The Truth About JD Edwards User Groups (And Why You’re Missing Out)

Table of Contents   

1. Introduction and Guest Background

2. Defining JD Edwards User Groups

3. Structure, Activities, and Community

4. Meeting Agendas and Sessions

5. Membership Costs and ROI

6. Real-World Impact and Benefits

7. Advice for First-Time Attendees and Closing

Transcript

Introduction and Guest Background 

We reached out to another company that we had met and plug and again similar, similar, uh, business style and, and business all together, um, and said, hey, did you, have you guys seen this just by chance, or, you know, if you had any problems in this area, and it turns out that they ran in the exact same issue, told us exactly what the fix was before Oracle even commented and made any contact with us about the ticket.

Ever wondered if joining JD Edwards User Group is worth your time in some cases, a membership fee, or if you'll actually walk away with something that improves your business. Today we'll pull back the curtain on how user groups work, what happens at meetings, and how to get the most out of them. By the end, they'll know joining is right for you and exactly how make it pay off.

Welcome back to another episode of not your Grandpa's JD Edwards, the podcast where we cut through the corporate jargon and bring you real practical ways to get more from your JD investment. I'm your host, Nate Bushfield, and today we're diving into a topic that might just change the way that you learn, connect, and problem solved in your JD Edwards world. We're talking about user groups, what they are, why they matter, and how to know if they're worth your time and budget.

Join me today is Diane Miller, CNC Administrator for Tech Manage Services at ERP Suites, who's been a part of the JD User Group community for many years, attending meetings, being on the board, and helping companies like yours get the most out of their membership. We're gonna pull back the curtain on what really happens in these groups and how to make the most of them and why so many JD shops swear by them. So grab your coffee, settle in, let's find out if JD user groups could be the game changer that you're looking for.

But to start off, Diane, how are you doing today? And can you explain a little bit about your role?

I'm doing great, thanks for having me on the wonderful podcast. And I, I, yikes, I, my journey with JD ever started in 1996 on the S400 with green screen and the world product. So hard to believe next year is gonna make 30 years. Um, at this point, I like to joke that JD Edwards runs through my veins, being has, you know, how much of my career has been dedicated to it.

So, yeah, that's awesome. I mean yeah, I, I always do the joke of, oh, was I alive back when you started at JD Edwards? And usually the answer is no on a lot of this podcast, and the answer for here is definitely not, um, you are not.

No, yeah, my sister had just been born though, which is hilarious. She's about 4 years older than me, so I guess we got that. I'm still 90s kid. I'll wear that till the day I die.

And I'm excited to jump into a first time guest, which it's been a little bit since we've had a first time guest on here. We keep having a recurring guest, so it's great to get an outside point of view when it comes to a lot of these user groups. But for someone who's never been involved in a user group, such as myself, how would you define a JD Edwards user group?

Defining JD Edwards User Groups

Honestly, to me, I would say user group is like a, it's a family. I mean, it's not your blood, you're not, it's not related family, but under a similar notion, it's an extended work family. I mean, it would define it as a collection of people who just get together a regular basis to discuss and sometimes solve problems, to exchange information, to learn more about JDE. Um.

Most of the time these groups are like geographically located, um, usually meet several times a year in person. And, and then, you know, in fact some of these times you may hear it a user group known as a rug or you might hear the term rug, which is stands for regional user group. So for instance, the Peckerland you, the Peckerland User Group where or plug, which is based out of Wisconsin, but we have several members that, um, from their surrounding states around Wisconsin that will travel to our meetings.

Um, you're gonna hear me reference plug quite a bit because I've been involved with that group for about 25 years or so. And as a really funny story we've got time, of course, how I got involved in the plug many years ago.

I attended my first plug meeting and, um, they had asked for volunteers to join the board. And I thought, okay, well, what a better way to learn more about the user group and, you know, how it functions and learn more about JD Edwards all together. So I said, okay, sign me up.

Fast forward to a few months later, um, I'm at the focus conference and quick break for a story on some history here. Focus used to be the original name for the conferences, which is now known as blueprint 4 d, but then we was previously collaborate too, but it used to be just plain focus. So anyway, back to my story. I was at the focus conference and the some of the plug board members and some JD Awards personnel said, hey, you want to come to dinner? I thought, free meal.

Awesome. All right, I should have known there was something to it. It's always the couch. Yeah, they, uh, they basically came back in and gave me an ultimatum and said, either you take over as president of this group or it's gonna fold.

And then I thought back to, well, the first meeting I went to, there were 30 people there. Obviously they were doing something right, and it was a good group. So I didn't wanna see it fold. And I didn't, I didn't wanna just make it my fault that the group doesn't exist anymore.

So I took on the president role. And luckily, I had lots of help and trying to guide the group and keep it going, and, um, had a lot of learning people that helped me learn a lot of things.

And I was president for 10 years until the board unanimously agreed to let me step down. And then to this day, I'm still on the plug board in one capacity or another. So that's awesome.

Structure, Activities, and Community

That's awesome. I mean yeah like it's crazy to think about how a lot of these groups really started and how much they have grown and having people like you in those roles to see how much this has grown ahead, push the envelope to get it to the next level, which is definitely at now. Um.

There's a lot that really goes into a lot of these groups. And yes, they're about learning and about sharing of knowledge and that side of things.

But from what I've heard, they also get down a little bit. They love to hang out with each other. They love to go on the outside of what plug is and really build those relationships, which is always a fun thing and I'm sure that you indulge throughout the years.

We're not gonna get into any of those stories today. Um, but I've heard a few which they're always incredible to think that, wow, a bunch of these people that might have not known each other before walking into it or have known each other throughout the years because of plug.

There are a lot of relationship building that happens at these types of user groups.

Um, but you mention rug and what rugs are, but what are the difference between a regional user group in a special interest user user group, where special interest group I guess is what it's truly called. It's called CIG, right? Yeah, what are the difference there?

Um, well, I would say let's start off with, like a definition of a saying. So to me, it's just a community of people who work towards enhancing a specific product or industry focused area of Jade Edwards.

Um, cigs fall into the umbrella of a larger organization, um, in this case, it's the Quest Oracle community. So this type of group is, um, a super way to connect with other customers or other subject matter experts all over the world.

Since these groups meet virtually, usually like on a monthly basis and then sometimes we'll get together at the actual bigger conferences like blueprint for the or focus or in focus.

So, but to me, I guess the key difference is that the CIGS focus on driving improvements, enhancing ease of use of the software, and just making Jade Edwards overall better. Um.

Even though, and even through the direct interaction of Oracle personnel because they're very invested as well in the CIGS user groups, on the other hand, are more broader in scope.

You know, they bring together Jade Edwards users to exchange information and gain education about the software, but we're not, we're not driven to help improve it. But that way, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

And obviously original user group, there might be more people that are there just because it's about more of a general idea of what JD Edwards truly is in improving that side of things.

In special interest group, they might be a little bit smaller, um, focus on one specific topic or application or something like that.

So I could understand why both are very beneficial. Um, but also you might find that special interest group goes a little bit deeper on a specific topic versus rug, which is, yeah, they do go into specifics and especially a lot of the sessions that they have, they do go into the specifics, but it's about a broader range of information, so just one topic and that makes a lot of sense.

Um, and honestly, and honestly, Nate, sometimes the CIGs are bigger than the RUBs because they are around the world.

And, you know, you're getting a lot more people involved in it that way. And then there's definitely some overlap, I mean, as knowledge sharing happens in both types of groups. So, but I guess it's just, it's a matter of, of what you can what you, what you want to do with the JD Edward software and how you wanna enhance it, make it better.

Yeah, definitely, definitely. Um, but who typically attends these groups and why do they keep coming back? Haha, um, I would break it down probably into with three groups of attendees. So you've got your customers, uh, your business partners, and then Oracle themselves.

So your customers are being, you know, employees of a company, uh, who use JDE for their Earp software can be broken down even further into the it professionals, um, and users from various departments, so finance, manufacturing, procurement.

Um, both will attend, you know, regularly the, the meetings, um, of course, to depending upon what the topic is, and if it's something that, you know, reaches out to them.

The second type that I mentioned was business partner, business partners. So I would say that the business partners are, you know, any companies, um, that work with JD Edwards or have a product that can bolt on to JD Edwards.

That's what I would, you know, include in those. And then of course, there's Oracle themselves. I mean, Oracle employees do attend some of the meetings, um, and, and in person, and then they also are definitely on the sick calls, but, um, sometimes they'll even present for us as well. So and then I guess, huh, here we go.

Why did they come back? Well, cause we're fun. No. Um, it's totally, I think, because they're obviously getting real value out of attending the meetings.

I mean, like anything else, if you try it once and you don't find it useful, you probably won't keep showing up. But the fact that people continue to show up at the meetings, you know, speaks for itself.

So they're getting some value, exactly. And it's always changing. They're never gonna do the same presentation twice. Maybe sometimes they'll re attack a topic from a different angle, but for the most part they're keeping it fresh.

They're making sure that the spread of knowledge is still there, which there is a tremendous amount of value there, especially when you are in person, you can ask those questions and you get the questions instantly.

Meeting Agendas and Sessions

So maybe a webinar where they're not exactly prepared for it or you have to wait for an email to come out or wait for whatever. Um, you can talk to people right then, right there. You can get a deeper understanding of the knowledge, um, especially when you're in person.

You can actually ask these people in a quieter space or you can ask them when they're on stage. There's a tremendous amount of knowledge sharing that goes into a lot of these things.

I know I've worked on this before, but there is a tremendous amount of value. And that's why people keep coming back. They want to learn, they want to know, they want to be on the cutting edge of JD Edwards. Which a lot of people might think that, oh, it's JD Edwards.

You're not really sure like what cutting edge truly means. But go to these user groups, you're gonna find out really quick.

So what is the typical user group agenda look like? I think that varies from group to group, but in most cases, I mean, there's always going to be presentations and I would say some networking time along with some food and drinks sprinkled in, you know.

But in the specific case of like plug, for instance, we have a main sponsor and then they present on the topic that they want. We have a lunch with some networking time, um, and then our official meeting of official start of the meeting doesn't start until 1:00.

So at that point announcements are ne, are made, um, regarding anything, I mean, could be, we know when the next, uh, conferences or, you know, what, what events are happening in the local area or something along that lines. But then right at that point, we break off into two separate rooms.

So there's also two presentations that are going on at the same time. And then the attendees are going to have to decide which one they want to hear and learn about. And then in the middle right after that presentation, we break for another networking session with like an afternoon dessert, and then there's another set of, of presentations again.

So then again, at the end, we convene, reconvene back into the one room and then we do some giveaways and some closing remarks.

And then, um, we all go our separate ways, but usually at at, at one of those 4 meetings. We sometimes even include professional development, um, sessions or some other, some other type of training, uh, before the main sponsor starts, just to again, help all of us grow and learn our knowledge.

It doesn't always have to be just straight on JD Edwards, which is of course what the group is for, but we also like to help educate wherever we can.

So and I, and I would say we're definitely doing something right cause we consistently have about 60 people or more at every meeting. So, but, yeah, a lot of those people, the 60 different people that are there are spread between either partners, maybe their customers, maybe their Oracle themselves.

There is a tremendous amount of knowledge. And if you don't end up being able to talk to Oracle the entire time, there are people that could be in the same situation that your businesses.

And that's something that, yeah, a lot of people might overlook and be like, oh, nobody's in the same situation as me, but a lot of the stuff that happens to you has happened to somebody else. Maybe they're not going through right now, but maybe they did.

And maybe they could help fast track you into a better situation, into fixing your problem.

That's there. And that's something that you probably wouldn't see because I don't know about how many people out there truly talk to a company that's in maybe a different industry, or maybe they're in the same industry, but they're having the same problem.

It's not, I don't know if there's truly a message board out there of I'm having a problem with my JD Edwards.

Has anyone had this? There are JD forums out there, I know, but as somebody that frequents those sites, that's not really the question that's being asked. They're asked about, oh, like what's the new thing?

What does this mean? What does that mean? It's not about problems, but this is a great space to have that conversation because it is, it's only around 60 people that's there, but those 60 people could be spread through 60 different companies if you really think of it.

So in terms of the actual agenda, what kind of topics or even sessions do attendees usually find the most valuable?

Uh, Nate, that's a tough one. Um, I think the answer can vary, again, between person to person.

And I think being what their position is or what their job is, so seeing as I'm a C and c, I'm mainly technical in nature.

I'm gonna wanna gravitate towards a system administration or a tools type presentation, whereas a user of JDE who works in finance may wanna see a session in automating payments or something along that lines.

But overall, I just know attendees appreciate the educational type sessions all together where they can just learn anything.

You pick up a new tip, um, learn something new, um, um try to figure out, you know maybe an issue they might actually bring up an issue during the Q&A part of it. Um. But customer LED sessions are also very favorable.

Um. It's cool to see how other customers are using the software and learn what they're doing within their business. To say automate processes, how to begin with AI, which we had Earp suites can help you with if you did there.

And then another valuable lesson is our session could be just learning about the new functionality like just released, uh, features or what's coming out in the future releases or, you know so you can plan or maybe think about how you can use that new feature that's coming out.

So exactly, yeah, yeah and there's, uh, there's also a side of it that's, are they gonna be selling? Are, are these companies just gonna sit up there on a soapbox and try to sell you something?

I'm not gonna lie to you. There are some that would you have to pay extra for it, though they are indeed in the agenda, they are marked as this is a sales picture. It's, I could say specifically that, but it will, yeah, obviously that would be hilarious though I really wish they would do that.

But there will be line in there in terms of their actual information because they do give you a little bit of a packet of what each sessions truly gonna be about. And they will mention that.

It is more of a sales pitch of there's this new software that's coming out, there's this new application, there's new this, this or whatever, but they will mention that.

But most of these because you have to pay extra for selling and they try to get people to not really do that by making them pay extra. A lot of it is just information.

It's about teaching, which is something that in the JD Edwards face, we do a really good job of. It's very impressive what we truly do in terms of teaching our customer base, teaching the different partners, teaching.

Well, even Oracle gets to learn some things about user experience and what they're going through.

So it really is a teachable moment for everybody involved. But again, we're not gonna lie to you, there are some sales pitches that are in there, so if you don't wanna go to those, they will be marked. You can skip them. Maybe go to a bar, maybe go to a restaurant.

There's a lot of different opportunities that you can do besides that and you still get the networking, you still get value from that time. But can you explain or share?

I guess share is probably a better word for this of how the informal and I know a lot of us have probably heard this, the hallway conversations end up being as useful or even more useful than the official sessions.

Yeah. Well, I think what you're calling a hallway conversation is just what we would all term as a networking time. I mean you know I know a few situations where questions can be asked, um, suggestions are made or offered.

People, you know tell them maybe look at this, check that, try that, and where that information they get back and they tell us that, yeah, all that information helped and we totally figured out the problem, you know and it's not working great.

Um, it's also a great way just to ask questions, like you said, in a smaller group rather than in front of a bunch of attendees.

You know for instance, you could you could ask a person, you know what is their company doing with orchestrations? Or, you know who their who their provider is for EDI? Cause you're looking at maybe moving or you're not happy with yours, or, you know what is their process for archiving? Or have you ever run into a problem with sales orders?

And, you know so on and so on, and you just you make those contacts there and it's super invaluable and it's probably something you wouldn't do in a bigger setting. I think you, you feel more comfortable doing it in those hallway conversations as you please.

Yeah, I don't know if there are many hallways there, honestly, but, yeah, it's, it's just a different it's a different approach of how to get that information without having somebody to try to sell you on it.

You're talking to other users, you're talking to real people that have gone through these issues or maybe they just figured out something that had made their. Yeah, we talk about clicks in this industry a lot that maybe they take less clicks to do things.

You're doing less work or less putting in less time to complete some of these tasks, where you can actually use that tie those times on more productive things or things that you have more pressing matters on where you can take the amount of time down.

So there are a lot of things that you could really get out of this by just talking to a different customer. And, yeah, you can still talk to Oracle, yeah, you can still talk to the partners that are there.

If you aren't sure or if maybe you are talking to these people and they're like, oh, we honestly, we haven't ran into that issue or whatever.

There are other opportunities to get that information, but where else are you gonna find a user experience like that where you can talk to real people, real users that have maybe gone through the same thing as you.

And, yeah, we can talk about blueprint, we can talk about it focus, but these are smaller groups that are very specific to where you live, what you're going through.

A lot of the same industry, there's a lot of stuff that can go into it that will really benefit you more than, obviously, you can just show up, check all the boxes, and say, yeah, I, I went there.

Thanks, thanks, people, you know it was a great time at Packer Land, check. Um, but there are other things you can get out of, and it's all about what you wanna put into it more than anything else. Um, but let's shift to the cost.

Membership Costs and ROI

What is usually group membership food cost and what kind of value can companies realistically expect in return?

Um. Some groups are completely free, you know um whereas others may charge per person per meeting.

I'm for plugging stiff, for instance, we charge a yearly fee by the company, so meaning that they can send us many persons they want to the meeting. I'm for as many as they can spare to be away from the office. Um.

We also allow new companies to check us out for their, uh, the first meeting free just to validate that yes, they wanna join us and that they actually did get something out of it. Um, I would have to say we have never had anybody not come back after a husband. It's good thing.

Yeah, it's very great that like, yeah obviously it depends on where you live and it depends on which group you want to join. And some are free some aren't free and it really depends.

I will say some of the user groups that you do have to spend on, they put a little bit more, umph, into it. And I and that's just from personal stories that I've heard. Um.

So yeah, it doesn't really matter where you go, just check it out. You can check out the first one for free, no matter which one, across all of these different rugs. So it's definitely something that you should look into at least once. Try it out, see what it is, see what you can get out of it. And if you end up not liking it, I mean no harm, no foul.

Only thing that you really had to pay for is to travel there, but it is packer land in some cases. Other places, it's close to where you are. So it's all about your user experience, what you want to put into it. But do you have a real world example?

Our user group connection directly solved a business problem. I know we've been talking about it in theory throughout this pod, but is there one that sticks out to you?

Um, I, you know making the context exchange in the business cards, knowing other JD users are just invaluable.

I would say from my past job when I was a customer, we had a manufacturing issue that was causing havoc.

Shortly after an upgrade, we put a service request into Oracle, you know doing our due diligence, and then we reached out to another company that we had met, ad plug and again similar similar, uh, business style and, and business altogether, um, and said, hey, did you, have you guys seen this just by chance, or, you know if you had any problems in this area?

And it turns out that they ran in the exact same issue, told us exactly what the fix was before Oracle even commented and made any contact with us about the ticket. So, I mean having these types of contacts and to reach out as a resource can be so beneficial and just completely invaluable. So, and I've heard that more than once from other people.

Yeah, we reached out to, so and so and they helped us or, you know they guided us in that direction, and so it's, it's a great, great resource exactly.

Real-World Impact and Benefits

And, yeah, I know we've harped on it throughout this episode, so I'm not gonna spend too much time on it, but, yeah, like, other people go through your same issues.

There are partners out there that have seen this through other companies that might not even be there. There's a lot of experience that are at these conferences, that are at these user groups.

So seriously, check it out. It's not that bad, I swear. But if someone's joining for the first time, what's your advice for getting the most ROI from their membership?

Um, my advice would be to really engage. Um, don't just attend, participate, ask the question, share your experiences, connect with others both during and after the meetings.

I mean the more you network, can exchange ideas, the more value you'll get. Um, also, take advantage of the resources outside of meetings, you know whether it's discussion groups, training materials, reaching out to the peers directly. Um, ensure the RLI just comes from being active rather than passive.

Yeah, exactly. And, and you can start small. I mean I know it can feel intimidating, but, you know don't be afraid to walk up to someone at a meeting, introduce yourself, and ask what they do.

It's a simple way to start a conversation. I mean at the end of the day, we're all part of the same family with the within the same JD Edwards ecosystem.

So then we are and we've all gone through it. We've all had our lows, we've all had our highs. And you can figure out how they got to the highs. You can figure out what put them at their lowest. I mean it's all about what you put into it.

And yes, for the introverts that are out there, you don't have to ask on this large forum with a bunch of people in there, you can have a one on one conversation, you can join a group of people that are already talking about something.

There are ways that you can be comfortable in these user groups because that's how they're set up. They're designed for both the extrovert and the introvert no matter where you are.

Advice for First-Time Attendees and Closing

But let's race the finish a little bit. I know this very exciting information, but if you're ready to see JD Edwards User Groups in action, join our user Group for the third quarter meetings coming up soon. It's a perfect opportunity to experience first hand what these gatherings offer, networking insights and actual takeaways in.

Register now to secure your spot and you can view the agenda so you know exactly what you're getting out of it. If you're looking for a broader event, look at in focus, that's coming up, Quest Oracles community in focus. It's happening on September 9th to the eleventh. Um, it's in Denver.

It's the biggest annual gathering of JD Edwards users with deep digestions, pure connections and direct access to product strategy and innovation. You'll see both myself and Diane. Are you going this year? You'll see, yeah you'll see both of us walking around on that floor.

Probably that's a wrap on today's episode of not your Grandpa's JD Edwards. Huge thanks to Diane for sharing her insights on the power of JD user groups. If you've been on the fence about joining one, I hope this conversation gave you the clarity and maybe the push to check one out.

Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, leave a like, and share this episode with your peers in the JD Edwards community. So next time, keep learning, keep connecting, and keep moving your business forward. Thank you.