By David Gewirtz
OK, kiddies, so here's the problem. You, like every other professional geek on the planet, have a to-do list a mile long. Every day, you come into work to "My email doesn't work" or "Why can't I download Kazaa anymore?" or "How come I can't get to our favorite database?" Face it, this user-support nightmare is just all too familiar to each and every one of us.
Then, of course, there's the boss factor. Or the boss's boss factor. Or, horror of horrors, the boss's boss's boss factor. This is when, in addition to your massive to-do list, some senior manager or other pops in with a seemingly reasonable request like, oh, "I need to know which of our products sells the best," or "Who's our most effective salesperson?"
Like I said, these are not unreasonable questions. Management needs to know this stuff to run the company. Unfortunately, with all the other crap on your plate, one more reasonable request is likely to make your head explode. Especially when each of these reasonable requests could result in another half-a-day's worth of work for you, whether it's writing a custom report or going into the Notes design and making some series of programming changes.
Reasonable request or not, you just don't have that many half-a-days free. Yep. We've all been there.
Here at ZATZ Publishing, we get all sorts of products in for review. So many, in fact, that we have shelving units specifically reserved for the piles of interesting and wacky products that come in from our cranky postal service lady, the UPS guy, and our always nattily-dressed Fedex dude. This week, however, one product came in that caught my eye.
A view to an IntelliVIEW
It's called IntelliVIEW from Cybernet Software Systems (at http://www.intelliprintplus.com/iv), and it very well may be the one tool that'll keep your head from exploding, at least this week.