I just had the most interesting conversation (on this day, Tuesday, February 12, 2008). A Microsoft HR person (I would guess a gal in her upper twenties) called me to say she had found my resume on Career Builder and would I be interested in joining the Microsoft Consultants team. If so, please submit my resume to the Microsoft page describing the job position and then we would talk. She also sent me email asking and saying the same thing.
So I submitted my resume, as requested (though if she had already seen it and decided to contact me as a result, why would I need to pass it to her again?). Then, while talking on the phone, she proceeded to ask me several questions concerning the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0, my abilities as a developer in C#, and the implementations of 3.5. She also wanted to know when was the last time I had used a white board. Now she admitted to me in the course of this conversation that she was not a technical person nor did she understand much about the technologies. But she proceeded to tell me how I wasn't this or that and would not pass the next rounds of interviews because I had not used a white board, leading a group of developers, recently enough.
To be honest, I was speechless. She would ask the difference between 2.0 and 3.0. I would mention the Enterprise Blocks and she would say, there is more to it than that. So I ask, give me an example of what you are thinking. And she said, well, I don't know the technologies but I know there is a lot more to it than that. And then she ask about Sharepoint Portal and whether I had actually coded it or extended it in any way. Or have I used Biztalk Server. I said, NO, I was not aware that it was incomplete and needed more coding. She was not amuzed.
The point to be made here is, this is a perfect example of how Microsoft produces and operates. And unless you want to deal with this kind of cooperation everytime you have a problem, I suggest you build your own solutions. Then you know where to look and how to fix it when it needs more features or something appears to be broken. And that truly is the magic of the .NET programming languages. Their ability to give you, the developer, the power to create your own workable solution to fit your business. Don't let Microsoft (or anyone else for that matter) tell you anything about your business. They don't know your business, your customers, or your requirements.
Perhaps in other posts I offered, you read about a banking software company that hired Microsoft Consultants to write their first .NET version of their software. Two years later, they are scrapping it, at the insistance of the next group of Microsoft Consultants who reviewed the work and said, START OVER. Amazing. Are they going to refund all that money paid them originally for CRAP work, too? Or how about the architect at a government contracting agency, who invited two Microsoft Consultants to review their architecture. And then spent the next few weeks arguing with them about his configuration. They would say, that is not the Microsoft way; do it this way. And he would argue, I don't want to do it that way. I want to do it this way and this is why. And they would say, that is not a good reason. And he would say, it is my reason, and that should be good enough for you. I personally listened to that one for two weeks until the consultants threw up their hands and finally went away. No one was getting any work done with all that bickering going on constantly.
So I say it one more time. BUILD YOUR OWN SOLUTIONS. Build your own content management servers, transaction servers, and web applications. Layer and classify so it makes sense to your business and mirrors your business processes. Create a software library and build on it; extend it; nurture it. It is truly one of your greatest assets.
As far as I am concerned, personally; I build total working solutions for my clients. Solutions that fit their businesses processes per their own descriptions and requests. And she was right, I am NOT a Microsoft Consultant. I am a Solutions Provider that uses Microsoft Technologies. And there is a huge difference.
My Best Advice to you: Do not chase technologies, seek solutions that support and mirror profitable business processes. Technologies come and go. Business processes may last the lifetime of the business.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Friday, February 1, 2008
The Power of the Virtual Office - Telecommuting
figure 1.0 My Home Office today is more sleek and efficient.
figure 1.1 My Home Office I built to monitor
Sprint Network Engineering, LDD. in 1997.
Sprint Network Engineering, LDD. in 1997.
For many of us, I realize that we need a place to go everyday, called the office. We need that social interaction of our co-workers. We need to live in the small cube area whose layout and design is similar to the parking area for my car in the parking garage. And my manager has a need to be able to reach out and touch me at a moments notice because the client has called him again with more changes to the pages and database. This is the scenario for most contractors (and employees) of most of the IT shops in this city (where I have worked). I also realize that many young men and women (ages: 21 to 44), they may have children at home, lots of pets, or other things that can constantly distract a person from focusing on the current day's work tasks. So they REALLY need to get out of the house and come to work, so they can focus on their job. And they easily accept the social environment (both online and in the cube area) where user profiles dictate what the user may do on their own machine while working in these half walled closets called cubes. Let me give something else to consider.
Imagine for a moment that (as a company), we have only three rooms to our company. One is the data center where our servers live and the other is a conference room with the latest presentation devices, conference phones, webcams, aurial microphones, and whiteboard with attached PC. And this attached PC is also attached to the overhead projector and fully online with the internet. Our server room offers CITRIX or secure VPN connections for our employees. And the last room is our meet and greet room with a receptionist, a great presence of our company, and maybe even designated areas with PC and webcam so a guest can sit in conference with their sales rep and whomever else is required for the interaction (a project manager or LEAD or DBA) to discussion the details of the prospects contract and quotes.
Now for sales reps, this scenario is not uncommon since they typically are on the phone calling someone about business or traveling to meet with someone about business. They are used to working from their home, cars, and motel rooms. For the manager, the rules change a little. Certainly the manager can call a meeting that requires his group to meet in the conference room on a given day and hour if he wishes to reach out and touch his people in his group. But for the most part, he manages the group via online meetings and monitors the work area for completed project phases and monitors the CMS for task reports. In turn, he writes his report of progress as required by his director or CIO and submits it via email or back into the CMS system for his director's review. All employees of the company log into the CMS and in doing so have punched the time clock, if you will. And we know they are available and online because they are logged into the system and available for chat or webcam conference at any time of the work day. In fact, we may have employees whose are hours are best for them at odd hours of the day for us. Still this is not a problem since the CMS is available 24x7, 7 days per week. So they can really work as needed to complete their deadlines and turn their work into the CMS for review.
Now this is a great scenario for the owner of the business. The only overhead he has is the server room, the conference room with electronic devices, and the receptionist area. It never grows or is required to get bigger. As we bring on new employees (project managers, developers, DBAs), they work from their home offices. No space is required in the three room office area. Oh sure, the hardware administrator comes and goes as required, but he does most of his work from his remote office unless he needs to move wires or something that requires physical hands on. And the receptionist is the center of all that goes on. She knows the schedule of everyone as she monitors it from the CMS. For new clients who need to see a presence, the receptionist can meet and greet, put the client in a conference area, and the many faces of those required to meet with that client are instantly available for discussions. NO WHITE ELEPHANTS of specifications. No false requests (well I think he said this and was talking about that). And certainly the opportunity to record all that transpires and put it into the CMS for accountability. And if you find a data server center vendor you like and can trust, you don't even need the server room or hardware personnel. Contract it out yourself. If you need more servers, let them worry about for a service price you can deduct at the end of the year.
And owners and managers, when this idea of a company works for you with bigger profitability; put the extra money in the pockets of those who serve you so you build loyalty in your corporate family. Believe, a happy corporate family is one that grows exponentially and makes all even happier. This is also the ideal setup for the startup that is concerned about initial operational costs of doing business before they have scored any real paying clients.
Imagine for a moment that (as a company), we have only three rooms to our company. One is the data center where our servers live and the other is a conference room with the latest presentation devices, conference phones, webcams, aurial microphones, and whiteboard with attached PC. And this attached PC is also attached to the overhead projector and fully online with the internet. Our server room offers CITRIX or secure VPN connections for our employees. And the last room is our meet and greet room with a receptionist, a great presence of our company, and maybe even designated areas with PC and webcam so a guest can sit in conference with their sales rep and whomever else is required for the interaction (a project manager or LEAD or DBA) to discussion the details of the prospects contract and quotes.
Now for sales reps, this scenario is not uncommon since they typically are on the phone calling someone about business or traveling to meet with someone about business. They are used to working from their home, cars, and motel rooms. For the manager, the rules change a little. Certainly the manager can call a meeting that requires his group to meet in the conference room on a given day and hour if he wishes to reach out and touch his people in his group. But for the most part, he manages the group via online meetings and monitors the work area for completed project phases and monitors the CMS for task reports. In turn, he writes his report of progress as required by his director or CIO and submits it via email or back into the CMS system for his director's review. All employees of the company log into the CMS and in doing so have punched the time clock, if you will. And we know they are available and online because they are logged into the system and available for chat or webcam conference at any time of the work day. In fact, we may have employees whose are hours are best for them at odd hours of the day for us. Still this is not a problem since the CMS is available 24x7, 7 days per week. So they can really work as needed to complete their deadlines and turn their work into the CMS for review.
Now this is a great scenario for the owner of the business. The only overhead he has is the server room, the conference room with electronic devices, and the receptionist area. It never grows or is required to get bigger. As we bring on new employees (project managers, developers, DBAs), they work from their home offices. No space is required in the three room office area. Oh sure, the hardware administrator comes and goes as required, but he does most of his work from his remote office unless he needs to move wires or something that requires physical hands on. And the receptionist is the center of all that goes on. She knows the schedule of everyone as she monitors it from the CMS. For new clients who need to see a presence, the receptionist can meet and greet, put the client in a conference area, and the many faces of those required to meet with that client are instantly available for discussions. NO WHITE ELEPHANTS of specifications. No false requests (well I think he said this and was talking about that). And certainly the opportunity to record all that transpires and put it into the CMS for accountability. And if you find a data server center vendor you like and can trust, you don't even need the server room or hardware personnel. Contract it out yourself. If you need more servers, let them worry about for a service price you can deduct at the end of the year.
And owners and managers, when this idea of a company works for you with bigger profitability; put the extra money in the pockets of those who serve you so you build loyalty in your corporate family. Believe, a happy corporate family is one that grows exponentially and makes all even happier. This is also the ideal setup for the startup that is concerned about initial operational costs of doing business before they have scored any real paying clients.
Proof By Example
I worked for Sprint Network Engineering, LDD as LEAD/Manager Developer from 1997 to 2002. During that period of time I had as many as five working for me and in the final years, they cut us back to three to support 1200 concurrent users of our systems, world-wide. While the two that worked for me went to the Sprint cube city each day, I worked as a telecommuter from my home office (shown above, figure 1.1). From this studio office, I could see a better view of the network, the traffic, the transactions in real time, or monitor any single user or group activity required. I spent most of my time not just writing and enhancing user web applications that were requested, but also building software robots that would monitor servers and application for key factors and flag me if current parameters would fall outside the limits for that particular robot. SO while my staff were in the Sprint city cubes contending with the social environment and trying to keep focused on their work; I kept us out of trouble because I was totally focused on the view of everyone's work, plus my own. And the VP of Engineering realized it too. That is why he left me stay there for five years as the telecommunications managers I reported to changed each and every year.
My home office today, figure 1.0, is more sleek using the multiple screens video adapters. I actually use two computers for most of my daily operations. One dedicated to development and the other dedicated to email clients, message clients, and daily tasks operations monitors. For some reason, I just don't get this kind of office when I do those contracts in the cube. I typically get a 2 gig laptop with 1 gig of memory, 40 gig hard disk, and maybe a fraction of the software utilities to which I am accustomed; not to mention complete internet access. And I have even had several where the user profiles prevented me from administering my own machine. And that is a real problem when you do .NET development. I have never understood why someone would contract me at $55 per hour, ask me to come into the cube area as a MASTER developer, and give me a ballpene hammer to do my work. It takes me 10 times as long to do the work given their restrictions and tools and is wasteful of their money toward project profitability. But then again, it is their money and their management.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
