I’ve just got off the phone and that humorous cartoon of a couple of Cro-Magnons sweating and pushing a trolley with square wheels stuck in the ground while saying to another one standing next to them with round wheels in his hand something like “No, thanks! We’re very busy”.
I’m pretty sure you’ve seen it. Multiple times.
I’ll see if I can find it. And if not, I’ll try to draw it for you.
In any case, the funny thing is that they paint men from Cro-Magnon.
As if that doesn’t happen nowadays.
Because that’s the feeling I got after the phone conversation.
Before saying goodbye, we talked about the advances that have been introduced during the pandemic.
Better tools to coordinate remote work.
Applications to monitor what vendors are doing and working on new versions of the software.
They’re delighted with the new tools!
This has allowed them not only to continue to operate in this crisis situation, but also to be more productive at all levels.
However, there are still things to be fixed.
Or, as an optimist would say, opportunities for improvement.
Tools are not fully integrated with each other and, especially, with the tools they used before.
And that means that they have to spend time collecting data from different scattered systems, copying data from one application to another, searching for information in various places.
But the next step is very clear: to finish integrating these applications.
That will free up a lot of time and make them more productive.
And it is clear to them that they will not have the time to do these integrations.
But that’s not a problem. They are thinking of me to do that job.
That’s great!
There’s just one small problem.
Very small problem.
They are so busy that they don’t have time to document and launch the project.
First they have to do the reports for this quarter (compiling data from multiple tools) and update all the sites.
But as soon as they are done with this, they will find time to launch the new project.
Curious!
Let’s see.
The provider, whoever it is, can do that job.
In fact, the logical thing to do would be for the supplier to document and defend the project. Especially if more work can come out of it.
We have a stone age/technology fusion.
Kind of like being halfway between the primates in Africa finding a monolith in “2001, A Space Odyssey” and the spacecraft orbiting the earth.
We are stuck in that frame.
Are you clear about what you need to do, is it already justified, what’s holding you back?
Sometimes a conversation can unlock a lot of issues.
And free up a lot of time.
PS: I found the cartoon!