3. First Impressions #2
"Good morning. Have a seat. I know you've got an important meeting soon, so I won't take too much of your time," Jackie said, waving distractedly at the chairs in front of her desk before signing the piece of paper she'd been reading. Simon took a seat; Claire sat in the other.
She put the document aside and focused on Claire. "How's it going? Settling in, okay?"
Claire cleared her throat. "Yes, thank you. I've been reading the material Simon gave me on the company and studying the network diagrams for all the systems."
"Excellent. Every little bit will help you with the MADS update project.
It's our enterprise resource planning system and touches almost everything we do here from the manufacturing floor to our high-level financial reports.
Oh, side note—people refer to it as both the ERP and MADS, so watch out for that. "
"MADS?" she asked, fighting the urge not to laugh.
Jackie rolled her eyes, and Simon shook his head. "Manufacturing and Distributing Accounting System. Technically, the acronym is M-A-D-A-S." He spelled out the abbreviation for her. "But the team—and the users—like to call it MADS as in we're all mad for using it."
Jackie deadpanned, "They're not very original." She looked at Simon. "Have you told her what the project goals are?"
"Not in detail. We've been focused on onboarding and getting some of the company history under her belt. She knows the gist because of her dad, but knowing we make and sell drill bits isn't the same as knowing how we actually operate worldwide."
"Right." Jackie faced Claire again. "So the crux of our update project is to customize the accounting system to automate intercompany transactions.
Within Caprock, our manufacturing plants create our drill bits, then sell them to our distribution locations.
Right now, both sites have to record their side of the transaction, the plant who sells it and the site who buys it.
It creates duplicate work, you see?" At Claire's nod, Jackie continued, "We want to eliminate the duplication, so when the seller enters a transaction on their books, the system will automatically enter the corresponding transaction on the buyer's books. "
"You can't do that with some kind of transfer?" Claire asked.
Simon shook his head. "Not when you're dealing with multiple legal entities based in different countries.
Moving products from one location to another means you're selling it from one company to another.
When we ship a bit from Singapore to Kazakhstan, we're selling it from Caprock Singapore to Caprock Kazakhstan.
It's a complicated tax strategy the accounting department set up to save money. "
"I see. And how far along is the project?" Claire asked.
"Over a year," Simon spoke again.
Her brow furrowed. "So… who's been doing the development work if you're that far in?"
The director pinched her lips and glanced at Simon.
Before Claire could consider what the look meant, Jackie answered, "We have a partner who's worked with us over the years on other software projects.
VIG has several long-term contractors assigned to us.
We inherited a system chalked full of customizations we don't need.
VIG has spent the last year helping us remove unnecessary modifications and revamp our data entry processes.
Once we rolled back to a pure version, we spent the rest of the year doing upgrades and data cleanup. "
"We're calling last year phase one," Simon added. "Roll back and clean up."
"Right. So, maintaining this going forward means we need an in-house development team.
And since we're beginning the work on the automation piece, it was a good time to hire.
You'll be part of the MADS dev team on the project, but you'll also be in charge of future development and support once the project ends. Questions?"
Jackie's explanation matched what she'd been told during the interview, but with a little more detail. As she listened, a question from earlier resurfaced. "I met the project coordinator when she gave me access to the documentation system. Who's the project manager?"
Simon raised his eyebrows at Jackie. "I told you she was good at zeroing in on issues." He looked at Claire. "Did you have a project management office or PMO of some sort at your last place?"
At her nod, Simon continued. "Well, this project got its illustrious start prior to our PMO being in place.
I'm overseeing everything at a high level, and occasionally Alex Tanner, the PMO director, steps in to make sure we're following proper guidelines.
Vicki works for Alex. Her role on this project is administrative and focused on project documentation. "
Jackie interjected, "Yes, right. We got off to a bumpy start, but we're getting better and more organized every day.
" The stiffness in Jackie's posture and the way she rushed to the conclusion made Claire think there was more to the story, but she withheld any further questions, assuming she'd see for herself when she met the team.
Jackie watched her long enough for Claire to want to squirm. "It's going to differ from your tech company. We're significantly less structured than you're used to. If you feel overwhelmed or lost, talk to Simon. He's worked on more formal projects in the past and can help get you through. Yes?"
Claire nodded. She'd already figured out Caprock ran things differently from the technology giant she'd come from. Lacking in formality, yes. But also, more friendly and less… threatening. At least so far.
Simon stood up. "All right. We should head down to the war room, where all the action takes place." He looked at his watch. "You've got enough time to grab a drink and hit the ladies' room if you need to."
Claire made it to the conference room and slipped into an empty seat as Simon opened the meeting.
Apparently, nobody else felt the urge to plan a quick escape, because seats near the door were empty.
Her skin prickled, and she found Vicki staring intently at her.
Claire gave her a friendly wave and received a thumbs-up in return.
She was happy to have one familiar face in the room.
"All right everyone, let's get started." Simon addressed the MADS project team, several of whom were present in the conference room and the rest attending virtually.
The u-shaped table faced a giant screen, which showed the different video feeds from the attendees.
Claire attempted to count the windows visible on the screen, but lost count at fourteen when everything shifted as a few latecomers joined the call.
While she'd tried to get a feel for them by reading previous meeting notes and listening to their voices on a couple of video-free conference calls, Claire was seeing their faces for the first time. "Vicki, you ready to take notes?"
"Yes sir, boss man," she replied. That was a nice surprise. At Nano—and even back in college—note-taking always seemed to land on the nearest woman, whether or not it made sense. Half the time, she'd been expected to juggle presenting and documenting at the same time.
But here? It was Vicki's actual role. No assumptions. No awkward glances around the room. Just a clear task, given to the right person. One more sign that she'd made the right choice in taking this job.
A man rushed in at the last minute and grabbed a seat next to Claire, brushing her arm as he situated himself. She stiffened in her chair. After nothing further happened, she slowly inched her seat away, creating more space between them. At least you didn't flinch this time. She exhaled quietly.
"Before we jump in, I want to introduce our newest team member.
Everyone, this is Claire Broussard. She's joined Caprock as our lead developer and will be working with the VIG folks.
She comes to us from NanoTechwise, and her experience with data structures will help us refine our future data warehouse plans. "
Simon continued the introductions, putting names to faces for Claire.
She loved seeing whose face matched the imagined person in her head and whom she got completely wrong.
Rick Jackson, the team lead and manager for the VIG group, was a small, unassuming guy wearing wire-framed glasses.
From the quiet authority in his voice on the last conference call, she'd pictured him larger and more intimidating.
The production manager was also a surprise.
Because he'd pushed back and challenged the team's assumptions, she'd pictured Noah Raines as an older, rough-around-the-edges skeptic straight from the manufacturing floor.
The thirty-something man on her screen, with his slim build, intense focus, and fantastic hair could have passed for a model in an outdoor catalog.
The kind with a rugged, interesting face and enigmatic eyes that made you wonder what he was thinking.
And those eyes. She couldn't tell what color they were from here, but when he focused on the camera, it was like he was talking only to you.
After the greetings and welcomes finished, Simon took control of the meeting again.
"Now, let's talk about roles. With the introduction of Claire's position, we're changing the way we do some things.
Since Claire's going to be key in helping us build our data warehouse, which leans heavily on the work we're doing here with the MADS application, all data extractions from the system will run through her.
She's our in-house developer, and it makes sense to have her perform this function. "
Wait, what? It sounded like he'd said all data extractions needed to go through her. She didn't even have access to touch the data yet! She stared incomprehensibly at her new boss.
And she wasn't the only one surprised. The other attendees met Simon's announcement with stony silence.
Claire dared to look around. On the screen, she could see those sitting together looking at each other and wished she could read their minds.
She wanted to tell everyone not to be angry; it was news to her too!
She looked across the table for help from the only team member she'd met before today, but Vicki hammered away at her keyboard, her gaze focused on her laptop screen.
A throat cleared and someone asked, "So, just to clarify, any time we need fresh data to play with, we have to go through Claire?"
"Yes," Simon answered.
The tension was unmistakable. Claire swallowed. "H-how is it done now? Is there a procedure already in place?"
Larry, the Caprock IT team lead, answered, "Until now, we've all been working on separate pieces.
Rick, Delbert, and Srini ran their own queries and pulled the information over into the development sandbox for testing.
It's not very structured, but we haven't really needed it to be up to this point. "
Simon cleared his throat. "Yes, well, we're reaching the point where we need to start bringing the pieces together, and it's time for us to get more methodical.
We've been able to get away with working in a vacuum, but it's not feasible anymore.
Claire, Rick can show you how they've been doing the data grabs.
And Noah is the best person to explain the big picture of the organization.
Why don't you schedule a meeting with each of them ASAP so you can get familiar with the data and current integration processes? "
"Sure." She nodded at Rick on the big screen and he snapped her a quick salute.
Her gaze moved to Noah in time to catch him rolling his eyes.
Her brow furrowed, and she pressed her lips together.
What was up with that look? Even through the network, she could feel an undercurrent running through the team.
And why did she suddenly feel like the bad guy?
The meeting continued with updates from each team member, and Claire made notes.
There were areas she needed to understand better, and she liked to know the best person to go to for answers.
She jotted some details on her new teammates to help keep straight who handled what.
And while no one addressed her for the rest of the meeting, she couldn't help but feel they were watching her closely.
She itched to check and see if a big, fat target was painted on her back.