Group Efforts 21

Group Efforts
The Diary of a Workgroup Manager

Episode 15 (1995)

B2 Systems pull it off, George is acting strangely and Cathy gets a warning.

Thursday 2nd
Cathy's clearly still upset about the suites business, as much because the girls didn't tell her as by my silence. I explain that I didn't know the girls knew either, and suggest she spends more time in the canteen with them, which she agrees is a good idea. I also suggest she relays any useful gossip back to me, which she isn't so keen on. Later June reveals her source to be Amrat, who in his new role as NetWare hotshot is evangelising a Novell PerfectOffice solution. Further investigations reveal that the supposedly neutral Llewellyn is in fact backing Microsoft Office, while B2 Systems, newly-appointed Notes Resellers, are pitching for Lotus SmartSuite. All three factions are holding lunchtime opinion-forming sessions. I resolve to attend, placing the B2s', located in the snug at Peg's, first on the list.

Wednesday 8th
Andy and I are getting worried about George, who's been giving Andy forced demos of Windows 95 Property Sheets (like my Explorer session), and has allegedly asked I.T. for a modem so that he can log on to Microsoft's bulletin board. At the management meeting George and Llewellyn are virtually holding hands as they announce just one bug report, but, as Llewellyn puts it, 'a fairly significant one which Microsoft are especially glad we found'. At B2's drinks-on-us SmartSuite pitch, George asks questions about long file names and responds to our concern by saying that he's interested and we should be too. I suspect electronic hypnotism via the Windows 95 desktop. Andy's convinced George is under deep cover preparing to strike at Llewellyn's soft underbelly. Shuddering at the thought, I return to the coalface.

Thursday 16th
Amrat announces that he's come to start the new peer-to-peer initiative. I ask him where our new peer-shared printer is, and he replies that there isn't one, and that the initiative consists of active use of Schedule Plus, the group diary that comes bundled with Windows for Workgroups. He then insists on showing everyone how to electronically arrange meetings with each other. Cathy points out that this isn't much use as they sit six feet apart and don't have meetings anyway. Amrat advises her, in a surprisingly sinister tone, against getting a reputation for resistance to peer technology. Danny tries to arrange a meeting with Rose and June for 11.30pm at his place, and they threaten to tell their husbands. Amrat tells me that I'm expected to be the main groupware diary user, and I get a sudden sinking feeling.

Tuesday 21st
Rumour has it that B2 Systems have got the Solvents Stores system working, thus achieving in three months what the in-house team had failed to manage in nearly two years. Rushing over there, I find a crowd of onlookers gazing in awe at the screenfuls of solvent stock data. I ask a proud Bob how on earth he did it, and he says it was nothing that throwing out I.T.'s high-productivity fifth-generation client-server development tools and installing his trusty Watcom C compiler couldn't solve. Filling the shoes of the stricken George, Andy asks Llewellyn pointedly why Bill and Bob couldn't get it working when they were on the staff. Refusing to have the moment spoilt, Llewellyn replies that it's 'a triumph for strategic outsourcing', and heads off for an urgent appointment with Costello.

Friday 24th
Schedule Plus is not going well. Sheila complains that I've gone to two meetings without entering them into my electronic diary, and I'm forced to turn Cathy away when she arrives for the Marlow pre-project session so that she can book herself in across the network. She complains that Phil from Contracts, also at the meeting, doesn't have to book in, and I remind her that Phil isn't on the peer system, so can't. Phil doesn't help by murmuring something about 'bloody good job too' into his notepad. Sheila then interrupts to point out that I haven't booked myself in, and suggest an immediate return to the trusty desk diary. I'm about to agree when George rings up, offering to shown me the Microsoft Network online system. I say I'd love to, but can only make meetings booked via Schedule Plus, and decide to give the peer system another chance.