The Crash Run

Got an email Thursday, got a ticket a few minutes afterward. I was in Tempe on Monday morning. The job was simple: set up a new office for a client. Get them running with phones, Internet, new server and network infrastructure. Handle the problems, make the client happy - make the office productive by the time you leave.

Some thoughts about doing a job like this, and then a few notes about how to take a bare-wall, bare-floor office to "Go" with as few headaches as possible.

First - doing this for your boss means that he trusts you. Ergo, don't use the company travel as an excuse to get blitzed or act like an idiot in a remote location. You're wearing a company shirt and the world is smaller than you think. Second - don't treat it like an 8-5 gig; you're going to work harder on location than you do when you're in the office. Don't whine. Third - Do your best to make everyone happy...if you like this kind of brightwork, don't annoy people or they won't ask you to do it again. You'll have to charge expenses to your credit card, you'll face more inconvenience than you expected - this is all part and parcel of this type of business. I said it before, I'll say it again: Don't whine.

There are ways to make your stay comfortable - I like to start with my hotel location and use Google maps to map food, a movie house, the local branch of my gym (Nationwide gym memberships help) and a few other amenities that you'll usually need without knowing you'll need it (drug store, anyone?). Take the opportunity to cruise the town - walk the grid and see what you can see. You go from being a commuter to being a tourist - take advantage of that and enjoy being out of your comfort zone.

As to how to make a bare-wall office into a breathing remote location, start simple and then work your way out. The major pieces of any office are: real estate, telco, power, ISP, AC, security, furniture and local IT hardware. You'll be directly or indirectly involved with all of this. Starting from the real estate, you'll be working with the landlord organization. They might be able to handle renting, power, AC, telco and sometimes ISP. Figure out quickly what they won't be doing for you and then start making your plans to provide those services.

The landlord, even if they aren't providing the extra services, will know the best local people to work with; work with them to get in touch with these people. The landlord I worked with had a telco wiring installer there in 90 minutes - it would have taken me that long to find the right person in the Yellow Pages. Identify your local ISP options, get them into a fast matrix for speed, cost and quality. Do the same for your telco provider.

Here's a pro-tip that I had to learn the hard way. It's helpful to learn telco jargon when setting up an office. The phone company installs wires to an office at the Minimum Point of Entry (MPOE aka DMARC) but it's up to you to get them wired into the walls in your suite and ensure that your phone jacks actually can dial out from there. When the phone company is setting up your account, make sure you have that conversation: "Is this going to the MPOE ("Em-PO") or will you be bringing it all the way to the office?" They'll typically do that for a fee or you can get a local telco installer to do that for you.

Start making a quick Gantt chart for what you're doing; your ISP install will usually be your longest project in terms of days. They typically go 14-30 days out to get a T1 or DSL circuit installed. Work with that as your drop-dead date and try to fit as many other move-in tasks within that window...don't get the DSL installed and then talk furniture. If it's a remote office and you'll be onsite for a 'go-live' period, try and pack those deliveries as tightly as possible - at the bottom of it all, you have to get it done - you don't go home until it's done...you don't make the customer happy by leaving some loose ends.

Keep in mind that with every project, there's always the unforeseen cost. There's the ISP that doesn't reveal the limitations of their service, the telco engineer that doesn't bring the wiring all the way to the suite. Learn to deal, learn to plan around these things and know that these things are just part of the adventure. It's not an inconvenience if you can find a way to enjoy the journey.