President’s Message

by Marianne Bays

I’ve decided to write about information technology this month - particularly because I believe it has so much potential value to a volunteer organization like IPMAAC. What credentials do I have in this area, you ask? Well, in the last dozen years, I’ve worked as a consultant with many information systems organizations, focusing on helping to improve the effectiveness of these organizations’ structures and processes and the quality of their products and services. I’ve also had several years of experience teaching MBA students about information systems - about how they can add value to organizations, technology management issues, trends in information resource management, and so on. Make no mistake, though, I am not technically proficient. I don’t talk bits and bytes. I can’t program, I leave software installation and upgrade to others, I can’t configure a work station or a network. Nor, to the exasperation of my “techie” friends, do I aspire to learn to do any of these things. I’m the classic dumb end user who only wants to know enough about the technology to get the job done - no more, no less.

Further, while I’ve been using information systems for thirteen years or so and have had my own personal computer for about eight years, I have to admit that it’s only been in the last three years that I’ve begun to realize the potential of information technology for my own work. But, it occurs to me that my own personal journey in integrating technology into my business might have some value to others who are not quite yet as immersed as I am in the subject. In my experience, the most effective technology implementation occurs when it clearly answers a business need - the user needs a “vision” of what the technology can do to help before they are likely to be willing to invest the time, money and effort needed to implement. So, in the hope that this might help inspire some of you visualize a more effective workplace for yourself through technology, here’s the “Bays Guide to Neat Stuff I’ve Been Able to do Since I found the Right Information Technology.”

Have Laptop, Will Travel: My first major technology purchase for my office was a stand-alone personal computer with word processing software and a laser jet printer. Its major benefit was that it enabled me to prepare professional looking correspondence, reports, training materials, etc. without clerical assistance. The word processing software also had the important benefit of allowing me to reuse text - to clone documents and formats and to tailor previously written materials for new uses, quickly and easily.

While common wisdom said that my computer and word processing software would also enable me to cut the paper volume in my life, I found that that wasn’t really true. Clients and colleagues still needed print copies and I needed to pack print copies in my briefcase for meetings with them as well. Sometimes, I was able to pass on a diskette instead of a print document, but aside from that, no paper reduction was achieved.

At this point, I had a home office and, typically, also a work space at the client site for each project I undertook. So, in many cases, I ended up with duplicate document files at home and at the client site office - more paper, not less. But this was still fairly manageable, until I became a university professor, too. Suddenly, I had client site offices, my home office and my university office (both with computers), and had to be able to do business in the classroom, too. It drove me crazy. I was lugging packed briefcases wherever I went but never seemed to have the “right” document or information when I needed it! Keeping my calendar straight had also become a major challenge. It was time for technical solutions that addressed my need for mobility.

The first step was replacing my personal computer with a laptop computer. Magically, I could now carry all of my document files with me. At home, my set up now includes a port replicator into which I can “plug” the laptop, so I can work here with the comfort of a full keyboard and a larger color monitor, and access to my printer. At other sites, if I need to print a document, I can copy a file onto a diskette from my laptop and then access and print it using the office system there. I still have need to print documents, but far less than before. And the laptop allows me to draft notes and reports while I’m traveling as well, without resorting to the low tech, slow, handwritten approach. Plus, my shoulder’s not as tired from hauling around overstuffed briefcases as it used to be.

I remember clearly the moment when I decided that my investment in a laptop computer was a wise one. I was sitting in a session at the IPMAAC conference, quietly exchanging observations about the speaker with the colleague sitting next to me. I mentioned that I’d done some similar work and written it up and my colleague expressed interest in having a copy. I began to take a note to remind me that when I returned home, I should print a copy of the document and mail it to him. Then it occurred to me that I had the text file right there on my new laptop. All I had to do was copy it to a diskette and hand it to my colleague. Which is what I did. In two minutes I was done. I had just eliminated the need for at least 6 work steps: writing the reminder, finding and interpreting the reminder when I returned home, printing the document, putting it in an envelope and addressing it, and then taking it to the post office and mailing it. And my colleague had what he was looking for at least a week earlier than he would otherwise have received it. Cool!

In addition to the standard word processing and spreadsheet software, I also acquired a calendar package with the laptop. Finally, I had one single calendar despite my multiple work sites and no need to carry my bulky “planner” (or realize that I forgot to pack it). The package I have has a “to do” feature as well as an appointment feature, so that I can include reminder items such as “write and submit October ACN message” on a time line, indicating when I should start as well as when the absolute deadline falls. It does take more time to “boot up” the electronic calendar than it did to use a paper one, but the better organization I achieve by having a central calendar makes it all worthwhile.

Technology to Aid Communication/Collaboration: Electronic mail had been a part of my everyday corporate life before I started my consulting business. I had the capability to send and receive messages anywhere within the company, using Prudential’s e-mail system. However, once I left there and the enterprise computer network that supported this, I was back to relying on voice messages. I have an answering machine with remote call up capabilities in my home office. It’s been a mainstay of my consulting business operation from the beginning. I call it from the road to access my messages regularly. Despite the fact that I’m not there, it “staffs” my office and keeps me in touch with clients and colleagues. It results in a fair amount of “phone tag”, though.

It was actually IPMAAC and my work as an officer of this organization that pushed me into further technology innovation. My laptop came with a built in modem and a modem connector cable to attach to a phone line, but I didn’t actively use it at first. Then Jim Johnson initiated an effort to establish the Electronic Communications Network for IPMAAC and many members began to come on-line. I subscribed to one of the internet provider services, America On Line. Other members established internet e-mail accounts on this or other services such as Compuserve, Prodigy, through small local providers, or through their organizations. Suddenly, I could “talk” to many of them via e-mail and a lot of organizational work could get done much more quickly that way. But that wasn’t all. I could also “attach” text files of documents to my e-mail correspondence. Colleagues and I around the country could send draft documents to each other for comment, we could forward interesting articles we’d stumbled across to each other - we could work together on projects as easily as if we’d been in the same geographic space and time zone.

I’m currently working on an article for IPMA News with three IPMAAC colleagues. The project was initiated by an e-mail request to us from Marianne Ernesto, IPMA’s Director of Assessment Services. Jim Johnson agreed via e-mail back to all of us to take the lead. Last week, he drafted a proposed article format and some text and sent it to all of us. I drafted some text to fit into his format and sent it to everyone for comment. Bill Waldron took all of the text and got creative, reworking it into a different proposed format, adding additional content and e-mailed it to us for review. Brad Jensen’s piece is still to come, but will also come to us electronically. This project is being accomplished with a fair amount of ease, and much more quickly than we could have accomplished through traditional methods. And it’s fun, too. The personal patter that accompanies the e-mailed text exchanges helps us to get to know each other and establish friendships and stronger working relationships.

There are many other examples of how internet technology has improved the effectiveness of our volunteer organization’s work. Last year and the year before, a great deal of the work of the conference program committee was accomplished through e-mail. Take it from me - a conference program chair’s pleasure at receiving a text file instead of print document as a session proposal should not be underestimated. Each proposal received in this format saves tedious typing time that would be needed later. The day when IPMAAC receives all conference proposals electronically is not that far off.

Bless this Scanner for the Time & Money it Saves: The latest positive addition to my office technology is a little scanning device with some nifty, simple to use software - a Christmas present last year. My first clue that such a system would be useful came with another IPMAAC project - a collaborative effort that was initially only electronically aided in that we each used word processing. This effort seemed to take forever to finish, and then, somehow, the text file got lost before we ever published. One print draft of the document was still in our possession, though. Jim Johnson took that and used a scanner to create an editable text file. He sent it to me as an e-mail attachment. I did the final editing of it and returned it to him as an e-mail attachment. He sent it to Bill Waldron as an e-mail attachment. And, finally, Bill made it available to people through the IPMAAC Home Page.

So, now I have a scanner too. The software that comes with the scanner allows me to drag and drop images of scanned documents to icons representing other programs and devices. I can fax a scanned document, I can print it, I can convert it to a word processing text file or to another file format - each in one stroke. I use the scanner often. It lets me send faxes of marked up copies of print documents so that colleagues can see my comments as well as original text. It allows me to copy receipts to attach to travel vouchers and keep copies for my tax files. I can even scan in my favorite business cartoons and then print them as overhead slides for presentation use; or create a rolodex file of scanned in business cards. All of this while sitting at my desk. No need to run out to the local Post Office Plus to make copies and send faxes anymore. No need to retype printed materials. A serious amount of time and money saved.

My Current Challenge: There is one technology failure I’m facing: I still can’t receive faxes. No doubt most of you do not have this problem. But, my challenge might still interest you - I’m trying to establish a reliable way to receive fax transmissions to my laptop regardless of where I am. The problem with a fax machine for my purposes is that it is stationery (also that it creates paper instead of editable files). I need to be able to pick up a fax where ever I am. I thought that I’d found the answer in an AT&T service to which I’ve subscribed. My “vision” was this: an 800 fax number for an electronic mailbox that could store a fax transmission and keep it waiting for me until I dialed up via modem to download it to my laptop. The reality is different. I have an 800 number to which faxes can be sent and which I can access to download them, but the system stores the faxes in a format that nobody I know can interpret. It’s gobbledygook when it reaches my laptop. However, my vision is intact and I’m confident that, someday soon, it’ll actually be realized without substantial additional cost. (Probably when I find the one single person at AT&T’s help desk who understands what I’m talking about.) It’s too good an idea not to exist, don’t you think? Well, I’m still working on it.