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XYZ Systems Consulting: Transcript with Hugh Generic

XYZ SYSTEMS CONSULTING

CONSULTATION: XYZ Systems Consulting and Generic Financial

Transcript of conversation between Hugh Generic (HG), of Generic Financial Services

and Mary Prince (MP) of XYZ Systems Consulting discussing the computer network

needed for Generic’s planned offices.

(MP) Good morning Hugh. Tell me a little about your company.

(HG) Generic Financial Services is going to be the preeminent provider of low cost

mortgage services in its region. We will offer mortgages to homebuyers, specializing in

first time buyers and problem credit clients. We’ll make our profits by strictly controlling

costs. Rather than having a large staff of brokers and secretaries to sell financing

packages to each customer, I will keep the staff small and rely upon technology to let

the customers sell themselves on the mortgages they want. Customers will need to

enter their own mortgage applications online and approvals or denials will be sent

electronically. The loan decisions will be made at the home office by the lending

committee; However, committee members will not always be in the office and will

need to access the database from wherever they may be on a daily basis.

(MP) How many offices will there be?

(HG) Eight. The first two will open in Boise, Idaho and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Boise

location is the home office.

(MP) Where will the other office be?

(HG) One in Montana, two in Wyoming, two in North Dakota and one more in South

Dakota in Rapid City.

(MP) How many people will be in the home office?

(HG) To start, three brokers and two admin assistants to handle administrative issues

company wide.

(MP) How many people will be in the other offices?

(HG) Each office will have 2 – 3 brokers. Each of the brokers will work on commission

and will provide their own laptop computers. The company will provide the networks,

Internet access, printers, fax and telephones for each office. In addition to the brokers,

each location will have an experienced receptionist in the office from 8am – 5pm

Monday through Friday to open and close the office, greet clients, answer the phone

and take care of local record keeping.

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XYZ Systems Consulting: Transcript with Hugh Generic

(MP) How much physical space will the offices occupy?

(HG) They’ll range in size from about 800 square feet to around 1200 square feet.

(MP) Do you have any idea how the offices will be laid out?

(HG) Most of the offices haven’t been leased yet. We’ve identified spaces that we

would like to occupy, but the details aren’t finalized. The spaces we’re looking at are

located on the ground floor either in office parks on strip office building in the

downtown areas of the selected cities. Being on the ground floor has a number of

advantages, but, with the right location and lease package, we would consider a

space on a higher floor of an office building. For example, the Boise office is already

leased. As the home office, it needed more space since it will handle the administrative

needs of the whole company, and we’ve got just under 1200 square feet.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t find that much space on the ground floor in the right

location in the city. We actually ended up occupying two spaces in the building. On

the ground floor, we’ve got an 800 square foot space where the brokers will meet the

customers. The last tenant did a beautiful job in finishing the space – a lot of oak

paneling and hardwood flooring. We don’t want to change a thing. The administrative

people will work up on the 7th floor in a space that is just under 300 square feet. We’ll

have to figure out some way to connect the admin staff with the brokers so that we’re

not running up and down the stairs or calling back and forth on the telephone to

exchange information.

(MP) How about the Sioux Falls location?

(HG) We just signed the lease on the Sioux Falls office. It is 900 square feet on the

ground floor in a strip office building. The space is just one large room right now. The

landlord has given us an allowance for TIs and we’re looking for someone to help us

with the design layout.

(MP) Do you see any areas in the offices that will be devoted to specific needs?

(HG) Well, each office will have a file storage area, a computer/phone area, and

private meeting area for client broker meetings. Depending on the office size and the

budgets for Tenet Improvements, some of the locations will have private offices, while

others will have cubes with one or two private meeting rooms. Each office will also have

a client waiting area, and each of these waiting areas will have self-serve kiosks with

computers that can be used by clients to access the company’s website and their own

personal applications. The customer area will be 200 – 300 square feet, but needs to be

designed in such a way to allow clients enough space to maintain their privacy while

entering information into the computer.

(MP) Are there any security concerns you feel need to be addressed?

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XYZ Systems Consulting: Transcript with Hugh Generic

(HG) Since we are dealing with personal financial information, I am quite concerned

about security. I don’t want to face a lawsuit from a disgruntled client because the

client’s identity was stolen or even get a letter from a couple telling us that their

personal information was posted on the Internet. All the technology that will be

implemented has to be on the leading edge when it comes to security. We also want

to implement some kind of internal security system so that not every employee can

access all of the company’s clients’ information. So, security is very important. We

realize it won’t be cheap to secure our information, but we can’t spend all our money

on security and not have our other technological needs met. In addition to technical

security, I am concerned with physical security of the computer systems, but I don’t

really understand how we can protect our information but still provide access to clients

in the office. Each office has to have a separate location to keep all the computers

and other equipment. I am so concerned about the various security issues because I

know that the success of the company will be based on the clients’ perceptions of how

their personal information is kept private in addition to how well I can service their

mortgage needs.

(MP) What are the surrounding neighborhoods like?

(HG) The Boise office is in a downtown area of Boise dominated by different banks.

There are a few trendy restaurants and coffee shops nearby. The Sioux Falls office is on

the edge of a residential neighborhood. It is along two main streets that have a number

of insurance companies and mortgage brokers in store front offices. There are some

coffee shops and a number of fast food restaurants nearby. There is a hyper market

store about a block away. Both offices are fairly close to Interstate highways.

(MP) What kind of technology are you envisioning?

(HG) The plan is to have a company website that can be accessed either from the in-

office kiosks or online that customers can use for self-service until they can be seen by

one of the office brokers. This website will need to have access to the latest interest

rates, financial calculators and other information that a person applying for a home

mortgage might be interested in accessing while waiting for their broker. Each office’s

network should be connected to the home office, but I’m not sure of the best way to

accomplish this interoffice connectivity. I want to be able to be in any of the offices

and be able to access the data the same way, no matter which office I happen to be

in. Another reason that offices’ networks must be connected to each other is that we

will create our own client database and I want to be sure that each mortgage

application is stored in a central location so that it can be reviewed by the committee

wherever we might be. However, I’ve read about what happened to the companies

directly affected by the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and am concerned with

disaster recovery. We must have some kind of redundancy in each office. I know that

there are several levels of redundancy; That each computer can have redundant

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XYZ Systems Consulting: Transcript with Hugh Generic

components to improve its availability; And that each network can have duplicate

parts to allow automatic failover should a problem occur with a particular component.

I want to be sure that we don’t have a system problem just because one piece of

equipment failed. Some of the committee members are interested in wireless

computers, but as I said earlier, security is our chief concern. I mean, how can I tell my

clients that their data is secure when people in other offices could access my network?

So, unless you can really demonstrate that wireless is secure, I’m not interested in

hearing about how great wireless can be. I know a little about databases, so I want to

have a powerful one that can help increase the profitability of the company while at

the same time be easy for the employees to access the information they need. The

database needs to be fast enough so that no one is waiting too long for the computer

to respond with the information needed to answer a client’s question. Since the

database will contain virtually all the information about the company and its clients, we

need to have it backed up regularly in case something happens to it. In addition to the

database, I’m sure that we will have lots of other files and things that need to be

backed up. I once had a computer crash and lost all my important files because I

didn’t understand that I was responsible for backing up my data. Someone once told

me that there are two kinds of computer users, those that have lost data, and those

that will. I guess I’m now a ‘have lost’ and don’t want to have that experience again. I

think I want to have a website that is connected somehow to the database. I was

reading on a flight to Boise a few weeks ago just how easy it can be, but as I continue

to research the topic, I begin to wonder if it makes sense to do that at all. I have a

sneaking suspicion that if people that enter the data can later retrieve it, that people

that didn’t enter it could retrieve it as well. For instance, let’s say a couple goes to an

Internet café and fills out their application online. What would happen if someone used

that same computer immediately afterwards? Another concern is hacking. How do we

protect our website from being hacked?

(MP) We’ll figure out a way to protect you. What about Email?

(HG) We’ll need Email, but I want to be sure that someone else can’t read our

messages. We should have our own Email name; You know – Hugh Generic@

GenericFinancial.com and our own server to send and receive our Email. I’ve read

about spam and viruses, so I want to eliminate as much of that junk as possible, but not

be so restrictive that potential clients send us Email that we never receive.

(MP) Do you hand any specific hardware needs?

(HG) Well, we’ll need printers, both black and white and color. I’d like to be sure that

we don’t miss a fax that comes in. I have heard about fax machines that can be

connected to the network, but don’t understand how that would work. A guy I golf with

sometimes says the he can actually send a fax without printing a page and I’m sure

that would save us a bunch of money, both in time and in supplies. I’ve also seen ads

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XYZ Systems Consulting: Transcript with Hugh Generic

for some copiers can be used as both a printer and a copier and can scan and even

Email a document without having to go to a computer.

(MP) Who will support the company’s network?

(HG) I expect that the employees will have basic computer skills and will be able to

change toner and ink cartridges and reboot computers when necessary. However, all

technical support will be outsourced to you XYZ’s System Consulting. I know XYZ’s does

not have offices in the cities where Generic’s will be located so we’ll have to have

some type of remote support. I am not sure how that will work, but I have spoken with

other people in the mortgage industry back east and they tell me that they have

people fix their computers who aren’t even the same city. For instance, one company

has its headquarters in Atlanta, and offices in South Carolina. The computer guys in

Atlanta can call a user in South Carolina and then make the mouse move and type on

the computer so that the user in South Carolina feels like a ghost has haunted the

computer. That sounds like something that could help us, with the people from XYZ’s

Consulting being able to see what we did wrong and fix it without us having to pay for

them to come to North Dakota.