The luxury five-star Celtic Manor resort in Newport, Wales, was a fitting venue for the Optix Software annual conference, which marked its 10th anniversary in 2017.
The event has earned itself a reputation within UK optics for providing a mix of take home content for Optix software users – from practical workshops or inspiration from high profile speakers on the day-to-day running of a practice. In the past, speakers have included Alistair Campbell and William Hague. This year’s lineup included TV physicist Professor Brian Cox, explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, sporting mastermind Sir Clive Woodward and BBC’s business reporter Steph McGovern.
More than 370 delegates descended on the Welsh golf resort for the 2.5-day conference, described as the ‘biggest and best to date’. A mini exhibition in the lobby outside the main conference included the likes of Hoya, Marchon, Birmingham Optical and Rodenstock and provided suppliers with an intimate setting to meet new and existing clients.
Since the first conference at Kilworth House in 2008, the event has changed dramatically, as Optix Software managing director Trevor Rowley said: ‘It started as a small meeting with a group of our users to show them some new features and discuss priorities for future development.
‘As Optix has become a more mature product and our user base grown then you need to do more than just discuss the software. As Optix customers are almost by definition on the entrepreneurial side of the industry, we started to bring in business speakers to supplement the Optix content.
‘The scale of the event along with the support of a large range of industry sponsors has allowed us to bring in some very high profile speakers that are simply not accessible to our customers at any other event. We no longer exhibit at any trade shows and we have no sales staff, so for us the large investment in our annual conference is our way of giving something unique and very special back to our users.’
Many of the original 31 customers who attended the first conference were invited on to the stage during the event to celebrate with Rowley. One of whom was Jeremy Heynes, managing director of Barracloughs the Opticians, which has eight practices throughout East Sussex.
‘Having been with Trevor virtually from the start and attended the very first conference when there were only a few of us, it’s remarkable to see the growth over the last 10 years,’ said Heynes.
‘Optix is no doubt the leading business management software available on the market, and as a long-standing customer I can testify to how excellent the product really is.’
Despite the growth of the company and the success of the event, there is one aspect that Rowley holds dear. He added: ‘What matters most to me, is not how big Optix Software has grown, but that we’ve created a large family of friends who are now our customers. This is very apparent at the usergroup because we have such a great few days and I look forward to welcoming everyone back in 2018 with hopefully some new faces too.’
Software
The Optix business management software has also changed significantly since the inaugural event. ‘When Optix started, we offered the most advanced technology within the sector, but the feature set had some clear gaps,’ says Rowley.
‘As we have developed and become the market leader, we now offer an unrivalled feature set combined with the most secure and advanced technology available.
‘Optix has changed beyond all recognition in the last 10 years, but I am most proud of the fact that our support has remained at gold standard and hasn’t dropped in any way as we grow. It is the quality of our support team that brings us the most recommendations.’
A raft of new additions to the software were unveiled at the event. Most notable was the premiere of the Optix Hub, a far-reaching tool that allows users to search and integrate product catalogues and information from suppliers throughout the industry for stock replenishment through the software.
The product range is broad, covering frames, contact lenses and ophthalmic lenses and allows practices to find new suppliers that they might not normally use. Included with the catalogues is live pricing, where users can see percentage margins, in the admin section of Optix before purchasing. Different permission levels can be specified to prevent unauthorised ordering.
Other highlights from the new version five release include a new family linking feature in the software, along with enhancements to the patient search functionality.
Additions include the ability to email receipts to patients, improved postcode address entry, advanced spell-checking and additional marketing improvements.
Considering factors such as functionality, future-proofing and cost can make selecting a business management software solution a tricky and time consuming exercise. With that in mind, what does Rowley think are the most important aspects to consider?
‘I’d suggest that recommendation from friends and colleagues should be a big factor. Your business will become completely reliant on your chosen PMS provider and so you need to be confident that they will be around to take care of you.
‘The adage that there’s no such thing as a free lunch is very applicable – high quality support is essential and costs money.’
And how can mistakes be avoided? ‘The most common mistake is to start with a very basic (low cost) system and then quickly realise that it is not sufficiently powerful to do what is needed to support your business,’ said Rowley.
‘Often the subsequent upgrade to a more sophisticated solution is much harder and hence more expensive than if you’d had the advantage of running a better solution from the beginning.’
Building business
Tapping into the entrepreneurial spirit of its software users has proved to be a major hit with delegates over the years.
Alongside the workshops were talks on VAT for opticians from accountants Morris & Co, which has a dedicated team of eight staff dealing solely with ophthalmic accounting. Topics included within the keynote ranged from an in-depth look at apportionment and how practices differed their approaches when explaining tax breakdowns to patients if they used separate disclosure.
A new open discussion forum for discussing private versus NHS sight testing proved popular among the delegates, with lead facilitator Rowley expressing his surprise at the numbers.
A show of hands within the room showed a third of the participants were considering going fully private. Reasons stopping them included child testing and, ultimately, taking the leap of faith. Participants such as Tareq Mustafa, OO and owner of Seen Opticians in Manchester, have only ever operated privately. He said that while he was a big believer in the NHS, it had not treated the profession well and news of GOS fee freezes and delays in Capita payments made him glad he was not part of it.
The bill of high profile speakers provided everything from inspiration from strong leadership in the face of adversity to getting a feel for the mood of UK business.
Sir Clive Woodward’s talk (pictured left) on creating a winning mentality among teams was full of usable information for staff. The talk was underpinned by key themes of making sure everyone in your team was a ‘sponge’ and exploiting IT. ‘Whoever wins in IT tends to win,’ said Woodward.
Making sure team members do not turn from sponges into rocks is imperative for success, said Woodward. Absorbing information and ideas is a passionate state, which must be maintained by team leaders.
Woodward highlighted the importance of leveraging IT benefits by explaining how he had used laptops with the England rugby team, encouraging the players to take an interest in performance data that he had implemented. By being ahead of the curve on IT, Woodward said he could analyse the performance of not just his team, but opposition too.
Good causes
During the evening gala dinner, OO and Seeability trustee Gordon Ilett, gave a presentation on the charity’s work with people with sight loss and disabilities. More than £9,000 was raised for Seeability during and after the conference.
The charity uses Optix software donated by the company. ‘Optix has completely transformed how we work,’ says Lisa Donaldson, clinical lead for SeeAbility’s Children in Focus campaign
‘As a team of optometrists, orthoptists and dispensing opticians all working from different school sites – not located near our central office – Optix has provided us with a desperately needed central reference.’