-…This administration is going to focus on customer service. It is the trend of big companies, like us, and things here will change… -These were part of the generous words pronounced by Ignacio Amado in the plenary that started the first day of his management as the brand new IT Vice President of Almacenes Triunfo.
In the top management facilities, everything was joy and expectations, except for one person who was worried about his position and responsibilities, despite having drunk a couple of glasses of medium price champagne and tasted some of the delicious snacks that were available in the main auditorium. Mario was always a committed guy, but newnesses were not his thing. From an early age, he applied the maxim: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Mario Itacuar had arrived at Almacenes Triunfo when they had only two stores. He had witnessed the heady growth of the company. His initial role as an IT Analyst translated into “the “technical errand boy,” running around with floppy disks, being the useful boy on the floor, whose commendable kindness had earned him the sincere friendship of everyone. With the passing of the years, he became the beloved Infrastructure Manager, in charge of an extensive IT inventory and two data centers gradually built according to the moment’s needs. These data centers provided IT services to a chain of forty stores nationwide and customer service through the online sales portal. Mario was a phenomenon. There was no doubt about it.
-Son, how many times have I told you not to bring food into the computer center? Look at the mess you left behind. Give Doralinda a call, so she can clean that up before Mario notices…” said Juan José to Miguel Ángel. The latter ran to get Doralinda to help him clean up that sort of bloody mass composed of guava paste with cheese, which had fallen on the false floor of the computer center. Doralinda, committed to her work, responded to the call ipso facto. With determination, she wielded the mop and shook it with painstaking zeal; so painstakingly that with the end of the stick, she inadvertently pressed the off switch of a computer that was only a few centimeters above the floor on a “provisional” platform. That sort of Sunday breakfast tray had been the “provisional” support for the server that hosted the main CRM database of accounts with suppliers for at least four years. At Triunfo, nobody noticed anything.
– I’ve had it with Triunfo’s transactional portal. Now, in addition to the permanent slowness, it is useless. “María, please contact the warehouse. The order will not be shipped,” said Julio, a cautious and prudent guy with a transgressed tolerance threshold. At the same time, many suppliers were complaining about the same problem with the portal, while Juan José and Miguel Ángel were having a post-lunch afternoon pool game. After a few minutes, the “last round kid, hic” was there. At Triunfo, nobody noticed anything.
– Nacho, as I told you, we cannot validate the supply and purchase order at this moment. Nor have I been paid five overdue bills. This is the last straw, man…” Felipe Villegas – Lighteneur’s President – commented to Ignacio. Once the call was over, Ignacio, in a stern voice, asked Marta to put Mario on the line. Mario, we are not generating purchase orders and have not been able to pay either. Four suppliers have already called my personal phone to complain. Why didn’t the CRM contingency work? You have to solve this problem now. Mario couldn’t find explanations and received the shouts with submission. Still, he had to find a quick solution because he would not let all those years of credibility go down the drain because of an impasse in operation.
After a few minutes, there was a saddened gathering of people who could not believe the tremendous mess forming in Almacenes Triunfo. The call center phones were ringing off the hook, but since the morning empanadas could not wait, the situation resulted in a limited attention capacity. The terrible service to suppliers had to be added to the problem of unavailability.
-Could it have something to do with the network? -Mario said, puzzled.
-I don’t know, boss. Let’s check it out and try to find the problem.
– Said Juan José with a face riddled with uncertainty.
-Do it, buddy. We’ve been going through this mess for an hour now, and I don’t have anything to tell Nacho. – Mario concluded.
Ximena walked the aisles of the Triunfo store on Dolores Avenue, looking for her gluten-free cookies with the lowest fat percentage on the market, but there was nothing on the shelves. They were just crammed with the noxious bread she had avoided so much. What made her curious was that none of the fat-free Lighteneur brand products were to be found on any of the store’s shelves, which led her to think that Almacenes Triunfo would not sell them again, and she began to wonder where the nearest Humboldt store would be. Without saying a word to anyone and with a preconceived idea that might not be real, she left the store, never to return.
The team restored service four hours after the mishap, but the relationship with major suppliers was somewhat bruised, as well as multiple miles of aisles without product. The consequence of blocking the ordering platform and payment gateway was the strengthening of distrust, a silent plague that hides behind the walls of naivete and that at the right moment makes deadly blows to the exposed flesh of good relations.
“Almacenes Humboldt receives the award for excellence and quality. Dr. Felipe Humboldt receives the award from the President of the Republic, Dr. Juan Pablo Verdú.” “The President of Almacenes Humboldt will speak about the path to a successful digital transformation at the GoDigital plenary session in Geneva. Colombia is proud to be the first company in the country to have such a high distinction.” “Almacenes Humboldt, a pioneer in user experience with its MiHumboldt application .” Text messages on the cell phone, social networks, and news in other media made the delights of an unfortunate afternoon for Mario. -These Humboldt guys did it right. Why didn’t I think of it first?
Everyone was talking about Humboldt. Humboldt here and Humboldt there. The aisles of Almacenes Triunfo were not as crowded as they once were. Mario walked the aisles of the child he saw growing up, like a business lullaby with a sense of guilt that he had not realized what was coming. He watched his feet in the rhythmic movement of each step and realized he had a big belly; once again, he saw that big belly. He looked at one of the shelves, littered with the same bread he had always consumed, and noticed, for the first time, that the amount of produce was quite limited. Quickly, he concluded that it was just a problem of stocking and dispatching. He did not think about it any further. He remembered that he was hungry, so he took a delicious chocolate cream cake, but immediately returned it when he noticed the pressed button on his shirt and that prominent belly that cornered him. It became clear in his mind when he saw a large sign far down the hallway and could read the word “Transformation.” He took two quick steps forward, two quick steps into the future.
Writed by Cesar S
COO
BPS