Hello!

Thanks to everyone who attended the May User Group Meeting at American Century Investments (ACI). Special thanks again to Jim Lauterwasser, Troy Beaver, and Cory Cochran of ACI for providing some transparency and insight into their overall use of Salesforce from a Sales, Marketing, and Administrator perspective (as well as hosting the event).The presentation was a great way to kick-off the event and gave all of us a point of reference during the birds of a feather breakout groups.

As promised (although a little late), I have attached the summary of notes for each of the sales, marketing, and admin break-out groups.

Download Admin Break Out Session 5.28.09

Download Marketing Break Out Session 5.28.09

Download Sales Break Out Session 5.28.09

Hope this helps.

Looking forward to seeing all of you at the next meeting. We will start sendind out communication about the July event here in about a week or so. 

Brian Vestle

Senior Account Executive

Mail Print, Inc.

Here are the logistics and final agenda for our May KC Salesforce.com User Group Meeting next Thursday, May 28^th at American Century Investments.

RSVP
Please email Terri Hahn at terrih@mailprint.comby Noon on Tuesday, May 26^th.

Day and Time
Thursday, May 28^th
9:00 AM to Noon

Host and Location
American Century Investments
4400 Main St.
Kansas City, MO 64111

Parking Instructions
The parking lot just to the south of 4400 Main St. (between 4400 and 4500 Main St.) will be reserved for this event and blocked off for our use. Enter through the front door off of Main St. and signs will be posted for further direction.

Agenda

9:00 - 9:30 Check In, Continental Breakfast, Networking

9:30 - 9:40 Leadership Introductory Comments

9:40 - 10:15 American Century Investments Welcome Comments and Presentation On Their Use of Salesforce.com From A Sales, Marketing, and
Administrator Perspective

10:15 - 11:30 Birds of A Feather Breakout Groups
Sales, Marketing, Administrators, Data Quality/Reporting

11:30 to 11:50 Birds of a Feather Recap and Summary
Each group will provide a quick recap of what was discussed and their 5 key learning points to share with the entire group

11:50 to Noon Closing Comments

Be sure to bring your questions AND your answers to share with your peers.  Mark your calendars and save the date!

I look forward to seeing you on May 28th!

Brian Vestle

Senior Account Executive

Mail Print, Inc.

Hi All!

Please save the date and mark your calendars for Thursday, May 28th from 9:00AM to Noon for our next KC Salesforce.com User Group meeting. American Century Investments will be hosting this event.

A detailed agenda with program, sponsor, and logistics information (including directions and parking instructions) will be emailed in the coming weeks as well as posted to this blog.

Please RSVP no later than Monday, May 25^th to terrih@mailprint.com.

If you have questions, feel free to call me at (816) 459-8404 ext. 238 or drop me an email at brianv@mailprint.com.

Looking forward to seeing everyone on May 28^th and picking up where we left off in March!

Have a great week!

Brian Vestle

Senior Account Executive

Mail Print, Inc.

Here are the logistics and final agenda for our March KC Sales Force User Group Meeting next Thursday, March 5^th at Hallmark.

RSVP

Please email Terri Hahn at terrih@mailprint.com by COB on Monday, March 2^nd

Day and Time

Thursday, March 5^th

1:00 PM to 4:00 PM

Host and Location

Hallmark Cards, Inc.

2501 McGhee St.

Kansas City, MO 64108

Parking Instructions

I have attached a map of the headquarters complex.  Parking lot 31 will be open for people attending the meeting and should be available beginning at noon in case anyone comes in early.  We will check in at the guard station in the 8D Lobby (the blue dot on the map...not the main corporate entrance).  To get there from lot 31, you can walk straight through the rice center parking garage that has an entrance right across the street (once through the garage, need to go to the R level and the guard station is right there) or you can walk north on Gillham and walk through the visitor parking lot.

Download HQ Map

Agenda

1:00  to 1:15 - Check In and get your lunch

*FREE lunch sponsored by Engagement Systems – www.engagementsystems.com

1:15 to 1:20 – User Group Leadership Introductory Comments

1:20 to 1:30 – Hallmark Comments

1:30 to 1:50 – Engagement Systems Spotlight

1:50 to 2:30 – Birds of A Feather Breakout Groups

*Sales, Marketing, Administrators, Data Quality, Reporting, Mobile

2:30 to 2:45 - General Discussion and Update

*Each group will provide a quick recap of what was discussed and their 5 key learning points to share with the entire group

2:45 to 4:00 – Salesforce.com Spring 2009 Release Presentation

*Mark Epperson is a Senior Sales Engineer for Salesforce.com and he will provide the group insights an overview of the Spring 2009 Release

Be sure to bring your questions AND your answers to share with your peers.  Mark your calendars and save the date!

I look forward to seeing you on March 5th!

Brian Vestle

Mail Print, Inc.

Please save the date and mark your calendars for Thursday, March 5^th from 1:00 to 4:00 for our

next KC Salesforce.com User Group meeting. Hallmark Tributes and Hallmark Business

Expressions will be co-hosting this event with lunch sponsored by Engagement Systems

(www.engagementsystems.com).

A detailed agenda with program and logistics information (including directions and parking

instructions) will be emailed out next week as well as posted to this blog.

Please RSVP no later than Monday, March 2^nd to terrih@mailprint.com

If you have questions, feel free to call me at (816) 459-8404 ext. 238 or drop me an email at

brianv@mailprint.com.

Looking forward to seeing everyone on March 5^th and picking up where we left off in November!

Have a great week!

Brian Vestle

Senior Account Executive

Mail Print, Inc.

Be sure to RSVP if you plan to attend the November 14th Kansas City Salesforce.com Users Group Meeting -- Details are below...

Send your RSVP to Jennifer.McDaniel@imagenow.com.

Questions -- Call Jason Kort at SoftVu at 913-233-8238.

Friday, November 14, 2008

11 AM to 2 PM

Perceptive Software Offices

22701 West 68th Terrace

Shawnee

,

Please click link below for directions.

http://www.imagenow.com/company/overview/directions.shtml

Agenda

11:00 to 11:15 - Check In and get your lunch -- FREE lunch sponsored by SoftVu.

11:15 - 11:30 - Introductory Comments

11:30 - 12:15 -- Break Out Groups - Dreamforce is Nov 2 - 5 and we wanted to learn what new and exciting information was discussed at the conference.  KC User Group members attending Dreamforce will lead each of the following breakout sessions. 

·         Sales, Marketing, Support, Administrators (Jarrod Kingston), User Adoption Tips & Tricks, Data Quality, Reporting

As in our last meeting we will break out into small groups for about an hour to work through various tips and tricks.  Be sure to bring your questions/problems AND solutions that you have found helpful.  Attending Dreamforce??? Please contact Jason Kort if you are interested in volunteering as a Break Out Group leader. 

12:15 to 12:30 -- General Discussion and Update

Each group will provide a quick recap of what was discussed and their 5 key learning points to share with the entire group.

12:30 - 2:00 – How Salesforce.com Uses Salesforce.com

Dixie Larson is a Senior Sales Engineer for Salesforce.com and she will provide the group insights on how Salesforce.com Sales Uses SF.com as well as an overview of Ideas and Winter 2009.

Be sure to bring your questions AND your answers to share with your peers.  Mark your calendars and save the date!

We look forward to seeing you on November 14^th!

I want to thank everyone who attended our September 17th meeting at American Century.  Brian Tolander from ACI was a great host at a great facility with easy parking.  We had about 54 people attending the event which is great for a fledgling group.  THANK YOU BRIAN.

In the light of thanking Brian's, I want to also extend a big THANK YOU to Brian Connell from Astadia for a great lunch and an insightful presentation from Chris Thompson during our Mini Admin Class.  Chris had some insight for us about some tips and tricks that I was able to come back and deploy almost immediately.  If you are having challenges with your SFDC launch Astadia is one of their largest partners.  It was apparent that they know what they are talking about.  You can reach Brian Connell at bconnell@astadia.com.

Additional thanks go out to Rob Hampton, Danny Wastler, Jason Kort, Tim Poolman, and Dixie Larson for their help in leading our small group discussions.  I will post the notes from each group as soon as I receive them.

I also want to comment about the great support we received for this meeting from the SalesForce.com team.  Tim Poolman, Dixie Larson, and Tyler Harnish were all from SFDC to support our event.

There are about 20 people (best that I can tell) from the area going to DreamForce in November.  Our plan is to come back from DreamForce and have a meeting in mid November.  Watch the blog and your email for the date, time and location. Of course those of you attending DreamForce be sure to check back to the blog for details on where we will be connecting for a little social time.

That is all for now... but keep your eyes peeled for more details and as always feel free to drop me an email or call.

Best wishes,

Gina M. Danner, CEO
ginad@mailprint.com

Mail Print, Inc.
816-459-8404
www.MailPrint.com

The Kansas City Users Group of SalesForce.com got off to a great start this week! If you weren't able to attend our inagural meeting let me tell you a bit about what went on...

I apologize. I personally hate long posts. This posting covers a lot of topics and I've tried to break them with a header.

• Opt In
  Framework for Future Meetings
• Opportunities to Get Involved
• Summer Release Notes
• Survey -- We need your input
• Future Meeting Date
• DreamForce 2008
• SFDC on LinkedIn

OPT IN

The very most important thing we need is for you to follow the link below and OPT IN to the Kansas City Users Group. SFDC requires this OPT IN process for us to continue to share information with you.

http://usergroups.salesforce.com/kansas_city/

Be sure to visit the BLOG page often so you can stay connected to the community. I suggest you create a shortcut on your desktop to the link above.

Framework for Future Meetings

We had 32 people in attendance. This is a great showing for our first meeting. I want to thank Jason Kort, Brian Vestle, Danny Wastler and Brian Connell for their help in getting things rolling.

Admittedly this first meeting was laying the framework for future meetings. We decided that we would plan to meet every other month. We will be targeting a three hour format that will allow us to really dig into some tough concepts, show examples and execute some real training.

There was a consensus for the group that we really wanted information. The challenge is that everyone is at a different skill level. As we plan programming we will want to be aware that we have beginner users as well as expert administrators. Our hope is that our experts will step up and share the knowledge.

Opportunities to Get Involved

The key to a successful users group is peer sharing. AND, that everyone gets involved. Remember that you get what you give!

As we talked I asked for help and several people offered assistance including Paul Eide, April Bowden, Kelly Hollowell, David Pease, and Dave Kressin. I will be reaching out to each of you for help in handling:

• Programming
• Communication
• Hospitality
• Membership
• Vendor Relations

I think the key thing we have to focus on is providing VALUE to our membership. If you are interested in doing more please contact me at ginad@mailprint.com or call me at 816-459-8404.

Summer Release Notes

Finally I want to thank Dixie Larson and Tim Poolman of SalesForce.com who were in attendence. Dixie walked us through some of the Summer Release Notes. If you aren't aware, SFDC regularly adds features to the platform AND allows you or your administrator to add those to your view of the application. You can review the new release notes by clicking on HELP & TRAINING after you have logged into SFDC. Be sure to spend some time with with the PDF that outlines all the notes and then talk to your administrator to see about adding those features you believe are valuable to your use of SFDC. There were several that I was surprised to learn about and that will be helpful.

Survey

Jason Kort of SoftVu was helpful in setting up a survey to give us a little more insight into the profile of our group. Please take a moment and follow the link below to take the short survey.

http://relay.softvu.com/cn/Relay/Relay2/viewItem.asp?itemId=ee2a7b08a7b54b00a6be9bdd3aae5317

Future Meeting Date

Look for a notice of our future meeting date... we are targeting August 13, but look for an email next week to confirm location and times.

DreamForce 2008

DreamForce 2008 is scheduled for November 2 - 5 in San Francisco -- Are you going? Learn more at www.dreamforce.com.

SFDC is on LinkedIn

If you are a part of the professional social networking group LinkedIn be sure to join the SFDC Community --http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/47390/25D51B54E354

SFDC Testing Opportunities

Salesforce.com wants to let user group members know there is an ongoing need for Salesforce users to participate in testing sessions. You don't even have to leave your desk! Sessions are run using Web conferencing software, so all you need is an internet connection, a phone, and a bit of time to spare. You're even rewarded with a gift card for your time and input.

If you are a Salesforce user and would be interested in helping out, please fill out the form at http://www.clicktools.com/survey?iv=b4118a9b965b6ef so they can put you on the list! Please forward this url to your sales, marketing and support users so they can participate too.

They appreciate the help to improve Salesforce and make it the best product it can be for you and your business. If you have any questions or concerns, direct them to their research department email address at: tester@salesforce.com.

THANK YOU

Finally... thank you for your support and I look forward to getting to know each of you better in the coming months. Remember, the best way to learn is to lead. If you want more from SFDC then I encourage you to raise your hand to help organize.

Have a great week!

G

Gina M. Danner, CEO :: ginad@mailprint.com

MAIL PRINT :: 816.459.8404 :: 800.660.0108 :: 816.459.8407 fax :: www.mailprint.com

8300 NE Underground Drive, Pillar 122 :: Kansas City, MO 64161

We are very excited to announce the creation of a User Group for salesforce.com customers in Kansas City and that three local users have volunteered to lead it.  Gina Danner & Brian Vestle - both from Mail Print - will be joined at the helm by Danny Wastler of Avazpour Networking.  They will need your help to make this user group a lively forum where everyone can network, share ideas, and find creative solutions.  Just fill out the form on the left to get on the mailing list and look for information about the first meeting soon.

We hope you will get involved!