## The Boss Volunteers Our Company for Beta Testing (Part 3)

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[Part 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport/comments/n6zprl/the_boss_volunteers_our_company_for_beta_testing/?utm_source=share&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;utm_medium=ios_app&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;utm_name=iossmf) 


So if you’re still following my story, thank you. If you think I should have quit, your not totally wrong but I also had many reasons to stay. While management was lacking, most of the time they left me alone to maintain and enhance our network, devices, etc. As an employee we would constantly receive free beer and other adult beverages. I also got to work in the same room with one of my best friends. So for all the negatives, it had a lot of positive too. That's just to address some comments from part 1 and 2...now back to the story...

The players:

Me - your friendly neighborhood IT guy

MP - Madam President

GM - General Manager (and my direct supervisor)

TDS - Truck Driver Supervisor

LC - Lead Contractor

ERP - ERP Representative

PART 3 - DON'T PANIC 

THURSDAY AFTERNOON - I sit and survey the several open boxes of hand held devices and mobile printers. They came with all the accessories except for one important one...mobile chargers. From experience we found that the devices would last on a charge for about 7-8 hours. Our trucks would be on the road, in and out of stores for about 8-10hrs a day. So I had 24 devices that all need mobile chargers. I quickly jump on Amazon looking for the correct mobile charger. I find a place that's selling with 8 left, Add to Cart, find another selling 3, Add to Cart, find another 10...so 21 total on Amazon. I order all and pay extra for overnight delivery. I call down to the Drivers room and discover they have half a dozen mobile charges in a box...whew...we are covered. 

I checked the mobile printers, they each came with a small roll of printer tape. This is going to last maybe two or three stops and be gone. That's if this system works at all. I jump back on Amazon but can't find the right type of printer tape. There's a website posted inside the printer box saying we can buy more online. I go to the website, order 4 cases of printer tape and go to pay...there's no overnight option...Tuesday is the best they can to do deliver. I have no choice...tuesday it is. 

Time to make a phone call to the Lead Contractor:

LC: Hello, this is Lead Contractor...

Me: Hi LC, this is bambam67, you’re doing our implementation on Monday...

LC: Oh, I'm glad you finally reached out to me. 

Me: I would have done it sooner but I just found out about the implementation today. 

LC: Well, I'm glad you called. Let me get your info and we'll talk in the morning. I'm on the east coast and it's already 8pm here. 

Me: We can definitely talk tomorrow but I just have a few quick questions. 

LC: (huff) Ok, sure...

Me: I'm assuming your system is compatible with our ERP...

LC: Yes, it should be. You’re using the Sales program and that's compatible...this shouldn't be any different. 

Me: Is there anyway we can do a slow roll out, just 2 or 3 drivers first? 

LC: Unfortunately, once we flip the switch, all invoicing for delivery will go through the new service and devices. 

Me: And you think this will be ready for us by early Monday morning?

LC: As long as you went through the checklist, it should be pretty smooth. 

Me: Checklist??

LC: Yeah, I sent a checklist to MP a few weeks ago. You didn't get it? 

Me: Like I said, I just found out about it literally less than an hour ago. 

LC: Oh, then I should probably send you one. (huff) I'll have to break out my laptop and send it to you. It will take a me a few minutes. You may want to arrange for someone from your ERP provider to meet with you tomorrow. The check list is a bit long and with their help you can probably get things ready in time. 

Me: Unfortunately they are closed now too...since they are in your time zone. I'll call them first thing in the morning and arrange a meeting. Your checklist will help. Please send that over as soon possible. 

LC: Will do and we'll talk more tomorrow. 

Me: Oh wait, what about the hand held devices, do they need a special configuration? 

LC: Yes, but you can't do anything to them until each driver is setup with his own unique I.D. 
Me: Is that like the sales ID? 

LC: I would assume so. I've haven't worked with your ERP before but I'm sure they have a way to do it. 

Me: I'm sure they do. Okay, please send that checklist to me and I'll start getting things done. 

LC: Oh, yeah, if you can, reply to my email and send me your list of stores the drivers deliver to. I want to make sure we have all the stores covered. We had trouble last install with a few stores not communicating with our hand held devices. 

Me: (my mind racing a mile a minute) Okay, I get those to you right away. 

I unbox all the hand held devices and printers and find some extra power strips and start to charge all the batteries and synch each devices with specific printer. I was trying to do everything I could ahead of time. 

I finally went home, feeling defeated by the day, considering my options. Do I quit? Do I stay and get it done? I had one of the worst restless nights and got up early and went straight to the office.
FRIDAY - I find in my email the checklist and contact names and numbers for the contractors coming on Sunday. The list has a dozen things on it, half of them I'd never heard or seen before on our ERP. They are all switches and toggles that needed to be changed in our setup. I make the call to the ERP and request someone call me so I can make sense of all the requirements. 

Me: This is bambam67, can I help you.

ERP: Hey bambam67, this is ERP, I haven't talked to you for awhile. 

ERP helped with our transition from local hosted server to their cloud service. ERP was great and helped so much that beyond the normal issues of users using the old system vs the new...it was relatively painless. 

Me: Yeah, since we upgraded to the cloud. I've got something new I need your help on. We are going to a new delivery system starting Monday and I need help getting things setup.

ERP: Waiting to the last minute, eh? (he chuckled)

Me: Yes and no...I just found out about it yesterday afternoon. Now I have today and Saturday to get everything setup in time for Monday's delivery. 

ERP: Oh (his chuckle quickly disappeared)

Me: Can I forward this checklist to you so you can see what we need?

ERP: Yes, of course.

Me: Any chance I can have you on speed dial Monday morning? 

ERP: Yes, absolutely. (with a nervous chuckle) 

ERP and I went through the checklist and he did what he could on his side. He recognized the configuration was close to the Sales program we used. I asked for the best way to get a list of all of  our stores and he pulled it up, exported it and sent to me seemingly before I finished asking. 

Just a shout out to all the quality IT Support individuals out there. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Without people like you I would have never made it in IT.

I had a 14hr workday that day. Not my typical Friday. I setup each driver's unique ID, had a meeting with the front desk staff, talked to LC again and she confirmed all the stores were covered, I was able to connect each hand held 
device to the drivers unique ID, labeled them for each driver, setup a charging station cubby for each device, and did one last and most important thing...I made sure we could still print out the invoices on paper for each driver just as a backup. I told this to LC and she started laughing. "Don't waste your paper," she said. 

Next Up: PART 4 - IMPLEMENTATION DAY

Update: okay, I hear your complaints about waiting for the next part. Unfortunately I’ve just been made aware that I can’t post twice in 24 hours...sooo...I’ll post part 4 and the finale together tomorrow!## TLDR Summary:

 [Part 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport/comments/n6zprl/the_boss_volunteers_our_company_for_beta_testing/?utm_source=share&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;utm_medium=ios_app&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;utm_name=iossmf) 


So if you’re still following my story, thank you. I unbox all the hand held devices and printers and find some extra power strips and start to charge all the batteries and synch each devices with specific printer. We are going to a new delivery system starting Monday and I need help getting things setup. The check list is a bit long and with their help you can probably get things ready in time. We had trouble last install with a few stores not communicating with our hand held devices. I find a place that's selling with 8 left, Add to Cart, find another selling 3, Add to Cart, find another 10...so 21 total on Amazon. I go to the website, order 4 cases of printer tape and go to pay...there's no overnight option...Tuesday is the best they can to do deliver.
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