Out Of Scope; Tales from the tech project front

My Weird Project: Bug Bytes

Alice L. Anderson,

Assistant Professor,

East Carolina University

Have You Seen This Mosquito? Anderson, who has studied the mosquito species of North Carolina for 20 years, is leading a project to see whether handheld computers can speed up insect identification in the field to control the spread of mosquito-borne illnesses such as the West Nile virus.

This fall, her team at East Carolina University will load high-resolution 3D images of 10 mosquito species onto Dell Axim handheld computers. Field researchers will use the devices to tell which kind of mosquito they've bagged (and whether it's a disease-carrier) by examining six features, such as wing pattern. The handhelds also have Global Positioning System (GPS) radios to pinpoint where each bug is ID'd.

Anderson says the devices could cut the identification process from about a week to one or two days. "That will get the information to public-health officials more quickly," she says. One reason: The magnified 3D images let non-experts more easily ascertain a mosquito's species. For instance, Anderson explains, an anopheles mosquito - the genus that transmits malaria to humanslooks like it has three different stingers." Yikes.

Suggestion Box

Hank McNeely, 44, is director of employee programs and services at Office Depot. He's in charge of figuring out how 36,000 employees in North America feel about their jobs. One of his main tools for doing that is an annual Web-based survey, hosted by talent-management software provider Kenexa, which has replaced the paper versions Office Depot used to send out.

What was wrong with doing surveys on paper?

Well, the paper way takes longer to get results. We wanted to be able to get information more quickly, so we could do things based on that feedback more quickly. Paper surveys are also more expensive.

How much more expensive?

Quite a bit. I don't want to go into specific dollar amounts, but doing it online is about 25% of what it used to cost.

What saves that money?

It's not just money. It's also time. You have to hand out the paper surveys; they have to be FedExed back and go to the survey company for processing. Before, it took 8 to 12 weeks to get the results back. With the online survey, the results are back in 4 to 5 weeks.

What's the participation rate?

For the survey we just completed [in early August], it was 87%. For a company our size, that's excellent.

What's the deal with the 13% who don't take the survey?

We haven't really asked them about why they don't take the survey. It might have to do with time. Maybe they're on vacation for the two weeks we conduct the survey.

Or maybe those are the ones who are really disaffected.

That's always a possibility. But the important thing is that there are a variety of avenues employees can use to provide direct feedback.

Snafus in the News the (Really) Late Edition

The Problem: A software glitch almost stopped the Chicago Tribune from printing a daily newspaper, which hasn't happened since the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. On the morning of Sunday, July 18, the newspaper upgraded its Windows publishing software, provided by Denmark-based CCI Europe. Everything appeared to work properly until staffers tried to transmit files to the printing plant at 4 p.m. - and nothing happened. A Tribune spokeswoman said "a coding error in the software inhibited output of pages to press." The problem was fixed 13 hours later, at 5 a.m. Monday, after CCI shipped over a hastily patched version of the software. The Tribune managed to turn out an abbreviated 24-page edition. (In a statement, CCI said: "CCI Europe and the Chicago Tribune have moved on, and we look forward to continuing our long-standing partnership.") The newspaper's publisher estimated that refunds to advertisers and subscribers would cost "under $1 million."

Key Lesson: Have a fallback plan at every stage of a project. The Tribune is revising its upgrade procedures, "to make sure our safeguards are as solid and timely as possible," the spokeswoman said.

The Boss Still Signs Off

Senior executives are keeping their fingers in the information-technology purchasing pie. Almost one-third of the organizations surveyed by Forrester Research said all information-technology investments, regardless of the amount, must be OK'd by the CEO or other higher-ups. The phone survey polled 867 information-technology professionals in North America this spring.

Source: Forrester Research, July 2004

At what dollar amount does an I.T. purchase require approval by an executive committee?

Don't know or none 17%

All investments 31%

Fixed amount 52%

Average approval threshold

1,000-4,999 employees $125,000

5,000+ employees $425,000