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It’s been quite some time since the last annual Omfax User Conference. The last one was in June 2017, were you there? There are a few reasons for this: Not only have we gone through the Pandemic, but we have also seen changes at Omfax that have changed our approach to the annual User Conference.

In June 2019, Touch-Base took ownership of Omfax Systems. After being in partnership for close to thirty years, it was a smooth transition. We hope that we have continued to supply the same high levels of Keyfax customer service and consultancy over the last two years. When the companies joined, the User Conference was put on hold. Then, in March 2020, the Pandemic hit and, since then, most Omfax and Touch-Base staff have been working remotely. These two factors played a significant part in the User Conference being put on the back burner.

What About Now then?

In the last year, there have been unprecedented measures to stop the spread of the virus. Not least of all, the cancellation of conferences or large gatherings of people. These so-called ‘super-spreader events’ where people are in close contact with each other, sharing buffets and travelling, have come to a standstill. Meetings are now happening remotely through Zoom and Teams, with virtual ‘chats’ and ‘gatherings’. This shift is becoming the new ‘normal’ and seems to be a familiar way of working for all of us.

With this in mind, we’ve had to ask ourselves whether a face-to-face User Conference needs to be held again.  Most people are now comfortable with doing things on-line and are happy to converse through their screens. So, would our dear customers still want to travel across the country, to hear and see content that we could easily deliver online? Maybe so, maybe not – perhaps Webinars are the way forward!

The Pros & Cons of Delivering Digital Updates

If there are to be no more face-to-face conferences, what we will all miss is meeting customers face-to-face. User conferences are a great chance for some normal human interaction. Informal chats over lunch, or at coffee-breaks, really help us to understand what makes our customers tick, and it’s really good to get to know each other.

However, we think that these positives should outweigh the negatives:

• Having smaller, more frequent webinars from Omfax, to hear about updates
• Being able to stay ‘at the office’, rather than risk the chance of spreading the virus
• Saving time wasted on travelling, as well as reducing our collective carbon footprint
• Big reductions in cost to the organisation for those attending
• Lower costs in time and money could mean more staff would attend (who might not otherwise)
• Having the chance to still achieve some of your workload during the day of the webinar.

All things considered, we believe that webinar updates are the best way to communicate with our customers, for now. And we are planning one soon to update everyone about the New Look & Feel of Keyfax version 4.3.

How Else can we Help?

Besides the webinars, there are several other ways that Omfax will continue to provide help and inspiration:

1. Providing the latest Keyfax product updates through YouTube videos
2. Sharing case studies and best practice with you through our blog
3. Listening to your ideas for future development or areas of application for Keyfax
4. Highlighting possible improvements in the use of intelligent scripting through a health-check with Paul
5. Supporting your diagnostic scripting ideas or issues through First Line scripting support
6. Technical assistance if you are thinking of moving to a hosted solution or changing HMS

While restrictions are slowly being lifted, rest assured that Omfax will stay in touch, initiating discussions and webinars, involving all our customers. But will there ever be another face-to-face Omfax User Conference? Well, we’ll never say “never”, but until then, we’ll see you online!