GARBEN and Mapfre
Since June 8, 2000
Until January 24, 2001
How did I get to this job
While I was working for IBM assigned to CEPSA, Garben called me to fill this job. Although you are not looking for a job, accept because of:
- A significant increase in my salary.
- An opportunity asserting myself as a systems administrator.
However, before I left IBM, CEPSA expressed its interest in forming part of its workforce in the near future. So express it to Garben, who decided to move forward with the process.
Work description
Mapfre had several offices, and had moved a significant number of telephone operators to a building on Claudio Coello Street. They needed a person to carry and evolve the platform in this building.
- User Platform Maintenance
- Server Management
- Evolution of the user workspace.
Maintenance of the user platform
The user platform was slightly higher than 200 positions, with several shifts per position. The service was provided uninterruptedly. Which required high availability conditions.
Thus, maintenance was not as vital as evolving the system to a model with greater availability. However, my first objective in the day was to maintain the existing system. On this platform we had numerous ups and downs, mobile profiles and managed recording systems, which made data collection very laborious when required by the business
Server administration
A secondary domain in windows 2000, two domain servers (PDC and BDC), two file servers, an SMS server, a recording server. That was the server structure. The tasks were the basic ones, without automatic monitoring, or any help.
Really what took me the most time was to check the error logs and make the backups. The system worked very well.
Evolution of the user workspace
From my time in Mapfre, this is undoubtedly the task of which I feel most proud. In a first study and without ticketing tools that would help me beyond my mail folders, most of the incidents were due to misuse of the equipment. The operators were poorly trained in the use of technology.
The first thing I did with this information was to inventory the software and make a standard operator package. With SMS create packages for supervisors. In such a way that when they were put in a position that was not theirs we could quickly deploy the applications.
The second task was to limit all the processes that the operators executed, making a very hard and severe policy. Only 4 icons remained on the desktop, which were the 4 applications they required.
Why I left
CEPSA called with his promise. Mapfre offered me to join the staff, they were really happy with me. I considered rejecting CEPSA’s offer, economically they were practically the same. But in the end CEPSA convinced me, and so I became the Head of Infrastructure of CEPSA GAS LICUADO, which was then called CEPSA ELF GAS