Why My Hair Is Getting White

Yesterday (Friday) a client finally got back to me with a decision I have been trying to get them to finalize for at least two months.  This app was defined as a daily management report but their needs have evolved as we’ve gone along and we have fine-tuned their needs over and over again.  That is a great process if you want what you need rather than what you asked for.

I am not sure if this is the correct or final decision, but it is the core critical piece that will hopefully allow me to finally build the application.

But the CFO who sent me the decision and the answers ina file says they want the application done BY MONDAY !!  I’m serious.  He has been told that by higher-ups who have no idea what’s involved and are upset with the delays – that are totally process and technology at their end.

This has happened too many times to count and when you’re dealing with that level of manager they don’t like “push-back”… 

The alternative of a formal, detailed spec with constant on-going change notices is probably the only way to counter this but doesn’t strike me as in their interests – especially when they don’t really know what they want when they start.

It’s soooooo frustrating when all you want t do is help people.

Dick

Hurry Up And Wait

A day doesn’t go by but that I don’t find another example of while the technology has sped things up so much (both in performance and capability and my understanding of its capabilities) this is being completely offset (and moreso) by the ridiculous, mostly unnecessary and definitely counter-productive business and IT processes, approvals and procedures required just to get the access you need to actually help the companies get things done? 

There’s always been some of that in every organization over a certain size, but I am afraid it has become the rule rather than the exception .. to the point where almost nothing is possible anymore.

Dick

Access 2010 Calculated Fields – About Time

One of the new features of Access 2010, (and one that will probably get the least ink because it is so simple), is the ability to add Calculated Fields in both Access and Access Services databases.

A Calculated Field is simply a Data Type you can select from the list of Field-types. 

The obvious uses of this feature would be an extended total based on a quantity times a price.  This would make reporting a lot easier for users without Access or SQL skills and removes the necessity for using a BeforeUpdate macro or VBA event  fill the calculated field.  Of course you could do this with a Data Macro in Access 2010 (which would allow you to produce the same result with tables linked from SQL Server or other data sources) but this is an easy and simple solution for native Access tables.  Of course Calculated Fields are not scaleable – but bite me .

One use I will take advantage of will be the concatenation of First and Last Name in Full Name format  or First Name/[Space]/Lastname or Lastname/,[Space]/Firstname depending on the requirement.

The result is like this:

In this example LastName = [LastName]&”, “&[Firstname] and Fullname =[FirstName]&” “&Lastname]. 

This is a very simple example, but if you control input by insisting on First and Last Names then this will work reliably and helpfully without ever having to think about it again.  I like that kinda solution

Dick

Scott Adams Has Been My Hero For A Long Time

Today’s Dilbert cartoon is awesome … enjoy

http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2010-01-18/

Dick

A Long Thread

This may or may not be very interesting to anyone – but it’s my blog and I guess I can say what I want .

But then again maybe these thoughts will get you all thinking about the potential impact of everything we do and especially of the amazing moments, opportunities and decisions in our lives that lead us along the paths we end up on.  Of course nearly every day something or someone comes along that changes the future events of our lives (especially true of the meeting of our mates and the events that lead to the birth of each of our children (if you catch my drift))…

But business also sometimes produces fascinating sequences of events and opportunities that just happen without any specific effort on our parts.

I was on an airplane last evening out over Lake Michigan on my way home from a consulting gig for a coal company in West Virginia, sitting next to a Pilot for the airline who was dead-heading home to my town after 4 days of flying out of Denver.  In the course of the conversation he asked me “How’d a guy from London Ontario get a gig for a Coal company in West Virginia?”  I was taken aback by the question because as I thought about the answer it became apparent to me that it is a loooong thread that went back more than 25 years that got me the gig in West Virginia.  I told hm it was very complicated,  and then I sat back and walked in my head through the trail that led me to the coal mines of West Virginia.

In 1984 a Computerland store opened in London.  I had begun to take an interest in computers and specifically spreadsheets through my job as a commodity trader.  I met a guy there one day named Wayne who was a freelance computer consultant who basically was an independent broker of early PC technology.  We kept running into each other there and he was the guy who first told me to look at Lotus 1-2-3 version 1A.

It became apparent very early that I had a knack for spreadsheets and after several months of knowing Wayne I got a call from him that he was teaching at a client and they were already over his head in their knowledge of 1-2-3.  Could I take an afternoon and come in and teach this class for him?

I took an afternoon off and went to Labatt’s Breweries and taught a class in 1-2-3 to the corporate purchasing department of Labatt’s.  After the class I was approached by the Director to come in and see him about some stuff they wanted done…. and a twenty year consulting and training relationship began between Labatt Breweries and me.  This started with 1-2-3, then evolved to Excel and Access and SQL Server.  Like all relationships, this one ebbed and flowed, but eventually I ended up meeting a young girl in their Toronto office (don’t get any ideas now) who was on a contract for them during her University education.  Shortly thereafter this girl ended up doing a term at International Nickel (INCO) a Nickel mining company in Toronto. 

In a discussion about training at INCO, Kerry (this girl) mentioned that she knew someone who was an expert on spreadsheets and a good trainer (me) and so I got a call from Adrienne at INCO and thus began a consulting relationship with INCO that lasts until this day doing Excel, Access and SQL Server projects.

After 15 years of work for INCO they sent me out to Newfoundland to help with their reporting needs both at the mine up in Northern Labrador and at head office in St. John’s.  It was there that I ended up working for Steve who was the Director of Finance for the division.

After three years helping them, a change of ownership led to Steve leaving the company and returning to Texas (where he actually lived).  But after three months I get a call from West Virginia, from Steve, that he needed my skills at his new gig working for  a coal company in West Virginia – and away I went.

So 26 years after walking in to Computerland in London Ontario here I was in a jet at 35000 feet over Lake Michigan talking to a guy who wondered how I got there….

Tragically Wayne died by his own hand more than twenty years ago after an unfortunate business deal left him with a huge loss.  I can’t help but think that he would be amused and pleased to know that the path he largely started me on is still going.

Of course every day in our lives these threads get expanded or cut short by circumstance, and until our last breath this will keep going on.  But this one strikes me as noteworthy because not a single part of this thread of opportunity was initiated directly by me!  Not a single cold call, not a single followup to an ad or an Internet posting  …. just simple karma and happen-chance. 

Sure I did a lot of good (and some bad) work in between and worked hard and long, but lots of things we do just don’t lead anywhere but dead-ends.  Then again I guess you never do know where things will lead, do you?

Dick

p.s. Please forgive any personal conversations that arise from this thread – a small peak into my REAL life

A Productive Week

This week I feel more productive than I have in a long while.  Why is that?  It’s because I am at a client who has given me all the help I need to get the job done rather than throwing cliffs and walls and boobytraps every time I turn around in my efforts to help them.

I arrived Monday, immediately had wireless connectivity and a login account, already had admin rights on the SQL Server database I would be using and had all the connectivity necessary and tools on their Terminal Server to reach out to SQL servers distributed throughout the State that I needed to DO MY JOB !!  I am using Access 2003 and Excel 2003 with SQL data the way we are supposed to be able to.

I had forgotten how it used to feel to be productive …

Dick

Why Excel Is Like My Strat

Some time after typing my comments about Vegemite and Heinz Beans in my last thread I went into my office and saw the ultimate example of what I’m talking about with Excel’s problems in the world – my Fender Stratocaster (the Stevie Ray model of course with the Humbucking pickups) is  sitting in  its stand next to my desk.

This is a 50 year old design that is still the most popular electric guitar on the market.  I saw one of my heroes, Jeff Beck, playing one on TV last night and then saw “The Boss” playing a Fender Stratocaster and being really cool and sounding real good.  Same thing with the young musicians playing last night on all the New Years shows (Strats, Fender Basses, Telecasters and Les Pauls).  Just because these are old technologies doesn’t mean they’re not valuable anymore to musicians everywhere.

In fact you can push this analogy down even further to say that if all the orchestras in the world had violins, which they do, should they stop using them with skill and flair just because the violin makers aren’t making so many anymore?  It’s ridiculous.

Let’s go even further and substitute the word “violin” for the word “Excel”in the following sentence  (or you could even substitute the word “guitar” too for that matter) ….

 ”Why don’t we develop a strong “violin” after-market?  That’s because there are forces working against such a development.  Unfortunately someone has decided that because “violins” are played by individuals and because they can sound really bad when played badly, (as we all know), they should all be replaced by prerecorded synthesized tracks.”  

How’s that gonna work for you?  Is this really the right way to go?

So even putting aside the loss that Microsoft would incur if they continue to let Excel and Access die away, if  they hope to continue owning the desktop and selling Windows, spreadsheets and small databases have got to continue on and they have to be allowed to flourish in the interests of everybody, despite the inconvenience it may be to IT managers.

Dick

Excel is NOT Forever

Here are MY New Year’s thoughts:

I used to just assume that spreadsheets were forever – I don’t think that way anymore.

I have made the point in many speeches around the world that Scrooge and Cratchit were doing “spreadsheets” that famous, fictional, Christmas eve.  I believed that once people started using ledgers to track money (as opposed to abacuses (abaci?)) the electronic spreadsheet was just a natural step and would now just get better and better and more powerful as it is used by smarter and smarter and better experienced users. This  would lead to a plethora of professionally designed “spreadsheet applications” that providedintegrated and integral functionality for businesses all over the world – forever.

The spreadsheet was the “killer app” of the PC (Personal Computer) when the Apple IIe and the IBM PC came out and it remained so for a long time.  In the old days my spreadsheets (and Access apps) were able to get in, get done and get paid before IT even knew they existed.  Then most of them were left alone because they got the job done and didn’t  need any IT resources to maintain.  Only when the apps were TOO good did they become an embarassment for IT and get shut down – but I was already paid so I didn’t really give a shit.

Then the Internet came along, and along with the Internet came better and better connectivity and the PC was basically co-opted into the corporate interior and fell under the management of IT.  With security worries, SOX, off-shoring. large consulting firms and now the economic meltdown, (that is not over by the way), things have changed.

Remember the phrase “under the radar”?  Well the radar has been moved down to ground level and now the old model doesn’t work.  Potential clients don’t have the power or budget to spend money on these projects and getting rights to the data or the network resources  has become so difficult or impossible to prevent many projects before they even get off the ground – and that is just not good business for people like me either.

So without the ability to connect to the data required, use internal network capabilities as necessary or the rights to use outside resources, Excel is now playing the role of the only tool that users have the rights to use BY themselves (so far) in “personal” ways or to email around inefficiently and insecurely.  So many, many  business processes are currently being run on bad user-maintained spreadsheets.  In short order IT will begin shutting spreadsheets down – to protect the businesses.  Under these circumstances that will probably be a good idea.

Such spreadsheets could not be relied on as sources of anything in the SharePoint environment that is being bet on anyway.  So where is all that SharePoint ”content” going to come from?

Rather than becoming a major tool in the suite of tools available for business analysis and process, Excel is becoming a rogue time-bomb just waiting for the powers-that-be to realize it has to be shut down.  This is a dirty, rotten shame IMHO.  This was and is totally unnecessary but it has been allowed to happen and it is what it is. 

Can anyone do anything about it?  I know one organization that can, but I doubt they will.

So we all have to plan our futures accordingly.

Happy New Year everyone.

Can’t help myself – Totally OT

I just gotta tell this story to someone …..  at lunch yesterday with a buddy he talked up the cute waitress quite professionally and in the end she agreed to lunch with him. So I sat there and enjoyed watching as he gave her a phone number for her to call and arrange a lunch….

So she called last night – TO HIS OLD (and sometimes current) GIRLFRIEND”S cell phone number ….   Oops. And this guy’s REALLY smart too…. and in IT I’m afraid.

I gotta love being married for 25 years…… think I’ll stay that way.

Dick

PowerPivotPro

I had a great day yesterday …..  I drove for three hours (using my new Garmin to get me where I needed) for a lunch at Tony Packo’s original restaurant in Toledo, Ohio.  What a great place for Hot Dogs and Chili !!  A Man’s restaurant with ”REAL Man’s Food”  IMHO (glad Wendy doesn’t read this – yet). Then I drove back for three hours.

But it wasn’t just the food that made the trip worth it, it was actually a meeting to chat about PowerPivot with Bill Jelen (Mr. Excel) and Rob Collie (Mr. PowerPivotPro) who ran over from the Cleveland area, for two hours face to face rather than on-line.  In addition to realizing Rob and I HAD in fact met in Redmond it was nice to finally meet Bill. 

It was also extremely valuable for me to get the perspective of different people with a professional commitment to Excel and to see how others are thinking about how PowerPivot can not only be a winner for users in its own right, but also how it could end up being a driver for innovation and growth of Excel in general once again elevating Excel as a “legitimate” tool for business reporting.  We talked, among other things, about simply how cool and capable Excel really is and how much it (and those who take the time to REALLY learn it) can accomplish.

Ironically I have been working all day today on a “little” Excel application and am once again surprising myself at how cool the stuff I’m doing with Excel really is….  how it pays to stand back and appreciate what this technology can REALLY do !!

I suggest that anyone who comes here should add www.powerpivotpro.com to their regular visitations (or RSS Feeds) (and http://www.mrexcel.com/ too of course) and that we should all get a download of not only the Office 2010 beta but also the PowerPivot bits too…

More to come when time allows.

Dick