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At the company I work at I was tasked with coming up for a way for our field techs to get info via tablets and be able to get schedules and info off a web portal.
So I get cracking,
First I found out that how we did our scheduling was just inefficient. So i converted the excel spreadsheet to a .net / sharepoint interface. The person whose job it was to handle the spreadsheets and create the reports, lets call her Joan. So Joan also did another report that was equally as bad, this was a spreadsheet that was used to estimate future workload and tech availability. She complained the new interface made it to hard to maintain the second report. So I converted that report into sharepoint as well.
The new interface allowed anyone in the company to see what jobs where available, what techs where assigned. How many man hours are available, etc.. Project management got wind of the new interface and wanted to be able to directly input their info in to be more real time instead of filtering it through one person. Easy enough to do.
The person whose job it is to actually deal with the techs, to inform them of the schedule and such did not like not being able to go to Joan and get the info he needed. She basically printed up the schedule and handed it to him and he call the techs. So I made it so he got an email with a published schedule, the tech got his weekly schedule emailed to him. And if there was a last mint change, soon as the update schedule was published in the system. The tech was notified via email and text message.
Finance found the new report awesome but they wanted to be able to do some fiance reports on the fly instead of waiting for Joan to produce them. So I rigged up a couple of crystal reports and they where ecstatic.
So I showed off the new system today ready for beta testing. when I fished my presentation the first thing out of big bosses mouth was, "So what do we need Joan to do then?"
I stood there for 2 minutes with a blank stare, then my response came out like this.
"......... Well..... I guess.... hmmm....... wedontneedheranymore."
Well they are going to make up their mind fairly soon, and I think the decision will be to adopt the new system. Cant help but feel bad I may cost someone their job.
So I get cracking,
First I found out that how we did our scheduling was just inefficient. So i converted the excel spreadsheet to a .net / sharepoint interface. The person whose job it was to handle the spreadsheets and create the reports, lets call her Joan. So Joan also did another report that was equally as bad, this was a spreadsheet that was used to estimate future workload and tech availability. She complained the new interface made it to hard to maintain the second report. So I converted that report into sharepoint as well.
The new interface allowed anyone in the company to see what jobs where available, what techs where assigned. How many man hours are available, etc.. Project management got wind of the new interface and wanted to be able to directly input their info in to be more real time instead of filtering it through one person. Easy enough to do.
The person whose job it is to actually deal with the techs, to inform them of the schedule and such did not like not being able to go to Joan and get the info he needed. She basically printed up the schedule and handed it to him and he call the techs. So I made it so he got an email with a published schedule, the tech got his weekly schedule emailed to him. And if there was a last mint change, soon as the update schedule was published in the system. The tech was notified via email and text message.
Finance found the new report awesome but they wanted to be able to do some fiance reports on the fly instead of waiting for Joan to produce them. So I rigged up a couple of crystal reports and they where ecstatic.
So I showed off the new system today ready for beta testing. when I fished my presentation the first thing out of big bosses mouth was, "So what do we need Joan to do then?"
I stood there for 2 minutes with a blank stare, then my response came out like this.
"......... Well..... I guess.... hmmm....... wedontneedheranymore."
Well they are going to make up their mind fairly soon, and I think the decision will be to adopt the new system. Cant help but feel bad I may cost someone their job.
Hopefully the company finds something else Joan can do (Assuming she did her job well, if she was lazy or in the way, my sympathy wanes.) instead of firing her.
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