Miner & Miner Annual User Group Meeting Held in Fort Collins, CO
Three-Day Meeting Featured Software Usability Sessions
Fort Collins, CO -- Miner & Miner, Consulting Engineers, Inc. (M&M) hosted its annual User Group Meeting (MMUG) during the last days of January. Approximately 150 users and business partners from across the globe spent three days discussing advances in M&M's products and services. The sessions, held at the Holiday Inn University Park in Fort Collins, CO, provided users with the opportunity to share their experiences and concentrate on suggested requirements and added functionality for further product enhancements.
This year's MMUG sessions focused on demonstrations and discussions of product usability and implementation considerations. They provided attendees with three parallel tracks: a product feedback track, a technical track concentrating on product functionality and support for implementations, and an end user track providing sessions for managers and people new to the technology. Users attended presentations and demonstrations on the current and future ArcFM Solution, M&M's energy and water utility application suite. Additional sessions included presentations of some of the project customizations, technical features and functionality demonstrations, including tips and tricks, and enterprise GIS strategic planning and preparation.
“MMUG is an excellent opportunity to interact as a community. Miner & Miner provides users with continuous opportunities to share and learn about our solutions and new developments, and to provide input for the future direction of the ArcFM Solution technology,” said Michael Daniels, VP of Product Development.
Not only did the event provide participants with a greater understanding of the M&M product line, but it also offered opportunities for guests to interact and exchange ideas with a variety of utility and partner companies' representatives. “We at Miner & Miner are dedicated to providing our users with the best solution and implementation experience. We focus on extensive business values,” said Jeff Meyers, Miner & Miner's president.
MMUG attendees also enjoyed various social functions including a hosted dinner, an evening of bowling, snowshoeing in the Rocky Mountains, and skiing at Winter Park Resort. This year Miner & Miner's employees put their efforts into preparing a unique giveaway present. MMUG attendees were presented with hand-made tie-dye shirts, with the MMUG logo printed on the front. Recently voted "Best Place to Work" in the Retail and Service sector in Larimer County, Miner & Miner not only produced unique apparel, but also provided a fun social event for its employees.
Several MMUG participants provided positive feedback on the conference: “I found MMUG to be very beneficial. It provides good direction for us, and helps us define strategies to migrate from our old technology to the new one,” said Dee McKenzie, City of Mesa IT Architect. “We were able to network and exchange opinions with users facing similar issues.”
Larry Wilke, the GIS Coordinator from City of Burbank Water and Power, expressed great satisfaction with MMUG's turnout. “This forum is very valuable to our entire staff. My main focus was to learn many of the intricacies of the electric data model and how it relates with the entire ArcFM Solution package, while...our enterprise SDE DBA attended sessions related to performance, reconciling and versioning. Together we contributed to our knowledge of managing transactions and resolving conflicts for multi-user editing. This is especially useful to production, as it is directly linked to increasing productivity and efficiency. We are disappointed with ourselves for not bringing our person in charge of the water data. Not only did the MMUG have excellent sessions, but it also allowed for direct contact with the experts to express our concerns and solve many of our problems.”
“MMUG is one of the most useful conferences I have attended as it gets down to the technical level of the software we use everyday. I like the way the tracks were formed providing learning opportunities to each function in the organization,” concluded Kevin Brown, Gainesville Regional Utility's GIS coordinator. “Now that ArcFM is in production and our users are familiar with the software, it is even more valuable.”
About Miner & Miner
Miner & Miner (M&M) is a world leader in the development and implementation of GIS software for utilities. M&M's ArcFM Solution and extended services assist electric, gas, water, and wastewater utilities in increasing productivity, lowering costs, and improving services by allowing them to effectively manage spatial information. Founded in 1946 as a full-service electrical engineering firm, M&M has been a business partner of ESRI since 1987. This partnership has enabled M&M to become the world's leading developer of ArcGIS applications for the utility industry. M&M services include implementation and customization of software to fit the needs of individual utilities. For more information, please visit www.miner.com.
Designer, Responder, Conduit Manager, and Network Adapter are trademarks of Miner & Miner, Consulting Engineers, Inc. ArcFM and ArcFM Viewer are trademarks of ESRI in the United States.
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