Shark Tank: Lessons learned

Pilot fish's team rolls out a new system for delivering mainframe reports to sites spread across a large city. The key is a dedicated PC at each site that can be set up to print the reports, save them for browsing or tailor them to each manager's requirements. And it's a big change for the better.
"We even revamped the help desk procedures," fish says. "Every problem was to be classed either as a training issue -- staff not using the system right -- or a technical issue -- software not doing what they wanted.

"We were all feeling pretty proud of ourselves until about four months into the rollout, when some issues arose not dealt with in our classification system.

"One center kept going off-line each evening because the manager was under strict instructions to turn off the lights, and the power outlet for the PC was on the switch circuit. That one was fairly easy to diagnose and fix.

"Lesson learned by the survey crew: No more switched outlets.

"One center went off-line at around 11 a.m. and again at around 2 p.m. None of the diagnostics showed a problem. The on-site staff were a little reticent, so we dispatched an engineer who discovered a coffee maker was sitting next to the PC.

"After a little investigation, he figured out that power outlets were in short supply at that site and they needed to unplug something when they made coffee. Lesson learned: Make sure there are enough sockets plus a couple left over for 'incidentals,' since the staff hide unauthorized appliances when a survey is being done.

"Back at the command center, we saw a print server had gone off-line over the weekend, but we couldn't find the site for two days because no one had bothered to mention that their lease was up and they were moving.

"Lesson learned: Chat with the staff to get a feel for upcoming changes in location, since the upper-echelon meetings weren't getting the job done.

"But the prize had to go to the site we set up with multiple servers that then underwent extensive modification by the landlord, including the abrupt removal of an interior wall through which every network connection ran. When I asked the engineer who visited the site what happened, it took him five minutes to stop laughing.

"The landlord's merry men had used a Sawzall and sledgehammers to make short work of the wall, and there was little left of our on-site network infrastructure.

"Lesson learned: When you've thought of everything that can go wrong, people will invent something new that you cannot plan for."

- April 28, 2005, Computerworld