July 11, 2008
Dear Everyone:
GIL, as you all recall, stands for Global
Information Link, which doesn’t really mean anything, it’s the Company’s
computer network. The
original GIL was about standardizing the computers.
Everyone would have the same desktop or laptop, the same
operating system, the same “GIL Core Bundle”, essentially the
Microsoft
Office Suite. If someone
felt that they needed some specialized software, they could have it,
provided they were willing to pay to have it “integrated” and that it
didn’t “break the GIL Core Bundle.”
Some of the more common software applications were
also offered, at a price.
For instance, if you needed
Microsoft Project, you could go to the “GIL
Options Panel” and download it from there.
And you paid $18 each month for the privilege.
That was the original GIL.
When it came time to replace all those thousands of computers,
etc., we were in the middle of digesting “Another Company”; so GIL 2 was
delayed until 2002. This
time the emphasis was on stabilizing the Company’s network.
Again, everyone got new desktops and laptops and operating system
(Windows NT), and so on. And
life was good.
A couple of years ago, they started working on GIL
3. This time, the idea was
to set up a Software that would “help” everyone manage their information
(i.e., records) better. With
all those computers going on, the “unstructured data” was getting out of
control. “Unstructured data”
means Word documents,
Excel spreadsheets,
PowerPoint presentations,
Visio flowcharts, basically anything that doesn’t fit into a database
like SAP (super accounting software from
So all last year, my team worked on the Enterprise
File Plan (EFP) that everyone would use to manage their documents, etc.
However, near the end of last year the Powers That Be slowly came
to the realization that things weren’t quite working out.
The programmers were busily trying to “customize” the Software to
the point where the company that made the Software wouldn’t recognize
it.
So the Powers That Be called for a “Recycle” to
re-examine the whole project.
People started to ask if the project was going to “decouple”,
meaning separating the
Information Management piece from the new
hardware and operating system.
“No, no!” they said.
“We have no intention of decoupling.”
In the meantime, the EFP was put on a shelf and my
team suddenly found themselves working on “Governance and Compliance”
for the Software which was now going to be “Out Of The Box” (OOTB) only.
And rumors began circulating about when the decouple would take
place.
The Powers That Be continued to assure us that
decoupling would not happen right up until a few weeks ago when The
Decouple was announced. The
project was split into three parts.
Part one, code-named “Project X,” would deal with the physical
replacement of hundreds of thousands of computers with new equipment,
including the Vista Windows operating system and
Microsoft Office 2007.
The second part, code-named “Project Y,” is the
“adoption and governance” of the OOTB Software.
This means that all the Operating Companies and Business Units
can choose to use the Software, but it will not be forced on them.
The third part, “Project Z,” is about Information
Management.
This week we had some very large meetings in which
they explained what would be going on with “Projects X and Y”.
Not a word about “Project Z.”
And the motto has changed.
It used to be “GIL 3 is about Bringing People Together with
Information.” Now it’s
“Delivering Reliable Technology Today.
Building Information Management Capability for Tomorrow.”
How much do you want to bet that “Tomorrow Never
Comes?”
As for why I’m at home, composing this letter on a
Friday? That will be the
subject of next week’s Letter.
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |