April 20, 2016

Ted Burns | April 20, 2016 | Vice President, Sales – South Gulf 

The annual COLLABORATE conference brings together the Oracle user community for a week of education, networking, meeting with Oracle service providers, and a little fun thrown in. I had the privilege of attending this years’ conference as a member of the Spinnaker Support team. From a first timer’s point of view, I wanted to share my experience and thank all of our customers and individuals who made the conference such a success.

As always, the conference was extremely well attended with over 5,000 individuals registered, representing companies of all sizes from around the world. Everyone I met and spoke with throughout the conference was excited about something new they had heard in a session, or the opportunity to exchange thoughts and ideas with their peers and colleagues. It was evident that everyone was eager to learn and take advantage of everything the conference had to offer.

COLLABORATE is a fitting name for this annual event and congratulations to Quest, OAUGIOUG, the vendor partners, and Oracle users that make this such a great conference. I saw collaboration everywhere throughout the event, from exhibitors sharing and partnering on business opportunities to companies who compete in the same or similar industries discussing best practices and thoughts on leveraging new and emerging technologies. The main theme of COLLABORATE is learning and from what I saw everyone found something of interest.

The SpinnaIMG_5200ker Support booth in the exhibit hall was buzzing with activity as we showcased our breadth of Oracle support services. Current customers stopped by and had the chance to reconnect with members of our sales, marketing, delivery, and executive management team. It’s always great to see our clients face-to-face and discuss how we can help them address new challenges they are facing. Former customers who are now working for other companies stopped by to see how they might work with us again. Hundreds of others came by to learn more and find out what’s new or enhanced.  Many were excited to hear about our growth worldwide, expansion of our Oracle support service offerings,  how we continue to invest in our people (who voted us into a Top Workplace spot), and our delivery model processes (which are end-to-end ISO 9001:2008 certified).   The message that we continue to provide world-class Oracle support and service while growing the bottom line was extremely well received, While we enjoyed all of the business opportunities, we also had some fun. Our “Whac-The-Cost” game attracted huge lines of people attempting to win the grand prize of a $250.00 Casino Chip! Congratulations to our big winner!

On Monday evening, Spinnaker Support hosted our annual party at The Border Grill. This was a great chance for customers and potential clients to interact with our team on a more personal level, in a relaxed atmosphere while enjoying some great food and drinks. Our CEO, Matt Stava, was in attendance and was able to spend time with everyone who attended. This was such a fantastic way for people to hear directly from senior management how we’ve created our customer centric culture and why Spinnaker Support will continue to grow and prosper in the years to come.

My personal thanks to everyone with whom I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with during conference. Our message resonated with those companies looking for effective alternatives to Oracle support, for which they’ve had a hard time cost-justifying.  I’m looking forward to continuing our conversations. I can only hope I am on the list to attend COLLABORATE 17!