Outstanding in Winnipeg

I understand that PR people have to write something in press releases, but this one today really made me laugh: ebizQ reports that HandySoft just installed their BizFlow BPM software at Cambrian Credit Union, “the largest credit union in Winnipeg”. You probably have to be Canadian for this to elicit spontaneous laughter; the rest of you can take note that Winnipeg is a city in the Canadian prairies with a population of about 650,000, known more for rail transportation and wheat than finance, and currently enjoying -10C and a fresh 30cm of snow that’s disrupting air travel. In fact, I spoke with someone in Winnipeg just this afternoon and he laughed at my previous post about my -20C boots, which he judged as woefully inadequate for any real walking about in The ‘Peg. Every one of my business-related trips to Winnipeg have been in the winter, where -50C is not unheard of, and although most of my clients there have been financial or insurance companies — and large ones — it’s not the first place that I think of when I think of financial centres where I would brag about installing the largest of anything.

Now this whole scenario isn’t as rip-roaringly funny as, for example, installing a system at the largest credit union in Saskatoon, but I have to admit that the hyperbole used in the press release completely distracted me from the point at hand, and has probably done a disservice to HandySoft. HandySoft may have done a fine job at Cambrian. They may have even written a great press release. But I didn’t get past the first paragraph where the big selling point was that the customer is the largest credit union in Winnipeg.

I sure hope that they’re not expecting any prospective customers to go on site visits there this time of year.

Update: an ebizQ editor emailed me within hours to say that they removed the superlative from the press release on their site. You can still find the original on HandySoft’s site here.