Pocket Solutions Client-Site Implementation

On Wednesday, 4/30/08, I traveled 1.5 hours southwest of KC to one of our client's cement plants to upgrade their pocket solutions software from version 3 to 5.54.  This was my first time being on-site for a client and my first time at a cement plant.  I was expecting it to be a dirty/dusty environment, but the corporate offices were very elegant & clean & even the plant operating offices were very clean.  The people were very friendly & easy to work with (I grew up in a relatively small rural town in Missouri, so I think I relate to small-town people pretty well) - it helps that they have been using our Pocket Solutions product since 2002 & they love it. 

We loaded the desktop software on a supervisor's PC soon after arriving, then had to work out a database issue.  We didn't receive the authorization to upgrade their database until the day before we were due on site, because their IT department was taking over control of these types of processes (from the plant supervisor) & didn't realize that this was another piece that required approval since it was billable work.  We worked on fixing the database issues while we trained two supervisors on the new version features, then loaded the new database on the PDAs.  We loaded the desktop software on the second supervisor's PC then headed back to KC.

Overall, it was a great field experience.  Each installation/implementation is a little different, so it's a great learning opportunity when you get to do it on-site & work out the bugs in real-time.  I'm the type of person who learns by driving the PC/doing rather than watching/listening, so this hands-on experience was very worthwhile.

I think my next field opportunity is coming up next week in Sedalia, MO.  A client needs some Visible Emissions monitoring conducted & I'm going to handle this for another consultant who will be out of the office.  This will be my first opportunity to use the "smoke school" certification I received last month.  Looking forward to it!