April 26, 2000
Dear Everyone:
Well, it’s been almost as hard as pulling teeth;
and, at times, almost as painful, to which I can attest, having had one
pulled just a few months ago, but we are now officially out of the old
system and into the new one.
Ironically, one of the factors that helped us make the final move was
our old nemesis, “Hobby”.
“Hobby” has always been the last holdout, hanging grimly onto the Way
We’ve Always Done It, rather than embracing the newer, sometimes easier
to use, technology.
But last week was
Good Friday.
And “Hobby” tends to take Good Friday off.
In fact, the main person at the “Hobby” Records Center started
taking Good Friday off last Wednesday afternoon.
He was out of the office for the rest of the week.
Since his usual replacement wasn’t sure what to do about using
the new system, he did as little as possible.
Consequently, I was able, on Saturday, to finally
get all boxes that were Checked Out in the old system checked out to the
same personnel in the new system.
Ditto with boxes that had been Checked In.
Then, I exercised a
fait accompli
by sending out an announcement to all Users that the old system was
“closed” and the new system was “Open For Business” effective the
following Monday. With his
own customers using the new system, the “Hobby” person had no choice but
to go along with the rest of us.
So, Lessons Learned:
·
If you wait until Everything Is Ready,
you will never convert.
·
No matter how calm and orderly you try to
make the conversion, you will be stampeded by something.
·
Someone will always try to keep using the
old system for as long as possible.
Try to arrange for vacation, holiday or sick time for this
person.
·
At least some of the data will wind up
going somewhere that you hadn’t intended it to.
Remain calm. There’s
usually a way to fix this.
Or a workaround.
·
Never pay full price up front.
Always hold onto a percentage of the total price until you’re
sure you’ve fixed everything that you can.
·
If you shake hands with the vendor at the
end, count your fingers.
There’s still a ton of work to do, of course,
particularly with creating new report formats.
But first, you have to learn how to use the report writer.
Nevertheless, things seem to be going so well that I’ve decided
to reward myself with a Vacation Day this Friday.
This will give me a chance to “decompress”, as “Jeannie” puts it,
before getting “compressed” to go to “Hobby” next week.
I have hopes of doing some work “in the yard”.
I don’t really have a yard, but I have a patio and the shade that
I put up a year and a half ago is starting to become something of an
eyesore. The cloth part of
the “Instant Up” tent is held together with
duct tape and
hope. I have plans to
replace it this weekend, if I can find the right sort of fabric.
There’s a fabric store chain that has been gobbling
up all the other fabric stores in the area (they swallowed New York
Fabrics in one big gulp!).
I’ve checked at a couple of branches and have some half-formed ideas for
how to proceed. This tent is
really just a big square with mitered corners.
I should be able to come up with something.
And, hopefully, “Jeannie” won’t be so busy this
weekend that she can’t afford to go to a movie.
On the other hand, being busy means she’s making money.
That’s always a good thing in my book.
No Letter next week.
I’ll be in “Hobby”, one of America’s larger outdoor saunas,
training still more Users.
Love, as always,
Pete
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