One of the tasks I got to do while I was there was create some web pages on justice as it’s an area of interest to us and our customers just now. This was really interesting because it meant that I got to do some research on different justice systems and how they work. The worrying part came when I was told I would be doing something I’m scared of… writing any sort of computer code! However learning HTML was the only way forward if I wanted to get my information onto the web. It wasn’t easy though, by missing just one tiny closed bracket on a page it’s possible to make everything appear in the wrong order, out of line or disappear entirely and when you miss out several like I did, things begin to look a bit crazy!  Luckily for me Jill the website wizard (or guru as she prefers) was full of useful information and helpful tips. So with a little help I got the web pages up and running.

I got to help with various other things too but the reason that I enjoyed making the web pages so much was because it was something I got to take right the way through to the end and the result is there to see. Also much to my surprise I actually enjoyed learning code turns out it’s not so difficult after all (if you remember the brackets)!

Only one more department to go then I’ll have made it all the way round the company. Who knows what I’ll get to do then!

Preparing for MASHnet was really interesting although a little stressful as I had to make sure everything was ready in plenty of time. Being at a conference gives companies a good opportunity to get their name out – but you don’t want people to remember you for the wrong reason i.e. because something went wrong. Anyway, I got it all sorted and along with Fiona (one of our consultants) and Claire (our lead for Health care) I flew down to London for my first conference experience. Again, I think this is a really good indication that when you join SIMUL8 you are given big responsibility early on, speaking to potential customers and representing the company – not bad considering I joined SIMUL8 only 2 months beforehand.

Marketing secondment done. Time for development.

Although SIMUL8 2011 is still top secret, it is quite strange to think that something I designed during my time in development could make its way into the new release. It just goes to show that once you start working you get the opportunity to have an impact straight away.

So I survived development without breaking any software or destroying any code. Little did I know that my experience of code writing was still to come…

But back to the SIMUL8 stuff…My first Development assignment was to look back over my secondments in Sales, Services and Marketing and identify a project that I could tackle that would help one (or all!) of the teams. The current situation within the teams was that Sales dealt with various customer enquiries via an online system and similarly Services dealt with various support queries on an online helpdesk. There were situations where support queries would arrive on the sales system and vice-versa but there was no way of transferring them to the appropriate team. So the Customer Service Desk (CSD) was born!

Over the past couple of months I have created an entire new system from scratch, one which is crucial to the day-to-day business of the company. It exactly meets our needs and can be easily expanded to grow with the company, allowing the teams to communicate more closely and provide a consistently high level of customer service. When I consider that some of my friends who have recently graduated and now work for massive global investment banks and suchlike have only been allowed to add a couple of lines of code to company systems, this seems like an amazing responsibility! It feels great to know that I designed and implemented a system which is so central to the company – although this greatness can turn to terror if anything ever goes wrong – Eek!

I’m already working on something else really exciting, so watch this space!

I wasn’t however left on my own, instead the consultants (who aren’t so scary after all) were really helpful and guided me through the main steps required to build a simulation, and despite the fact that I am relatively new to simulation, I managed to finish and perfect my model in time for MASHnet. Job done!

One of the really good (but slightly daunting) aspects of the project was knowing that my model was going to be displayed at the MASHnet conference. However, I guess at the same time as being daunting, it was reassuring to know that you don’t have to work at SIMUL8 Corporation for years before you’re given real responsibility.

Services secondment over – time for marketing!

My main task was to design a model for YouSIMUL8: the world’s first simulation sharing website that we created recently. We chose a hot topic from the press – the launch of the Barclays Bikes scheme in London – and created a model of a similar proposed scheme in Edinburgh, Scotland. Thankfully I was able to put my new simulation building skills that I acquired during my Services team secondment to good use!

You can try out the model at: http://yousimul8.com/watch.php?x=4c6cea1a4cc22

Although I have to admit the most fun thing I did was design t-shirts for our SIMUL8 mascot dogs, Roxy and Duke – all in a good day’s work!

The first difficulty was that we are moving office (as I wrote during a previous entry). This means that the business cards that we order now will not be useful in a month’s time. The other thing is that we might be having a new fax number and finally we had to decide on my job title. And I figured ordering business cards was just a matter of sending an email to our business services manager. Well, we decided that it would be best to include our new address on the business card, although this might mean that people try to contact us at the new address, while we are still located at the old one, not to include a fax number on the business card (everyone uses email anyway) and my official job title now is consultant.

This dilemma was multiplied by four since all new colleagues were to have new business cards. My questions also triggered the question when to order new business cards for the rest of the team and since we were to promote youSIMUL8.com we ended up a discussion about promotion materials for this website as well. You see, a proper consultant is able to raise more questions than he can answer.

Something funny happened while writing this blog. I wanted to peak into my box of business cards to get the details right and when I opened my box with cards I noticed that all cards in my box belonged to a colleague. I started to get worried because I have already handed out quite a few. Luckily it turns out that the company that made these cards mixed half of the boxes up and put half of my business cards in her box and vice versa. Thankfully I spotted this error in the office rather than during a meeting. I can already hear people saying that I don’t really look like a Suzanne.

Suzanne or Sander, either way I am pleased with my new business cards. Although it is just a tiny thing for a company, it acknowledges your permanence as an employee.