The Executive Meeting

This morning we had a major presentation from our software provider of their latest product; an executive information system. I was not overly impressed by the system as it really is just a collection of standard business reports. Really, does that constitute a system? There was some great data presented but most of it was not in an orderly fashion. Sadly, we could have no control over the modification of these reports. It is amazing to me how relevant student’s ethnic background is to an organization in Southern Africa. This information is used in the granting of funds from industry and organizations such as the WTO.

All of the University executives were at this meeting. Can you believe half of them were not computer literate? This has become a real stumbling block for me. I am well used to people being tech savvy, but now I am dealing with managers that don’t understand how to properly save a document! I am told that most of the students have limited knowledge of computers as well. This presents problems such as in the registration process which means that students need to be monitored throughout.

Anyhow, back to the meeting. I really did not think that this product would sell. It was being released well before its maturity date. Our software consultant made a great pitch however, indicating that if we bought early, we would become the super user of the product and
therefor have more sway in deciding on how it should function. Basically, they told us we could be the guinea pigs to our advantage. The executives seemed to really like this pitch and the product was sold!

It was my first time participating in such an executive decision. It was tense in the boardroom for the first few moments…I tell you, you could feel the anticipation. All in all I learned a thing or two about management decision making and salesmanship today.