Tom Huntington's Blog

Meet Tom Huntington - Mr. Robot

Submitted by Tom Huntington on Mon, 10/26/2009 - 8:52am

I am Tom Huntington, Vice President of Technical Services at Help/Systems, LLC, and a 20-plus year veteran of the company. During that time, I have traveled almost 900,000 air miles via Northwest/Delta Airlines and visited more than 30 countries to talk to customers about computer automation, backups, security, business intelligence, development practices, quality, and family life.

The Great Minnesota Get Together

Submitted by Tom Huntington on Wed, 08/25/2010 - 3:42pm

I can already smell the corn dogs cooking and see the crowds gathering for the Great Minnesota Get Together—the State Fair. It reminds me of the Rodgers and Hammerstein lyrics: OUR STATE FAIR IS A GREAT STATE FAIR, IS A GREAT, IS A GREAT, IS A GREAT STATE FAIR, HEY!!

The excitement, thrills, and fun associated with this event each year is something you can count on. And, each year, you can count on some changes too. In the past few years, they've added deep fried candy bars, chocolate covered bacon, deep fried fruit, and new this year (we hear), deep fried butter—all on a stick, of course. Mixing in a few changes each year with the items you can count on is a formula that works year after year.

The whole thing really reminds me of the Help/Systems approach to a consistent development strategy, one that introduces change over time, enhancements as we go, and the same friendly support you can count on every day. We want you to enjoy your experience, whether you’re using our software or calling our team for help.

Management by Exception

Submitted by Tom Huntington on Wed, 08/18/2010 - 11:40am

During last week’s “delightful” 3-mile walk for Peace House in 90-degree heat and 70 percent humidity, Pat Cameron, Chuck Losinski, and I started talking about one of the key ingredients to lights-out automation. We were discussing how busy we are at work and at home, and it reminded us how important the concept of “management by exception” is in our everyday life.

We all agreed that it can be difficult to remember the places we’ve been and the encounters we’ve had. But, it was easy to remember the exceptions, or unique things, that happened along the way. For me, it’s the little mishaps that make a trip memorable, things like a blown tire in a rental car, or an extremely delayed flight because of weather. These exceptions are vivid in my mind.

Remember—We’re Just A WebEx Away

Submitted by Tom Huntington on Wed, 08/11/2010 - 9:48am

Our Support team is really, really good. I hear this all the time from customers, so I can say it with great confidence. One critical tool they use to communicate with customers is WebEx. WebEx lets us share our desktops, which means easy collaboration for solving problems and demonstrating functionality.

You can share a 5250 screen or a graphical desktop with us. This lets our Support team view the issue live. They can even record images for our software developers to view later. This recording feature also works great at your end—we share the recorded link and you can show your team how we solved the issue or what we recommend.

We Are Here For You

Submitted by Tom Huntington on Thu, 08/05/2010 - 10:22am

Those of you familiar with the Dr. Seuss classic, Horton Hears a Who, might remember the cry Horton heard from the tiny magical world: We are here; We are here! But, it was hard for the others around him to believe that this world existed.

We find ourselves in a similar situation. Because customer service is often an afterthought for software companies—many people are used to terrible service, or no service, from other software companies—they think that good service only exists in a magical world. Consequently, many customers don’t believe that we really are here and that we really hear their needs.