Chapter 31

“Can we talk business while we eat?” asked Sarah of her new family gathered around the breakfast table.

“Well, we usually do,” replied Nancy.

“Those are usually of a general nature. I’m a little new, no make that very new, to installing a system like the one for Wood’s Real Estate Offices. To be honest, I am anxious to see it succeed but also concerned about it falling on its face. Even so once they are comfortable with it, I plan on resigning.”

Nancy expression quickly turned to a worried one as she said, “What do you plan on doing?”

“Not sure. A security firm expressed interest in me some time back, so perhaps they still interested in me working for them full-time,” replied Sarah just barely keeping a smile off her face.

“Sarah, I think you really deserve a vacation,” said Sally.

“Only if the three of you go with me.”

“Wait, who has offered you a position?” asked Nancy then hurriedly added, “We will match it.” Nancy’s face showed her anxiety.

Joyce let her hang for a few moments then said, “Mom, I think you did.”

Nancy quickly glanced around the table. The only ones not smirking were the six newest ladies. She laughed, “Well, I guess I over reacted to that one.” Everyone laughed as Nancy blushed.

Adam looked over at the newest members of their group and said, “When Mom offered Sarah a position some time ago, Sarah indicated she wanted to return to real estate firm, even though it wasn’t as an agent, to see whether she still liked it. Then if it didn’t work she would accept the offer to work for N&R and mom agreed.”

“Thanks, Adam,” said Zoe with the others nodding. “We are pleased that we are joining this enterprise as well. This is an area none of us expected to find interesting or to work in.”

“Sarah, how can we help out?” asked Belinda. “I don’t know that any of us can help with the system and hardware but we can certainly fetch, carry and hold.”

“You certainly can,” said Rusty smiling as he nodded to Bob. “That will allow better staffing on the project Bob and Stan are overseeing this coming weekend. You realize that we will probably put in some really long hours on the final weekend then have to be on hand Monday morning.”

“How computer literate are you guys?” asked Sarah.

Melody looked at the others then said, “Above average, I think. Maybe advanced users, why?”

“The weakest point we have at the moment is distributing the agents’ new laptops, iPads and iPhones. We want to do it on Friday, and have scheduled the agents to be in the office at specific times. In looking at what is required I now see that it would be better to have two people in each office. With your help, we can easily do that and not weaken our effort in completing other tasks.”

“Bob,” said Lana, “are there other things we can do here to help them out?”

“Yes. Sally and Rusty are heading the effort here to prep the equipment for installation. This includes the laptops, iPads and iPhones Sarah mentioned. So why don’t you help them? The benefit is it would acquaint you with what is involved in configuring them and familiarize you with how we do these projects. In this case, it would prepare you for assisting on Friday with the distribution to the agents.”

“Cool,” said Zoe, “the life of leisure was getting boring.”

“Sally, Terry and I,” said Rusty, “intend to have the network hardware up and running today. Software will be installed and running tomorrow. At that point, it becomes a little tedious as we need to configure users as well as prep the agents’ toys. So this is an area, where the additional hands will be of great value.”

“Is everyone comfortable with that?” asked Sarah.

“What are you worried about?” asked Stan.

“I’m not worried. I just trying to make sure the naysayers eat their hats come Monday morning.” Everyone laughed.

“We can help out,” said Joyce with Adam nodding in agreement.

“How are you doing in training the administrators?” asked Julia.

“Really well I think. Margaret will become the primary system administrator. Currently she is the receptionist but has been an agent. Her role will change when the new system goes live. Each office will have their own, but they are secondary to Margaret. We have a backup for Margaret but he is not yet fully trained.”

“So you are set on the people side.”

“I think so. Thankfully Cynthia has limited her activity to just monitoring our progress. Several agents in the main office are very supportive of the effort. I keep looking for the item we missed.”

“We need to leave for school,” said Adam. “Sally, we’ll look for you or Rusty when we get home to see where we can help out.”

“Okay. This conversation has given me some ideas for those working with Rusty, Terry and I to discuss a little later.”

“I need to be leaving to before too long,” said Sarah.

“Sarah,” said Zoe, “why are you leaving the real estate business?”

“After this project is done, the position I am in is essentially the business manager for the firm. The part of the job I liked was selling. I suspect it was because of the interaction with people. An agent’s purpose is to try to match them with the best opportunity on the market that meets their needs and desires. Surprisingly the sense of satisfaction I get is the same one I got when I performed.”

“Performed?”

“Yes. I did erotic dancing as a way to fund my college education. In both cases, you know immediately when you’ve been successful in doing your best.”

“There is more to the real estate situation,” said Trina. “Isn’t there?”

“The simple answer is yes. That all seems to be in the past, however I feel an undercurrent and haven’t figured out why.” Rusty and Sally nodded. “So I’m ready to leave. With the completion of this project I feel I will leave the organization better than it was.”

Sarah was standing with Margaret at her desk as they watched Sally and Rusty leave after dropping off the items for the agents.

“You are really close to your friends,” said Margaret.

“Why do you say that?”

“There is a change in you whenever they are nearby and it is a good change. Between you and me, this project is just what this operation needs.”

“I just hope it works like we think it will. Our first appointment is in half an hour so we need to get organized. Are you sure you are going to have enough time to help?”

“Definitely. The agents on the floor are going to monitor incoming calls, well at least until we get all the toys distributed.”

“I’ll bet James and Stewart had a hand in that.”

“Yes, but they didn’t twist any arms.”

Sarah was just finishing showing Cynthia the ins and outs of her new system when Margaret came to the door and said, “Cynthia, Sylvia is here.”

“Oops, I had forgotten about that. Show her in.”

Sarah said, “I think we’ve covered everything and since you have a visitor why don’t I slip out of here?”

“Stay for a bit. I should introduce you to Sylvia. Besides being a friend, we’ve assisted her with real estate issues from time to time.”

“Hello, Cynthia,” said Sylvia. “I hope I am not interrupting something.”

“No. Besides it’s good to see you again. Sylvia this is Sarah Kelly my assistant. She is the person behind our new system.”

“Sarah, it’s nice to meet you. Cynthia has said a lot of good things about you.”

“Thank you,” said Sarah as she shook hands with the woman, the hair on the back of her neck stood up. “I hope the new setup lives up to expectations.”

“From what Cynthia has told me it seems like a well thought out system. The one thing I’m puzzled about is giving the agents laptops, iPads and iPhones. It seems like too much.”

“They fill three different purposes for an agent. By having each of them the agent’s efficiency increases, well presuming they use them for the appropriate role. Each one has features that overlap the others but using the secondary features can be awkward and inefficient.”

“Okay,” replied Sylvia with a perplexed expression.

“Let’s start off with the iPhone. It is best as a smart phone. Yes you can get your email, browse the web, get directions and a few other nice features. However, it can be awkward to respond to anything more than a short email. It is difficult to share browsing results with your client.

“The iPad is more useful for responding to email. With it you can easily show clients internet browsing results or other listings, besides it has a few other useful features. No customer data other than name and preferences are stored on the iPad.

“We save the laptop for contracts and other documents requiring confidential information. It is encrypted on the laptop and during transfer to the office. Actually the data is not stored on the laptop at all, and temporary files are purged when the application closes.

“The three items are tools for the agents who are paying for them. As long as they abide by certain requirements, their tools will connect to the servers.”

“An interesting approach, I’ll be interested in seeing how it works out.”

“Me too,” replied Sarah with a smile.

“I’m surprised you have some doubts,” said Cynthia.

“I have no doubt that what we are setting up will do what we want it to. It is the user side that gives me reason to cross my fingers and a few other bits. All of your staff are quite happy with what they’ve seen. Beginning Monday, we will see how happy they are to use it. It will take some adjustment on their part which we think we’ve reduced to a tolerable level. If we are successful, in a short time they will wonder how they managed before having these tools.”

“Good luck,” said Sylvia with a smile.

“So how can I help you today?” asked Cynthia.

“I’ve been thinking about our discussion regarding my property issues and have come to agree with you. Do you have someone who could assist me? I realize there wouldn’t always be a commission so is there a way to set up a retainer or fee arrangement.”

Cynthia picked up the phone then said, “Margaret, would you see if Dorothy has a few minutes to stop in my office?”

A few moments later Dorothy stuck her head in the door and said, “Cynthia, are you looking for me?”

“Yes. Dorothy, this is Sylvia a friend of mine. I would like for you to assist help her with some property issues.”

“What kind of issues?”

“Insurance, upkeep, permits, sales, purchases, etc. Your compensation would be a retainer plus by the hour or task unless we can come up with a better approach.”

“Well, I really haven’t had much experience with some of those,” replied Dorothy hesitantly and a lack of enthusiasm. “I guess we could try it for a while.”

“I would really appreciate it,” replied Sylvia with a smile offered her hand to Dorothy.

“Thank you, Dorothy,” said Cynthia.

As she watched the exchange Sarah thought, “Dorothy doesn’t like Sylvia any more than I do. She would have blown off the request except the boss asked for her help in front of her friend. I wonder what Rusty, Sally or Terry would think of Sylvia.”

“How are we coming with the system?” said Cynthia.

“We’ve distributed everything to the agents in this office. I will know in an hour or so about the other offices. All the agents understand that the toys will become active for business use sometime late Sunday. The receptionist in each office will be in for a few hours Sunday evening to run through adding some entries to the system.”

“I’m looking forward to Monday.”

“So am I. If you don’t need me for anything else, I have some tasks to check on.”

“No. I will be leaving in an hour or so. Call me if you have an issue.”

“Certainly. Sylvia, it was good to meet you.”

“It was good to meet you as well.”

Late Sunday afternoon in the main real estate office, Sarah turned to Sally and wrapped her in a hug as she said, “We did it!” As they hugged Terry and Rusty joined in the hugging.

Melody and Zoe were watching with smiles. Margaret who was next to them said, “Those four seem to be really close.”

“I’ve never seen four people as close as they are,” replied Zoe.

“What’s even more amazing,” added Melody, “is that they’ve only really known each other for a few weeks and they talk and act like twins.”

“I noticed Sarah and Sally frequently complete each other’s thoughts,” said Margaret. “It flows so smoothly it took me a while to realize what they were doing.”

“Margaret,” said Sarah, “would you email and text the agents telling them the system is up?”

“With great pleasure.”

“Once you’ve done that, I think we can call it a day.”

“Are all of you going to be in the offices on Monday?” asked Margaret.

“Yes. They will be there to assist. However, I think, everyone really wants to see it in operation.”

“Good.”

“While you’re doing that let everyone know that we are done for the day,” said Sarah. “After you do that go home, as I suspect tomorrow will be quite busy.”

“I will.”

While they were eating breakfast Monday morning Zoe said, “Sarah, Sally is there anything special you want us to do at the offices today?”

“Not really,” responded Sarah. “I suspect most of the issues will be with finding stuff.”

“Most of the ones we’ve worked with seem to have a good grasp of how the system works. Although I guess knowing and using can be different perspectives. I am sure some issues will bounce back to Sally, Rusty and you.”

“I wish we could see it,” said Joyce. “It seems like missing the last chapter of a story.”

“I agree,” responded Lana.

“Well if you are going to do that,” said Sarah, “let’s all meet at s’Moria around 5. They have a meeting room we can use so we can go over today’s activity and have a nice dinner.”

“Think that will be late enough?” asked Trina.

“Should be. Cynthia asked everyone to come in today to check their active listings, active contracts, contacts and appointments. This will give us a good stress test of the system as the activity will be well above normal.”

“We need to be going,” said Rusty.

After glancing at the clock Sarah added, “Gosh. It is later than I thought.”

“You all go on,” said Nancy. “We can clean up here. See you tonight.”

“Thanks,” replied the group as they began to leave.

It was nearly 6 PM when Sarah, Rusty, Sally and Terry entered s’Moria to find nearly everyone already there. Zoe said, “We were beginning to wonder about you guys.”

“We had the same concern for a little bit. Fortunately, we found the issue.”

“What was wrong?”

“We had a problem with a database script. It turned out it was a semi-colon that shouldn’t have been there.”

“Only one?” asked Belinda with a smile.

“Oh. No. This was just the most difficult one,” replied Rusty. “There were several others but they were much easier to find and fix.”

“So how did you all do?”

“I think it went very well,” replied Zoe. “Most of the questions were about where to find things. In the office where we were, all we did was sort of guide the agents when they had difficulty. Some of those who had difficulty during the training, didn’t have any issues.”

“The biggest issue we saw,” added Belinda, “was navigating through the system. To me those seem to be similar to starting to work in a new office. Although in this case I think you all did a great job in not making many changes to the work flow. This aspect drew several positive comments from the agents. On second thought, it was more than several. A few who had difficulty were making it more difficult than it was.”

“Does anyone object to me recording our discussion while we eat?” asked Sarah.

“I don’t,” said Lana. “Think you will be able to understand it.”

“I thought it would help me by refreshing items my memory on what we talk about. Besides this way we can eat and enjoy ourselves.” Sarah tapped a glass with a spoon then when it was quiet said, “While we are all here, I want to express my thanks for your assistance with this project. I am very glad you were able to assist today as it kept a lot of frustration at bay. I am greatly indebted to each of you. Also, Cynthia was very very happy today when we left. Again thanks.”