My tryst with my first batch of CRM SETs

2005. The year unfurled with 3 new babies making a cautious entry into the SAP world (There were 4 actually, but we shall stick to 3). It was the time when we formally started the SAP CRM practice with induction of these SETS (software Engineer trainees). Being a new technology at the time and no experience within the organization, the goal was to build the technology competency. There we were,

three complete rookies in their first job and me closeted in classroom mode trying to figure out SAP CRM for the next 6 months.

My first CRM SETs was a curious study of contrasting personalities. The oldest of the lot, Sarabjeet Gulati (Sabby) from Punjab, stern, hardworking and focussed was whole of 25 at the time, Julius Pereira, a stylish dude from Goa with a great sense of fun and gloom was 24. The baby of the batch was Sharif Inamdar, from Nagpur and a born charmer was all of 23. The first few days saw sabby quietly dozing off after lunch (till a firing on valentine's day saw him go wide awake for the rest of the days).

The next few months turned out to be amongst the most eventful and delightful time one can ever hope for. Spending 8 hours a day in the classroom, we would touch on every topic under the sun (apart from SAP, that is) - so the discussions went on touching life, marriage, friendships and the like. Between the fun, songs, stories, philosophy, scores of photoshoots, dinners, movies, birthday celebrations (and lots of scoldings) we also learnt SAP CRM at a breakneck speed. The defining moment came on July 26th 2005, the day mumbai went under torrential rains. While the whole company was trapped in the deluge and panicking , the CRM team was busy training at 8 pm till the lights went out :)

All good things eventually come to an end, and from training my SETs moved on to projects steadily honing their skills with time. In the next couple of years, all my three SETS became experts and one by one said goodbye to pursue their destinies in life. Today, Sabby and Julius are in the USA and Sharif left and has since joined back my team. As the years went by, the teams changed and grew, flourished and changed in profile.  But, through time and distance my first SETs will always be my favorites and remembered with a lot of love and warmth for just being themselves and for creating that magic in 2005.



Sarabjeet Singh

Sharif Inamdar and Julius Pereira


 

Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth

Every analyzed how most of us seem to spend the day ? The typical IT geek comes to work at 8.30 am and without further ado gets into the outlook, followed by quick bursts of catching up with yahoo, rediff, Indiatimes whatever. Then it’s a nice little wait till chai time and breakfast and catching up with people. Before any constructive work begins, an hour has already gone by. You are busy settling down on the system and before you realize it, hey, its coffee time and time to catch up with friends on the phone. In between high quality stuff on the computer, mail refreshes are mandatory every few minutes, an art honed to perfection. And no days complete without forwarding nice stuff to about 20 friends. Sound’s familiar? So what, says the geek. “I finish my work on time and do it well too. My boss doesn’t mind either and man, wake up, we are in the 21st Century in a booming market and my skills are worth more than you pay me”.

Oh really ?

Cut back to the year 2000. The dotnet dream had crashed and amidst swanky wheels and heavy EMIs, a typical day at work for many IT professionals was spent looking out anxiously for HR people lurking around with the dreaded pink slip. You can bet forwarding emails and having a nice time was the last

thing on anyone’s minds. Cut back to an earlier generation, when there used to be scarcity of jobs and a flurry of applications for a single opening.

So is there a lesson out here ? Obsoletion and being downgraded comes faster here than probably most industries. What’s hot and happening today can go forever tomorrow. We have had so many ERP consultants in other technologies who’s market values have virtually gone today. Being at the right time at the right place turned into being in the wrong time in a disaster.

In this scenario, the only thing that remains constant and will never let one down is a dedication towards work and a enhanced appetite for knowledge upgradation. No matter what the extraneous factors are, and that includes your boss, your peers, your pay package, your project, the perceived unfairness of the system, one has to be internally driven. In world class organizations, viability of an employee means getting at least 5 times the return on investment on the resource. If you aren’t, better start getting worried. A 12-hour workday wouldn’t probably be enough to meet this benchmark. So, better start thinking twice before wasting your time on trivialities. The ones who are going to last are the ones who continuously set personal benchmarks and strive to deliver value to the organization and oneself, instead of waiting for the organizational diktat’s or checking out whether the boss is watching. Just remember, at the end of the day, one chooses to work in an organization on pre-agreed terms and no matter where you work, the trick is treating your job as the greatest in the world at the moment and treating imperfections that come with it as part of the package. And that is the secret to high creativity and world class deliveries.

Maybe once in way, we all need to learn to thank our stars for the opportunities given and take it on from there.