Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Monday, February 24, 2014
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Monday, February 10, 2014
Friday, January 31, 2014
Are You Yammering Yet??
Have you tried out Yammer yet? Once we get a little further down this path to our new technologies, Yammer will become one of our primary ways to communicate with each other. Get a head start and start Yammering now! Watch this 2 minute video for a quick overview. You can also check with the designers -- they're taking Yammer to the max. Way to go, Designers!
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| Yammer 101 |
Work Different!
Work Different! That's a new tagline we're using as we continue our move into new technologies. We're not only exploring new computer systems, we're also looking for new ways to work.
It's an exciting time and we hope you all feel that excitement, too. Change is difficult - even good change - but it's also an opportunity to start fresh, to come up with new ideas, to be entrepreneurial, all kinds of possibilities. Let's open our minds to whatever may come!
Quick update
In CRM, Monique Lowe and Anthony Jenkinson are the leads from the Core Team. They, along with Mavis and Sandy, have been working with our Armanino partners to learn the new system and start talking about ways to make it work best for Pivot. More to come on this, but we're progressing well.
In AX, the Core Team spent several days learning how AX works out of the box, and began some discussion of possible customizations to increase efficiencies for Pivot. Lots more to come on this, too, but it's been a great start!
In February, the design work for our new technologies continues, and we are scheduled to begin putting our own data into AX -- such as customers, vendors, GL accounts, and so on. We will also be working with Herman Miller to figure out our integration with AX and their data -- the upload of products from our Cap specs, purchase order processing, acknowledgments, and invoicing.
That's a quick update. There are many more steps to go, decisions to be made, ideas to explore, and new things to try as we figure out how we at Pivot will Work Different!
Friday, January 24, 2014
Pivot Technology Timeline
Below is a basic timeline for our technology
initiatives. Armanino is the name of the consulting firm we are working with.
The items above the timeline are brief descriptions of the work Armanino will
be doing, and below the line are descriptions of our part. There’s a lot
happening and a lot more to go!
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Have you gotten into Yammer yet?
If not, it’s as easy as
1-2-3:
- 1. Go to www.yammer.com
- 2. Sign in with your @pivotinteriors.com email address
- 3. Use the password you use for Outlook on the web and Lync, usually a word and 4 numbers
NOTE: If your password doesn’t work, use the “Forgot Password” link and instructions to reset it. Be sure to set it to that same password to match all the other systems.
Don’t miss all the information and updates
from your co-workers!!
Getting too many emails already? See instructions for changing your notification settings.
If
you have trouble, send an email to help desk (hdesk@pivotinteriors.com) for some
help.
Change Notification
Settings (the emails from Yammer):
1.
Sign in to Yammer (see
above if you have not yet signed in). In the upper-right corner of the screen,
click the 3 dots and then click Edit Profile.
2.
In the column on the
left side, click Notifications.
3.
In the Send me
a digest of message activity drop-down list, select Never, Daily,
or Weekly. This sets the frequency at which you'll receive a digest
email message that summarizes the recent activity in your network.
4.
Under the Email
me when section header, clear the check box next to each update type
that you don't want to be notified about.
5.
To configure real-time
notification settings, click the Select the Group notifications you
would like to receive by email or text link.
6.
In the Email column,
select the check box next to each item that you want to receive real-time email
updates for. You can clear a selected check box to stop updates for that item.
7.
Click Save at
the bottom to put all the changes that you've made into effect.
Below is a link to some basic getting started instructions and information. Right
now we will let all of you get started as you wish. As time goes on,
when we roll out more services with our new CRM and financial package systems,
including our new home pages in SharePoint, we will provide more training. Don’t
worry if you don’t understand everything about Yammer right now; we’ll get
there!
Friday, January 17, 2014
Microsoft Dynamics @ Pivot - Vision, and What It Means to You!
Create an integrated, simplified, streamlined system for Pivot and an effortless experience for our clients.
Why?
• Our contracts with Salesforce.com and Khameleon are expiring
• The status quo is not OK
• Many frustrations with current process
• Band-aid technologies not integrated
How Will This Impact YOU?
• Process improvement
• Elimination of redundancies
• Develop new skills
• Find information more easily
• Improve communication
Did you miss the CRM training?
If you
missed the training, here is a link to a recording of
the session. It’s about a 2 hour session. Please take the time to go through it
in order to begin using the new system.
Contact Help Desk (hdesk@pivotinteriors.com) if you need
assistance with installing CRM for Outlook.
Another short
basic how-to video provided by Microsoft is:
Thursday, January 16, 2014
CRM, AX, SharePoint - What is all this stuff?
You've probably heard several acronyms and names of our new systems being bandied about. In case they're confusing, here's a simple "conversion chart."
CRM (aka Microsoft Dynamics CRM) is replacing Salesforce.com
AX (aka Microsoft Dynamics AX) is replacing Khameleon, and some or all of Dexter
Yammer is replacing Chatter (social network for business)
SharePoint will be for several functions (some still to be determined):
- Home Pages / Corporate Intranet
- File storage (some or all of our current P drive)
- Workflows (potentially some of our processes currently done within Dexter and Lotus Notes)
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
But I Need to Talk to You!
How will this benefit you? It will mean people who know what we do, why we do it, and how will be determining how the systems work. It won't just be some big software company out there -- it'll be Pivot people--including you and your co-workers.
In the long run, that'll be a great advantage. In the short-term, though, it means some people will be unavailable to you for many hours and even days at a time. The two teams have made some serious time commitments to make this change a good one for all of us. While they are in the training and testing sessions, you won't be able to catch them on the fly the way you might normally. And even if they're in a conference room near you, you won't be able to knock on the door and pull them out. They have to be heads-down, focused and keeping up as everyone progresses, building on each part of the process. They can't miss out!
Below are the two team lists. Please speak to them or your manager about what the coverage plan is for those times when you need an answer or decision from them and they are incommunicado.
Steering Committee
Ken Baugh
Harvey Vander Baan
Kristi Nadeau
Gord Den Ouden
Monique Lowe
Sandra Rudloff
Core Team
Andres Arellano
Anthony Jenkinson
Debbie Paine
Maria Crabtree
Monique Lowe
Sandra Rudloff
Sergio Palomino
Sherri Nuzum
Steering Committee
Ken Baugh
Harvey Vander Baan
Kristi Nadeau
Gord Den Ouden
Monique Lowe
Sandra Rudloff
Core Team
Andres Arellano
Anthony Jenkinson
Debbie Paine
Maria Crabtree
Monique Lowe
Sandra Rudloff
Sergio Palomino
Sherri Nuzum
Why Do We Need New Systems Anyway?
Changing to new computer systems is a big deal. It can mean extra work, making what we do take longer at first, feeling uncomfortable with the new way of doing things, and much more. Why do we do this to ourselves, you ask? Well, here's a "whiteboard" video that talks about the need that drives that change.
Friday, October 4, 2013
Move Your Feet, Lose Your...Well, You'll Need Your Password.
This is a very standard security policy that we probably should have implemented much sooner than now. It may seem like a bit of a bother sometimes, but it really is for your own protection -- so no one else can hop onto your computer and access your data.
We'll remind you of this again, but it's coming soon. Let us know if you have any questions.
Help Desk Hotline!! Operators are standing by!
This number will route you to someone at TNS, our new Help Desk partners. Here's the way it works:
- It will ring at the "red phone" in TNS headquarters.
- If no one answers there:
- It will call each of the 3 TNS team's cell phones (Jerry, Bill, Benson), one at a time.
- Each time the system will tell you it's trying to find someone, and give you a chance to leave a voicemail.
- If it can't find anyone, you'll be asked to leave a voicemail.
- Whenever a voicemail is left, TNS' front desk will relay the voicemail to the TNS reps.
I've tested this several times and have gotten through to someone each time within one to two minutes. Our hope is this will be a great benefit to you - the closest we've ever gotten to an "operators are standing by" scenario!
We've put the Help Desk Hotline number in several places: Outlook, Lync IM, and Lotus Notes.
Outlook Address Book:
Lync IM
Lotus Notes
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