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Noah's brow furrowed as he thumbed through the paperwork. "Looks like someone missed a memo. Give me a few minutes to dig into it. Don't change the racks yet. I'll get it sorted."
Keith stood straighter and grinned. "You got it, boss." He flicked a mock salute at Noah before pulling the heavy door open and walking out. The cacophony of equipment clanging and machinery rumbling failed to drown out Keith's words before the door fully shut. "I told you Raines would set it straight."
Noah shook his head. Keeping track of inventory was one of the biggest reasons for updating their system and would avoid communication misfires like this. One more reason this project needed to stay on track. Looking closer at the paperwork, his intuition told him the folks in sales weren't talking to each other and he knew just the person to straighten them out. In fact, she was set as a speed dial on his phone. He adjusted his headset, clicked the icon, and leaned back, waiting for her to answer.
"Hello, Miss Cheryl." Two things he understood about American women in the south: those of a certain age loved it when you called them "Miss" and they all appreciated it when you assumed they were good at their jobs. He smiled into the phone. "I've got a problem only you can solve."
A notification popped up on Claire's screen, reminding her of the upcoming MADS team meeting. She bit her lip. As if she needed reminding. She'd been here a week now, but most of that time had been a whirlwind of housekeeping tasks like getting her security badge, employee orientation, and gaining access to the systems she needed. She'd only spoken to one other team member. Vicki Huffman was bright and friendly. She managed the documentation system and had given Claire a quick tutorial on using it. Vicki had even told Claire to come directly to her with any problems, since she handled all the help desk tickets, anyway. At least she had one friendly face around her.
This morning's meeting, however, was where the actual work began. She was officially meeting the project team and finally getting to work. She'd read all the company's literature, familiarized herself with Caprock's business lines, and even sat in on two project-related meetings with Simon. Aside from the document storage system, she had yet to touch anything related to her new job. Her body couldn't decide if it wanted to dance with excitement or tremble from nerves.
Her boss stuck his head in her door. "You got a minute before the meeting?" Simon asked. "Jackie wants a word."
Claire flushed as she stood up. A last-minute meeting with the big boss wasn't nerve-racking at all. "Um, sure." She froze for a moment, considering what she needed to bring, before grabbing her laptop in case she didn't have time to fetch it later.
Jackie Turner was the IT director for Caprock Enterprises and her boss's boss. She was also a smidge intimidating. Claire first met the British woman during the hiring process, but hadn't spoken to her since she'd accepted the position last month. The walk to Jackie's office was just long enough for Claire's anxiety to show up and make itself known.
"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.
