Benefits of OPT

Just in case you didn't know that's Other People's Time.  So like I said almost a month ago... I had the idea to do a project but not DO the project.  It is the reason I haven't had time to write for a while.  I have been busy making it happen. 

The project:  Customer has Small Business Server 2000 on an old computer with no available drive space.  They want to get a new server (from DELL) with Small Business Server 2003 on it.  I made some other upgrade suggestions as well such as anti-virus software and new backup software.  The customer wanted all this to happen with no down time during business hours.

So this was the perfect project to test out my new plan (new for me old news for all real businesses).  I began by emailing and calling multiple network specialists.  I got to the point where we discussed details of the project and the various approaches people take.  This alone was an interesting exercise.  There were many ways to go about the solution and a variety of prices that came as a result.  I had to do much research but finally found the company to do the project. 

I hired a company to do the core work on this project while I took care of issues on the periphery. 

There were a few things that came up during the process that I missed in my planning but for the most part the plan worked.  This was a great way to go about the process.  I spent my time planning and finding the right people.  I also got to spend my time making sure all went well for the customer.  The whole thing was excellent.  I have done the sole IT guy bit before but this was much, much better.  I was able to pay attention to what was really going on during the process and make sure things were smooth.  I was also able to take care of the items that come up and divert attention away from the main project while MY GUY kept working on the main task. 

This was the best experience.  I realize that in the future they may not all go this well but I have to say that this is definitely worth doing again.  I would actually like to do this again very often.  Which doing it this way I could do a couple of these a week... something not possible when I act alone. 

OPT is an excellent way to grow.