Modern Middle Manager
Primarily my musings on the practical application of technology and management principles at a financial services company.
Another Day of Meetings

Thursday, April 15, 2004  

Meetings up the wazoo today. First meeting was with the audit committee to explain issues with our document imaging process (since fixed), exceptions raised in our SAS70 (mostly BS and "best practices" that have nothing to do with an institution our size) and my department's expected implementation date of security changes as noted in our security assessment survey. Let's just say it was a busy morning.

Next meeting was with our new wire vendor, a nationwide bank. I took a break and joined without telling anyone, just listening to the conversation. The project manager is a blowhard and loves the sound of his own pontificating. Blah. Boring waste of an hour.

Third meeting was with our storage solutions vendor. We discussed the timeline for converting our NetApp Filer cluster from the twin F820's we have now to the F940 cluster solution I just purchased. Should be a slam dunk. In addition, I got a free lunch at the Mexican restaurant behind our HQ. That's always a treat -- it's authentic and absolutely delicious.

Fourth meeting was to discuss our plan of attack for a surprise SEC examination including the delivery of e-mails over specific time periods. What's our e-mail retention policy, you say? What retention policy, I reply. Our current charter didn't need it before we merged with our sister investment company. Now we might. Joy.

Fifth meeting was with the head of HR to discuss why the current e-mail audit trail we have is not enough to prove whether someone sent an e-mail to somebody else during the time period requested by a senior manager. I changed our message tracking and deleted e-mail retention periods because of that, but it hasn't been a problem in the past. Well, when senior management wants to play "gotcha" it makes a difference. This ought to be a fun environment for a while.

That's it for today. I have five more scheduled for tomorrow, including dope-slapping our imaging vendor. Cheers!

posted by Henry Jenkins | 4/15/2004 09:33:00 PM

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