Final Day Frenzy

It was crazy as I expected, but I did eventually get out the door. As with all these things it is a rush to get everything done before the end of the day plus there is the extended lunch to say goodbye and wish me well in my new job. Although I was quite disappointed that by a twist of fate there were no members of the development team in (off sick or on holiday). Just the way it goes I suppose.

It was also all rather sudden when you consider I had two weeks off work before my final week and my colleagues were not informed until a few days into my holiday. Thankfully there was only a one month notice period in my contract, I am not sure how I would have filled out three months.

How do I feel after nearly four years service? Happy with the overall experience and how much I learned about a completely unknown industry. Thankful to the role lady luck played in dropping a fantastic manager and colleagues on the helpdesk which became the Dream Team. Not only this but the fact that I made some long term friendships, even with those on the "other side" of the sister company. However, I do feel a sense of emptiness. A sense of what could have been, what could have been achieved. If circumstances had been different, if the ship had sailed a different course. Never mind now, there is no point crying over spilt milk. I must concentrate on the future and my new role, new company, new colleagues and ultimately new lifestyle.

A close friend once remarked to me that the biggest regret of his career was staying in the same job (but more significantly same employer) for too long and the detrimental affect it had on his future aspirations. I did not want to make the same mistake, I had to move on, not just for career development but for my own personal development. It is time for the duckling to leave the nest.

On To The Next Rung

I knew the day would eventually come along; when I would leave my current job but I never thought it would be in such circumstances. I suppose these things never pan out as planned. The official communication was sent out today but things have been moving very fast since the verbal offer was made to me on Tuesday 5th August via the telephone.

At times I have woken up and had to pinch myself, am I really leaving and going to this new company. It will take some time to sink in but with a start date around the corner (8th September) and my new boss already sending me work during my week off to my personal e-mail address, I feel myself hitting the ground running.

How do I feel? Apprehensive but in equal measure very excited, a new challenge, a change of scenery and a fresh routine. But am I ready? No, of course not! What I'm looking forward to most is a clean state. Being able to start "all over" as the Americans would say is such a great feeling or rather release. Although on the other hand having to 'prove' myself once again is going to be interesting to say the least.

It is really difficult to describe but when you wait so long for something to happen and then finally when the wheels are in motion, you feel a little taken back. There are plenty of things I need to get around to sorting out, one of which is the future of this blog. I will no longer be able to write so candidly about life in the workplace as I have before. Perhaps this could become a weblog for up-and-coming analysts. Ultimately I want it to become a useful generic resource, rather than the pointless waffling it has tended to be in the past. Stay tuned.

The Measure Of A Man

What is the true measure of a man? Some say it is the level of shine in his shoes. Others say it is the quality of the suit he wears and I tended to agree until quite recently. Being out and about and meeting various customers and other business people in general I have discovered a new item. The watch.

Sure, it may just be another piece of jewellery with the main role of telling you the time of day but I feel it has ultimately a bigger purpose. It is there to make a statement.

It may be there to scream out, "I'm successful" or "I'm important" or even "I'm an extrovert!". There is a message there but it is not always easy to read. I wonder what my gold, rather simple Sekonda watch says about me? It was a gift from my friend Dave in November 2004. It is all about style rather than making a fashion statement.

The real question is though, which brand should I aspire to own? Omega, Swatch or the classic Rolex?

End Of An Era

The problem with eras drawing to a close is that you never truly appreciation their departure until long after the event. However, when you look at it in the cold light of day, eras are based on people and not on anything else. People come and people go but it is always a shame and surprise to see some people leave. Particularly when you get to the stage when you think you are on the verge of building something good. Or rather building upon on the most successful years for my business unit.

Nothing lasts forever, as difficult it is for me to comprehend and with change comes inevitably new opportunities. Something you would think I would relish? If I had been more involved in the process, perhaps I would be but I feel myself to a certain extent relegated and sidelined.

We have been here before? History does repeat itself! Within two months of joining the help desk, both the 2nd line analyst and my manager had resigned and moved on. The Operations Director had the burden to replace the manager and then build a new team. Not an easy task - particularly when the first preferential candidate turned it down at the eleventh hour after initially accepting. However, in a stroke of genius, the second choice (sloppy seconds?) turned out to be one of the best managers I have ever worked for. Three years later, I find the parallels starling but very different decisions being made for very different reasons.

The opportunity came around for me to say my piece and give my twenty pence worth and I duly obliged however I feel that the majority of what I said fell on deaf ears. To be honest, that does not bother me too much, the main part of the process was for me to vent my spleen and get the 'issues' out the in the open. I have to for once in my life be selfish and consider my own future and not that of my employer.

My Dad once said to me that the CEO of the multinational I worked for lost little sleep over the fact I was working extra hours on his forecourt in leafy Buckinghamshire. He was more concerned with the price of a barrel of oil and dealing with the next shareholders AGM. I was under this foolish notion that the man at the top would from to time to action think about the little people on the shop floor. It was a very interesting life lesson. It was perhaps the moment I started taking less pride in my job and it became just that a job and not a career move. I solemnly pray that in that case it will not be a case of history repeating itself.

Running On Empty

More and more I feel my life (well work which makes up a big chunk) resembles Groundhog Day. It is the constant cycle I find myself in, of getting up and dragging myself out of bed to getting ready, to getting into the office. Days are more similar than indifferent. Of course there is the odd venture out into the real world to see clients, attend courses and conferences but generally I find myself in the same place. Sat on my chair, tapping away on my laptop.

I find the gym a good release at the end of the day but that is only three out of five evenings. Plus there is only so much motivation and self estem the workout can provide. It is difficult to find any true motivation when you are ultimately just clock watching and waiting for 5.15pm to come around. Only to know that tomorrow it is the same cycle all over again.

This blog post is perhaps an early cry for help. I need a new challenge, I need to meet new and exciting people and more than anything else I need new direction and purpose. The main issue that needs to be resolved is will I find it here or elsewhere?

Narrowband

You would expect a worldwide brand such as Hilton to provide broadband internet access in all their room as a bare minimum. You would be wrong to make such an assumption. Even though in their literature it clearly states that you can find a broadband cable in the bedside desk drawer on in the wardrobe. I looked around but even with a cable, I could not see a socket it for it anywhere. My television came with a small remote keyboard but it did not seem to work (even though it had batteries inside). I really needed to check my work e-mail and also have a little web time to give in to my cravings. To begin with I connected up my work N73 and used good old fashioned dial up. I remember the number for our ISP at work and entered it in. It connected! Fantastic! However, it was only at 9.6KBps! Painfully slow and not ideal for web surfing, although I did sign into MSN for a few minutes. VPN connected but I was not able to connect the exchange server. OWA was a little better but it took forever to load up all the images for all the menu buttons. I opted to disconnect. There must be a beter way. There was. I loaded up the Nokia software and clicked on the Connect To The Internet button. A wizard took me through a process of selecting my mobile network. Once I clicked on Connect, I was instantly zapped onto the 3G network and had a transfer rate of 460.8KBps! This was great, I was finally able to check my work e-mail, log into Facebook and give the obligatory status update and also check a few other personal e-mail accounts.

In this modern world we live in, there has grown a certain expectation. When we book into a hotel, we expect certain things. A broadband internet connection (wireless or otherwise) is a neccessity, just like warm running water.

The Bravery Of Idiots Is Bravery None The Less

There was a sense of inevitablity when I was told. Even so, it still came as a bit of a shock. I bet if you had been there with a video camera, you would have picked up the surprised expression across my face. I knew it was serious, the moment I was taken outside for a "word".

Ultimately we all have to have sense of selfworth and act quite selfishly on some occassions and this was one of those moments. Not for me or you, but for the individual concerned. I do not blame them, golden opportunities are rare particularly in this industry. However, I only feel a sense of what could have been. There was so much yet to be achieved, so much to get done.

The saying goes that as one door closes, another opens and if this does hold true here, then I am wondering who will walk in. A friend's comment was this is a great opportunity for you Andrew, to not just consolidate my position but prove my worth (and not for the first time). The circumstances this time around are very different and although my influence may be greater, the holes in my experience are clear for everyone to see.

Only The One Requirement

Professionally I am in a really strange juncture in my career. I have some experience but not near enough to move onto the next opportunity but by the same token I am perhaps too old to be slogging it out on a help desk. It is interesting to see the journey I have already taken in the past few years and staggering to think I am just four years into my career and there are sixty two (perhaps more) to go. [This would normally be the point I would link to my personal blog to cover work experiences prior to November 2004, but that is not entirely necessary!]

Instead I find myself wondering what the future holds. It would be extremely foolish and ungrateful not to appreciate the mountains being moved for my benefit. Maybe that comes across far too selfish, not for my benefit then, for my "personal development". Obviously I am not really in a position to divulge the details but changes are afoot. I would never been receiving this kind of special treatment at another establishment. Proof, that good solid service, loyalty and integrity are hard currency, particularly in smaller firms which tend to always have a large employee turnover (or is that just the perception from the outside). Throughout the past year, there have been moments when I have doubted myself, felt uncomfortable and even way out in the deep end but I have met most (but not all) challenges with a smile and determined outlook.

Having said all of that, I know I could have done better, much better. I have not just let myself down but my colleagues too. Some would say I am being quite harsh, considering the circumstances and the leap from support to the business intelligence arena. There is a saying that in life, there are no second chances. Maybe, just maybe I have got my second bite at the cherry.

What will I do? What will I change and more importantly how will I be judged? These for the time being remain somewhat ambiguous questions. Whose answers will be answered (I hope) over time on this blog. For the time being, I need nothing but willpower. Nothing more left to say but ladies and gentlemen, wish me luck!

Commit or Die Trying

The title for this post sounds like the title of some gangsta rap, hip hop album. It is in fact the observation a member of the developement team made to me today. I was explaining my fear of running DTS (Data Transformation Services) particularly on live servers. (Maybe fear is not the right word, maybe relunctance would be more appropriate) He gave the typical gun ho response. If all else fails, wrap that code in a transact statement and rollback! "Andrew", he started, "you got to commit or die...commit or die trying...". I wanted to laugh but he was dead serious.

In a way I am glad I am quite far removed from the crazy world of development. Over in the commericial arm of the business there are just a few things that matter. Client meetings, chasing po numbers and raising invoices. Oh, we do fit in a little bit of work in between all of that but generally if you can organise the above three or at least two you are on the right track. I am glad I do not have any sales targets but then again I'm not a salesman (or person) so why should I? Does mean I miss out on the sales incentive scheme though!

It always has been a battle between the commericial pressures and the technical reality of what can be delivered. I do not think that is anything new for my workplace, I think it is the same story for organisations big and small across the globe.

The Dream Team: One Night Only

When people leave your work place, you make a half hearted promise to keep in touch, to meet up and go out. It rarely pans out that way. The sudden realisation of going from seeing the person every weekday to merely picking up the odd status update on FaceBook is quite a bittersweet pill to swallow. They leave your local social radar and fall onto the fringes. However, I try and make an effort to keep in touch with some people. Some people you e-mail on and off, for a few months (or up to perhaps a year) after they leave but usually this pitters out as well. It is the rare few you keep in contact with and develop a friendship outside of work (which is usually better for both parties).

You can imagine my surprise this afternoon to get a call from Chris. Not sure why he was calling me (on my work mobile). I was due to see him on Saturday night for his birthday and once again next Wednesday for another colleague's leaving do. It was coming up to 4pm, I was in Newbury at a client site but leaving shortly. Concindently, Peter, my other ex-colleague from the helpdesk days was in Newbury as well. I explained I would give Chris a call back once I was in my car to arrange things. It was not exactly fair to be taking a personal call at a client site in the presence of said client.

While I do not miss the helpdesk, I miss working with these guys. It was a great team, everything just clicked and we worked like a well oiled machine. I might be overplaying it (just slightly) but it was a fun atmosphere. Subway on Fridays and silly games like trying to get as many songs by a particular artist into a support call. Classic moments. Now nothing but mere memories.

When everything is said and done, I look back and feel I am in someway responsible for the team disbanding in February last year. Perhaps I am, but nothing lasts forever, not even the Dream Team!

A Minor Milestone?

Today is my third anniversary. Yes, believe it or not, it has been exactly three years since I started work with my current employer. Three years is a significant milestone, particularly as being so young in my career, this is the longest period of time I have ever worked for the same employer. I better qualify that statement, I did also work for a well known multi-national with a red and yellow symbol (no, not that one.) for two and a half years but part time employment, doesn't count does it?

So much has happened in that time, that this weblog along with my personal blog have only been able to touch the surface on events. Particularly in the last few months when I have just not had the time to dedicate to long rambling entries as I perhaps could in the past. I have always tried to make this log as spontaneous as possible so it grows to become a natural history of my work history rather than a story written with heavy rose tinted spectacles.

I had an objective when I started this blog. It was to cover life at work. Or rather how I fill my time between 8am to 5.15pm most weekdays. With hindsight, I have spent more time discussing the highs and lows of the workplace life rather than the work itself. I suppose I am kidding myself really. I wish I worked at the BBC, so I could write amazing posts about technology, internal developments and life under the umbrella department called, "New Media". The truth is that the only publicity I do really well is my own. :)

Comic Book Heroes

Dilbert plays an important aspect of life at work. My manager would collect the comic on the back of Computing Magazine (and Computer Weekly) and occasionally find strips which related to all members of the one and only dream help desk support team. I need to dig them out and put them online for the world to see!

I was sent an e-mail to describe the 2nd Line Support guy, who left several months ago. He had created a dual monitor setup, thanks to a quad card and reusing an old support desktop machine (purely as a gateway to use remote desktop). We thought the following strip represented him perfectly, so I dropped him an e-mail. Particularly as he had done this all without the prior knowledge of our manager.

In return a few days later, my ex-colleague sent me an e-mail. However, instead of using the Dilbert mail facility, like I did, he sent me an e-mail directly to my work address. You might not know but I hate receiving personal e-mail on my work account. Particularly as I am sitting on MSN and can see any e-mails sent to Hotmail flash up, instantly! But before I head off into a rant, I will save that for a future post.

Yes, I agree that Dilbert describes my relationship with the internet very well. I would not say I am addicted, I just need to be online every single day. There have only been a handful of days this year when I have been unable to go online (when broadband was actually up and running). Twenty one days up to 6th June as I migrated from Orange to Sky (without the use of a MAC code!). I find it hard to recall the last time I went several days continuously without internet access. I struggle to even recall a day when I have not been online on my home computer.

For sentimental reasons, I kept hold of the magazines, now with the dream team, nothing more than a distant memory I thought it the ideal time to bring you all in on the joke. I scanned the strips in and have uploaded them over onto my FlickR account. However, there is a catch. Out of the three strips only two relate to members of the help desk. The wild card, relates to a individual featured in a post on this blog towards the latter half of last year. In fact, each strip itself relates to an entry on this blog. Shall I leave you to guess which each of them describes? In chronological order based on publication date.

Up All Night

It is 02:59am on Friday 12th October. I am still awake, working on a project with a deadline of tomorrow morning (or rather more accurately speaking, this morning). Is it not just wonderful how everything was required yesterday!

Back To The Day Job

I made a somewhat muted return to the helpdesk this morning. With Chris' departure last week, a colleague on holiday and a new system rollout, there was a shortage of numbers, so I offered to help out. It was strange being back on the phones, it was not as busy as I had been used to, plus was safe in the knowledge that an 8am start meant a 4.30pm finish.

My knowledge was limited on the new systems but I was quite happy to action, if not close all six calls I took in the morning. Would I be making a bold statement if I said I enjoyed it? I think because it was a change from my daily routine, I was back in a comfortable sofa chair and happy to do as I was told.

One of the tasks I used to hate, was having to contact all members of a team. Our manager would say, "Please contact everyone from the X team and ask them to do A,B and C!". While there were only about fifteen representatives to contact, it was not the ideal time of day, about 2pm. Most would be on their way home or already heading to the hotel, so my message would be meaningless. I raced through the list and contacted everyone, most I had to leave voicemails for. Those I did get hold of, were more than happy to comply with my request. The rest got back in touch over the course of the afternoon.

So much for a easy ride on my one day back. Apart from the mini crisis, there was not much I could not handle. However, I will be glad to be return to my normal job tomorrow.

End of the Dream Team

What is the difference between good managers and great managers? Great managers, such as Sir Alex and Arséne, build great teams and a host of silverware. They then dismantle and build new ones. Even José Mourinho, doesn't have the luxury of having that achievement on his CV.

As soon as you start working, you realise the importance of team work. I think however (with all things) you need to experience the bad to appreciate the good. The first team I worked in and made a success was at my local petrol station, at the tender age of sixteen. My first job, many weekends spent serving fuel and stacking shelves. Oh the memories of good times, fun and laughter. (I worked with a mixed bag of staff, including a Scotsman with an extremely dry sense of humour!) What made that team? Well there was three of us, Lynsey, Daniel and myself. There was just a balance, everyone knew what was expected and got on with it. There was zero conflict, we pulled for each other. Funny, it would take me five years before I would experience anything similar again.

In February 2005, I became the longest serving member of the helpdesk, my new manager had been there a matter of weeks. He began the rebuilding process, in a similar vain to the knighted Scotsman and studious Frenchmen. But obviously on a much smaller scale. First came the return of a temp. Then came the arrival of the big man.

In a strange twist, I was given the MSN address of the Everton fan by a colleague and began speaking to him on 16th May 2005. (Had to dig out my work backup DVD with all my MSN chat logs). It broke the ice well as he did not start for another 3 weeks exactly, on 6th June. His personal message was "Dion has a full time job!".

The final member of the team arrived just over a month later, in July. To begin with he cycled to the office as he was yet to pass his driving test. I remember going to collect him from reception, he had just cycled in the rain and had disappeared to to the toilet to dry down.

So there we are, the members of the dream team. Our greatest achievement? Taking the call queue from the dizzy heights of 400 plus down to 36 within a year or so. However, it was not just the blitz on calls in the Track-It, it was overall raising the bar of expectation of the helpdesk. We went through several changes, taking over the provision of IT support for our own members of staff. Building the Virtual Server, creating Ghost images of laptops, writing up procedures, getting involved in a rigorous testing process. I could go on, but I will finish here.

Easily the best team I worked with and will even go as far to say, it will be be a scenario never to be repeated again in my working life. We just clicked over the course of the first few weeks. We knew what was expected and we got on with it, even when times were tough, customers were annoyed and we had our adorable manager on our cases. I cannot paint a completely rosy picture, we made mistakes, we did stupid things but they were few and far between. The lasting memory, for me at least will forever be having fun.

I will find myself the last remaining member of above described team, come 9am, Monday 10th September. Chris handed in his notice last week and in doing so, brought an end to an era. I can quite confidently say that the helpdesk will never be the same again. However, Chris also knows that he will never work for an organisation like this ever again.

Hardware

I received my brand spanking new Dell Inspiron 640m laptop this afternoon. I had been waiting a while for the delivery but the actual upgrade itself came as a bit of a surprise. My previous laptop, a Dell Lattitude D610, was more than adequate for my needs but a new member of staff joining the company prompted the exchange. I am not complaining, anything but. I actually built and imaged the new laptop myself, while also getting the D610 ready for my colleague. There are few companies where I would be taking on such a technical task. It should (and in most cases would) have been done by the helpdesk. The most ironic thing was I was imaging the laptop, with an image I created, just over a year ago.

Blogging on this log has become very difficult recently. The reasons are two fold, firstly my job is not ideal blogging material and secondly I just do not have the same time to dedicate to a secondary blog. I am in two minds as to whether to continue or put this blog finally to sleep. Over the past few years, it has been a great place to dump my thoughts on work and chart my progress. However, now my personal blog over at T3G:2 takes up the majority of my time. I am sure there is space for a work log in my online portfolio but I think I need to careful consider it's purpose, the mission statement if you will. For the time being, the blog remains, while I consider the options.

The Perfect Commute

I may be only a few years into my working life, but I already know the importance o the daily commute. Over the space of a few years I went from one extreme to another. Sit back, relax and let me explain. When I was on placement from summer 2002 to the following summer, I clocked up on average 600 miles a week. That is right, nearly fours hours of driving every day. I suppose, as it what was a year, it was acceptable and I had to just grin and bear it. My colleagues would comment that it must be soul destroying. My reply would be that it is in face character building. Then in June 2004, I started my first 'proper' job after University. The commuting time had not changed, just the journey. I now how to catch a bus into the town centre, then walk to the rail way station, catch a train into Marylebone. Then jump on two tube trains to the office. I would leave the house at 6am and return nearly 8pm that evening. Not much of a life, really.

Fast forward to December 2004, when I was only a month into this blog I had the perfect commute. My office is seven miles from my house, down a main dual carriageway and then around a few country roads and I am at work. The journey in ideal circumstances should take ten minutes. In fact, on 25th July 2005, I set a world record of ten minutes exactly. I know what you are thinking, as I live so close to work, I would make the most of it. Get up at 8am, perhaps even 8.15am and leisurely make my way into the office. Nothing could be further from the truth, if I fell into that trap, I would slowly become so complacent that I would get up as late as possible to be in work, just in time. Instead, I opt to get up early and be in the office early.

However the dream of the perfect drive was broken by the powers that be. Mainly the Highways Agency and local district council. Work began on the proposed expansion of the Handycross Roundabout in October 2005 and was due to finish in December 2006. I was not confident that the work would be completed in time and opted to avoid the junction completely as much as was humanly possible. My drive home would take me under the by-pass, over Marlow Bridge and through the village and over the M40. This added on average twenty minutes to my journey time. I longed for the work to be complete so I could return to my preferred route.

As Pav dropped me off home Monday lunchtime, I noticed a new sign on the by-pass regarding the exit for the M40. Could it be open? As we drove the half mile up the road, I could see the new filter lane was open. Fantastic! It was only five months late but I could once again begin using the by-pass for my journey home. It was quite a revelation and I looked forward to care free journeys home. Even though I was in the family 307 and not my beloved A3, I got home with no problems. Perhaps this was not the best day to judge. The evening after a Bank Holiday Weekend, there was absolutely no traffic up to the Handycross Junction, I literally sailed home. Brilliant. Amazing what the difference one filter lane can make. Thankfully it will also stop complete idiots stopping in my lane when they realise they should be out to the right to get onto the M40 northbound.

Business As Usual?

Should I keep this blog running? My role has changed and I very much doubt there will be any more interesting entertaining stories to post. Plus there is also the Google affect. I am sure in the coming few months as I am introduced to my client portfolio, some of them will be brave enough to enter my name into the mother of all search engines, out of sheer curiosity. They may be bombarded with so many results that they close down their web browser in astonishment. Or they some may go the other way and actually bookmark both my websites and regularly check out my antics during those rock and roll weekends. (I can hear the guitar solo intro to Crazy Crazy Nights in the background!)

I think I may keep the blog running but stop posting as regularly as I have in the past. I feel it would be foolish to force myself to blog bi-monthly as I have been doing to date. Things will have to adjust. I would love to hear your thoughts, although I doubt that many people will actually get around to reading this post.

781 Days

I had waited just over two years for this day. Perhaps in reality, considering the bigger picture, I had waited all my life. However, this perhaps is not the moment to reflect on life changing significance of my short career (so far). Instead let me try and explain what has happened. I have moved on and away. Although only a few metres away physically. What am I talking about? Have I taken some drugs? I have been promoted away from the help desk. I no longer am at the beck and call of over one thousand customers dialing a free phone number.

They say a support technician has a shelf life of between eighteen to twenty four months. This was the figure banded around at job interviews I attended in the city, some three years ago. To be honest, the job was coming to the point of making me feel demotivated. Same people, same old issues. No real challenge left. Sure, day to day could be entertaining, but I felt myself on an never ending treadmill. After one project was completed, another would come along and I was making no progress. Life was becoming very monotonous. Then, like a ray of light, an opportunity came to surface. Was I being head hunted? Were my true talents wasted on the help desk? No disrespect to my colleagues (whom I am sure will be one the few people to read this). I needed to a role which gave me change to grow and develop not only as an employee but a person. I will consider the help desk, my probation period.

So when the opportunity was discussed with me, I decided I needed time. I needed time to consider my options, weight up the pros and cons. After careful consideration I took it with open arms but perhaps somewhat closed eyes. Sure it is a leap of faith for both parties, taking me out of my comfort zone. However, ultimately it is a step in the right direction. The beauty for working for a small company soon become apparent. Plus, if I want to get back into something more meaty and technical I am sure I would be catered for.

The best aspect of my move has to be the freedom. This week, around 3.30pm - 4pm, the help desk gets busy and I do not have to worry about picking up the phone. A strange culture shock for me, considering I have a nature which has to be kept busy. I am sure I will get used to it? Oh I suppose you want to know my new top title. Well it came in three (as all good news does). First option was Sales Force Effectiveness Analyst, closely followed by Business Information Analyst (which I personally prefer ed) only for the MD to make a minor adjustment to Business Intelligence Analyst. Who I am to argue with the man who signs all the cheques!

Office Upgrade

Working in IT, but also having computing, gadgets and most geeky things as a hobby means you are bang up to date with all the latest changes in technology and software. If I do not know something, then a friend will know or there is always the power of the web. This afternoon, I had my MD (of all people) showing me the intuitive features of Office 2007, specifically PowerPoint. Unfortunately only my manager has been truly been able to benchmark the productivity suite. I am just far too busy to be undertaking projects of such astronomical significance for the company IT policy. I am much more useful answering the telephone. Anyway, this topic got me thinking about my own personal upgrade policy, in reflection to a small/medium business considering the expense of migrating to the next version of the Microsoft package.

When I first got into computing, now some fifteen years ago, I always wanted the latest software. Even though my 386SX could only handle a certain amount of software available at the time. I would hate to try and explain to the kids of today, the numbers game back then. Hard drives were around 40MB in size, if you were lucky. Memory rarely went over double figures and if it did, anything above and beyond 640kbtyes was considered Extended Memory. Software? Well back in those a mouse was a luxury, not a bog standard requirement and you had to use the text based command line interpreter in the form of MS-DOS. Windows was around but if you saw a screen from Windows 3.0 or even 3.11, you would be shocked. Moving on, let me get to the point. The power of my machine limited my option on most software upgrades but I would try most things anyways and lost count of the number of times I had to format and reinstall Windows 3.x. When my built my second machine I became more realistic. Opting to stick with Windows 3.11 and do a manual upgrade to Windows 95 later. Yet I still would download and install absolute crap of the Internet (dial up at the time, remember those dark days people?). I even recall downloading and applying a X-Files Desktop Theme. Those were the days, even though I was not a big fan of the show and perhaps only watched a handful of episodes and never got around to watching the movie.

In recent years I have calmed down dramatically. I am much more fussy, actually that is the wrong word, much more particular when it comes to software and particularly upgrades. I only upgraded to XP in June 2003, nearly four years since it had be released to a mouthwatering public. I was so happy with Windows 98SE. It was stable, all my software worked, I could do everything I possibly wanted and even though I knew my Mesh was more than capable of running XP, I just did not want the hassle of moving across. I did eventually but it was a planned migration and not a shot in the dark.

The moral of the story is this. There will always be people that must have the latest everything, and that includes software (even more so if it comes from Redmond). I prefer to test out the software on a test machine and discover all the whether the software works for me, what features are useful, which features are down right problematic and how to disable them. The problem with Office 2007 and many other software applications, is that they have very much become the facto standard. Something tells me we will be spending the ten grand on the licensing upgrade. After all, most of our clients and partners will be doing the very soon in the coming months.