2009 User Group flyer and some NextComp history

I've put together a printable flyer with the important details regarding the 2009 User Group meeting being held at the Port of Seattle's corporate office in Seattle on March 30th.

Thank you to Tammy Woodard at the Port of Seattle for hosting the meeting this year.

It was about 9 years ago that Tammy, Bob (my Dad) and I met over lunch to talk about market pricing. Tammy mentioned that she wished that there was an easier way to manage all the salary survey data that the Port used each year. I had been working on a web-enabled database for use in my consulting business to help my clients with just exactly that issue. We agreed over lunch that the Port would give the database a trial run. They liked it and the Port of Seattle became the first NextComp subscriber. Tammy and the Port have been a part of the NextComp family for 9 years now and we're excited about all the changes and progress we've made in that time.

I'm looking forward to the next year and the next 10 beyond that!

Northwest Area User Group Meeting - March 30th - 9:30 AM

The Northwest Area User's Group meeting is now confirmed for March 30th from 9:30 AM to 2:00 PM. The Port of Seattle is hosting the meeting at their offices on the Seattle waterfront. I'll be contacting the Northwest area users this week with a personal invite, but I wanted to get the word out as soon as the location was confirmed.

The meeting details are below.

Address:

2711 Alaskan Way
Seattle, Wa.

Driving and Parking Directions:

http://www.portseattle.org/about/maps/directions-p69.shtml

The agenda is:

• 9:30 to 9:45 AM - Arrival and greetings
  
• 9:45 AM to 10:30 AM - Update on NextComp over the last year and where we're headed next year (NextComp Version 3 and Salary Planner applications)
  
• 10:30 AM to Noon - NextComp Version 3 - Introduction and discussion of features
• Noon to 12:45 PM - Break for lunch
• 12:45 PM to 2:00 PM - Continue discussion of NextComp Version 3
  

Other information:

When you arrive at the Port of Seattle office, you'll need to sign in at the front desk and get a name badge. The receptionist can provide directions to the meeting room.


I'm looking forward to the meeting and hopefully seeing you on March 30th!

User's Group Meeting, Market Pricing, Salary Planning and Twittering

It's been a busy week and I'm having difficulty believing it's Friday already. The week started off kind of slow with the kids home from school and then the excitement built as Tuesday morning approached. Wow! What an incredible day for America. I had to work that day, but I caught up on all the events later that night on cspan. It was also fun reading all the tweets and blog posts from around the world. So many people were excited for the new President to take office. I'm also very pleased that my kids were all able to watch the inauguration at school. They watched it online projected on the screens in their classes. Very cool! I know that Tuesday will be a day I remember for a long time to come.

Closer to home, it's been a busy week here at NextComp. Here's a summary of what we've been up to this week.

User's Group Meeting

I've been quietly planning a user's group meeting in the Seattle area, all the while working feverishly to implement Version 3 of NextComp before the meeting. Well it looks like I'll have Version 3 completed and ready by the end of February. So I'm working on the details to have the User's Group meeting in Issaquah sometime the first two weeks of March. I'm still nailing down the space availability. I'll have that finalized early next week, so the blog post next week will have more details.

Salary Planning

This past week I was working extensively on an update to the NextComp salary planning application. I re-wrote the database engine to enhance performance and scalability. This tool was originally designed to run on smaller networks and in smaller to medium sized companies. One client is running it on a larger network with over 500 managers having access the system. Of course, before the re-write, the database crumpled under the load. I think smoke might have been coming out of the server! :-) After a series of late night programming sessions, I was able to redesign the database to effectively scale up to over 10,000 employees and over 500 managers. Whew, that was some serious work. It's done now, and I'm moving on to create a cool Quicktime training video.

Here are some screenshots...








Of course that's not the only project that's going on. Never a dull moment here in Issaquah.

Version 3 Update

I've been working on NextComp Version 3 with the goal of having it completed by the end of February in time for several of our clients to transition to the new application before the WorldatWork Conference being held in Seattle in June. I've been getting really helpful feedback from a couple of larger subscribers that have volunteered to transition early to Version 3, while still using Version 2 primarily. Thank you to them! More updates next week on Version 3.



The Tweet In Review

Continuing on the post from last week, I've been trying to tweet on any interesting articles that I run across during my blog reading. I use NetNewsWire on the Mac to consolidate the blog posts into one list of updated information. I have over 100 blogs that I read on a regular basis, and the list keeps growing. I enjoy everything from compensation related blogs, to listserve type blogs, to art and photography blogs. Here are some highlights from this last week.

Sitting on top of my roof taking Xmas lights down http://twitpic.com/13z8v. Nice view from up here! 1:20 PM Jan 17th from twitterrific

AMD cutting 1,100 jobs and cutting salaries by 5% to 15%. http://tinyurl.com/7r4g2g 10:01 AM Jan 19th from TweetDeck

@annemareemoore Here's a blog with a copy of the President's speech in PDF format... http://leifbrostrom.com/?p=153 1:58 PM Jan 20th from web in reply to annemareemoore

Over 7 Million Workers to See Lowest Pay Raise in 30+ Years http://tinyurl.com/9ch9ub 9:44 AM Jan 21st from TweetDeck

iPhone development webinars, five total for $97 each. Good deal! http://tinyurl.com/885fc8 10:16 AM Jan 21st from TweetDeck

Just received an e-mail: There are just 130 days, 2 hours and 50 minutes until the 2009 WorldatWork Total Rewards Conference and Exhibition. 12:40 PM Jan 21st from TweetDeck

Check out the resolution of the Canon EOS 5D Mark II http://tinyurl.com/bhhn8c What an awesome place for skiing too! 10:44 AM yesterday from TweetDeck

Inauguration in Tweets: http://projects.flowingdata.com/inauguration/ about 18 hours ago from TweetDeck

New ski related blog post http://photomatto.typepad.com about 16 hours ago from twitterrific

President Obama is a good Dad too... http://tinyurl.com/8q3yp9 about 5 hours ago from TweetDeck

"Four sure fire ways to get laid off" http://tinyurl.com/bte4zc about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

Links to information on the Leadbetter Fair Pay Act that looks to pass Congress soon. http://tinyurl.com/d4xhz4 http://tinyurl.com/bbzstn about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

"Washington’s three largest insurers were down a combined $194M in October" http://tinyurl.com/dms7jv 43 minutes ago from TweetDeck

Thanks to "The Industry Radar" http://www.theindustryradar... for all the great links.
42 minutes ago from TweetDeck



Well that wraps up another week here in the cold, damp and foggy Northwest. We're supposed to get some snow over the weekend. Oh boy! Well at least that will help the ski resorts.

Until next week, have a great weekend!

Boston User Group Wrap-up

Thank you to the attendees of the 2008 Boston Area User's Group meeting. A special thank you to Dynamics Research Corporation for hosting the meeting and for providing lunch and an amazingly delicious platter of cupcakes for dessert. I limited myself to one cupcake, which wasn't easy.

I'm going to be sending each of the participants a copy of the presentation via Basecamp.

Also, as of today, NEXTCOMP.NET Gamma is going to be known as NEXTCOMP.NET Version 3.

Based on feedback during the meeting we've decided to go with the version number rather than the fun sounding but rather cryptic gamma designation.

There was a great exchange of ideas, tips, tricks, and other information during the meeting. We'll be incorporating that feedback into our programming on Version 3. Stay tuned!

2008 Boston Area User's Group Meeting

It's that time of year again (already?!?) to host the annual User's Group meeting in Boston.

Dynamic Research Corporation has graciously offered to host the meeting this year. Thank you!

The meeting is scheduled to run from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM on Monday, August 25th. We've found that 5 hours is generally enough time to cover the major topics. We can run over a bit if we need extra time.

The meeting location is:

Dynamics Research Corporation
60 Frontage Road
Andover, MA 01810

I'm sending out invitations today, so if you are a subscriber in the Boston area, expect an invitation soon.

I'm also available for speaking engagements in other areas, at local compensation and benefits group meetings, for example. Contact me if you are interested in having NEXTCOMP.NET as a presenter at one of you local meetings.

We'll be hosting a Seattle area User's Group meeting in September, so keep an eye out for that announcement.