Communication is an Art - work together

One of the most important things I have always strived for is communication - everyone should know what everyone else is doing. This speeds response to customers and empowers everyone in the organization to make decisions.

When I worked at Milliken we underwent a lot of training focusing on Japanese management technics. If everyone had a consistent desk layout, papers organized the same, then you could sit at any desk and work.

This holds true in todays environment. I have pushed for this in our company with our IT strategy. I should be able to sit at any computer and see my same desktop I see anywhere else. My mapped drives, programs, etc. Well, we did it! We created images with all of our software installed and built common user profiles. With our IT company's help they added network roaming to the domain so no matter where I sit down, I see MY COMPUTER desktop.

There will be more to follow on this ....

But, it brings me back to what prompted me to write this. I am amazed at how compartmentalized companies are in how they work. We took multiple phone calls and emails from the same company today reporting a software problem. Each person that encountered it, reported it independently. Each person IGNORED our tech ticket system, except the first person who reported it. And, it was already a resolved, closed issue. Anyone could have logged in and checked the status.

Communication, consistency --- can you work from someone else's desk tomorrow? Do you know what to do if a customer calls them and asks a question? Send them to voice mail or help?

Fuel Automation is the Future

As I work late tonight I am building an interface from Veeder-Roots EMR3 electronic meter registers directly to FBO Manager. We have been doing this type of data transfer for nearly 5 years. The first successful deployment was at Avitat Westchester (HPN) in 2000. We used the Contrec-USA system and then built subsequent hooks for Fuel Master's system.

Once again, we are blindly moving forward to develop an interface. I do not know what motivates us as we operate in an industry that is slow to adopt technology. After 5 years, barely a handful of FBOs in the world automate their fuelings. Instead, reliance on pen and paper prevails!

I am constantly looking for systems automation. When I worked in a chemical plant 15 years ago almost everything was automated. Why - because people make mistakes.

Surfing or Support
Today was a successful day that mixed releases of new versions of our software with personal time. My daughter is at surf camp (yes, 6 year olds learn to surf) and I had a chance to steal away during the middle of the day and attend. Why do I bring this up? Well, it has to do with support, perceptions, and general expectations.

We write software - programs to run businesses. We hope in all cases that FBO Manager is the mainstay of a company and that they must depend on it to operate successfully. A lot of time and effort goes into maintaining, improving, and working on the product. In fact, today we released a brochure showing more new features in our product. But, that is not the point. The point is, we work hard to triage emergency situations from non emergency situations. Each call, email, or tech ticket that comes in is immediately reviewed - and prioritized.

The issue becomes one of perception. I realize to the customer, EVERYTHING is a priority. But, even in their own business, they instantly review, prioritize, and make management decisions. So, as an example, we had simultaneous calls today. Two calls in particular - one by email and one by phone.
1) Emailed to us - 'I just downloaded the update and get an out of stack space error'.
2) Phone - 'We are trying to download the update and do not know what to do'.

From each customer's perspective both issues are critical. Customer 2 may have an IT person being paid by the minute to assist with installing the update. Customer 1 on the other hand is down. Immediately, we have determined that customer 1 is the equivalent of a train wreck and needs full resources. At the same time, other customers may experience this wreck if we do not assess the situation.

Customer 2 has made a choice to not use the available resources he has. At a glance we know:
- procedures for installing updates have not changed in 9 years. Log into the web site, click on updates, download, and run.
- procedures for installing updates are documented in our manuals.
- procedures for installing updates are in the knowledge base on our web site.
- procedures for installing updates are recorded as videos on our web site for review.
- Customer 2 has a capable IT person to assist, but it is the IT person calling. Because he will not RTFM, but wants us to talk him through the process.

Returning to customer 1, meanwhile he is down. Within 5 minutes we exchanged4 emails as source code and a test machine was being opened. First observation, we could not duplicate the problem. This immediately prompts the question, "what don't we know?". What program - touch screen or FBO Manager. OK, have it. Touchscreen, FBO Manager worked. Bam - duplicated the error. Fixed. Compiled. Uploaded. From start to finish - 22 minutes.

Alright, back to surfing. Take time to smell the roses and go surfing. Too many people are uptight over the wrong things. Customer 1 should have been uptight - he was down. Ironically, he alerted us to the issue and was patiently standing by. Customer 2 - multiple calls and getting more irate because his call was not being returned. He actually was not in a crisis and could have run to Starbucks to get coffee.

Before the stress gets to you, decide what is truly important. Watching your children is far more important.

JOHN

I decided it was time to enter the world of blogging. For a while I have wondered, what is a blog, why do it, why not just create HTML. But, I now understand it is a place for me to ramble.

My goal is to share tips and tricks about our software, comment on industry trends, and just have an outlet to explain myself.