JOBS: #11: SEI

I gave a speech about how we combined Unix distributed computers to lighten the load on the mainframe…McDonald’s CIO was in the audience as they were deploying unix based InStoreProcessors. He approached the business that was handling support of these systems…I joined as the Business Manager … sort of a coo.

we had two objectives: first, sell the isp to franchisees; second, sell/support a Pick system based accounting package that franchisees could use.

it was a smart group… but after coming from a couple of larger firms, I was a bit uncomfortable.

I was involved eith

• The isp that corporate used was all AT&Tand it was expensive so I was searching for less costly options. We found cpu chassis, boards, cables that were lower cost but reliability was lower, you had to test each component, and parts changed. This made support harder as you had to identify what the end user had… nothing fir granted. Take away: it might be cheaper upfront but lots of backend costs—- quality is worth the cost.
• we were asked to build a network and data retrieval program to collect data from in store pos systems—- so that sales tracking by tv market was possible. We had to map each key for each pos keyboard by store: ie 1,1 was cheeseburger while row 2, column 1 was a hamburger. Pretty data intensive.
• sales: somehow I suggested I could do a better job than current manager… so I was given tbe job. I focused on multi store owner operators. My boss and I did not agree on approach: I liked the idea of getting one unit in an operator and then sell the additional units ; whereas my boss wanted to get a commitment for all. He also wanted to lead with the labor scheduling functionality… it was newer, unique… but also unproven; I wanted to let the customer pick — but my focus was to lead with how the operator would get Daily Cash info such as over/short and deposit (managing cash by store by manager by shift by register)… hard to get manually; and food cost once again getting weekly and daily info was a great improvement and done faster — food cost was a major area of leakage. I focused on the benefits of faster more detailed info— my boss wanted to focus on the newer aspects.
• it was the late 80s and I wore a suit everyday. The help desk team wardrobe was casual and when summer came, people dressed like they were at a pool: short shorts, halter tops, tshirts etc. So, The management team sent out a memo describing appropriate casual day clothes: khakis, polo shirts, scoop neck tops, dress shorts, etc. the next day I had some developers in my office: “paul, so what’s all this crap about dress up day?”… perspective.
• one of my two sales reps was very attractive and would get meetings where I could tell that there was more interest in her than the product — so she had me fill in (without telling me why) and id go to these meetings and wonder why the attendees were so put out.
• I was invited to a Canadian owner/operator meeting — I was told that if I came to demo and such that they would invite all the operators: interesting, we had only sold one system … so who were these other users? Turns out that one operator had been able to clone the security jey. We went, and I had each user log in with what they owned… at the end if the day I thanked them for coming… and asked them to sign their “order form” before they left … and before I notified the software publishing bureau. Busy day. Busted.