IIUG President's Letter

Monday, 17 March 2003

Dear IIUG Member,

IIUG Board of Directors has had a busy year so far, so I thought I'd spend some time telling everyone about some of the things your Board has already done this year.

In January, we ran a Priorities survey with our active membership. The purpose of this survey was to gauge how well IIUG was performing. Approximately 700 members submitted their responses. 92% of the respondents think that IIUG Insider e-newsletter is at least somewhat helpful. 83% of those responding visit IIUG website at least occasionally. Respondents think the four highest priorities for IIUG should be advocating IDS 9, advocating the Informix toolsets (4GL, ISQL, etc.), keeping our website fresh and supporting local user group meetings. One of the most exciting results from this survey was that 97% of those responding indicated that they are satisfied with the work of IIUG. The Board works hard to provide timely, useful information to our membership and to IBM. It's exciting to see that our membership appreciates our efforts.

In February, the Board met in Key Largo, in the state of Florida, USA, for our annual winter meeting. Our goal was to establish a direction and set goals for IIUG for this year and beyond. Based on the results from the Priorities survey we compiled a list of projects and tasks that will allow us to continue improving and expanding IIUG. We also worked on and developed new processes that will help us streamline our support to new and existing local user groups. One of our new commitments for this year is to support IBM's InfoBahn road shows with IIUG leadership presence whenever possible. If an InfoBahn is headed to your town, make plans now to attend.

Also in February, we launched another survey to our membership requesting thoughts and opinion on the direction of the Informix product line. More than 700 members responded! Results of that survey showed that over 63% have decided to remain committed to the IBM Informix products and 69% are intent on staying with IBM databases. In fact, 73% of those responding say that their company's decision makers believe that the IBM Informix product line is alive and well for at least three years. And over half of all respondents deployed new applications on Informix databases in 2002 and almost the same percentage expect to implement new applications on Informix databases in 2003. All encouraging responses for Informix!

On March 7th I had the opportunity to travel to Somers, NY and visit with several IBM marketing executives to discuss various topics, including the state of IIUG and the current and future value it brings to the IDS customer base, partner loyalty and IBM; the strategic direction of IIUG as it relates to other IBM Software Group user groups; the establishment of improved communications between IBM Data Management executives and IIUG representatives; and new ideas for the user group communities. Through these meetings, IIUG and IBM have begun exploring new programs that will allow IIUG and its membership to take advantage of other IBM software products, which are increasingly integrated with Informix databases and tools. I hope to share more information with you about these new programs in the coming months.

Given our recent survey and advocacy activities, I find it imperative to reassure our members that IIUG is committed to protect membership privacy. We go to great lengths to safeguard the information you provide us and we do not approve of uses outside of IIUG operations and advocacy. We appreciate the continued enthusiasm and support of our membership as demonstrated in our recent surveys and continued membership growth. When you speak through the surveys, we listen and act. So keep talking to us, visiting our web site, participating in local user group meetings, engaging in our special interest groups and helping us obtain from IBM the best software infrastructure products and services.

"Never stop learning",

Jerry Hamilton
IIUG President