Sidney couldn’t believe his luck. Hannah Harper was asking him out on a date. Well, it seemed liked that as she was saying that she wanted to see the new Shrek film, but hadn’t got anyone to go with. Sidney read the email six times to make sure he wasn’t reading too much into this. Animated cartoons might not be his kind of thing and he hadn’t been to the cinema for over a year, but this was Hannah Harper. The last time he went was when he was the only person in the cinema to see the film ‘The Dammed United’ the story of Brian Clough’s disastrous 44 days at Leeds. Sidney checked the times of the Shrek film at Star City in Birmingham and was really pleased to see that it was available in 3D at nine O ’ Clock this Friday. His only concern now was would he really look at his most appealing wearing those silly plastic 3D glasses. As it would be dark Sidney decided to go for it and emailed Hannah Harper back saying that if she was really really desperate to find somebody to go with then he could, if she wanted, take her on Friday night to see it in 3D. After pressing the send button Sidney sat back in his chair to wait for the response. Unfortunately as he lent back he knocked his souvenir IT Crowd mug, with its saying “Have you tried turning it off and on again”, off his desk. Maybe it was a sign of things to come that the mug hit the floor and broke into six pieces.
Peter Pottersgate was training again for the Pottersgate Paints five-a-side team with potential goalkeeper Gary Greedy, from the Gatehouse, in the staff car park. Colin Cousins had rung in sick making lots of coughing noises with a very husky voice. Sidney had pretended to believe Colin was sick even though he had heard him twice yesterday on the phone to his wife obviously preparing for an interview. So Sidney was left alone clearing up the remains of his ‘IT Crowd’ coffee mug. With the bin full of old unread copies of Computer Weekly Sidney opened one of the drawers in Colin’s desk and emptied in the broken parts of the mug. Maybe Colin could glue them back together when he returned? Just then an email arrived in Sidney’s Inbox. He checked hopefully to see if it was from Hannah Harper, but no it was from the MD, Percy Pottersgate. It was good news as Percy was giving the go ahead for Sidney to start a SharePoint Project.
Sidney was quite excited at the chance to really get involved with Microsoft SharePoint even if the lack of money Percy Pottersgate was budgeting for it would be a challenge. The idea was very much to try to considerably reduce the costs of the current Finance system and also to give the Sales Department less paperwork to do so they could have more time to sell. Another part of Percy Pottersgate’s email that was slightly concerning Sidney was that Percy wanted to Go Live with SharePoint to all the Pottersgate Paints sites on 1st September. This was going to be a challenge, but where should Sidney start? Maybe a good start would have been a nice cup of tea, but now with his favourite mug gone even that was difficult. Sidney could use one of Colin’s as Colin had left one unwashed for over six months that he was deliberately cultivating the green mould in. Then the postman arrived in the office with a delivery for Sidney to sign for. Sidney took delivery of a cubed shaped parcel while still trying to work out how exactly the postman had got past the Gatehouse and was walking around on site without a visitors badge. Surely Gary Greedy hadn’t left the Gatehouse unmanned?
Excitedly Sidney unwrapped the parcel and was delighted with what he found inside. There he found a gleaming white mug with the words ‘SharePoint Mug’ on the front and the SharePoint logo. He turned the mug over and found some more words ‘Don’t be a SharePoint Mug call Action SharePoint on 0121 3680055’. Sidney was so pleased not only could he have a cup of tea without having to scrape out Colin’s mug but he also knew exactly where to start his SharePoint Project. Those nice men at Action SharePoint would tell him what he needed to do.
The ping sound from his computer heralded another email and this one was going to bring an even bigger smile to Sidney’s face than his Action SharePoint mug had. It was from Hannah Harper from Accounts. She was saying how she would love to go with Sidney to see ‘Shrek Forever After’ at Star City on Friday. She would meet him there at half past seven and then they could have a bite to eat first. Sidney was really pleased and for once everything was working out so well. Perhaps this was going to be his lucky mug. Just then a loud scream came from outside the window from the staff car park. Sidney looked outside to see Gary Greedy lying on the floor obviously in great pain.
Within minutes Safety Manager Ronald Roughwood, with his custard stained tie, was treating poor Gary from the Gatehouse. The news was not good as Gary Greedy had obviously broken his left arm as he was trying to save a shot from Peter Pottersgate’s famous left foot. The angle his left arm was pointing was a bit of a giveaway.
A conversation with Action SharePoint went well and they confirmed that with the right Project Team in place it would be possible to deliver the project by 1st September and that if Pottersgate Paints used the free SharePoint version SharePoint Foundation 2010 then the budget figure was also realistic. The only issue was that to use SharePoint Foundation 2010 then they would need a 64-bit server. Their Senior SharePoint Consultant said that if the 64-bit server was a problem then they could start the project as Windows SharePoint Services (SharePoint 2007) and plan to upgrade later.
The next call Sidney received darkened his mood quite a bit. It was from a very stressful sounding Percy Pottersgate. He needed Sidney urgently. He needed Sidney to play in goal for the Pottersgate Paints five-a-side team in place of injured Gary Greedy. Sidney wasn’t keen as he knew how seriously Percy Pottersgate took the Midland Paints Cup. When Tommy Tomkinson, from Technical, missed that penalty last season Percy Pottersgate soon cancelled Tommy’s Twenty-Five Year Service Award. Things then got even worse for Sidney when he was informed that the tournament was on Friday night kicking off a 6pm. Sidney was about to give a reason why he couldn’t play but Percy Pottersgate just thanked Sidney for being a real Pottersgate Paints man and put the phone down.
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