Day 5: Join a Users’ Group and Participate

Your task on the fourth day was to plan (and actually do) a Reference Site Visit (RSV). In addition to conducting the RSV, a users’ group can also provide contacts and knowledge for the improvement of your Integrated Workplace Management System.

A users’ group (also users group or user group) is a type of club focused on the use of a particular technology, usually (but not always) computer-related.

Today’s teaching

Users’ groups exist for more than 50 years now. SHARE, the first official IBM users’ group originates from mainframe computing area providing programming knowledge to end users independently of the factory-supplied programming efforts. Source: Wikipedia.

As the number of customers of software solutions grows, users’ groups emerge. Customers feel the need to discuss and learn from peers to advance their knowledge and skills.

In the IWMS industry it’s also quite common to have a users’ group that can offer its members a variety of services including:

Periodic meetings
Annual / Quarterly Conferences with guest speakers
Training programs / material
Focus group meetings
Specific tools and documentation
Implementation material
Technical support
Best practices
Website / Blogs
Discussion Forums
Newsletters

Why you should join a users’ group

There are quite a few reasons to join an Integrated Workplace Management Systems users’ group however, the most important benefits are:

1. Share experiences and information

Users’ groups are an excellent way to share experiences and information about all kinds of subjects. As users’ groups are formed based on a specific interest in a product (in this case an IWMS) experiences and information are in most cases extremely relevant for group members.

Users’ groups usually provide a friendly environment, mostly independent of the IWMS vendor where customers can share experiences / information about:

IWMS functionality
Implementation techniques
Best practices
Documentation
Support
Training material

Many of the group members have experiences or information that you can benefit from.

Another good reason to join an IWMS users’ group is that in most cases the most knowledgeable IWMS customers also play a prominent role in the users’ group. These group members can jumpstart your IWMS improvement program.

2. Expand your network

Not only from a business perspective but also from a personal perspective it can be quite useful to join a users’ group. By actively participating in these groups, you can might be able add the thought leaders from our industry to your personal network.

Especially when you are relatively new to the industry, users’ groups can help you expand your network with interesting people. These people might prove to be very valuable in your daily operations.

In addition to that, you will meet a lot of new people by joining a users’ group. You will discover that you have a lot in common with other group members. This could be a passion, the product or even specific functionality from the Integrated Workplace Management System.

Personally, I’m a big fan of thematic annual / quarterly users’ conferences as the keynote speakers usually are both knowledgeable and provide insights about the industry, product or theme that add real value to my own business.

The emergence of social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter will increasingly empower people to create social relationships without the boundaries of time and location, and will have it its effect on users’ groups as well.

E.g. the IWMS LinkedIn Users’ Group. This group is for Facility Management and Real Estate professionals with specific interest in Integrated Workplace Management Systems.

3. Follow specialized training programs

To me this is one of the most important benefits of joining a users’ group. Most users’ groups provide training programs on specific subjects of interest. These training programs can add significant value to your application training program of the IWMS vendor.

Training programs might include:

Functional Training
Application Management Training
Technical Training
Implementation Training
Project Management Training

The materials used for the training are usually customer and situation based however, can provide an excellent guideline that allows you to improve your own IWMS implementation.

4. Get discounts

Not eminent but still important. Members of users’ groups frequently receive all kinds of discounts from sponsors of that users’ group. Because these sponsors are relevant to the group members, so are their discounts. You should ask about the discounts / sponsor program when joining.

There is a tendency towards commercialization of the users’ groups. Some users’ groups publish advertisements on their websites to cover operational costs. Some users groups are free of charge however most charge an annual membership fee varying from ten to hundreds of dollars. On average you would pay about $50.

What about you?

We would love to know all about your experiences with users’ groups. You can publish your comments below in the comment box. What reasons did you have to join the users’ group? And what about the benefits you experience from it?