Expensify - Expense Reports That Don't Suck

Expensify is our expense report system, as you know by now. Paul, Anne and Ted provided training on Expensify at each location. If you missed the training, Ted is doing one more via Lync (phone & web) on Wednesday, Sept. 4th. Email him if you haven't signed up yet!

Soon we will be automating the input of all the expenses into Khameleon - saving a bunch of time for those who have to enter it all in manually right now. In order to do that, there will be some changes on the process. The main one will be that each expense will need the appropriate department code (such "Corporate IT" or "East Bay Customer Service." Each of you will need to complete a short process to set the default of your own department. Watch for an email with details and instructions soon. That small process by each of you will add up to big efficiencies over all!

For "Getting Started" instructions go to this page, which includes a link to a video. More videos here.

Department File Libraries - DataAll

Department File Libraries - DataAll

We implemented a new structure of folders under P:\PivotData\DataAll. Think of the DataAll folder as a File Library. The idea is to have a central space for reference material from and/or for each department.

We plan to create a new intranet (or home page, or portal) once our new system(s) has been decided on. In the meantime, we found that reference material often had no good home and was hard to find. The DataAll folder now is that home.

Each folder is owned by its respective department. In most cases, the folders and their contents will be read-only except for department managers or designated administrators of the folders.

To prevent disruption, especially since this library will be replaced by our new intranet at some point, some of the folders contain shortcuts to already existing homes/folders of material.

The idea is to provide, as much as possible, one place for employees to go in order to get to needed reference materials. Take a look at the new folders and see what you think. Talk with your manager about items you think should be included in your department’s folder.

IT News - July 2013 - Downtime, P drive issues, Smarboards, Videoconferencing

News and good stuff to know from your IT Department.

Downtime – NOT!

Have you noticed? No recent emails from me that the network and internet will be down! FINALLY our phone quality issues in San Jose have been fixed. THANK YOU all for your patience as we went through the agonizing process of elimination it took to finally find the solution. {For those of you interested in techie details, it had to do with the version of firmware on our switch.)

Can’t get to the P drive? Fix it in 3 easy steps. Read this!

We’ve noticed quite a few tickets with VPN issues where the network drives are not showing up, or show up with only part of the directory structure. Sometimes this even happens without VPN in the office. We’ve discovered that this is caused by using “Offline Files” or “Briefcase”.  Incidentally, this also causes excessive traffic when it tries to replicate with the server, which also slows down your computer.

     If you are in doubt whether you have it on, or if somehow it accidentally turned it on, you can check and disable by following the 3 easy steps below (Details and screenshots at this link: http://www.liberiangeek.net/2012/07/turn-on-off-offline-files-in-windows-7/)

1. Go to Start –> and search for Sync Center and select to open it
2. Next, click Manage offline files
3. Finally, choose to disable it and restart.

Update on SmartBoards, LifeSize videoconferencing, etc.

By the end of August:

ClickShare will be installed at all locations.

What does that mean to you and our customers?

·        You’ll be able to walk into the conference room, plug a ClickShare device into your computer, run a small program, and share your screen! No more figuring out which adapater you need, where that adapter is, what cable to use – just plug and play!

All Smartboard computers will be replaced.

What does that mean to you and our customers?

·        You’ll be able to walk into the conference room and use the SmartBoard pretty much the way you use your own computer.

·        It will be hooked to the network so you can save files to the Scratch drive, or email them if you’d rather, as well as retrieve files from the Scratch drive.

·        Most commonly used programs will be installed on the SmartBoard computers.

By the end of September

LifeSize phone will have the ability to place external calls. 

What does that mean to you and our customers?

·        Only one phone in the room (no need for Polycoms any more)

·        You can include customers, vendors, non-Pivot people in your videoconference calls

Crestron will be complete in San Jose

What does that mean to you and our customers?

·        In San Jose, you’ll be able to control screens, calls, and lighting with click & drag on a small control panel on the table or wall

·        Speakers, microphones and the phones themselves will be in the ceiling. Just talk & they’ll hear you!

As always, let us know if you have questions, suggestions or concerns.

Mavis Moon   Director Information Systems   Pivot Interiors, Inc.
T 408 432 5658   C 408 318 2037   E mmoon@pivotinteriors.com

Ted Lo   IT Manager   Pivot Interiors, Inc.
T 323 801 2002   C 310 876 2880   E tlo@pivotinteriors.com

Anne Pham   Technical Support Administrator   Pivot Interiors, Inc.
T 949 988 5402   C 714 588 8892   E apham@pivotinteriors.com

Look, Ma, No Scrolling! Inbox Control.

Pretty much ever since I started using email, it's been my goal to keep my inbox so short that I can see everything in it without scrolling. I've finally succeeded in doing this -- and maintaining it! -- for a little over 3 months. I decided to share what's worked for me. If you are trying to control your inbox, maybe this will be helpful -- and, please, share what works for you!

Boiling it down, here is my method:

• I have two lists:
• Help Desk tickets - basically a to do list, items that typically take less than a day to complete.
• Projects - for projects that may have several phases or steps, often taking several days, weeks or even months.
• With nearly every email, I decide:
• Is this a help desk (to do list) request? If yes, forward it to the help desk and manage from there.
• Is this a project? If yes, put it in my projects list, prioritize and track from there.
• If it doesn't fit either of these categories:
• Can I delete it? If so, yeah! (I periodically go through and unsubscribe myself from scheduled messages I don't need.)
• Do I need to save the file someone sent, for future reference? If so, save the file under my Documents "library" or the P drive in the appropriate folder.
• Do I need to save the email contents for future reference? If so, save in an appropriate mail folder. 
• I have several "Quick steps" -- see screenshot below -- I set up to put items into my most-used folders with one click. It's safe to put messages into folders while you're waiting for someone else to respond - when they do, it'll come back into your mailbox.
• And I have the folders for my most active, or current, projects up near the top so I can quickly slide emails into those -- see screenshot below. (It's easy to rearrange folders in Outlook, just click and drag.)
• Some things I send to OneNote -- again, see screenshot. OneNote is a cool program that lets you create "notebooks" with pages and sections. In IT, we have a shared notebook for our "cheat sheets" and other documentation such as agreements and contracts. They're categorized into sections, but it's super easy to do a full text search for whatever you need to find. So cool that you can send stuff straight from your Inbox right into OneNote.
• Am I unsure? Not sure if I'll want it later, or maybe just plain reluctant to delete it? If so, put it in the "Miscellaneous" folder.
• Is it something I really, truly plan to complete today? If so, I might leave it in my inbox and take care of it by the end of the day, at which time I can delete or "folderize" it. But if it's still there the next day, I put it in one of the lists.

And that's what has been working for me. To keep my mailbox cleaner and smaller (and therefore quicker performing), I have also set up auto-archiving. If you want more details on how to set that up, or any other ways to use the features of your mailbox, let me know. (I'll add it to one of my lists! ;-))

When you're dealing with the madness of email, what methods work for you???

Criteria for Success

How will we know if we're choosing the right program for our purposes at Pivot?

Good question! We asked for input from many sources and then came up with the following "Top 10 Criteria for Sucess". What do you think??

Top 10 Considerations

1. Increase efficiency 
• Eliminate steps
• Reduce time to complete steps
• Eliminate duplication
• Automate processes such as approvals, communications, moving from one stage to the next
2. Cost of ownership 
• Constantly improving technology
• Potential that users will come in knowing how to use the technology
• Reliability and downtime
3. Cost of acquisition
4. Reduce errors and miscommunication
• One place to track and record critical project milestones
• One place to document all relevant communication 
• Ability to require vital information needed for successful completion
5. Ability to connect with Khameleon & possibly Salesforce.com
6. Cost of development
• Low or no cost to develop for mobile devices
• Ease of finding developers and consultants
• Availability of apps, add-ins
• How soon consultants or programmers are needed for customization work
7. Ease of search and organization
8. Improve our client-facing communications and documents (branding)
9. Ease of training for new and existing employees
10. Ease of customizing to our individual needs

We also listed several other considerations -- honorable mention, if you will.

Other Considerations

• Dashboards and reports – individual and management views 
• Provide one place for salespeople to get an overview of their projects
• Ability to create customer-facing portals
• Ability to get electronic signatures in the field
• Increase ease of doing business with our vendors
• Ability to easily store relevant emails or log notes pertaining to a project
• Enables work to be accomplished on mobile devices
• Allows relevant files to be attached and easily accessible from the projects within the program
• Help users envision the entire business process
• Excellence of customer service/tech support

New, new Dexter Replacement

So, it's been a while since I've written in this blog. I thought it would be a good way to inform everyone of a new initiative in IT.

Most of you know that we've been planning to move out of Lotus Notes, a big part of which is building a replacement for Dexter. Last year, and some months even before that, I was working on building processes within Salesforce.com for this purpose. Some of you attended the preview I gave of that system, and some of you even did some testing -- which I very much appreciated.

However, as much as I love Salesforce.com and admire all its capabilities and potential, it is an expensive option for us. The licensing that would be required for all Pivot employees is a big cost, and we decided to look around for less expensive options.

That's where M-Files comes in!

M-Files is a document management program. It's not the same kind of program as Lotus Notes, or Salesforce.com or Khameleon or other database-type programs, but it is still a database and has similarities. One of the main features of M-Files is its use of metadata. Metadata might be a new word to you, but it's a powerful thing!

So what is metadata? Sometimes people call it "data about data," which is not a great way to define it, but might be helpful. Specifically when we're talking about files that we store, it might be called descriptions or attributes of the files. When you go into Windows Explorer and look at files (see screenshot), you see some metadata about the files - the date they were created, date modified, type of file, size and so on.

With M-Files, we can ADD metadata to the files, and then use that additional metadata to categorize, sort and so on. We won't have to figure out which folder to put things in and how exactly to name things -- instead people will be prompted to fill in fields asking for things such as the account (company) this file is associated with, the particular project, the order, the name of the contact, etc., etc., however we configure it. And then we can all search for, sort by and find things by these various pieces of ... metadata.

If that's still confusing, just be patient. As we roll out the system it'll all make sense.

Beyond the metadata feature, M-Files also has workflows and approvals. So we'll be able to move our paperless files through paperless processes -- send to your manager for approval, send to your support team for work they do, and so on.

This is just a brief overview. We'll keep you in the loop as more develops. Feel free to ask me questions, give suggestions, or voice your concerns. All input and feedback is appreciated.

Pivot Technology Survey - #5 of 6 - IT Department

Sample Comments 

• I really appreciate the streamlined vision of moving everything towards the Salesforce direction...the ability to communicate in one forum with the entire company has been a huge factor in getting to know Pivot and our processes, etc. 
• It's a good team and they are available during office hours and even non-office hours if there's an emergency, which lives up to my expectations. 
• I find that the help I get is to have me go to a website for instructions for something simple that I am requesting and it would be nice if the answer or instructions could be answered as part of the Help desk. A lot of times I don't have time to read that stuff and just want help from my desk to change settings on my computer. For a 1-2 minute solution it is sometimes frustrating to have to do a help desk ticket and then have to wait for that to go through. If it is just for tracking then I understand but sometimes it doesn't feel that way.

IT Action Steps

• Using technology to be present anywhere. 
• Providing the most efficient support. 
• Will create IT strategy that aligns with our business goals. 
• Will provide clear vision and direction (with management buy-in).

Moving to the cloud, including Salesforce.com

For many of you, this move to the cloud that you may be hearing about, and Salesforce.com, are still pretty much an unknown. Everyone in the company is in Salesforce's Chatter so you can receive company news and announcements, and our sales team uses Salesforce.com for forecasting, but man others have never even been in Salesforce.com.

As you probably know, we are working toward replacing Dexter, and most or all of what we do in Lotus Notes, with Salesforce.com. The development process has been taking a long time, but please be patient. We're finally getting close and you'll start hearing more about it, and getting training in it.

What is the cloud and why move to it?

"The cloud" in the technology world means a program that you use by just going to a website and logging in. There's no software to install on your computer, no server in the company's server room that IT needs to maintain. It's all accessed, designed, managed, everything...by going to a web site and logging in.

One big reason we want to move to the cloud is so that we can work from anywhere, on any device. The world is going mobile and we need to, too. Our customers are going mobile as well as us, and we need to make sure we can provide ourselves, our customers and our vendors what they need in order to do business from anywhere on any device -- cell phone, iPad, PC, Mac, netbook, whatever it might be.

IT Availability

We try to make sure that someone from IT is available at all times during office hours. It does not  necessarily mean someone will be sitting at their desk in your office, but available to remote in where needed and able to come physically to the office if needed.

After hours, access and availability is more limited. We are not like some high tech companies that have to be available 24x7. Fortunately for us on the IT team, Pivot enables us to maintain a healthy balance of work and life, as they try to do for all the employees. We understand, though, that there may be some kind of emergency or time crunch that has to be addressed off hours and we do our utmost to accommodate that.

Immediate help or answers

You can see in the final sample comment that people sometimes feel frustrated when they're asked to read instructions and take care of some issues on their own. When a task is something unique that you will never have to do again, we in IT usually do that for you. 

For example, if Java has to be uninstalled and reinstalled so that Khameleon works correctly, we don't send you instructions on how to do that. We remote in or go to your computer and do it for you. But when there are tasks that it is reasonable for you to know how to do without IT assistance, we do ask that you learn how to do that -- and that means taking some time to read instructions. Even if it's a 1 or 2 minute thing, if it's something that will occur over and over not just for you but for others, you can see how that would multiply the time we would have to expend. We try to be reasonable, it's a give & take thing.

IT Vision

We're working on an IT Strategic Plan that lines up with Pivot's corporate goals. We'll be talking more about that as the plan is developed.

Next up: Final installment - Summary