Sometimes you are looking right at something and you can’t see its importance. Ty and I had a really cool experience last week, and I didn’t even realize how cool it was. We’ve been working on two client projects. Both in the DFW metroplex. One near Fort Worth. One in Plano. 40 miles apart. We have been working the projects based on our knowledge, skills, abilities, interests, etc. However, it’s well documented that I’m not the most savvy guy on the Microsoft networking and OS stuff, so I look to Ty when, for example, I can’t figure out why an OLAP cube isn’t working right in MS Project Server 2003.
Whatever. I found myself not getting the OLAP cube to work. I had deadlines on my project. Ty had client commitments. He also had a new team member joining his project. I had been trying to get Ty to swing by my project location for a couple of days, but it was obvious that it wasn’t going to happen. So, back up plan time. Let me set the context:
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Ty had been working remote with his team through Groove… editing documents and using the secure chat that was the only chat session that the team on the client site could get through their firewall.
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Ty and I have bought hook, line, and sinker into EVDO for broadband wireless, so Ty was using Groove to collaborate with his team and he was helping me troubleshoot through the OLAP situation on IM.
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When we exhausted all options through IM, we pulled together a GoToMyPC session. While Ty and I planned his troubleshooting session on IM, he logged onto our client’s network through a GoToMyPC session and fixed the OLAP cube.
None of the three of us involved in this situation ever spoke live. We lived out this whole collaborative business experience. We lived virtual client service. How cool is that.
