TickeTrak Users Conference 2010 Day 3

Day three began with a presentation of Cardinal's Web Modules. The demo showcased the Online Citation Payment, Citation Appeal, and Permit Registration functions and the benefits of having these tools available 24/7 to parking customers.


Cardinal development staff followed up with the popular "I Didnt Know you Could Do That!" class showing all the little known shortcuts tips and tricks. Attendees learned more efficient use of the TickeTrak system and related tools.



The conference concluded with a "sneak peek" of what's in development for the next release and opportunities for attendees to provide input and suggestions.

More food, more prizes and THATS A WRAP!





Thank you to all who attended. We enjoyed spending time with you learning, networking, and having fun. Whether or not you were able to attend this year, we hope to see you in 2011!!!

TickeTrak Users Conference 2010 - Day2

Day 2 of the conference started bright and early (a bit earlier than some would have liked after such a big dinner).

The sales team took over the presentation reins showcasing the new optional modules available to TickeTrak users. It's great when customers learn about solutions available that solve problems or make them more efficient using TickeTrak. Modules included Archive, Ticket Book Management, and Payment Imports, Web Modules Citation Payments, Permit Registration, and Appeals, and Laserfiche Integration.






Cardinal was very excited to announce and showcase our new integration with Sungard Banner. The ability to seamlessly synchronize person/demographic information, charges from citations and permits, and payments will eliminate duplicate data entry and manual processes for our customers.






We appreciate Lori Mauthe and Darren Penn from Sungard attending the session and providing valuable info from the Banner integration viewpoint.



Attendees also attended a training session on using the Template functionality in TickeTrak. Templates allow the user to design customized forms using Microsoft Word and embed TickeTrak data. Demonstrations by Cardinal Staff and Kelly Baranoski (Cardinal's User of the Year!)
provided examples of creating professional documents for customers.




What? More food?!?! Lunch and prizes were followed by dazzling presentations that kept attendees awake in the afternoon.





In addition to the standard sessions, Cardinal continued it's three day track on migrating to TickeTrak 9. Attendees learned about converting data and reviewed the new features and functionality in the new system.

The evening concluded with a social gathering in the hospitality suite and adjoining ballroom. Hot Wings, Pizza, icy cold beverages, video games, and a bit of friendly Texas Holdem poker (and the associated trash talk) were enjoyed by all.

TickeTrak Users Conference 2010 - Day1

The 18th Annual TickeTrak Users Conference kicked off on a cloudy and rainy day in Addison, Texas. an

The event started on Sunday night with a registration and hospitality event. Attendees checked in, networked, and enjoyed a great TexMex buffet.



Monday morning started off with a light breakfast and directly into sessions at 8am.

After a brief welcome keynote, Randy Sellers presented the TickeTrak User of the Year Award . Congratulations to Kelly Baranowski for your outstanding participation with Cardinal and the TickeTrak product!


Randy wrapped up with a quick glimpse of new customer service features including the new TickeTrak Update service. This service notifies the user within the application when updates are available and allows authorized personnel to seamlessly download and install.




Kevin Fisher previewed new features available in TickeTrak 9. This included a preview of Cardinal's new FlyWriter Ad-Hoc report writer, web-based Dashboard widgets, and notes search, image attachments, and prototype screens of the new Pocket TickeTrak handheld software.





Breakout sessions including Advanced Finance, TickeTrak 8 to 9 conversions, and TickeTrak 9 Interactive Basics provided valuable information across a variety of topics.


Lunch was brightened with festive fedoras provided by TelEasy. TelEasy is a new Cardinal partner manufacturing kiosk solutions for citation payments and permit sales. Kiosks are integrated into the TickeTrak database automatically updating payment information.





The afternoon continued with sessions on Advanced Permit management, Interactive Basics and hands-on time with the new FlyWriter Ad-Hoc Report Writing System.

After a full day, attendees took some time to unwind at Texas De Brazil. You can't truly appreciate Texas without consuming some beef. There was plenty to go around at this Brazillian Steakhouse. The evening concluded with movie night and everyone gearing up for day two!

TickeTrak Users Conference 2009 Day 3

Day 2 of the conference concluded with a casual gaming extravaganza hosted by the resident geeks at Cardinal.

In addition to the normal hospitality suite festivities (snacks, beverages, basketball watching, and poker/blackjack playing), Cardinal setup a separate room with three projectors, 8' video screens, and a Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3. Attendees showed off their mad skills at Wii Bowling, Buzz! Trivia, and Rock Band.



Day 3, April 27th

The day started at 8:30 with awards for the best "all around" gamers from the previous evening. Following the impromptu award ceremony, Jeremy Moon moderated the increasingly popular "I Didn't Know You Could Do That" session. TickeTrak is a complex program with many valuable features. This session showed you how the tips, tricks, and shortcuts that you may not have known about. Attendees interacted and shared their tips and tricks for using the tools within the product as well.

The sessions concluded with Interfaces - Ins and Outs. The sessions were broken into Municpality and University focused groups. Cardinal discussed our plans for interfacing with key players in the campus industry and provided and overview of our current work in progress with SunGuard/Banner. Attendees shared their current implementations with Banner, PeopleSoft, SAP, and others.


The conference concluded with a Tex-Mex lunch (what?!? More FOOD?!) and, yes - you guessed it - MORE PRIZES.




Thank you everyone for attending. We had a great time, shared some great information, and learned a lot as well. We look forward to next year and hope to see everyone again. If you weren't able to attend this year, we hope you can make the trip in 2010!

Don't forget, all TickeTrak 8 customers can upgrade to TickeTrak 9 between now and the end of summer at NO COST! The normal $2495 charge to sign up for a training track has been waived. Contact your sales person to sign up now!

If you enjoyed this blog and would like to see it continue, please send me an email at sleuschner@cardinaltracking.com. I always welcome and appreciate your comments.


Steve Leuschner
President, CEO

TickeTrak Users Conference 2009 Day 2

Welcome back! Before we move on to Day 2 of the TickeTrak Conference, we have a bit of catchup from the evening events of Day 1.

After a grueling and strenuous day of classes, hands-on labs, and demonstrations, the attendees went to 300 Dallas for some bowling. Did he say BOWLING? Yes, but this is not the 1970's decor smelling of dirty sweatsocks bowling alley of your memory. This was a state of the newly designed bowling facility with a private party suite. I think everyone had a great time - but you be the judge from the pictures below.




So that explains why we asked the attendees for their shoe size at registration. Bet that was a first!

It seems we also had a few pool sharks in the crowd.


At the end of the evening, champions were recognized before heading back to prepare for another day of networking and learning.


Day 2, April 28th

The opening session on Day 2 showcased the value of adding Laserfiche document management and integrating it into your TickeTrak system. Supported in both TickeTrak 8 and TickeTrak 9, the Laserfiche interface allows you to "go paperless" and empty those bulging file cabinets. Any piece of paper or electronic document can be scanned, "tagged" with search fields, OCR scanned for text searching, and attached to a ticket, person, or permit within TickeTrak for easy reference.

Laserfiche was followed by an overview of the Owner Registration Information System (ORIS). This software add-on for TickeTrak is available to all TickeTrak customers. ORIS is a nationwide DMV search utility used to locate owners for your ownerless tickets. Based on your criteria, license plates for all states specified are sent to a central server over the internet. Owner information is returned, automatically imported into TickeTrak, and associated with vehicles and tickets.

TickeTrak 8 users then attended hands-on interactive basics training prepping them for the move to TickeTrak 9. Attendees already using TickeTrak 9 got a "glimpse into the future" to review what's currently in development.

After a Texas-Style chicken fried steak and gravy lunch, there were of course, MORE PRIZES.




The afternoon ramped back up with customer success stories presented by Mary Mabry (UTA), Kim Roshak (Central Michigan), and Kelly Baranowski (Clarion University). Great information was shared on Cash Drawer Operations, Permit Returns, and Personnel Cross-Training. It's great for everyone to see how TickeTrak is used by our customers in the real world and to gain info on parking related topics! We learn from these things too!



The day continued with more hands-on training. Some customers worked so hard that one laptop just wasn't enough!


The last session of the day showcased a preview of the new Ad-Hoc Report Writer for TickeTrak 9. More advanced than the built in report tools in TickeTrak but much easier than Crystal Reports, the AdHoc report writer empowers customers to build the reports they need in a web-based HTML format and then export to Excel for manipulation, sorting, or adding charts and graphs. Even better news was that the program will be offered at no additional charge (Yes, Cynthia Garcia - that means FREE) to existing customers with license agreements in good standing.

The sessions wrapped with a discussion of the training and upgrade tracks available this summer for upgrading to TickeTrak 9. Cardinal realizes the budget limitations being imposed by the current economic situation and has announced that the training fee for a month-long TickeTrak upgrade track ($2495.00) is being waived for all tracks through the end of the summer. Contact your sales representative for more information on how to sign up. Registrations are limited.

Evening two consisted of entertainment in the hospitality suite and adjoining ballroom. Attendees enjoyed a console gaming extravaganza of Wii Sports, PlayStation3 Buzz Trivia, and Rockband on the XBox 360. Check back tomorrow for photos and details.

TickeTrak Users Conference 2009 Day 1

Sunday, April 26th.

The 17th annual TickeTrak Users' Conference began Sunday evening with a meeting of the Customer Advisory Board (CAB) members. CAB members are the voice of the TickeTrak community. The users conference is an oppportunity to meet face to face and discuss issues and plans for the coming year.

Shortly after the meeting, Cardinal opened registration with a Tex-Mex feast in the hotel hospitality suite. The get-together was a great opportunity to network, meet other attendees, and learn about Texas Hospitality. Folks took advantage of the cool breeze on the patio before the storms set in.





Monday, April 27th

The day got off to an early start with opening welcomes and employee introductions by Cardinal President, Steve Leuschner. Steve concluded by recognizing 10 agencies that have been TickeTrak Customers for twenty years!

University Of Cincinnati
Dover, City of
Furman University
Mankato Parking, Minnesota
Northwestern University
University of South Carolina
University of Texas, Arlington (UTA)
Texas Medical Center
Texas Women's University (TWU)
College of William and Mary

Randy Sellers, Customer Service Manager, introduced the CAB members, and presented the 2008 Customer of the Year award. This Cardinal staff nominated award was presented to Kim Roshack of Central Michigan University. Congrats Kim!


Customers moved into separate "tracks" based on interest. TickeTrak 8 users learned about the benefits of TickeTrak 9 new features and the steps to make the move to the latest flagship product from Kevin Fisher - Sales Manager and Product Manager for TickeTrak. TickeTrak 9 customers received detailed training on maximizing use of the finance and template modules .



Lunch time (what? We have to eat AGAIN?!) featured an Italian buffet and prize drawings. Shirts, bags, mouse pads, HD Video Cameras, and a Printek FieldPro Bluetooth printer (Thanks Dave Cole and Printek!) were up for grabs.




Monday afternoon consisted of Utility and Security training for TickeTrak 8 users and a detailed handheld "bootcamp" for both users and administrators. The evening entertainment looks to be exciting and fun. Check back here tomorrow for more details and pictures.

And, for the last picture...well, you just had to be here.



Visit tomorrow for information on the evening festivities and Day 2 of the conference.