This week, I was able to successfully and quickly enter new requests into the database during our meeting, identifying some things to adjust/add and still feeling good about it. Who knows, maybe we will actually go-live with this thing in 2013! 1 month ago

Another “go to” meeting on this today and it went well. I was a bit concerned because when I sent my preliminary comments in yesterday, my contact person got all prickly and reminded me that said, in part “remember what we said with the new redesign you cannot look at this like the old system…” to which I replied that yes, I understood that but that I also understood that the new system needs to be functional to meet our needs. This did not give me a warm fuzzy feeling going into our meeting. Then, I connected to the meeting and no one was there and I was thinking, “Wow, did I really piss her off or what?” I waited 10 minutes and hung up the phone and then about a minute later, they were on my computer screen so I dialed back in. They had been there the whole time but they could not see that I was there as well. Ah, technology. Anyway, we finished the meeting and we agreed to all of the points that I had made in my email yesterday and I heaped praise on them “I really think we are going in the right direction here. MILES ahead of where we were when we started on this. I really think this is going to work. I can’t wait until you clear out the old data and let me try some fresh data.” And I meant it. Now, I am just going to have to get my [reluctant/resistant to change] staff to follow the rules of the new system and I have a plan for that. We will start of with some samples in development and I will be able to print out tables to see where the problems are and we can fix those things before they become bad habits instead of mistakes! 2 months ago

Seriously, I am very, very glad I insisted on getting this right before I would accept it. We had another GoTo meeting about the database this morning and further winnowed the number of screens required to enter one request! I still need to have some success with entering multiple requests but I think this might be really close now! When we started, one request required about 12 screens and mutliple duplications of data entry. Now, I think I have gotten rid of all of the duplications and I think it can be done in maybe 4 easy screens. Not bad. 3 months ago

I worked in the database for a while today and, I don’t want to be too optimistic but I really think it might be just about ready. Okay, so there are a few kinks and quirks they need to work out but compared to what they first tried to shove down my throat more than 4 years ago, this version is really, really good! They have reduced the number of screens I have to go to to enter a single request and they have recognized that a lot of the info we will be entering is recurring/duplicate details and they have given me easy access to it! Oh, I hope this is real! 3 months ago

I am ready to try some new sample entries and see if we haven’t got this thing close to ready for me. Fingers crossed. I will know better tomorrow when I spend some quality time with it! 3 months ago

I know, right? It has been on my list for YEARS now. Today, I had a meeting with IT, including the most recent genius who is trying to make this new database even remotely user friendly and guess what? It actually seems like maybe, just maybe, this one gets it! I haven’t had a chance to do any test entries yet but it looks a lot less cumbersome. We will meet again on Tuesday and then I will get some practice runs in and then we will see where it goes. But I might just be able to retire this one before the end of 2013. Wouldn’t that be nice! 3 months ago

They are pressuring me to move on with this. I have been swamped with other things (for the past four years!) and put this at the bottom of my list because the database I have now works PERFECTLY FINE!!!! Still, they say because it is Access, they can’t support it anymore and if it crashes, I am dead meat. So, I have promised (again, for the 10,000th time) to give them all of my feedback and have it fully tested by the end of the year. We’ll see (which is what my mother always told me when what she reall meant was “NO WAY IN HELL IS THAT GONNA HAPPEN!) 8 months ago

It has been many months since IT showed me anything on the new database and today was supposed to be the big reveal. But instead of a face-to-face, hands on meeting, they switched to a “go to” meeting where I did not have the opportunity to explore and understand. But that wasn’t the worst of it. The worst of it was this: I have told them in every meeting that we have had in the three years I have been working with them on this that the word “Invoice” is an inaccurate and, indeed, incorrect apellation for the records we enter and that I wanted it removed from all headings. So, what is right there, big as day on the main menu bar on the home page of the database? You guessed it “COURT INVOICE.” Now, I ask you, how am I to trust that they have made all of the other very detailed changes we discussed if they can’t even make such an obvious one on the front page? Oh, this meeting did not go well…not at all… 22 months ago

Can you believe it? As long as I have been waiting for this stupid database and I got tied up on some last minute crises and missed the meeting! Oh, well, we have rescheduled and I set a reminder in both of my email accounts. 23 months ago

Yeah, so, the last time I wrote on this was after a meeting with IT in early April. The goal at that time was to have the new database ready for inhouse testing starting July 1. And then…nothing. Not another word from them til I finally sent them a message last week and said, “Hey, what the heck is going on?” SO they set up a meeting for last Thursday. Then cancelled it and asked to meet on Friday. THen cancelled it. Now they say we will meet on the 24th. Not holding my breath. 23 months ago