Pivot Technology Survey - #2 of 6 - Your Technology Tools

Results
Tool		Excellent	Good	Fair	Poor	Unacceptable
Hardware		25	42	17	7	0
Software		30	51	8	1	0
Network Response Time		27	42	13	2	0
Internet Response Time		22	41	17	6	0

Sample Comments 

"The Lenovo T420 laptop that replaced my old laptop is so much better and responsive and doesn't overheat and freeze so I'm very grateful for that."

"For Designers a good deal of productivity is lost due to what appear to be hardware issues. The specific incidents are addressed but not the root cause of the problems. Given that our clients are expecting quick turnarounds, I feel that we need to make sure that we have the right computers for our Designers to be as productive as possible."

IT Action Steps 

• Moving designers to 64 bit computing now that CAP supports it. 
• Working on increase of internet bandwidth to accommodate usage. 
• Moving towards Cloud Computing to minimize software complications.

Details
So in this second section we asked for your in put on hardware, software, network response time and internet response time. The results are below. The color scheme is:

• Excellent - Orange
• Good - Green
• Fair - Light Blue
• Poor - Gray
• Unacceptable - Red
• N/A - White

The more orange and green, the better; light blue is kinda neutral, and the less gray and red the better - especially red.

You can see in the results that we got a pretty good amount of green and orange here, which is a good thing. I was surprised, though, that we got any "poor" ratings at all in hardware. We just gave pretty much everyone in the company a new computer within the past 1-2 years (if that's not true for you, you should be on the list to get one very soon -- let us know if we've missed you).

Hardware
So why after such a recent hardware refresh are there some poor ratings? The responders didn't write very much in the comments specifically about hardware, but there was some indication of difficulties with computers not being able to handle all the various programs we have to use to do our jobs.

Some designers, specifically, may be struggling with not having enough memory even though they have the newest, highest powered computers of all of us in the company. This, unfortunately, was because Cap was not compatible with 64-bit until recently, so we had to roll out computers capable of 64-bit but only configured for 32-bit. When we started the hardware refresh, 2020 (Cap's creators) weren't even giving an estimate as to when they'd be 64-bit compatible so we had to move forward.

This means we now need to go back and re-do many designers' computers with 64-bit. Now that we've gotten everyone else on new hardware, we'll be doing that. And as we hire new designers we already are giving them 64-bit computers. We will be looking, too, at the feasibility of adding even more memory while we are at it. We'll keep you posted on that.

Bandwidth
In some offices more than others, we are stretching the limits of our bandwidth -- our "pipeline" to the web. This affects performance of nearly all our programs. We are in the process of getting a quote to increase our bandwidth, then we'll be able to determine the cost benefit and make a plan. The process of changing this connection is a big one in more than just expense -- it would require downtime at all offices and might also require some new hardware. We're pursuing this diligently and will keep you posted.

Software / Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is a big part of our future (and already part of our current environment). Working "in the cloud" means there's no software installed, there's no server somewhere in the building -- so no hardware --; all you do is go to a web page and log in.

With no software installed, there are no conflicts caused by the various software programs "bumping heads." With no hardware, IT is no longer maintaining it -- doing upgrades, purchasing newer hardware, and so on. It gives IT the chance to be more involved in designing ways that we can all work smarter. And it also gives all of us the ability to work from any device - iphone, ipad, laptop, android, netbook, whatever.

Next up: Help Desk Experience.

Pivot Technology Survey - #1 of 6 - Intro

As you know, we sent out a Technology Survey recently and asked everyone in the company to give us ratings and feedback on Pivot's technology tools, help desk, training, the department itself and anything else related to IT. I am going to use this blog to publish the results and information and action steps we will be taking in response to your input. I'll do one blog entry per topic. Watch for the updates in Chatter.

First, thank you to the 91 people who responded! That's a great response rate! I've been told that if you receive 1/3 back from a survey you send out, you're doing well. And we got almost 1/2 (we sent out 210). We really appreciate that!

Below are the percentages and counts of responses from each location. Coming next: Technology Tools.

Pivot Office Location
Office		Response Percent	Response Count
San Jose		36.3%	33
Milpitas		7.7%	7
Pleasanton		8.8%	8
San Francisco		12.1%	11
La Mirada		7.7%	7
Irvine		9.9%	9
Los Angeles		14.3%	13
Home Office or other location		3.3%	3
total			91

Expense Reports That Don't Suck!

"We do expense reports that don't suck" is the motto of Expensify, a new electronic (cloud based!) expense report system that Pivot will be using soon. Paul Nadeau has already done the set-up, now he's working on the training and roll-out plan.

Expensify is super cool. Really. It makes doing your expense reports pretty much a point and click process. You log in, connect your credit card and bank account (if applicable), see a list of all the transactions, then put check marks beside the entries that should go into your expense report.

As for receipts (who doesn't hate trying to keep track of those??!), in many cases the transactions contain an electronic receipt with all the necessary information. So in those cases you don't even have to worry about the paper receipt. If you do need to include a paper receipt, you can send it to Expensify in a couple ways - one of which is to just take a picture of it and send it from your phone.

Paul (with the help of Connie Chung) has tied in our GL accounts, and Expensify attempts to categorize your expenses based on what it can tell from the transaction. Which means you're often saved the step of trying to figure out what account to put your transaction under.

And -- not surprisingly -- Expensify is mobile, too. There's an app for every kind of mobile device. And when you use the app, when you take a picture of the receipt, the app will do the work for you.

Watch for more details from Paul. Soon, we'll all be doing expense reports that don't suck!

Too Many Emails!

I hear it quite often: "I get hundreds of emails every day! I can't keep up." Can you relate? Here are some ways to reduce the clutter.

Step 1 - Your Chatter Emails
I've been heartened to see that more and more people are posting things to Chatter rather than sending an email to the Everyone or Sales or Design group. This is one way to lessen emails. Do you get too many emails from Chatter? Here's what to do (below). Set all your Chatter notices in one place - right now - once!

• In Salesforce, click on your name near the top right, then Setup
• Go to My Chatter Settings > Chatter Email Settings

By default you get one daily digest email listing everything related to you in Chatter -- whatever group you're in, whoever you're following, and so on. So theoretically you don't need any more than that one. It has everything. Now, there may be exceptions to that. Maybe, for example, you'd like to get notified immediately if someone posts an update to something important to you. You decide. AND you set the default for all future groups you're in.

• Scroll down to the Groups section.
• In Set default frequency for groups I join: you can set the frequency of emails for any future groups you're added to. Remember: You'll get one a day that includes all Chatter related to you, so you would be safe to set this default to "Never."
• In the table below, indicate the frequency by group. Again, you could theoretically set them all to "Never" because you'll get everything in the personal daily digest.
• Save!

And there you go! One fell swoop and you've reduced your emails significantly. Now the only other thing is to be sure to post things in Chatter groups rather than send group emails!

Step 2 - Stop & Ask Yourself: Who Needs to Read This Right Now?

Often, the majority of our emails are messages we're being included on, as an fyi. Do your co-workers a favor, and hopefully they'll do the same: Really think before you include names on the cc or bcc line, even the to line. Who needs to see this message right away? Could you make one fyi message that reports a bunch of things to your manager or team member at the end of the day instead of copying them multiple times throughout the day? Or start a list to cover with them at your next meeting?

Step 3 - Rules

You can create mail rules to move messages directly to folders, or even delete immediately. Right click on a message you'd like to make a rule for and scroll down to "Rules." If you need detailed instructions, do a search for "mail rules" in Outlook help (click on the little blue question mark in the top right to get to Help). If you receive newsletters or regular, repeated emails that you'd just as soon have in a folder you check periodically, mail rules can be a great way to reduce what hits your Inbox.

Step 4 - The Future - Project Cloud

There will be new ways to work when we start using Project Cloud ("Dexter in the Cloud" -- Salesforce). We'll have lists of things that are pending -- such as "my pending requests for Khameleon Quotes" or "my pending requests for labor quotes" or "my forms waiting for approval" and so on. I think we'll find we don't need the email requests every time -- we'll just get in the habit of living in those lists.

We may also use Chatter in a new way in Project Cloud. You know in ServiceNet how you have a tab for discussions? Well, in Salesforce you can use Chatter on any object and have "discussions" there.

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Hope these ideas make sense and help. What about your ideas? How do you handle the email blizzard??

Proof That Murphy's Law is Just Plain Evil

1. Weeks ago I turned off the automatic agent to send out birthday notices because we had a new shared company calendar in Outlook.
2. Therefore I took out the task in my termination checklist to un-check "send birthday notice" on employees' Lotus Notes person documents. (We have to keep them in the system to make sure we don't miss any mail, but by un-checking this field, the agent would skip them.) No need - right? - since I had turned off the agent anyway.
3. This morning the birthday notice went out. (Why?? The agent was turned off! Maybe something changed when our server died this weekend??)
4. And - here's the part that's just plain evil - the one notice that mistakenly was sent was for an employee who's no longer working here. (What's up with that? If it had to mistakenly fire, why not send one for an employee who's still employed?) Really?!

Look, it's MacGyver! No, wait, it's Paul!

"Braver Than Most...Smarter Than the Rest"  

If you are of a certain age, you've heard of the t.v. show MacGyver, and perhaps even used the term "MacGyvered." I thought of that show yesterday when Paul told me how he'd made a literal band-aid repair to a laptop.

Wikipedia describes MacGyver as "a resourceful agent...able to solve complex problems with everyday materials he finds at hand, along with his ever-present duct tape and Swiss Army knife." Paul's been known to use duct tape as well, but in this particular case he used a band-aid. We sometimes talk of fixes being "just a band aid," but in this case, that was a good thing!

Monique's laptop keyboard, and also Jesse's, were acting very strangely. Here's Jesse's description: "About 50% of the time I press "e" on the keyboard I get "poiurewq". I also get "\;lkjfdsa" when I press on other letters I get "\; lkjfdsa". When I press "c" it activates the microphone and takes me to the previous browser page." How weird is that? Jesse, displaying some detective finesse of his own, sent us a link to a tech forum where others wrote about a "tape kit" you could order from Lenovo (the maker of our laptops).

The issue was this: The ribbon connecting the laptop keyboard to the laptop itself had a hole worn into it from rubbing against a sharp piece of metal protruding from the laptop frame, causing the keys to short out. The "tape kit" fix was a piece of adhesive material with some padding which you place over the sharp metal, preventing it from creating the hole.

Paul ordered the tape kit, but that would take 2-3 days to get here, so on Friday he went up to San Francisco, opened up Monique's laptop, and put a band-aid over the sharp metal. Who needs an official tape kit when you're MacGyver? Paul just snipped a band aid to size and -- voila! -- problem solved. He "MacGyvered" that thing!

There you go, "smarter than the rest," indeed

What's Going on With "Dexter in the Cloud"?

First, I need a better name. It's not going to be called "Dexter in the cloud." But for now that name makes the idea fairly easy to understand.

There may be a few of you who don't know about Dexter in the cloud so I'll quickly explain. Basically, I'll be moving the functionality of Dexter -- the processes we perform there -- out of Lotus Notes into the "cloud" -- the internet, specifically into Salesforce.com.

Most of you know that my effort in this direction has been going on a long time. If you look back in this blog you'll see where I wrote about working with ServiceMax, an app inside of Salesforce.com, to bring Dexter to the cloud. Well, after getting us to the point where we were pretty much ready to start beta testing, I took a step back and decided that using ServiceMax was not the right way to go. I had thought that it was about 80% of what we needed out of the box, but it actually turned out to be more like maybe 20%. Just not a good fit, nor a good way for us to spend our resources.

So, it was back to the drawing board. I didn't lose all the work I'd done last year, but a significant amount for sure. I hate that it's caused this long delay but I really feel like this was the right decision. Better to get it right at the beginning.

I've been working with a consultant to recreate Dexter in the cloud. By the end of next week I believe I'll be ready to show some key users a demo of Phase 1 -- creating a project through to requesting work from a sub-contractor labor company. Phase 1 will not include scheduling and dispatch from Tech Services. While I'm working on designing that Tech Services piece, we can test the initial processes.

Watch for more details as time goes on. This is a huge project and a big change for us, but it brings with it all kinds of potential.