Interview Questions

Interview Questions & Answers

These questions will help us identity Graybar's IT struggles, implications, and organizational strategies with the company's existing CRM kit.

• How do employees communicate within different departments? 

All employees have access to Microsoft Lynx, which allows them to communicate with all employees in their district. We have not allowed them nor are we thinking of giving them access to communicate with other employees in other branches. We don’t see a need other than allowing them to contact each other via email or conference calls. This is an initiative we have thought about during my 12 years career at Graybar. However, employees utilize our company directory to find each others contact information so they can call each other when needed. 

• Are there any modifications you would make to an existing program that would help increase the effectiveness of the workflow?

Yes, other than moving forward with the implementation of SAP in the NY district market as a pilot program, I would consider sharing daily reports of each branch so all employees are aware of what is going on in other branches. This report would consist of daily budget changes, billings/cancellations, and new sales/opportunities. I feel this would more transparency for everyone to recognize each other and see what type of new business deals we are closing on a daily basis. As you know, we have a lot more than the electrical division, therefore showing results of our other branches/divisions would just benefit the entire company. We believe the new SAP program will provide us with much more reporting capabilities than what we use now which is very limited. 

• What is the decision making process used by Graybar when implementing add-ons to the current program? Are tests done regularly in order to ensure efficiency?

It depends what we are referring to. At the moment, if it's a big undertake it would have to start from the top and eventually get rolled out to certain districts in the country. We typically implement pilot programs for testing purposes and clean up all the glitches. In all the years I have been with Graybar, all new applications and programs were always utilized somewhere else in the country. So I guess we do a really good job of cleaning up the new add-ons before we push it out to thousands of employee’s desktops. 

• Is the software used by Graybar developed in-house, or is it adjusted from an existing program used by the industry?

As you know, the programs that is widely used is Microsoft Excel for quoting, stock levels, and reports that we create. We currently do not use our own proprietary application as that is not the focus of our Technology department. We believe with SAP each branch will have the ability to cater the application to fit their needs and use it however they would like it to be used.  However, the plan is to standardize this system across the board and centralize the server so everyone has access to each other’s information. Right now, each branch is treated as a silo and we only have access to limited data. 

• Does Graybar outsource online customer service  tasks to external companies? If so, is it the prefered method by Graybar? Why?

Graybar has its own customer service team that are the face of the company when customers need us. 

• What is the role of IT in this plan? 

The role of IT is massive. Our IT department are currently being certified by the manufacturer so we can eventually self sustain the program and not rely on them to assist us with problems arise. Also, the IT department will be assisted by the manufacturer during this rollout to ensure all issues and potential problems are addressed in the early stages of the implementation. We also don’t have the knowledge, nor the man power to perform such a massive task. Think about it, in the NY district we have 6 branches, and all 6 branches  could potentially be affected if our implementation strategy is not well executed.  

• What would be the implementation strategy? 

The company’s implementation strategy consists of the IT department doing most of the work during non-business hours while no employees are using the system. There will be a specific time frame where all systems will be down during the transition process so there is no down time affecting our customer base. We have been told that each branch will need a full team of techs overnight in order to deploy this application and make sure all desktops are up to date and meet all the requirements. In this process, some hardware (computers) will need to be upgraded to support the application’s software requirements. We have invested a lot of money in acquiring this program, so we have decided to also upgrade a few computers that are outdated. I am not aware of the specifics of the roll out but that will be shared by our CTO and his support team. My role as a Manager in this implementation process will consist of scheduling trainings and educational workshops for my staff to make them feel comfortable and make it a seamless transition. My plan is to schedule group trainings at different times of the day to ensure we always have representatives ready to go when a customer calls. This is a big chapter in my career as I was a big advocate of standardizing our systems across the board. I am really looking forward to it… 

Interview #2 - Cybersecurity 

• Do you have an effective information security awareness program?
• How do we demonstrate compliance with cyber security controls? 
• In the event of a data breach, what is your response plan? 
• Does everyone have visibility to the network? 
• Do we comply with leading information security frameworks or standards? 
• When does Graybar test our recovery procedures?