TopForm Spring into Action 2002 a Resounding Success!



Click here to enlarge
Ninety-seven TopForm users from as far away as 'across the pond' and 'down under' (Great Britain and Sydney, Australia), attended this year's conference held at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel in Atlanta. This year's conference, the first ever held in the Spring, included fifteen different educational seminars, seven user-led round table discussions and one user-led general session on document imaging and workflow.

Gordie Peterson and Ken Schempp of Document Resources presented how they have totally integrated "COLD" technology and Document Imaging and Workflow into their TopForm system. Everyone was extremely impressed with this advanced technology. One comment on the conference evaluation regarding this session was:


Click here to enlarge
"I really liked the format this year with the second day General Session being from the perspective of a TopForm User who is doing something really "special" that we might want to do ourselves."

-- Donna Dennis, SunCoast Forms
Again this year, a TopForm Showcase was operational throughout the conference. Here various TopForm Options were on display, manned by TopForm Experts.

"It was very organized and a TopForm Rep was always available."
-- Jeff Irvin, Inventory Control Manager
Computer Merchandise


Click here to enlarge
As in the past, the conference was kicked off with a General Session that outlined all the new features and capabilities being released. These included the TopForm Variable Print Option that provides for ordering of business cards and other stationery or variable text type items. Also announced was the DDMS interface and the soon to be released direct interface with United Stationers. David Pydlek of United Stationers was on hand to offer their support and to answer any questions from their technical perspective. Bill Bialy presented all the new features now available and coming soon with Web.ec, and Keith McBride took some of the mystery out XML.

"It was a great learning experience, the General Session was packed with great information."
-- Linda Spoehr, Accounting Manager, MHC Companies
As mentioned above, there were fifteen different educational breakout sessions and seven user led round table discussions. The breakout sessions were on a variety of topics that seem to hit home with the users.

"It's difficult to decide which session to go to."
-- Chris Quattrochi, IT Administrator, Print Technologies

Click here to enlarge
"Did not have enough time…we wanted to attend all the breakouts (they were too good to miss)."
-- Barbara Donnelly (Principal) SunCoast Forms
There was also a big improvement in the conference documentation. Written narratives of most of the presentations were provided in lieu of only copies of the Power Point Presentations. "The burden on the presenters was significant. Preparing this written documentation along with their Power Point presentations meant twice as much work for our presenters on top of all their normal responsibilities," said Julie Pritchard, "however we are committed to striving to add more and more value to our conference." Speaking of more value, included in the Attendee Registration Fee for each attendee was a CD. This CD included an animated presentation with audio narration entitled "Efficiency through Technology." The purpose of this presentation is to provide your sales staff with a tool to better market your technology based services. Also included on the CD were digital copies of all of the Power Point presentations and the written documentation to enable the attendees to put on their own training sessions back at their offices.


Click here to enlarge
The challenge next year, according to Cathy Spence, Operations Manager for TopForm, will be to deliver on the suggestions made in the conference evaluations. "Our clients commented that they would like more time in the showcase area, longer help desk sessions, more breakouts, and more user led roundtable discussions. I'm not sure how we can do all of that without extending the conference to include an extra day." Keith McBride commented, "It's a good problem to have, that the attendees seemed to want more, rather than less, of everything."

Planning has already begun for the 2003 conference to be held in March or April. If you have any comments or suggestions please let us know.

TopForm User Awards - Special Contributions



Click here to enlarge
QBF and MHC Companies, Inc. were both awarded,
"In recognition of their outstanding contribution to the development and advancement of TopForm e-commerce technology." QBF was recognized as the early adopters of the TopForm Web.ec software. MHC was recognized for their work in testing and implementing the Four51 XML Interoperability feature of TopForm.
Webb Mason, GDX and Prograde were all awarded,
"In recognition of their outstanding contribution to innovation and advancement in the area of TopForm Third Party Integration." Webb Mason was recognized for being one of the original companies to convert to ProvideX and for their work in helping with a project for integrating TopForm with an Oracle Database. GDX was recognized for the hundreds of hours they devoted to testing the electronic invoicing component of the Preferred Partner Program. Prograde was recognized as the first company to go live with the electronic invoicing portion of the Preferred Partner Program.
In addition to the above, MHC was also recognized,

Click here to enlarge
"For their active promotion of TopForm Software within the Business Print Industry." In an E-Files article in the current edition of Print Solutions Magazine, Pete Mattson took the time to mention TopForm (six times in all) for our work in providing for XML interoperability with Four51. This is great publicity for us and we truly appreciate his taking time to recognize our efforts toward this worthwhile development project. Pete has on many other occasions given us credit during DMIA functions. Thanks again to MHC Companies, Inc.
We also like to recognize our customers for the continued involvement in TopForm User Conferences. The companies that achieved the award for active participation in five TopForm User Conferences were; Bear Graphics, Inc, Network Business Products and Progressive Business Solutions.

The companies that achieved the award for active participation in ten TopForm User Conferences were: Global DocugraphiX, Document Resources, Inc. and TSI Associates, Inc.

TopForm Awards Preferred Partners


Click here to enlarge
We also took time to award our Preferred Partners in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the advancement of technology and efficiency within the Business Print Industry. Recognized were CFC Print Solutions, Wise Business Forms, DataGraphic and Print Xcel, Inc. As you know our Preferred Partners have devoted their time and resources, including financial resources to providing for the transfer and receipt of certain data directly to and from our TopForm Software. This is certain to improve your efficiency in working with you high volume manufacturers.

TopForm Golf Challenge - A Big Hit


After a 3-year hiatus, the TopForm Golf Challenge made a big comeback at this year's Users Conference. Eighteen golfers participated in the best-ball tournament at the Marietta City Club Golf Course. Golfers were teamed up based on skill level and requests to join old friends. Several distributorships were represented along with two manufacturers - CFC Print Solutions and Wise Business Forms. Both manufacturers supplied prizes for the winning team and individual challenges so we want to thank Bob Saunders and Nic Greco from CFC along with Bill and Jeff Prettyman from Wise for their contributions. The winners this year were:
Winning Team - Mike Robben, Andrew Burgus, Jeff Prettyman (8 under par)
Closest To The Pin - Darren McKinzie, Data Source
Longest Drive - Pete Mattson, MHC Companies
Longest Putt - Glen Gryder, Computer Forms & Marketing
Thanks to all that participated and made this year's tournament such a success. We plan to make the golf challenge an annual tradition and expectations are high that next year's tournament will be even better!

Conference CD Available for Order


Couldn't make this year's conference? Why not go with the next best thing? Order a Conference CD. This CD will have all of the Power Point presentations used by the presenters along with the written documentation that was printed for the conference handout materials. The three books contained a total of over 500 pages, most (not all) of which were Word documents with written explanations of the topics being presented.

It also includes a presentation, with audio to assist you in selling your company's technology based services. This presentation was created without references to any company names. We recommend that you take the time to customize this presentation specifically to your company. You will probably want to change the template used and insert your logo. The CD will also contain a script of the audio portion. This is being provided to assist you, should you wish to rerecord all or part of the presentation. Often times, having different voices enhances the audio of the presentation. You may wish to alternate in your use of our audio and your own.

Of course there is no substitution for actually attending the conference with all the one-on-one interaction with TopForm experts and other users. However, this CD is jam-packed with value for $149. Please contact Jean Dudek if you would like to order your copy of Spring into Action 2002 on CD.