“Hi Terry. This is Kimberly from SkyTech. You put in a request through the website this morning—do you have some time to talk about your system?” She called about forty-five minutes before lunch the same day Terry had put in the request.
“Hi. Yes, I did.” That was fast. “We have an editing room problem. We don’t really have one. We’ve been cobbling together what we have, but I have a very talented artist living in a closet with a system that’s loading more often than actively working and it’s starting to get in the way of deadlines.”
“That is really common—I can’t tell you how many overworked editors we have seen in closets. We can help,” Kimberly answered. “I’d like to have an engineer go over your needs with you personally. Are you more of a phone person, or more of an in-person person?”
“In-person would be great.” Terry smiled. This was easier than she thought it would be. “We have a couple of empty spaces I’d like you to look at. We may leave Pete where he is, but if the closet isn’t enough space for what we need to do, I’d like to get your opinion on the other spaces so we put him somewhere that’s going to work long-term. What kind of systems do you work with?”
“Getting a friend out of a closet so they can work somewhere less claustrophobic and less isolated is always a good goal. And we work with all the main manufacturers and can work in Windows, Mac or Linux. So, all systems.”
Terry couldn’t help it—she was impressed. “Can you be here next Tuesday at 2:00?”
The SkyTech Team, Kimberly and the engineer, Phil, arrived at 5 minutes to 2:00. Terry came out to greet them. “Thank you so much for coming. I’m excited to hear your ideas.”
Phil beamed. “Happy to be here—thank you for having us. We’re looking forward to seeing how we can help. And to meeting Pete.”
“Pete’s excited to meet you, too. Poor guy has been dealing with this since he started, it’s just now so bad that it’s no longer workable.” Terry started walking. The SkyTech Team followed. “Like I said, he’s in a closet.”
The three walked down a set of stairs, past a large cubical area with twelve workstations, down several halls and in to a small utility room that branched out to two doors. The door to the right lead to a full-sized print shop which connected to another suite of offices. The door to the left, past a storage cupboard, lead to a windowless room approximately six feet wide and twelve feet long. A desk top running the length of the back wall was mounted—it wasn’t even real furniture, it was the equivalent of a large shelf. The florescent lights were turned off, and a single desk lamp cast the closet in a dim, warm glow.
Pete looked up from his work with a smile. “Welcome to the editing department.”