After a long, interrupted day at the office of phone calls and emails due to our mass mail blunder today, I decided that I was due for a late night michelada (for our non-drinkers: i.e. a Dos Equis Beer with tomato juice, a lime, and a salted rim). 

This week marked my fourth year at Thunder Data, and January thankfully always brings our only quiet time of year to catch up and tie all loose ends.  At this time every year, we find ourselves with time on our hands to better our website and reflect on the previous year’s business sales, goals, and practices.  So, it is here I have found the time to inspect our own site for needed updates to our portfolio, page enhancements, search engine optimization and other general improvements. 

Like a carpenter’s home, our own site has sat neglected behind the day to day work of our clients.  So, with my laptop, great pub grub, and a michelada, our site received much needed attention.

As a tech company, we’re supposed to “mind our Ps and Qs” among all things technical.  (As a tangent, the term “Ps and Qs” refers to both diligence in your work or minding one’s manners.  With roots in the old Brittish pubs and referring to ”pints and quarts”, the term was used when too much brew caused misbehavior.)  Today, after I carefully crafted an informational tutorial for our ThunderBits section, we sent it out to our mailing list.

We haven’t been particularly diligent about using a mailing list to market ourselves even though we strongly suggest that our clients use mailing lists to roll out product ideas, helpful hints, and updates.  So, here we are, starting our 8th year in business, and we’ve used the mailing list less than a dozen times–all without a glitch until today.

Wouldn’t you know that an email address on our own server had an “auto-responder” indicating the recipient was on vacation.  Her email responded back to our list, in turn spawning yet another email to the list updating them about our  party’s whereabouts.   As loops go, our gal on vacation received a second email from our list notifying itself that our gal was out, and another loop began.  And again.  Twelve times.

It didn’t take long for our phone to ring and our Inboxes to fill up with requests to notify us of the error.  Thankfully, we realized the mistake early and stopped it quickly enough that only 12 spam messages went out.  But the whole fiasco was embarrassing, and I hope this type of public humiliation doesn’t happen again.

With that said, I’m drowning my sorrows at Sherlock’s in Austin, but I promise that while I drink my pints, I’ll mind my Ps and Qs!

“What items are we most profitable in?” 

Scott asked me that question a few weeks ago which set off a discussion about our primary project categories and the income derived from each: hosting related work (13%), ticketing software and customizations (13%), software development (43%) and website design (25%).  Then we looked at development time for processes required for the projects within each category.

For website design, we have created many scripts representing many, many hours of development that enable us to streamline our work.  For example, an image gallery used to take several hours, but a script that took the time, testing, and refinement of four people in this office reduced that task to a half hour.  Our editing software, PmWiki, once had an install process that took several hours.  Now, the task is five minutes. 

In addition to eliminating some of the tedium of required tasks, these helper scripts expedite delivery of websites, and the return is worth the effort it takes to produce them.  With all the extra time these scripts afford, we should be awash in extra profits, right?

When Scott asked the question about profitability, I thought a moment, and told him that these scripts enabled us to be more profitable because we still charged the full price for installation on these items, yet the labor was a fraction of the invoiced charge.  Then I had a jarring realization.

Websites are among our least profitable items for many reasons some of which I will save for another post.  Whatever the reason, we often find ourselves in a position where the clients want “just a little more” to be fully satisfied, and we often acquiesce.  Since Stacy handles most website sales, she is the one who hears these “final requests” and shares them with me.  Often, her justification for making the additions starts with, “Well, Dawn, remember they paid full price for the gallery, so we won’t lose money if we spend the extra time.” 

But what the client didn’t pay for was the time it took for us to create the scripts, and in cases where we extend the design or functionality of the site, the profits fly out the window.  Stacy has been notorious for this kind of no-cost upgrade request, and after years of this behavior, none of us realized we might actually be losing money! 

I am actually surprised that it took us so long to figure out this basic metric.  Over the last couple of years, we have really grown as a company, and we continuously strive to exceed performance goals set at the end of each year.  So, realizations such as this one are important milestones that help us achieve loftier heights. 

So, Scott’s question was an enlightening one, and our policy has changed.  We’ll be on the lookout for other profit-swallowing development costs as we prepare for yet another banner year as we strive to elevate performance and profits in 2008. 

I recently told Ross about a desire I’ve long held to try a Flash background for our website.  I hadn’t seen it elsewhere, and I wasn’t even sure it was possible.  Ross committed himself to the task, and sent me an email entitled, “I got it!” later that day.  Take a peek at the link–and you have to look closely for it’s very lightly colored and subtle animated background (http://thunderdev.com/flashbg ) along with his comment.

I have no idea if this is old news on the web, but for us, it’s new–and pretty darned cool from my talented artist!

Recently, I was invited to share some thoughts about myself and this business with the local community newspaper.  I thought this blog might be a good storage place for this miscellaneous data–just in case it never makes it to print.  :) 

Name:  Dawn Green

Place and date of birth:  Quincy, Massachusetts

Family members and what they do:  3 daughters at Westlake and Hill Country

Education:  BS Computer Science, Texas A&M, Corpus Christi

Occupation: Programmer/Project Manager

What’s your career ambition?   Every programmer or software development company strives to build great software.  Even better is to create software that incorporates enough functionality that it is sold repeatedly, a principle referred to as “write once, sell many.”  My goal is to develop a great software products that find a worldwide market. 

What is the latest project in which you are involved?   Our business developed a ticketing application that allows small venues–such as Zach-Scott Theater or the Westlake Chaps football program–to sell tickets online with the benefits of full reporting, assigned seating, and other important factors to venue management.  ThunderTix is the culmination of a few years of effort that is taking root and beginning to find an audience.

What is your favorite Westbank area business?  Westbank Flowers.  The first time I received roses from them, I was stunned by how beautiful they were.  When they began to wilt a day later, Keith, the owner, brought a new and equally beautiful batch.  Their arrangements and customer service have earned my repeat business!

Hobbies:  Taekwondo,  tennis, soccer, guitar, and reading everything!

What qualities in people draw you to be their friend?  My favorite people make me laugh, they inspire me, and they care about others.

I have a knack for:  Understanding the web and what it can do for a business.

The one thing I’d like to change about the Westbank is:  I’d put sidewalks on Bee Caves Road!   Most significant or interesting job:  The one I’m in.  I love my work!

Which of your professional or civic-oriented accomplishments make you the most proud?   Several years ago, several colleagues and I worked with a group dedicated to teaching young mothers and fathers how to parent.  We took their office from stone age to the digital age by procuring computers, network help, and all layers in between by soliciting donations from local businesses for labor and equipment.  The end result was immensely rewarding.

Excluding family members, who influenced you most and why?  There are too many people who have influenced me to name one.  In short, I have been most influenced and inspired by my colleagues.    What would you say is one interesting fact about you that people probably don’t know?   When I grow up, I want to be a woodworker!   

What is your fondest childhood memory?  Building tree forts with friends in the woods that surrounded my neighborhood.

A bad habit I have is:  You can see it in my waistline….beer!

My most humorous moment was:  When I was a teenager, I visited San Antonio with a friend.  Being from Boston, we were unfamiliar with the Texas twang–in particular, the pronunciation of the letter W as “dub-ya”.  One day, we laughed to the point of hysteria when we asked for directions and heard the location address:  “Ubby Dubby White Street.”  It wasn’t until my thirties that I saw the sign for W. W. White Street that I realized the street’s true name!   You can bet I called my friend and shared the news!

If you could sit down and ask questions of anyone (living or dead) who would it be and why?  I could not be more different than Martha Stewart, but I admire what she has done in business.  I would relish the opportunity to meet her, and learn about her challenges and successes.

My pet peeve is:  Waiting–especially if I have nothing to read.

In what historical event would you like to have participated?  Freeing the Jews from concentration camps.

What advice do you hope your child/children take(s) to heart?  Treat people like you want to be treated; don’t talk about others; and care!

Most exciting or dangerous thing I’ve ever done:  Lot’s of dumb things that I’m too embarrassed to share.

Besides raising children, life’s most challenging endeavor is:  Building a business while maintaining the respect and admiration of my coworkers and clients.

Is there anything in your lifetime that you passed up on doing and wish you had not?  I used to think I should have gone into the military, because I would have enjoyed the physical challenges, lifetime friendships, and camaraderie.  With the war we’re in today, I would give that decision a second thought, but back then, I wish I had joined.

How would you like to be remembered?  As a person that genuinely cares about others, and made others laugh.

Each time I logged out, I would be returned to a page that said, “You are not authorized to access this page.  There seemed to be a conflict with the access control for anonymous users (which upon logout, I became an anonymous user) and accessing the logout screen which seemed to be a “user only” page.

I have been working on a logout destination page.  As with other redirects based on requested pages, I had created a refresh page that directed users back to the home page in the page.tpl.php file:

 if ($_REQUEST['q'] == 'logout') {
        print ' ';
    }

The problem with the redirect is that I would still see the same message.  And trying to modify the access control for node content worked, but introduced the same message on other pages.  I also tried calling logout?destination=somepage without success.

After a long darned time, I realized that the problem could be found in administer/site configuration/site information where the default front page was stored.  When I modified that to not be one of the node pages, and instead directed it back to index.php, we were set! 

We have now created two sites using Drupal’s content management system.  The jury is still out as to whether the application is worthwhile.  Scott is a great programmer, and in many cases, I know he could build suitable applications in less time than it takes to figure out Drupal integration with hooks and themes and so on. 

But we’re committed to learning the basics and decided to track some of those details in this section for later review, and perhaps to serve as a guide to those also striving to learn the ins and outs of Drupal.

I won’t allow my coworkers to refer to me as “my boss.”  I can’t stand the term.  The word “bossy,” from which boss is derived, is defined in Merriam-Webster as “inclined to domineer” and synonymous with “dictatorial.”  That I am not!

On Thursday evening, I met a few friends for a beer at the Irish-themed Fado pub, and one of the young women present said that in addition to never having been thanked for her efforts, she commented, “I have had probably ten managers in my life, and not one of them has inspired me!” 

To me, those who ”boss” are not managers.  And managers who dole out thankless assignments without inspiration are merely bosses and not leaders.  I’d like to believe that I help to inspire the people with whom I work, and I know they inspire me.  I also believe it is that rapport and respect for each other that make this business–and by extension, me–look good. 

My goal in the workplace is twofold:  help our clients realize the potential of their businesses with web-based applications, and to lead this phenomenal group of coworkers to such heights that their pride has them reaching even further. 

So the word “boss” is forbidden here.  We are coworkers and colleagues who take turns inspiring and leading each other.  I cannot imagine that our success is incidental to this core and fundamental respect. 

There’s more than one way to get lucky, and we got lucky twice!  We have two new and extremely talented guys joining our currently-estrogen-leaning office to give our ranks a slight testosterone tilt.  The cool thing about our new team members is they are tailor made for this office and both fit my ”perfect candidate” profile–passionate about their respective art and practicing it since they can remember.

Ross Abel just wrapped up four years at UT - Austin earning his B.A. in Fine Arts after initially intending to get his degree in computer science.   Ross invited us to view his and fellow classmates’ final projects at UT’s Senior Design Show ‘07.  For his project, Ross had created a full marketing campaign for a would-be vegan restaurant, Roots.  Slick brochures, creative copy, and a wholly inventive project left us excited about having Ross on board, and we look forward to him setting new boundaries for the creative side of TDS.  The countdown is on for Ross’ start date in two weeks!

In a serendipitous and chance meeting, Stacy spoke with Lynn Rosier, Westlake High School’s computer science teacher, about our interest in hiring an intern over the summer.  He directed an extremely bright and gifted Jeff Wheeler our way, and this 16 year old kid was eager to start programming the day he walked in.  Jeff is geekier than our Scott, and lives and breathes code.  He visibly lights up when discussing hardware/software integration.  In what is sure to be a super relationship, Scott is looking forward to learning from this future electrical engineer, and vice-versa.

We’ll encourage our new guys to post their opininions, ideas, and know-how in the future, so stay tuned!

At my previous job there wasn’t much need for developing screen shots to show the client because often times I was the client. Or even when I wasn’t the client, the people I was developing for were so happy to have something, that anything I came up with, no matter how clunky, was perceived as the best thing ever.

Recently, I had to develop screen shots for a client to help nail down what their interface looked like and how it would work. We started with a few screens that I thought were a reasonable approximation of what the client needed. The client even thought the screens were pretty close to what they needed. Over the course of a week however, we scrapped almost all of the original screens and created some new screens that didn’t exist before. This wasn’t unexpected, but it did drive home the point that clients don’t know what they want until you show it to them.