SMA Announces the Winners of the Inaugural IMPACT Project

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SMA’s Impact Project was conceived and developed with one goal in mind: To discover how their product, OpCon/xps™ and team impact the lives of the people who use it..their customers.Every competitor was given a FLiP SLIDE HD digital video camera with which to produce their entry. The challenge was to create and produce an original video 15 – 20 minutes in length about themselves and the ways that SMA’s OpCon/xps have impacted their lives.

Houston, TX, September 16, 2010 (PressReleasePoint) -- “I didn’t want to deploy the customary method of blasting hundreds of boring, impersonal customer satisfaction surveys to our global customer base. Our customers mean a great deal to us, they really do matter to everyone on the SMA team.” Explains Michael W. Taylor, SMA’s President & CEO. With Mr. Taylor’s challenge in mind the Impact Project began to take shape. Several months went into scripting and detailing the project. Impact Project’s architect invested a great deal of time searching for similar concepts on the internet. However, none existed or at least none were discovered that not only allowed but mandated 100% original content on all entries. SMA offered no suggestions or canned scenarios. “I wanted complete authenticity on these videos. If our technology and customer base were typical I would have retained a team of creatives to fabricate a slick testimonial video. But SMA and the client partners we serve are anything but typical,” says Taylor. “every detail associated with the Impact Project presented a risk. We gave up all control of the content and empowered our customer competitors to produce something authentic and original, and the end result delivered exponentially more than anything I could have imagined.” All winning entries will receive a specially commissioned handcrafted award produced by Philip and Michele Hoggatt owners of Carved Stone, Inc. in Dripping Spring Texas.

SMA’s Inaugural Impact Project Grand Prize is awarded to the team at BayPort Credit Union. Lead by Bruce Jernell, Senior Systems Analyst and supported by several members of the BayPort staff. Bruce and his teammate Ryan Rillo have been invited by Michael W. Taylor to be his guests and enjoy an all expenses paid trip to Houston to attend the 2010 SMArt Sessions Conference SMA’s annual user group gathering October 6th and 7th. Bruce and Ryan have graciously agreed to act as esteemed presenters to the group of IT professionals currently leveraging OpCon/xps in their data centers along with invited IT professionals who are interested in learning more about SMA and OpCon/xps. Michael Taylor will also present a check in the amount of $1500.00 payable to the charitable organization(s) chosen by BayPort Credit Union. Congratulations and thank you to the talented and very clever team at BayPort Credit Union in Virginia. Your Impact Project video entry was above and beyond anything we could have imagined.

There was a tie for First Place, therefore the decision was made to award two Second Place finishes.

SMA’s awards one of two First Place Awards to Janice L. Cessna, Director of MIS and her intrepid team of filmmakers at Pasco-Hernando Community College in new Port Richey, Florida. Ms.Cessna along with teammate and co-star Artem Geyvandov, Operations Support will also be traveling to Houston to attend SMArt Sessions in October. They will receive their award from Michael Taylor as well a as donation from SMA to the charitable organization of their choice.

The Impact Project final First Place Award is presented to Joshua Higgins, Data Center Systems Administrator and his supporting team of co-stars at the Maine Credit Union League’s Synergent Technology Services in Westbrook, Maine. Joshua will also be attending SMA’s SMArt Session Conference in October along with Tim Gilman, Synergent’s Assistant Vice President of Operations and Gary Glenn Senior Vice President at Synergent. Their award and charitable donation will be delivered to them personally by Michael W.Taylor during the SMArt Sessions event in October.

The real value of any product is a difficult metric to capture by anyone other than those who use it day in and day out. The Impact Project offered the SMA team rare insight into the environment and professionals who depend on OpCon/xps. The result is a gratifying and tangible demonstration of the value our effort offers to our diverse global family of customers. Michael W. Taylor, comments in closing, “”The enjoyment and insight gained from the Impact Project “experiment” for lack of a better word, leads me to deem it an undeniable success. However that success only motivates me and the entire SMA team to work harder to deliver more value and service to the family of customers we serve.”

About SMA:
SMA is a global leader in cross platform enterprise job scheduling software and event driven automation software, with offices in England, France, New Zealand, South Korea, Switzerland and the United States. With 29 years of experience SMA powers some of the most complex data centers in the world. SMA OpCon/xps automation software maximizes technology investments and enables IT process improvements to quickly produce measurable ROI in weeks without armies of consultants. For more information please contact us at http://www.smausa.com/contact.htm .
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