September 17, 1993
Dear Everyone:
Another week, another RMSEPV (pronounced
rim•sep•vee).
It stands for Records Management
Software Evaluation Project, Vendor Demonstrations.
Notice that the root word for
"demonstrations" is "demon".
Every week, sometimes twice a week, sometimes twice a
day, my Team has been watching demonstrations (or "demos") of
possible candidates for a software to replace CRMIS.
These demos have ranged
everywhere from a guy who told us he didn't want to waste his time
showing us his software unless Company was prepared to drop everything
and completely replace its current Records Management Program with one
more in line with his philosophy (and, incidentally, hire him as a
consultant at $600/day); to a couple of guys in southern California who
had convinced themselves that we had already chosen their product and
who wanted to start converting data right then and there.
Over the phone, no less.
Today, we’ll be seeing the last of the bunch.
This one is presented by a man
from Ottawa, Canada, with an unpronounceable name, who seemed willing to
drop whatever he was doing to fly out to San Francisco to
personally introduce us to
his software. Some of them are
really hungry out there in SoftwareLand.
Although all of the products we picked to check out look good on paper,
some of them, on closer examination, turned out to be nothing more than
glorified check-out systems or simple databases that just about anyone
could put together. We have
specific criteria that we're looking for; when you ask "how would your
system do this?" and they answer "there’s a way to do that", it sounds a
death-knell for that software. We
want someone to have already thought out the specialized needs of a
Records Management Program and planned both for the present and the
future. That's what we'll be
paying for.
And, believe it or not, it looks like we found at least two strong
contenders. Or three, if today's
presentation goes well. This guy
from Canada is the first and only one to ask me how we handle our
electronic records.
The answer, of course, is
badly.
In other news…
“Jeannie” has been trying to refinance her townhouse, looking for a
lower interest rate. So far, what
with being self-employed and owing as much as she does, she hasn't had
much luck. On the plus side, she
has been gaining considerable experience in the field of home loans.
So we made a deal:
I made her
Renaissance
costume and she found me a company that would refinance
my place.
Being a 20-year veteran of a
company that's still in business (for
now, buy more gas, people!),
and having lived in my condo for over six years, I seem to have a better
shot.
So I've been digging around for those precious little bits of paper so
near and dear to a loan officer's heart.
The last two pay stubs: no problem, they’re still on the dining
table with the other, unprocessed mail. W-2
Forms from the last two years: Go
to the drawer for that year, pull out the file marked "T" for Tax and
there it is.
Three consecutive bank statements: Not
quite so easy. They are in the
"pre-filing stage"; i.e., all dumped into the front of the file drawer
along with six months’ worth of records which I'll file properly "when I
have more time" (or when hell freezes over, whichever comes first).
Nevertheless, I found all those
pesky documents and, this weekend, my trusty financial advisor
(“Jeannie”) will help me fill out the forms and, with luck, I'll be
saving something in the neighborhood of $100 per month over the next 30
years
Also in the news…
We finally heard from “Hermione”. You
remember “Hermione”, the gal who read “Byron’s” copy of the weekly
Letter all those months after “Byron” had moved, but not bothered to
send me his change of address? Well,
“Hermione” and “Riley” got married last month and yes, indeed, “Byron”
went along on the honeymoon, as did his daughter, “Caroline”.
I'm sure that those of you who
know “Caroline” can imagine what a joy she would be to have along on
your honeymoon. Actually, it was
more of a big family get-together in
Sunriver,
with the honeymoon sort of thrown in at no extra charge.
Sounds like they all had a lot of
fun and isn't that what honeymoons are for?
Love, as always,
Pete
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