightly colored HCSS daily uniforms into my luggage, I can’t help but feel odd that today is the last day of our User’s Group Meeting for 2019.  

I have been with HCSS for almost 7 years, and at some point I have had the pleasure of being on the front-line support for every product that we have developed. I have an emotional connection with the people that call into support because I encounter the struggles that lead to the wins, whether big or small; and together we work through the problems that may even require the company to rethink how we programmed it.  

So for me, the User’s Group Meeting is more than a collection of minds coming together to learn about HCSS products.  It is much more than providing personal support and attention that you can’t find anywhere else. And, to me, it is instrumentally more than just picking the brains of these brilliant engineers, foremen, IT, accountants, and executives to design better more useful features.  

To me, this is a place I get to see my friends.  

This is the place I get to see familiar faces, shake hands, and catch up on our lives.   

I am grateful for these past 6 days of predawn mornings, late nights, and in-between hustle from classroom to classroom that I get to spend serving our customers.  It is no small feat, and the production that goes on behind the scene is what I would compare to operating 170 in-sync rowers on a 7th century BC Roman Trireme.  For perspective, the entire year, beginning with the day UGM ends, is how long it takes to plan this event.  It is an ongoing negotiation that continues even while the event is happening.

The feeling across the board, once the dust settles, and we load the movers with three-floors worth of convention supplies and material is that we are proud to have such amazing customers.  From their perspectives, and the insight they have to offer, to their willingness to help us design user interfaces and define workflows, we have come to this conclusion: We have the best of the best partners in any industry.  

If you have a moment, I would encourage you to explore the many online resources that we have been creating and improving over the past few years to provide more than just phone support.  Here are several to get you started:

• We have an online chat, in case you do not have the time or ability to get to a phone;
• We have every knowledge article that our own support uses to help troubleshoot issues in a standardized help library that we build daily as we encounter new business problems;
• We have a free Academy site that will help you onboard your new hires and get your company learning new features at the same time;
• We have a community portal that you can ask others in your industry how they do it;
• We have an ideas portal that directly connects to the Product Managers where you can get notifications on your ideas, vote other users’ ideas, and engage in some lively conversation with users and PMs (Adam – HeavyJob, Greg – HeavyBid, Kyle – Equipment360, Stacey – HCSS Safety, Rateb – HCSS Plans, Addison – everything else);   

Our singular goal that every employee has when they enter the HCSS campus has always been this: to help our customers dramatically improve their business.  Being able to work for our clients is definitely an honor that I am reminded of at every User’s Group Meeting.  And as I sit here, at the last breakfast of the convention, I have a feeling of sadness as I will miss my friends. However, the hopeful reminder hits me that I have so much work to do, and I’ll see them again at UGM 2020.

If you ever need anything, or want to share your story, please feel free to drop me an email or say, “hi.”  I’ll be here for you: daniel.chee@hcss.com

I took a few photos while I was running between classes that I wanted to share with you: