Date: November 24, 2003

I simply want to write something good I did today. The purpose is to identify my transferrable skills to plan my career development.

In the morning, I was informed by our order department about a recent order placed by Siemens Canada. The order consists of a piece of Sun Cluster software, which usually is used in a mission critical environment for higher availability. Consequently, a Sun internal process (GETS) approval is required to release the product.

My first response was a surprise because I knew nothing about it. My sales counterpart John knew a little bit about the story, so he told me that it was a just a couple of small servers (e.g. V440) which would be used for the development lab of the Telephony Innovation Center of Siemens Canada in Ottawa. John didn't think that such approval process would be necessary, but he couldn't explain clearly about the process to the Sun order staff, that's why he passed on the ball to me.

Ideally, I should be notified at the very first stage of the project so that I could plan all necessary technical components for the customer. Here I were not to pinpoint the person to blame, but rather to facilitate the process. I suggested that we find the actual configuration behind the order. After reviewing the configuration, obviously it is a Sun Cluster configuration. The good news is that the quote was built by Sun Center staff, and it has all the necessary components for a cluster configuration. Unfortunately there is no installation or support services in the quote.

At that time, I could stop the entire process by requesting the relevant services, but I know it would postpone the customer project cycle. After a brief discussion with John, I learned that it was for development purpose, not a mission critical environment. Besides, I also spoke to the Sun engineer who did the quote a couple of weeks ago, and I understand that this was to duplicate a solution from Siemens Germany. Thus I felt comfortable that I can proceed with the GETS process.

In a short time, I prepared all necessary documents including the project form and technical form, and initiated the process. Though some forms or information should be supplied by John (sales), I did them to expedite the process.

I know Sun Cluster is not a toy to play with. For the benefit of the customer, I contacted the customer later in the afternoon and inquired whether installation and/or support services would be needed. Subsequently, a communication channel was built between myself and the client, and I have a fairly good handle with the customer starting from zero knowledge.

I think that it would be better the field sales engineers would be notified when their customers request quotes directly to the Sun Center. The benefit is obvious. First, the sales engineers could help Sun Center better understand the customer's situation and clarified certain background information when necessary; Moreover, the information from Sun Center to the field sales team would help the team close the deal sooner or expand or validate the deal.

The incidence demonstrates a few good things about myself: whenever challenge emerges, I am part of the solution instead of being a problem; while respecting the process, I can find the exact fulcrum between the company and the customer to achieve the best result for both parties, then execute it quickly; furthermore, being constructive, I often give feedback to the company for improvement after the execution.

Honglin Su

2003-11-24T23:41:25