Software sorrows, seminars, and having the plug pulled
Charlton House has found itself once again in a select minority - and it hasn't all been good news. Computers are causing us problems again - not hardware, but software. We've hit overload, and before someone says "buy more memory", it isn't that simple.
Apparently the problem is between Accpacc, our accounting software, and the Btrieve database. We, and about 10 other companies worldwide, have hit the upper limit of the volume of data that these two programmes can handle when used together. It's not intentional but an oversight on the part of the programmers.
Our support consultants are doing everything they can, and the next release of Btrieve, expected shortly, should help overcome the problems.
The good news was being recognised and awarded with a certificate to mark Charlton House as one of the Virgin Atlantic Fastrack 100 fastest growing companies. This award was presented following an afternoon seminar on venture capital at Richard Branson's home.
The afternoon events were very inspiring and certainly gave me some new ideas and opportunities.
By coincidence, just a few weeks before, we had been awarded the contract to cater for the Virgin Megastore in London. This contract opens at the beginning of April and a manager had to be appointed.
Tall order
On reviewing the staffing requirements with Caroline Fry, our operations director, I stated that we needed a "Virgin manager". After confirming that this could be quite a tall order, an advert was placed in the London evening paper.
I later overheard an applicant on the phone, who I later discovered was Austrian. My secretary repeated the question he had asked. "What does the job entail? Well, cooking and overseeing the running of the contract."
"Cooking?" he asked.
"Why, yes."
"Oh! I thought it was a chief manager for the store!"
Perhaps he was after Richard's job.
When I write my diary, I try not to criticise the competition, as everyone has their own way of doing business. However, when a meeting was recently held with an outgoing contractor for a new contract gain, the sheer pettiness was quite embarrassing.
It is quite normal to meet and discuss handover details, which staff will be transferring under TUPE, what supplies and equipment will be removed, etc. This was being discussed between Caroline and the competitor's area manager. He confirmed it would be the coffee machine, computer and phone socket.
"Phone socket?" Caroline asked in disbelief.
It would seem that they had relocated the phone socket to accommodate the modem for their computer, and they wanted to ensure that they took everything with them.
And this was from a company which stated at the outset that it wanted to leave the contract on good terms and assist us in every way.
Next diary from Robyn Jones will be on 7 May
