Days 2 & 3 with Jim

It's been a full on exercise getting the new system going internally. Whilst it hasn't been overly painful as such, it's a big change for everyone so there's a steep learning curve to climb, plus breaking old habits which is always a bit of a chore.

Ian, our implementer from Happen Business, has been very patient with us and been doing a great job. I have never had any misconceptions about my inability to be a trainer, and Ian solidified that further in that his approach is very different to mine. I simply don't have the patience and if someone asks me a question I tend to give them the answer. Ian, on the other hand has a lot more patience (or can fake it better than me!!) and when asked a question he gets us to think about the answer more often than just feeding us the solution (akin to teaching us to fish as opposed to giving us a fish).

We are live with Jim2 with service jobs, quotes, purchase orders and all other essentional functions going through it - and it's only been in since Monday morning! Quite an accomplishment really. If I wasn't experiencing it for myself I guess I would find it hard to believe.

It's really interesting being on the receiving end for a change. I'm used to being involved in major network upgrades for our clients where I can quite confidently walk in, turn the business upside down with a nice, shiney new network (typically SBS - what else!!!) and get them going before moving on to the next one. In this case my business is the one being turned upside down and it's an odd experience, but not one I'm shying away from.

Change is something that people will often try to avoid, mostly because they prefer certainty, even if this means they won't be happy. I'm not afraid of change though however I need to keep in mind that my staff may not attack change the same way I do - which is a good thing when you boil it all down.

Anyway, back to Jim. Performance is no problem - with the database running on a virtual server, and it's great the way things "follow" you around the network such that when I log off a session on my notebook and then hook into the terminal server from home, the same lists, jobs, stock items and reports I had open when in the office are there open & ready at my next session - this is a good time for change to NOT take place

Two more days to go before we're left on our own. There's still a lot to learn and based on what I've heard the first six weeks are the toughest - after that we'll be wondering how we ever got on with out it. I am getting home each night with a cracking headache but I know it will all be worth it.

I'm looking forward to what I'll learn tomorrow!!