BPCS User Groups -- BPCS-L

I mentioned a need to do a better job of locating various kinds of BPCS User
Groups & resources in a couple of different topic postings - in my initial
Wasted Disk Space for one, then in a private off-line communication Frank
asked

>  If you wouldn't mind, I'd like the location of the site on MC.com where 
> the users group can be accessed.  

Within the context of a private off-line talk on the challenges of adequate
training for end users testing what we get from SSA, Lisa asked

> are you aware of the BPCS midwest user group?

I want to overview questions about interests in user groups within BPCS_L,
even though some talk might belong off-group.  My initial interest is

1. What BPCS User Groups Exist, that I know about, that I think BPCS_L
participants also ought to know about?
2. How do I go about locating such groups? - Perhaps there are holes in my
algorithm
3. Where do gaps exist in what people need from what BPCS User Groups provide
& what channels might be worth pursuing to fill the gaps?

BPCS User Groups - On Line

Providing a forum for BPCS Users to freely air Q&A, and talk about how best to
utilize SSA resources, and learn from each other how to become more productive
- that is an expensive computer infrastructure to maintain, and in today's
world it needs a lot of time from a dedicated moderator to keep the focus on
BPCS & not head-hunting, printer configuration, latest scandals in Washington.
Since my employer does not subscribe to MC, I am somewhat of a freeloader
here.  Someone has to pay the operational bills somehow, and the model that
currently seems to fly is through the eternal optimism of people who invest
resources in advertising. 

IBM has some AS/400 forums that I have not yet found the time to go explore -
my bookmarked path to locating them is connected to my roadmap to IBM access
to information about Year 2000 & peripherals & SSP & the whole 9 yards, in
which they also have links to Forums & Mailings Lists discussing AS/400 topics
http://www.as400service.ibm.com/as400/y2k.html

So far, I have found only TWO places outside BPCL_L where there are BPCS
Thread Topics - both are within larger AS/400 Forum communities.

MC has a bunch of AS/400 forums - you will need to register - then when we
sign on, there is a list of SEVEN forums related to various kinds of
programming such as RPG & CL, and also various other kinds of options ---
click on FORUM LIST - this shows many more forums than the seven on
programming.  Near the top of the list is one for AS/400 Packaged
Applications.  It contains threads for people talking about the reasons why a
company has a computer - MAPICS Threads, JB Edwards Threads, BPCS Threads -
basically there are 2 kinds of Threads that interested me on that Forum
1. Someone asks about what kinds of packages are available to perform some
kind of specific application on AS/400, then other people describe their
experiences with some, and there is pro/con comparison discussion.
2. A thread is specifically identified as BPCS & the talk inside there is by
BPCS users on BPCS topics
http://www.midrangecomputing.com/scripts/webboard.dll/mainmenu

N4 also has a bunch of AS/400 forums - they are structured somewhat
differently, in which some forums have humongous volume & you can set how many
days back to view the threads & the farther you go back on a PC that can only
handle so much, the more sluggish the whole performance becomes, however like
MC there are all kinds of options to explore that I have not yet done so.
Anyhow I am giving the main menu in my cited URL because different people will
have interests in addition to User Groups.  If you get to the Year 2000 forum
of N4 & run the options back to the last quarter of 1998 you will find a
discussion dominated by me on the pros & cons of different ways to get BPCS to
Y2K compliancy, that I know about.
http://news400.com/

Now N4 does have a forum for in person user group announcements, and it is
being sorely abused, almost to the point of uselessness.  They also have a
downloadable directory, but in my experience what you have is AS/400 user
groups all over the map & BPCS user groups in relative obscurity.  Several
trade publications periodically publish this kind of information.

BPCS User Group Meetings in person

What a corporation has to do, in my opinion, is to contact whoever sold &
supports your AS/400 hardware & SSA software & ask them "Is there a BPCS User
Group that meets in our area, that you know about, and can help us get in
contact with?"  Through that mechanism, we who are in Evansville = SW Indiana,
learned about BPCS User Groups that meet in Chicago area, Wisconsin, Northern
Indiana, Northern Ohio & we heard a rumor about one in Louisville but were not
able to nail down details.  We used to go to a Manufacturing User Group
meeting in St Louis, that was heavily dominated by MAPICS.

Problems with our participation in most of these groups are that COMMUTE TIME
if driving which is how we usually go, or COMMUTE EXPENSE if flying which we
have done a couple times, is usually perceived to be astronomical compared to
the time & value of the meeting when it is not in the same city as your
company.

The Chicago Area User Group, which we have been to a few times but not
recently & the one in Wisconsin which I tried to get a group of co-workers to
go to but was unable to swing it, have addressed this problem by doing 2 day
conferences with break-out sessions on a large number of different topics.
However, they tend to focus on the latest version of SSA products & we are
never there.  We just recently moved to BPCS 405 CD from BPCS/36 where we were
for a decade.  From the way the sessions are described in the announcement for
the May conference, it sounds to me like there is only one session relevant to
us.

BPCS Users out in the boonies

For those of us in smaller communities, how best can we foment the extremely
valuable contact for the betterment of almost all participants that come with
meeting other people doing the same kind of work on the same software package
at a different manufacturer  "We are struggling with this problem." "We had
that problem & here is how we solved it."  "We solved it this other way."
"You have to watch out for the following pitfalls when you do it that way."
There is a volunteer staffing overhead to make this work, like getting all the
member companies to chip in with dues.  For companies  without enough talent
to draw on for a formal organization the obvious alternatives from my
perspective are:

General Business & Industrial Council - sub-group for manufacturers that are
using the same or similar kind of hardware & software package, in which some
of the organizational overhead is borne by the larger group

Likewise SIG within a larger midrange user group focused on AS/400

When former co-workers move away to another company in a neighbor town that is
using BPCS - try to stay in touch.  When we are at an SSA seminar on the
latest BPCS stuff, exchange business cards with other attendees & write on
yours (so they remember) that you are BPCS users at what level.  When we were
considering buying some add-on package, management went on a tour of a company
that had already installed it & I was called along to ask technical questions
about the doability of this for us.  We bought the package & it worked great,
after some modifications.  There are lots of contacts like this that we can
try to grow.

Perhaps there is a web site, like COMMON.ORG that talks about how to foment
user groups & equivalent interaction, that does not violate ethical
guidelines.  If we were in a larger city, like one that has IBM University or
an SSA Affiliate - you know where there are all those brochures for visitors
to help themselves to?  I would want the local user group to add a set of
hand-outs, and for the user groups of the area to work with that facility to
publish a directory of user groups for the region, also there for any visitor
to take.

There is an MC forum on just shooting the breeze & one of the threads there is
on an apparent trend for loss of support for in person user groups as the on-
line community resources grow.

Al Macintyre
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