January 17, 1990
Dear Everyone:
This is one of those weeks when I hardly even see
the inside of my office. I
was here Monday and I’m here today, well this morning, at least.
The rest of the week I’m out and about:
“Pleasant Hill”, “Pleasanton”, etc.
So this is the only chance I have to write a Letter this week.
I spent Monday morning trying to put together a
cost comparison of two filing equipment systems for a woman in
“Superspend and Squander Manipulation”.
Isn’t that a great title?
Wouldn’t you like to be able to tell people “I’m in Superspend?”
I know I wish I had a
superspend. It would come in
real handy around bill-paying time.
Anyway, this woman had pretty much decided that she
wanted to order Times-2 equipment, based on one quick look in the
brochure and the fact that “Alma” had mentioned it on our initial
meeting. She actually wanted
me to make the recommendation over the phone.
But I don’t think “’A’ said it was OK” is exactly
the way to justify spending thousands of dollars.
Especially if there’s a cheaper and, possibly, better way to go.
So I had to figure out how many filing inches they
were going to need and how much floor space would be available and what
would be the best combination to use and then apply it to both Times-2
and TAB Spacefinder cabinets.
Then, I had to get hold of both vendors to get the latest price
lists in order to do a comparison of filing inches per square foot of
office space and price per filing inch and all that stuff.
On a Monday morning on two cups of tea.
I sincerely hope I didn’t divide the cost of floor space by the
room number or anything like that.
Anyway, the figures make it clear that, in this
case, TAB would be more cost effective than Times-2; but that doesn’t
mean the client won’t go for the Times-2.
It may cost more than TAB, but it’s more fun.
Especially if you’ve never seen one before.
A Times-2 cabinet consists of a metal shell about
so wide and twice as deep as the length of a standard file folder.
Inside the shell are shelves to hold folders.
You can fit two groups of folders, back to back, on each shelf.
When you need to see the folders in the back, the whole inside
section rotates on ball-bearings.
This is particularly effective if you need a double bank of files
and the only place you can put them is up against the wall.
Instead of needing an aisle between the files, the files do the
turning around and you stay where you are.
Turn the files 90 degrees and you have a blank wall
(actually the side of the inside section holding the folders together);
flip the key and everything is locked up at once.
This was really the selling point with “Superspend” because so
much of their work involves attorney-client privilege and they need to
keep the files locked up to preserve their legal status.
OK, what’s “Superspend”?
Large companies like Company are required to maintain a chunk of
money called a “Superspend”.
If the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) orders the company to clean
up a site, the money is there to do it.
“Superspend’s” job is to a) have the money available and b) be
able to prove that the mess isn’t our fault and somebody else should pay
to clean it up. So maybe
it’s not such a great job to have after all.
In other news…
“Jeannie” leaves today for London, etc., which
means that I now have a house guest.
A small, furry house guest.
I went over and collected Monroe, along with her fancy cat food
and litter box and so on and took her back to my place, loudly
criticizing my driving all the way.
As soon as I let her out of her carrier, she made a bee line for
under the bed; but she soon emerged, made sure that there were no other,
larger cats (or any other monsters) around and settled in.
She already has established her favorite sleeping
place: The exact geographic
center of my bed. Not that
I’m complaining; tonight’s forecast is for temperatures to drop to
freezing. This way I can
stay warm and still save money by not running the furnace at night.
Gotta go.
“Kevin” and I are having a meeting tomorrow with ITC “Cognitive
Resources” about their new file structure and we haven’t even discussed
it between ourselves yet.
Love, as always,
Pete
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