Over 130 attendees, representing 45 companies, came to COINS Conference 2007 looking for information about new products and features, knowledge to assist them in utilizing their existing systems, and answers to questions about the recent acquisition of Shaker (now COINS USA) by Construction Industry Solutions, Ltd.  And they were not disappointed ...

Realizing that many attendees were keenly interested in the acquisition of Shaker by Construction Industry Solutions, Richard Werner, Chairman of COINS USA, opened the conference with a bit of history about the long-standing relationship of the two companies. As the Chairman of COINS USA and founder of Shaker, Dick warmly expressed his enthusiasm for the future of the new company.

Derek Leaver, CEO of the global COINS organization, joined Dick in welcoming the attendees and encouraged them to use the conference to “Explore and Discover the world of COINS” – the company and its many products, including COINS Ti and COINS OA. Derek illustrated how COINS is growing as a company and the wealth of opportunity that this growth represents for COINS USA clients. Derek’s introductory remarks were followed up with several sessions that introduced COINS USA clients to COINS in the UK and to products that might soon make the leap to the US, such as Electronic Trading. 

Tuesday’s keynote address was delivered by Larry Sullivan, Chairman of the COINS Group and co-founder of COINS and five other niche market software houses. Larry shared his business philosophy and values with the group: delivering value to clients, developing people, and supporting the community. Many in attendance were inspired by his words.

The Conference took place over three days, from September 16-18, 2007. Throughout, clients enjoyed meeting the COINS USA and COINS UK staff and especially enjoyed meeting with other client attendees. Judging from the evaluation responses, attendees were pleased with their conference experience and can’t wait to get together again.

“This was the first COINS conference I've attended, and it was well worth it. We'll be back!”

Barbara Andrews, HRIS Administrator, The Brickman Group.

“It was refreshing to see a “new” energy for meeting individual business needs. OA opens the door to managing data that many of our sites are hungry to have available to them. We're looking forward to where COINS will be going in the future.” 

Lynn Coffey, Director - COINS Applications, Comfort Systems USA.

“Great conference! Loved the Monday night event! Great food and fun!!! and Greg Schwem was hilarious!"

Vicki Spotts, Chief Financial Officer, Zartman Construction.

Attendees were able to personalize their conference experience by selecting from more than 20 sessions, with opportunities to learn about existing, new, and forthcoming solutions available from COINS USA.

Sessions that focused on recent COINS Ti developments gave attendees a chance to assess how the new products could deliver business benefit to their companies. Development of COINS Ti has continued at high speed since the 2005 conference and attendees were eager to learn about the new modules and features that have resulted from this development effort.

Jim Talbot, Senior Sales Engineer, led sessions on two new products: COINS Ti Project Management module and COINS Information Manager (CIM). CIM is the first COINS Open Architecture (COINS OA) product to be made available with direct integration to COINS Ti and one of the immediate benefits of the recent acquistion to our clients. In other sessions, attendees were introduced to the new COINS Ti Equipment module and learned about the power inherent in the new COINS Ti Service Management Argon.

There was a great deal of interest in COINS Ti Mobile Technician, redesigned and relaunched in 2007 in partnership with the EMCOR Group. Three EMCOR employees who were closely involved with the project assisted COINS USA’s Kimberly Fisher and Viktor Holovashchenko with this session. Andrea Rueckemann and Dawn Bernal, Business Systems Analysts from EMCOR Facilities Services, and Riché Colcombe, Manager of Branch Administrative Services from New England Mechanical Services, contributed their real life product expertise to the discussion. Their perspective on rolling out Mobile Technician to hundreds of technicians, from selecting the device and conducting training to evaluating technician and customer satisfaction, was very interesting to other attendees.