Hands-on Workshop at Decade User Training Conference

The Decade Software Training Conference 2009 will be one for the record books.

In addition to providing training based on a user-prioritized list, we'll host a hands-on lab throughout the conference—no appointment necessary. If you have questions or just want to test a part of EnvisionConnect you've never used before, this open lab is the place for you. What's more, if you have questions the lab team can't answer, you're not likely to hear, "We'll get back to you on that." or "Can you call tech support after the conference?" Instead, a Conference Concierge will be on call to track down whomever on our staff has the answers you need.

There will also be sneak peeks at the future of EnvisionConnect and the Environmental Health industry from a technology perspective. We'll be presenting awards for best user-authored reports, page layouts, and SQL scripts, and we'll be introducing you to our online and interactive support tools. Our goal in the year ahead is to ensure that you never have to ask why and if you ask how, you'll get answers ASAP.

Want to know more? Join us at the Decade Software 2009 Training Conference, October 19th and 20th.

EnvisionConnect Batch Processing Faster than Envision

Customers and conference attendees have told us time and time again that financial batch processing in Envision was the fastest in the industry. EnvisionConnect, they also reported, is much easier to use, but not very fast compared to its predecessor. Decade's Development Team took that as a challenge, and early trials have everyone buzzing.

Smart Client Technology—the key to working on the web without giving up a powerful user interface—provides that all is processed client-side, including batches. Envision's advantage in the batch realm was its good old-fashioned client-server technology. Batches processed on the server run fast. The challenge in EnvisionConnect was to move the batch processing back to the server side without sacrificing the intuitive interface EnvisionConnect customers have grown accustomed to.

Through exhaustive research, careful prototyping, and much discussion with EnvisionConnect users, the Development Team provided a solution to a problem.

Perform Aging and Penalization and Perform Permit Billing are, by far, the most powerful of Decade's batch processes. From day one, EnvisionConnect was developed with a "hard things first" mentality.

Developers stayed the course with the batches, converting these two batches to server-side processing before all others, and in side by side trials—same data, same configuration, same hardware—these two EnvisionConnect batches now smoke the Envision batches, and they run in a fraction of the time it took the client-side batches to run.

In fact, Perform Permit Billing now processes half a million records in under one hour!

Want to know more? Join us at the Decade Software 2009 Training Conference, October 19th and 20th.

Hiking to Success at Decade Software

My wife and I took a few vacation days and hiked to the Hollywood Sign, but even the hot sun and aching muscles couldn’t keep my mind off the office.

We’ve got so much going on: business is booming, our biggest release ever is just around the conference, we’re hiring in every department, and our training conference is two months away. Decade Software is truly a company on the brink of jumping from good to great.

That said, I ask myself how we got here.

We got here, the same way a middle-aged overweight man made it to the top of the Hollywood Sign. We navigated the obstacles, the heat, the pitfalls with pure adrenalin and a little something called teamwork.

Decade Software has conquered it’s Hollywood Sign. Now, we’re ready to tackle El Capitan.

Did you miss me?

With all of this tweeting and twittering going on, you would think blogging would be losing popularity, but seldom does a week go by that someone doesn’t ask about my blog.

That said, I’m committing to blogging at least three days a week from now on.

…but I owe you an explanation, as to why I haven’t been doing so.

Because of the wild success of EnvisionConnect—due largely to the success of my own team—we’re really, really busy these days.

Presently, I am assisting with the launch of an all-new Decade Software user community, planning our 2009 training conference, and governing the launch of EnvisionConnect 4.0—our most anticipated release ever.

We’ll look at the details as the weeks progress, but in the meantime, I’m begging for your patience. I’m a really busy guy.

Angry customers tell 3,000 friends

A teammate said to me yesterday—referring to my entry entitled It's the Customer's, Stupid!...

"That's not really your job is it? I mean, you're a software development manager. There's a whole department working with customers. Don't you have more important things to do?"

Of course, I responded as you might expect...

"Taking care of the customers is everyone's job."

And then, I told the real story.

Last Fall, Kevin came to me and said...

"It seems like your team is really self-managed now. You still have to turn the flywheel occasionally, but generally your team can tackle anything you throw at them..."

Since Kevin is my manager, I had a suspicion as to where this was going.

"...So, I'm thinking that maybe you have some bandwidth you're not using, and I could use your help with some things. I would like you to take over as Conference Coordinator for our annual training conference."

Kevin knows I love event planning, and he knew I would dive in head first.

I worked for months assisting cross-functional teams from all departments. My goal was for them to present as never before. I wanted customers to learn more than ever before, but I also wanted them to enjoy the event more than any conference prior.

And—to some extent—we met the goal. The teams shined, and customers did say repeatedly that the 2008 Decade Training Conference was the best ever.

However, I wasn't all that satisfied.

We can easily teach customers how to use the software. It is intuitive and versatile enough to meet any need, and when it's not, we make it so, but how a customer needs to use the software is different from customer to customer and situation to situation. Those things you only learn in the real world—not in a conference class or a software testing lab.

In class after class, customers would ask questions that only other customers could answer. We thought that our staff knew our industry, but we were fooling ourselves.

No one knows our customers business better than our customers.

I left the conference asking myself...

"What can we do to help customers more easily help each other?"

Shortly after the conference was over, Kevin was back in my office. We were discussing another problem related to the conference. I wanted a way to make it easier to plan next year's conference. I wanted customers to be able to more easily register and provide information on how to make the conference better for them.

Kevin said...

"So you're thinking of creating a web site just for the conference?"

I said...

"Uh, hmm, uh... Yes, Kevin, that was exactly the idea that I had."

Of course, we both knew that was not the case. It was just Kevin's way of suggesting solutions without telling me exactly what to do, but it truly was a great idea!

I went forth and prospered, but...

....the more I worked on the site, the sooner I realized...

...how extremely easy it would be to allow customers to help themselves.

We increase the transparency. We give them better tools to freely communicate with each other year round!

I picked up a book—as I always do when I need to learn something fast. It was called Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000, and reading it, I was off to the races.

That, of course, was when all hell broke loose.

2008 Decade Conference a Resounding Success

Tabulating the early results, it seems the 2008 Decade Software User Training Conference was a resounding success, and I especially want to thank Peter Lucas and Sandra Sanchez for making it that way.

Of the conference participants who turned-in their post-conference questionnaires, over 99% said that the classes they attended were structured well, included useful material, and were presented well.

In the written comments, many said that this was our best conference yet!

My favorite quote said...

“Class presenters were much more interesting and knowledgeable than in the past.”

This was important to hear, as everyone on staff was committed to making that happen this year, and we are proud to have made strides in that direction.

Were there complaints? Of course, there were. You can never please all of the people all of the time. Two-thirds of our open forum panelists canceled at the last minute, and the Radisson Hotel had a problem controlling their flies, but by far, the complements exceeded the complaints, and everyone walked away smiling.

Next week, I'll be spotlighting some of the conference presentation teams and discussing the specifics of those presentations, but today I wanted to take a moment and thank the unsung heroes of our conference.

IT Wiz and Documentation Guru Peter Lucas and the company president's right arm, Sandra Sanchez are the glue that hold these events together. Too often, we forget to tell them...

"Thank you!"

And on that note, I want to thank all of those who attended and provided their feedback. We certainly couldn't improve without your input.

Thanks a million!

Preparing for the Decade User Training Conference

Everyone, I apologize for not writing much these last few weeks, but everyone here has been preparing for our annual user conference, next Monday and Tuesday.

I will tell you all about it next week, but in the meantime, I thought I'd show you a picture of some of the staff ready to go for the conference.

I think one or two of them might be a bit nervous. What do you think?

Pictured (from left to right) are Nicki Bradford, Jerad Little, me, Cynthia Hill, Art Amezcua, Mark Harmon, and Patrick Glaspey.

Presentation are not about hyperboles or widgets

Everyone, I want to apologize for not updating you as often as I usually do, but the office is extremely busy preparing for our user conference on the 29th and 30th.

More to come on that.

In the meantime—and considering the industry Tom comes from, this could be considered "presenting at a conference" related—PR Guru Tom Murphy has some words of wisdom I would like to pass on...

"[The Public Relations and Presentation industry] needs leadership, we need people to lead by being realistic, by reflecting the challenges we face such as how we can build a better understanding of our audiences and the tools we’ll use to reach them.

This is not about shiny objects, hyperbole or widgets.  It’s about world class communication, based on insight into your audience and pragmatic investments in the channels that work."

Decade Software's best-kept is still a secret

[You may recall the blog post below. It is from last year at this time. Tomorrow, I will try again to get Decade Software's best kept secret. Wish me luck!—and in the meantime, refresh your memory of how this went down last year.]

Every year, Kevin Delaney begins— weeks in advance—planning his Presidential Address for the opening of our annual EnvisionConnect Users Training and Conference—and every year, I drop by with some hint of something I think he should discuss, and every year—he hates my idea.

This year, I thought using the phone would be less intrusive, maybe catch him off guard, and he would be more receptive to my suggestion...

"Hi, Kevin. It's me, HL."

"No."

"You've haven't heard why I'm calling."

"No."

"Kevin, I think it would be great if you told everyone about our new customer portal."

"No."

"It seems to me that customers will be thrilled to know that we are testing a web-based tool that may allow them to open support incidents online, as-well-as review the status of new development and defects being addressed..."

"No."

"If all goes as we hope, it'll have the advanced search capabilities customers have always wanted. For example, I know Nick Reyes and Orange County have been waiting for..."

"No."

"Well, then, uh...Dang it—why not?"

"...because we can't predict the future."

"Huh?"

"Too many times, you technical guys come in here with some great idea. You get me all excited, then I tell our customers, and they get all excited—then some unforeseen obstacle arises beyond our control, and then we can't make it happen."

"Yea, but..."

"...then you guys move on to your next crazy idea, and I alone am left explaining to our customers why I lied to them. Nope—You're not doing it to me this time!"

So—like I said—you never heard this from me.

...and don't click on this link.

3 Steps to Better Presentations

Tomorrow, I will be speaking to the Fresno County Office of Education on the subject of Scrum and Teamwork in general, reviewing the accomplishments Decade Software has made over the last few years.

This afternoon, I will be meeting with those who will present classes at the Decade Software User Training Conference next month.

...so I found Peter Stev's thoughts today quite timely.

"How will I know if the audience is getting what they need? Why didn’t I think of this sooner? The answer is simple: identify the users, figure out what they want to accomplish and why. Give the audience what they need to accomplish their most important goals. If you can identify and address their needs even before they are even aware of them, magic happens."

Check out his full post, and let me know what you think.

Decade supporters prepare to meet in Fresno

Those who read my posts directly from the blog page will note the new countdown clock on the left. The annual Decade Software User Training Conference is only 34 days away, and as you can see from these photos, we've come along way since those first conferences so many years ago.

Over the years, we've found that conference attendees are as responsible as conference presenters for the success of these events—before, during, and after the conference.

Here are a collection of tips for getting the most out of our next gathering.

Before

• Examine your pre-conference agenda and synopsis to make sure that the classes you have scheduled cover the topics you want, and reflect both your interests and your experience level.

• Consider the class or lab format. Some topics lend themselves well to large audiences. Some offer more hands-on training and personal interaction with the speaker and other attendees.

• Make a list of the things you expect to learn from the classes and questions you want answered.

• Identify your strengths and weaknesses in the areas to be discussed, and be prepared to share your own knowledge when asked to do so.

During

• Attend.

• Take notes.

• Ask questions.

• Be willing to learn new ideas or techniques. Since you attend for the educational benefit, stay open to proposed concepts and workflows, and evaluate them for yourself outside of the conference.

• Give each speaker verbal and visual feedback so he or she knows whether or not the presentation is addressing your needs and concerns. (Is your focus drifting? Taking notes and asking questions periodically can help you stay “tuned in” and may help to make the presentation more meaningful!)

After

• Complete your conference questionnaire and let us know exactly what you liked and disliked about the presentations or other aspects of the conference.

• List the key points, alternate techniques, and new ideas you have learned.

• Review your notes and handouts periodically throughout the year, and download handouts for the classes you missed from the Decade Software Company web site (under Support > Envision User Groups).

• Experiment with the new concepts you were exposed to and evaluate what does or does not work for you. The most enlightening seminar is worthless if attendees immediately file away handouts and never review or practice lessons learned.

• Share your experiences with colleagues who could not attend the event. Be specific about what was rewarding or disappointing about your individual experience at the conference.

See you September 29th and 30th!

21 tips for delivering killer presentations

As you know, I worked in radio for 15 years, and I've been speaking publicly since Jimmy Carter was president.

In fact, this month I will be speaking to developers at the Fresno County Office of Education on Scrum.

At the office this week, everyone's getting excited about our user conference, and most are beginning to prepare their training sessions. To assist, I've put together my top 21 tips for public presentations.

1. Know your 15-word summary. Can you summarize your presentation in fifteen words? If not, rewrite it and try again. Speaking is an inefficient medium for communicating information, so know what the important fifteen words are and repeat them often.
2. Develop rapport with the audience. Presentations should be entertaining and informative. The audience expects some appeal to their emotions. Reciting dry facts without passion or humor bores your audience, as does repetitious or unnecessary words. Keep the audience engaged. Interesting talks fly by. Boring ones last forever.
3. Tell stories. If your presentation is lengthy, explain your points using short stories or anecdotes. Great speakers know how to paint mental pictures for the audience, creating emotional connections between ideas.
4. Tell the truth. If someone asks you a question and you do not know the answer, tell them so, but offer to help them find the answers after the presentation, and when you are wrong, say you are wrong.
5. Hold questions until the end. To keep the presentation moving, ask the audience to hold questions until the end. If they have questions not specific to the presentation, ask them to meet with you after the session.
6. Repeat questions. When accepting questions, have the person asking state their name and where they are from. Repeat these details and the question for your audience.
7. Prepare and adapt. Speak to your audience, listen to questions, respond to reactions—adjust and adapt. In case your material is not getting across, be prepared to change strategy. Know what you can (and cannot) omit, and brace yourself for the unexpected.
8. Distribute handouts. Ensure that the audience focuses on your presentation, instead of taking notes. Distribute most prior to the arrival of the audience, and hold additional handouts for late arrivals.
9. Make eye contact with everyone in the room. Sincere eye contact makes everyone in your audience feel involved. Exchange eye contact with many people in the audience for 3 seconds each, and routinely glance at the crowd while speaking.
10. Remember the slide rules. Show no more than 10 slides per 20 minutes with each slide containing no font smaller than 30-point. Using any audio or visual aids, “going large” avoids interruption by making everything easily understandable from the back of the room. Highlight main points within the first few slides, and throughout the presentation, use more words than those on the slides. Also, remember to number your slides (or script pages) in case you lose your place.
11. Never read slides or notes verbatim. Use words as reminders, and spend most of your time making eye contact. Knowing your material makes you more competent and confident—and assures your audience that you are an expert on your subject.
12. Speak with conviction and enthusiasm. With a little practice, you can inject your passion for a subject into your presentations, and enthusiasm is contagious. Structure presentations using logical progressions from introduction (Thesis statement) to body (strong supporting arguments, accurate and up-to-date information) to conclusion (re-state thesis, summary, and logical conclusion).
13. Breathe. Feeling the urge to use presentation killers like ‘um,’ ‘ah,’ or ‘you know’? Replace those with a pause, taking a short breath—in—not out. Allow everyone time to reflect and think. Racing through will leave everyone out of breath.
14. Slow down. Nervous speakers tend to talk fast. Consciously slow your speech down and add pauses for emphasis. Use statements like, “that’s a good question,” or “I’m glad you asked me that,” to buy time and organize responses. Astute guests will know, but it still smoother than “ums” and “ahs”.
15. Never plan gestures. Any gestures you use should be an extension of your message and the real emotions that message conveys. Planned gestures always look phony, because they do not match other involuntary body cues.
16. Arrive early. Never fumble with software or equipment while people are waiting. Scope the room early, run through your slide show, and identify any potential problems. Verify early that all electrical outlets and devices are functioning properly.
17. Practice your speaking skills. Practice instills competence and confidence. If possible, practice with the microphone. Some require that you speak from one angle. Other microphones absorb sound from different directions, but are prone to feedback.
18. Project your voice. Do not yell. Stand up straight and let your voice resonate on the air from your lungs rather than your throat, and you will produce a louder and clearer sound. Vary the tone of your voice and dramatize if necessary. If a microphone is available, adjust and adapt your voice accordingly.
19. Know when to apologize. Apologize only when you have done something wrong. Never apologize for nervousness or a lack of preparation time. Most audiences will not detect your anxiety, unless you draw attention to it. Apologize when you are late or shown to be incorrect. Confidence will promote audience trust, but arrogance will erode it.
20. Be the Audience. When preparing your presentation, think from the audience’s perspective. What might they not understand? What might seem boring? As an audience member, “What’s in it for me?”
21. Know when to stop talking. Conclude your presentation by summarizing your main points. Follow with an interesting remark or an appropriate punch line. Leave your audience with a positive impression and a sense of completion. Do not belabor your closing remarks. If there is time remaining, take questions, thank your audience and sit down.

Let me know if you have any to add!

BIG things will be happening in September!

Did you ever have a secret that you were dyeing to tell, but no one would let you?

What if you had dozens of those secrets just aching to get out?

That is the way I feel about the 2008 User Training and Conference sessions.

EnvisionConnect is more powerful than ever before, and we have wonders to show our customers.

Additionally, the conference itself—September 29th and 30th, here in Fresno at the Radisson Hotel and Conference Center—is undergoing changes, changes that guarantee to make it our most polished to date.

Watch this space for more details!

Scrum is no silver bullet, but it taught us how to shoot

Time and time again, I've heard my Scrum Masters remind the teams, "...but Scrum is no silver bullet"—and this week's EnvisionConnect User Training and Conference was no different.

Kevin opened events with a description of how Scrum shined for the development team this year—describing our record breaking year for both delivery and quality, boasting of our near-zero defect goal for the coming year, and explaining how we were now using Scrum in the Design and Implementation groups.

Our clients came from all 50 states. Conference attendance also broke all records. Kevin and I co-hosted a facilitated panel of EnvisionConnect stakeholders, attended by 97 users—the most we've ever had in a single presentation outside of the opening address.

The stakeholders I spoke to were very upbeat. Those on the panel were so positive, some customers swore the event must have been rehearsed. Of course, it had not been, but the main thing we had all learned from Scrum—the importance of truth, trust, and transparency—we had shared with those customers we had been working with.

During implementations, we found problems on both sides, but the openness and honesty of real teamwork allowed everyone to make corrections quickly, rendering the negatives almost non-issues.

Mingling, I found many customers with questions regarding our success, and—as you know by now—I relish any opportunity to talk about Scrum.

However, when some of these same customers thought they were out of my range, I overheard some expressing doubts that Scrum had anything to do with our success.

I actually heard some say...

• Scrum is too simple.
• It's common sense.
• Teamwork and honesty—that doesn't really work.
• Decade has a secret that they're not telling us.

Busted!—I have no choice but to come clean...

I want to thank John Stender in Sacramento, Terri Williams and Leilah Kelsey in San Bernardino County, and Pat Ditrovati in Nevada for helping me pull off this scam.

The truth is we had everything we needed to solve our problems years ago, but we didn't know how to use them. Genuine teamwork and great teams were the real silver bullets.

Scrum just taught us how to shoot.

Cajun spirit visits 2007 EnvisionConnect Conference

Cajun Humorist Justin Wilson used to tell a story about an LSU professor that worked the lecture circuit. He had a chauffeur drive him from university to university. At each school, the professor recited the same speech.

Over time, the chauffeur grew jealous, saying, "You ain't so big. I've heard that speech so many times, I've memorized it, and I can deliver it better than you."

"Oh, really?" Asked the professor. "Well, at the next stop, give me your hat, we'll trade places, and you can do the next lecture."

They followed this plan and the chauffeur received a standing ovation—something the professor had never done. In fact, he had completed the lecture in record time—finishing 20 minutes early.

A representative of the college announced, "Since we have time to spare, does anyone have any questions for the professor?"

A physics student in the back asked a question so complex that the disguised chauffeur could not even understand it.

"You, miss, call yourself a senior physics major? You should be ashamed of asking such an elementary question. That problem is so simple, I'm going to have my chauffeur stand-up and explain it to you."

At the EnvisionConnect Training and Conference this year, we elected not to ask programmers to present. The management team wanted to ensure that all developers were fully engaged in meeting their goals for the year. Thus, Marketing, Management, and Client Services took over the classes. The developers attended merely as spectators.

When Donald Bresee and I took questions about using EnvisionConnect for field inspections—questions we did not know the answer to, I was embarrassed, so I asked a couple of my "chauffeurs" to answer from the back of the room.

Thanks, Mike and Joey! I'm sure somewhere, Justin's ghost is laughing his hat off.

Can EnvisionConnect sustain a near-zero defect count?

Like Kevin, the day before, CTO Darryl Booth was preparing for the 2007 EnvisionConnect User Training and Conference, when I bopped into his office.

"I'm glad you stopped by, HL. There must be some sort of mix-up. Kevin says you told him that your team is close to rendering EnvisionConnect defect-free—and that the product may never again have more than a dozen defects at any given time."

"Uh-huh."

"Now, I know that Scrum, integrated testing, traceability, and the concepts of truth, trust, and transparency can enable agile teams to deliver new features with little or no known defects—and I know that this month, your team made a concentrated effort to close all defects and to move any issues that are actually projects to the product backlog for prioritization by the product owner—but do you really think your team will be able to sustain a near-zero defect count in EnvisionConnect?"

"Uh-huh."

"And you actually believe that we should tell customers this at the conference?"

"Uh-huh."

"It might interest you to know that Microsoft has not discussed defects at any of it's user conferences since Windows 2000 was released—seven years ago. The press beat them up, because they announced that the product had been released with 65,000 defects—and this was Microsoft. They have one tester for every three developers—30,000 Quality Assurance engineers testing full-time—and their flagship product still had defects. Do you really think Decade Software can accomplish what Microsoft could not?"

"Uh-huh."

"Oh—I know what you're thinking: Two year's ago Microsoft adopted Scrum—and Windows Vista and the new Microsoft Office are almost bug-free—so really we've made the same quality improvements while using the same technologies as Microsoft, and—since EnvisionConnect should be easier to maintain than a full operating system—delivering our product with near-zero defects shouldn't be that difficult. Is that what you were thinking, HL?"

"Uh-huh."

"Hey... You're not going to put all of this in your blog, are you?"

"Uh-huh."

Top Secret...You didn't hear this from me...

Every year, Kevin Delaney begins—weeks in advance—planning his Presidential Address for the opening of our annual EnvisionConnect Users Training and Conference—and every year, I drop by with some hint of something I think he should discuss, and every year—he hates my idea.

This year, I thought using the phone would be less intrusive, maybe catch him off guard, and he would be more receptive to my suggestion...

"Hi, Kevin. It's me, HL."

"No."

"You've haven't heard why I'm calling."

"No."

"Kevin, I think it would be great if you told everyone about our new customer portal."

"No."

"It seems to me that customers will be thrilled to know that we are testing a web-based tool that may allow them to open support incidents online, as-well-as review the status of new development and defects being addressed..."

"No."

"If all goes as we hope, it'll have the advanced search capabilities customers have always wanted. For example, I know Nick Reyes and Orange County have been waiting for..."

"No."

"Well, then, uh...Dang it—why not?"

"...because we can't predict the future."

"Huh?"

"Too many times, you technical guys come in here with some great idea. You get me all excited, then I tell our customers, and they get all excited—then some unforeseen obstacle arises beyond our control, and then we can't make it happen."

"Yea, but..."

"...then you guys move on to your next crazy idea, and I alone am left explaining to our customers why I lied to them. Nope—You're not doing it to me this time!"

So—like I said—you never heard this from me.

Scrum progress interrupted by Business As Usual

Chris Spagnuolo wrote:

"Recently, our Scrum Team had an otherwise productive Sprint interrupted by a company meeting. We were halfway through our Sprint when we received a Friday afternoon email about a mandatory all-hands offsite for our entire group...

...We decided to raise our voices a bit and protest.

'It’s interrupting our Sprint' was the battle cry."

Monday, my team will travel downtown for our annual EnvisionConnect User Training and Conference. We are not feeling the pain Chris describes, because the event was scheduled far in advance and it falls between sprints—but I can certainly relate to his team's pain.

Many times over the year's—even before we adopted Scrum—folks have said to Kevin Delaney, "Is it really productive having all of your developers attend the users conference? Why can't your Client Services and Marketing departments handle the event?"

Kevin likes to give the team a day or two to escape the routine of the office—but I find there's another good reason: When developers and clients get to know each other, both are reminded that the other is human—that we all have good days and bad days.

These events provide a means of extending truth, trust, and transparency beyond our office and into our user community, and truly my team looks forward to it.

2007 User Conference planning has begun

Many exciting things are going on at Decade Software this week. In addition to ending one development sprint and starting another, planning has kicked-off for the 2007 users’ conference. The big question: How many classes should focus on Envision—our retiring flagship product—and how many classes should focus on EnvisionConnect—the future of environmental health software.

This is a tough decision, but thankfully, Decade’s leadership team will not be the ones making it. Through user surveys—going out later this month—our users will tell us what they wish to learn more about. This is as it should be. After all, it is their conference!