Working from home

As much as I would have liked to work from home today, I was not able to do so. I have not received the secure ID card I lost a couple of days ago or atleast realized then, that I had misplaced it. The wife wanted me to work from home and I almost wished I could. Had a very conference call concentrated schedule throughout so I figured I might be better off working from the office. SAP is fairly relaxed about working from home as opposed to from the office and that is great when you have a 10 month old running around the house. I have noticed myself to be more productive when I am at home however, there are certain things you just cannot do from home. Hence, I sit here, at my desk, blogging :-)

Goodbye Abbu (Urdu for Dad)

Last night Musharraf's book kept me up for a lot longer than I wanted to and by the time I hit the sack it was already 1 AM. I woke up to the alarm screaming its loudest and literally jumped out of the bed to shut it. I am lucky that my neighbour is out of town these days, otherwise, I would have started the day with an unpleasant incident. My little one was already up and moving about. This morning he did the cutest thing. Usually he likes to cling to me when I leave for work trying to hang on but today he waved his hand saying goodbye with a smile, as he has learnt to do for our guests when they leave. I felt very proud at how quickly he learns what to do and saddened by the fact that he had to learn to say goodbyes at such an early age. Work is usual so far. My colleague who works with me on an important account is going on vacation tomorrow and she and I will probably ruffle through some stuff so that I can handle things the right way. I just heard news that one of the Team Leads in my group has decided to take up a different role. Some new changes in the group are astir, it seems.

What quick naps can do to you

I had a conference call this morning at 8:30 AM PST and had to prepare for it before hand but after getting up for Suhoor, also referred to as Sehri (A morning ritual of eating a little something in emulation of the Prophet Muhammad before the dawn breaks) I managed to convince myself that I had enough time and I can catch a few more zzzzzzzzs before getting to work. I woke up again at 7 AM and decided I can sleep a bit more since I can do the conference call from home. I decided to put a move on around 7:40 AM figuring I would need about a half hour of preparation for the call. That is when the proverbial got a kick, when to my horror, I was unable to locate my VPN card. At SAP, a Secure ID is provided to all employees so they can generate a code on the fly and login to the company system from anywhere. Unfortunately, the fact that I could not find out rendered me helpless. I don't think I have ever taken a quicker shower in my life and rushed out the door leaving last night's garbage at the door, for which, I am probably going to catch some flak, when I go home tonight. I drove like a maniac on Central Avenue and probably did around 55 on a 25 MPH zone, managing to make it just in time to get in the conference call.

Lesson: Get the &^%^**) up when its time to get up. Sheesh!!

I found out about a new service that SAP provides its customers called SMPC. I had heard of SMPS but SMPC was not only new to me, it was happily new to everyone I pinged for information. SMPC stands for Solution Manager Preparation Check. Solution Manager is SAP's tool installed with our systems to help our customers with support matters, filing tickets, finding notes (SAP Knowledge Base Articles) etc. SMPS stands for Solution Manager Preparation Service. It is apparently a more comprehensive service for the Solution Manager and provides detailed recommendations for customers on how best to use Solution Manager with their SAP installations. SMPC, on the other hand is a much more precise and targeted check that ensure that solution manager is able to do what it is supposed to do in anticipation of upcoming services that are going to be performed by SAP for the customer. Learning new things everyday as usual.

Understanding the Processes involved in Day to Day Activities

Continiuing to work with different SAP processes and understanding the policies that are in place, I was struck by something that was peculiar. I filed for expenses for my visits to New Town Square from last month and realized that I may have made a mistake by adding the charge for the Hertz Never Lost in the expense report. Before I could figure out who to alert about my mistake, I got an email from someone informing me that I will not be able to expense the Never Lost charge, detailing the SAP policy in that regard. Since I was looking for the right venue to correct my mistake at anyway, this made the thing a little bit easier. However, the fact that I found this to be peculiar made me think about what other alternatives does SAP have when dealing with Never Lost. I know that it does not come cheap (7 dollars and change per day) but the amount of time it saves you with routes and figuring out how to get to where you want to go eventually is very valuable. I have decided to opt for it everytime due to the convenience, even if I have to pay for it myself since it saves me the hassle of struggling with maps and figuring out things that I should not have to on a visit to a new place. Perhaps if I visit NSQ often enough, it may not remain such a need however, right now, it is an important need. A suggestion that cropped up while I was reading the email I mentioned above that explained the policy, was that perhaps SAP could allow a certian amount of money for every employee per anum, to be used for "accessorizing" the rental car with what they need. This way the employee can be more judicious in about when they need the Never Lost or any other accessory, and when they don't. For instance, when I am going to, say, Chicago, I am not going to need it since I know the city so well, however, if I go to visit customers in say LA, or Pheonix, it would be something I would opt for and be able to justify.
I am hoping to make it out to NSQ again sometime next month, possibly before thanksgiving. It is tiring and taxing, especially on the wife and the little one, but it has its benefits. Its good to be able to say hello to the rest of the team there and see how they are doing and what exciting things they may be up to.

Just another day with not enough sleep the night before

I walked into the office a little after 9 AM PST after struggling to find parking. It is becoming a problem now that seems to have no solution. The only reliable way to find parking is to arrive before 9 AM. If you arrive anywhere between 8:45 AM and 9 AM, you may still find parking however, it may not be your first or even second choice of spots. If you arrive anywhere after 9 AM, be ready to park in one of the spots reserved for folks at the next building.
As I was walking in, I got an email from a colleague in NSQ (SAP HQ), that he needed some help with an account while he was going to be volunteering out some place in W. Virginia. I sent him a quick email, saying I would do it. Everything seemed to be working out except there was some hesitation on his part since he was not sure if it would tax me too much to attend a daily conference call at 6 AM PST for the next week when he was going to be out. I was confident in my ability to tie my hand to the bed post in order for me to not be able to hit the snooze button on my alarm. But eventually somebody else from NSQ stepped in and a potential international incident was avoided since the account that needed managing happens to be in Canada. I just heard about the all hands meeting on Nov 10th and while I am not sure if I will be able to make the date, I would like to make it out to NSQ once more before the year's out. I think it would be great if I can do that during the week of 6th-10th November. We will see how that works out, I guess.
Got a call from the wife while I was at work that they have been transported back to the early part of last century, with no electricity. According to a neighbour, there was an explosion that she heard immediately after which electricity was shut off. I called PG&E from my office phone and while updating my wife on the other phone tried to think "Happy Thoughts" for the entire 15 minutes that I was on hold with them. Once somebody got on, they indicated that they are sending some one to check out the problem. Have a conference call to prepare for with another account so I am going to continue this tomorrow.

Account Meetings

Had a bad beginning when I forgot all about this morning's conference call and missed it. I had a conflict with the other conference call at 10 AM PST so I managed to get in about 20 minutes after the call had started. I continually have moments when I feel like I don't have ground beneath my feet to stand on when I am in account meetings. Apparently two months of being immersed in an account has not been enough time for me to set things up. Somebody told me it will take a good 5-6 months before I can get a sense of things. My role is strategic so I don't expect to prove my worthiness to the group right away however, it can be a little bit daunting to sit amongst people knowing full well that the environment is completely result-oriented and you are expected to participate in a meaningful sense, from one meeting to next.
My colleague Wei has been helping me a great deal with all this stuff. I hope I can help her burden with our mutual account and in the process pick up a few things I can employ for myself in upcoming engagements where I will be representing my group without any help. That time is coming soon and frankly I can't wait for it now. I mean, who has ever learnt how to swim without finding out how cold the water is in the pool. brrrrrrrr......

2nd Monthiversary at SAP

A bit late for this, but on the 24th of Sept, 2 days after my birthday, I completed my two months at SAP. My excitement at joining SAP has not diminished one bit, which is a good sign. I seem to have learnt a few things along the way in this short period of time. I am part of the Palo Alto based arm of the Key Account Support Team at SAP. So far, making my way from a midsize software company to working for one of the two giants of the industry (the other being Oracle), there is a sense of astonishment of size that I had an abstract idea about but really only got a taste of it after I started working here.

One of the first things you learn after getting in is that there is truth to the reputation that SAP has acquired for being a process oriented and even somewhat process heavy organization. That is good news for someone who is new though since it is rather easy to find information you may have to track people down for and jump hurdles to get to with other entities or organizations within the company.

Apparently what happened at Mercury when I joined over there happened here as well. The Director who hired me has chosen to take on other challenges within the same organization (KAS) and one of the Team Leads has taken over as Acting Director for now. The same happened at Mercury within weeks of my joining the company there. I remember that my hiring manager at Mercury went on to the dizzying heights in that company. I hope for the same to happen for my former Director. I found her to be very agreeable and forthright. I am sure she will make a more exciting kind of difference in her new role for KAS.