Customer's Web Based CAR (Corrective Action Request) Systems

[bpritts]

hello, again alienyst!

Based on what you said about the customer being inflexible, demanding,
and unwilling to compromise I still think that they're an automotive company
in disguise!
Anyway, best of luck with this situation.

Brad

 

[Alienyst]

Their customer may be automotive, I don't know. The company I work for produces metallized film (polypropylene, polyester, polyphenylsulfide, polycarbonate, etc.) that is used in wound film capacitor, lighting ballast, battery (electric car, portable power, emergency defibrillator) applications. Anyone running a PC with an Intel Pentium II or above has capacitors on their motherboard manufactured with film from our plant produced by a customer of ours (these capacitors resolved the problems the first class pentiums had with power spikes and static failures).

 

[David Hartman]

to 'paste' came from their website.
3 - all issues of incompatibility and inconvenience have been addressed with specific requests to the customer for assistance/guidance to make sure their requirements were going to be met under the current circumstances (no internet at work) and the only reply was "your on-line problems are not a concern of ours. We are demanding (yes, they said demanding) that you get access at work." The problem is we here in the Berkshires have some of the oldest copper lines and ancient phone systems (making DSL out of the question) in the country. And since the plant is on the east side of the railroad tracks, I cannot get a cable modem (they cannot cross the tracks). Satellite has been investigated, but since the plant is also nestled along side a mountain (on three sides) and a river on the fourth, they could not get a signal response strong enough to even recognize a simple network response command.

I have looked at the source code of their system on a visit to their facility to specifically address this issue. I was looking for a way to allow my databases (in Access) to communicate directly with theirs (a canned package they purchased from a company in Germany. Finally my German came in handy, much to their surprise. I actually ended up translating about a dozen technical bulletins they had received that were all in German.) I did locate a port on their system that would allow the two systems to communicate. But their IT people will not open it due to security reasons (it also allows access to their root so I kind of don't blame them.) I also discovered two ways to disable the cut and paste limitations. But again their IT people would not allow the changes again citing security reasons. (NOTE: I also checked the servers location in relation to the rest of the companies computers. It is isolated so security is only on the server itself which is entirely encrypted. Even the root you get access to is not decipherable just by being there. Apparently it is the only computer within the domain of this one IT guy. He seems very retentive in a posterior way.)

Alienyst,

Welcome to the Cove!

In past experiences I have taken such issues up the chain of command, not yours - but theirs. I would document the situation (much as you have here) and send it to their President/CEO (ensure that you define your response time, before the change over to their new system as well as after). Offer your suggestions for improving their system (making it more user friendly, and providing them the information they need sooner). Above all, clearly spell out the response that you have been receiving from their organization.

The results could be: pressure from on-high forcing corrective action to their problem, pressure from on-high forcing corrective action to your problem (better access/communications), or (least likely) some form of reprimand for "irritating" the wasps nest.

Best of luck to you!

 

[blainehilton]

Don't fill it in, have your system do it for you

Another possibility that I don't believe has been mentioned is implementing "bridge" software that can act as a middle person and make your system speak to their system. The cleanest way to do something like this is a direct connection to their system. However, since they will not allow this it is easy enough to have some scripts created that will basically as you and fill in their forms and submit it, but it would be a script running from your own system.

The main problem with this type of system is that you would need to be careful when your customer changes their system that yours is modified in like fashion.