The Builders

Today was Tecnico and Ejecutor day in the Proyecto Mirador office.  We put the iPhones in the hands of some of the people who will be recording households and contacts in the Salesforce system and gave an overview of the online system to two of the men who will be managing them.

It was so awesome again talking about the direction of the project and our aspirations for growth, Spanish really less itself well to powerful prose and descriptive hopes.  We showed them the system and explained the idea of village, village installation, household and contact in the salesforce system; explaining that they are all linked, each record existing within the prior. Doing some navigation on the online desktop version we acquainted them with the salesforce addressed some questions and then dug into the hard work.

We took the 5 iPhones out into the yard and captured pretend household data points within the installation system making sure to practice selecting the names of the technicians, ejectutores and supervisors.  It took a bit of time but with Elder, Stevan and I roving as support it started to click.  Especially with the tecnicos who had practiced with the iPhones before we arrived.

Breaking for lunch we had a 12 person meal with all of the tecnicos, ejecutores, and Elder at La Sierra (a pretty great spot and the site of the upcoming PM reunion- that entry next week).  Sitting down and doing the essential Honduran thank you and rallying cry, it was again so powerful to see how these builders and their managers engaged with the role this technology is going to play, seeing the potential it holds and the heights that can be reached using it as a complimentary tool to their work.

After lunch we worked hard collecting some more data points, reinforcing what we learned and taught in the morning; really focusing our efforts in smaller groups. While I know this will take some time, especially with the teams that have never held and iPhone, let alone used one, you could see from their first data point entry to the last that they were learning. With the training manuel and the support of those who have learned and practiced I know salesforce proficiency will come.

The last step, working in offline mode, we explained how to collect data and mark location without connectivity.  Showing that even if you don't have internet or cell reception in the moment, upon returning to connectivity  you can sync with the system and build on the installations. Returning back to the office we showed how the data had appeared in the online desktop system directly from the iPhones, a moment I felt was pretty powerful.

Throughout the day we hit barriers but collectively came upon their solutions, while requiring some more time and work by the full implementation phase, but the end this should be a pretty unbelievable platform. The only low point in the day was when, doing everything right, we came across errors and idiosyncrasies in the salesforce base platform.  Ending the day with a conversation with a fairly incompetent member of the trouble shooting team left us both frustrated.  But some dinner and cleanup definitely renewed spirits, I imagine the performance Elders band is giving tonight for Santa Barbara feria will buoy our moods even more.

Stevan and I captured some incredibly exciting moments today where you can see just how unbelievable this technology transfer and knowledge exchange is. Also Stevan got to ride in the back of the truck!