Cardwell's 2007 User Roundtable

Cardwell’s 2007 Users Roundtable Reveals Big Numbers from Clients

More than 50 attendees experienced in-depth, interactive presentations – one of which came from Arkansas Federal Credit Union, displaying phenomenal growth in the past year using COL.

Cleveland, OHIO — June 27, 2007 — Cardwell (formerly Cardwell Group); a strategy implementation consultancy for and developer of the web-based management automation tool, Connections Online; successfully conducted its 2007 Connections Online Users Roundtable June 19-20, 2007, in Las Vegas, Nev. Hosted at the Monte Carlo resort, more than 50 attendees experienced an interactive and informative conference discussing their usage of Cardwell’s Connections Online performance management tool and a sneak peek at the much-anticipated Connections Online version 4.0 due out late summer 2007. In addition, attendees listened to a half-dozen presentations on such topics as Employee Engagement, Balanced Scorecards, Measuring and Monitoring an Organization’s Culture, credit union case studies, and more.

Arkansas Federal Credit Union’s Vice President of Branch Administration, Jason Thompson, for instance, provided an in-depth look at how Connections Online has benefited his credit union in the last year through organizational alignment, maximized resources, and increased communication – which has led to the credit union’s substantial growth in the past 12 months.

For example, in a year’s time Arkansas FCU experienced:

• 13.9 percent share growth,
• 20.9 percent asset growth,
• 8.51 percent membership growth,
• 14.7 percent increase in gross revenue,
• 14 projects completed on time and under budget – among other numbers.

Thompson added that the amazing thing about his credit union’s growth is that 95 percent of it came from existing members. “Prior to using Connections Online,” he says, “we weren’t good at communication in-house. We were notorious for launching projects at five o’clock on Fridays. Not anymore with Connections Online; everybody knows what’s going on. We’ve learned to prioritize our projects through dialogs – which has taught us what we can and can’t handle.”

Peppered between each presentation were brief Connections Online Q&A sessions, where attendees were able to discuss helpful tips and advice on how they use Connections Online to benefit other attendees. In addition, sneak peeks of Connections Online 4.0 interface were revealed for attendee feedback, allowing for any last minutes changes to the performance management solution prior to its launch in a couple of months.

“This year’s roundtable was especially beneficial because of our wide variety of speakers on hand,” says Jim Cardwell, CEO of Cardwell. “Not only we were enriched with their knowledge and expertise, we were also able to show our clients a nearly completed Connections Online 4.0. With them providing immediate feedback so close to our launch date was perfect, as we can incorporate many of their thoughts into this latest version before it’s released. It was a great show this year and we’re already looking forward to 2008.”

Cardwell’s 2007 Users Roundtable presentations included:

• Connections Online Implementation case study at Arkansas Federal Credit Union presented by Jason Thompson, Vice President of Branch Administration
• Employee Engagement presented by Bruce Fisher, Illinois Institute of Technology’s Director for Center for Research & Service
• The Balanced Scorecard – Driving Strategy Deep into Your Organization presented by Ted Thames of Q10 Resources and LeeAnne Giblin, SVP of Human Resources for Technology Credit Union
• Yes! You Can Measure & Monitor Organizational Culture presented by John Miner of Collaboration Unlimited
• Using Connections Online to Improve Incentive Design presented by Chris Cardwell of Cardwell Consulting
• Connections Online 4.0 presented by Bryan Siders of Sypher Technology and Karla Norwood of Cardwell

About Cardwell and Connections Online

Based in Cleveland, Ohio, Cardwell is a software development and management-consulting firm that helps clients succeed by improving organization-wide alignment and cross-functional collaboration. Jim Cardwell and Karla Norwood, the firm's current CEO and President, founded Cardwell in 1983 as a leadership development and management process consulting firm.

In response to strong client demand, Cardwell set out in the mid 1990s to transfer its extensive knowledge in these fields into a stand-alone software product. In 1998, the company launched Connections Online™, one of the first organization-wide software solutions designed to address executives' challenges to leading companies towards their strategic goals.

Currently installed in more than 80 organizations across various industries, Connections Online consistently improves profitability and leadership effectiveness. Connections Online users report projects being completed 30 percent faster with a 31 percent improvement in the quality of project results, according to a recent Cardwell survey.

For more information about Connections Online, call (800) 395-1410 or visit www.connectionsonline.net.