Frank Heaps
Director, P&C Product Marketing
StoneRiver
This is the time of year when many solution providers are hosting their first of at least two user community meetings. “User community” is not just a fancy way to say “user group” but represents a way to define multiple groups that work together for a common goal; like the community where you live. To continue the analogy, these are your town hall meetings.
User communities began with the advent of the mainframe computer as a way for customers to share ideas and exchange custom code with each other. In those pioneering days the customer performed much of the individual system enhancing and relied on the solution provider to deliver technology changes and defect fixes. As the industry matured so did user groups. Solution providers began to consume the customers’ enhancements into the base product and also began to build the enhancements for a customer into the base solution and share it out to all of the customers. Code swapping shifted to idea swapping.
User communities today represent a forum for customers with a shared need to openly communicate industry needs, emerging requirements, and challenges with their fellow customers and their solution provider. Quality user community meetings usually bring together user groups from across a solution provider’s portfolio of products into a single location to see and hear speakers who provide education on the industry and an impartial view of the insurance technology industry.
StoneRiver provides an annual client conference to our customer user groups. We bring hundreds of customers together into a single community. We have industry analysts, insurance experts, and product representatives in a single location to exchange information. This is your chance to be seen and heard by your fellow users and the StoneRiver team in a series of informative meetings. Going back to the grass roots origins of user groups, this is a way to meet with your peers and share information to solve challenges.