Paul Ramsbottom's blog

My blog has moved

Paul Ramsbottom — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 20:08:29 -0400

I have moved my blog to www.insideasiap.com, a new operations community for ASI AP staff and anyone else that is interested in what's going on inside of ASI AP on a daily basis.

The iMIS 'Rainy Day' list

Paul Ramsbottom — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 05:35:21 -0400

Over the last year we have had a list of 'rainy day' things to do with iMIS. These are basically quick tasks that an iMIS consultant, or an iMIS system administrator, can do if they have a few hours spare (generally when it is raining for some reason - hence the name 'rainy day' list).

This list floats around on email and generally comes up again when consultants have some free time.

It occurred to me that this is not just something that we do in Australia. In fact, the list is a perfect candidate for a wiki that can be accessed by consultants and system administrators globally.

Free mobile (cell) phone calls

Paul Ramsbottom — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 04:13:42 -0400

Our corporate mobile plan in AP was updated a few weeks ago so that all mobile calls between any phone on the plan is now free. Previously, we were paying upwards of 30 cents/minute for these calls.

Today, I was working remotely, and spent about 3 hours on the phone - all for free. Last month that would have cost me $80 in call charges.

I thought this was interesting in light of the new VoIP offerings that are now available in their many forms, including the internal ASI system and well known public systems like Skype. Is this a response from the large telco's to make sure we continue to use their services? Our telco is Telstra - the largest in Australia - and I believe they are also making similar moves for home phones so that you get unlimited calls for a fixed monthly fee.

Julie moves to Melbourne

Paul Ramsbottom — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 04:02:38 -0400

Over 10 years ago Julie Willett started working for me on the back veranda of my home in Brisbane, Australia. That was in 1995 and iMIS was just starting out in Australia. We had about 6 customers at the time, and Julie actually worked at one of them - BOMA - and her dad was the Executive Director there. He was also a life member of AuSAE so it was in Julie's blood to become an active participant in the association and fundraising sector and help our customers achieve great things through innovative solutions.

Annual AP strategy meeting held last week

Paul Ramsbottom — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 03:45:27 -0400

The Asia-Pacific management team met last week in Melbourne for the annual strategy review meeting. AP is currently on a 5 year strategy plan (2004-2009) and the team meets each year to review the 2009 goals and the annual steps required to get there.

National print media coverage for iMIS success at Caritas Australia

Paul Ramsbottom — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 01:27:34 -0400

A great story in the Melbourne Age and Sydney Morning Herald today - half page - on the success of iMIS at Caritas Australia. The story is called 'Turning Disaster into Triumph'. Links below:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/biztech/turning-disaster-into-triumph/2006...

http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/turning-disaster-into-triumph/2006/07...

Power of the iMIS Product Catalog

Paul Ramsbottom — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 06:57:06 -0400

I visited a customer last week and met with the new CEO and some of the managers. They had been using iMIS for about 5 years and were stuck, unsure of what they had and where they should be going. Although they were on the latest version (10.6), different departments had gone ahead and setup their own fields and codes, and some departments - like events - who needed something desperately, didn't even know they had the module in iMIS to run all of their events and training.

iMIS Gets the Thumbs Up in Australia and New Zealand

Paul Ramsbottom — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 22:28:11 -0400

A recent survey of iMIS customers in Australia and New Zealand found that 87% of respondents gave iMIS the thumbs up answering that they were satisfied with their iMIS software solution.

More than 220 not for profit organisations using iMIS were surveyed by independent agency BMS Telecorp on behalf of ASI during May.

The annual survey’s focus was to look at customers’ use of iMIS and gauge the level of satisfaction with their iMIS software solution and the level of service and support from ASI and Authorised iMIS Solution Providers.

ASI 'SMART Company' Scholarship Fund Recipients - June 2006 Round

Paul Ramsbottom — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 00:33:20 -0400

The Fund received applications requesting over $60,000 in funding in our June round and the panel faced some challenging decisions in making the final selections. We are pleased to confirm a total of 12 Scholarships were awarded with a total value of $11,000. A further $9,000 will now be made available for the remainder of 2006 (September and December rounds).

The Scholarship recipients are as follows:

'Spare Change' marketing campaign drops today

Paul Ramsbottom — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 10:37:20 -0400

Our major campaign to gather prospect email addresses has hit the streets today. More than 10,000 prospects in Australia and New Zealand have been sent this postcard encouraging them to sign up for email contact with ASI (rather than postal mail).

For each valid email address we receive ASI will give $2 to charity (a customer of course!). We are supporting 6 charities in total, depending on the state or country.

Record June and half year results for ASI Asia-Pacific

Paul Ramsbottom — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 09:53:39 -0400

I am pleased to announce a great start to the year for the Asia-Pacific team. Revenue for the 6 months to June was up 17% on the same period in 2005. Significantly, this has been achieved with a lower headcount, resulting in a revenue/employee improvement of 27%.

Both services and SUP fees are currently tracking ahead of budget for the year, with license revenues right on budget.

On a cash basis, June itself was a record month, just $3,000 short on hitting our first ever $1 million month. A $1m month is a significant milestone for the growth of the AP business - back to work now to see if we can make this number before the year is out.

ASI Asia-Pacific podcasts

Paul Ramsbottom — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 05:07:55 -0400

As part of the ASI Asia-Pacific "SMART Company" initiatives for 2006, I am recording a regular podcast on topics related to achieving our goals for the year. I have posted 6 episodes so far. You can download the podcasts or subcribe via iTunes by following the instructions here.