An email I sent to my manager @ Conoco circa 1997 - what a waste of time

From: Bultema, Stephen
To: Erb, Paul; Bonner, F. Mark; Boyington, William H.
Cc: Liles, Steve P.; Woodyard, Alan H.; Bergman, Gary J.
Subject: Laptop Request
Date: Wednesday, April 16, 1997 11:59AM

I have been made aware that we have received two Compaq 4131T Laptop computers with docking stations and would like to request to be assigned one of them as my permanent work system. I understand that there is some demand for these and can see why because they make good sense for all of us who travel and work at home.

I have more than once requested an upgrade from a desktop to a portable PC. It's an idea I have which I think could make me more productive. With the portable I could be more self contained. I could work at home, on the road, in the office, anywhere. I could access my email anywhere I could find a phone. I would have all my files with me if I needed to respond to technical issues or work on a document or presentation. I just plain could be more productive.

During the first quarter of this year I used a "pool" laptop PC and confirmed that this was a great benefit to my productivity. I dealt with email at night and weekends, I did my expense accounts while at home, in fact I attended to most of my administravia when I was on my own time and this left me being much more productive during the time I was in the office.

I tried to get on the side of the company on this one. Why should you have the latest PC? I told myself
that it was expensive and, well I could "get along" with what I have, I don't really NEED a laptop,
I have a desktop PC and if I have to I can stay late or come in on the weekends to get that extra bit of
work in, or maybe I can just ignore it and ....well, .....

This is a motovational issue. If I have something that makes it easy for me to do something I am much more likely to do it. I have ongoing work in the US and Holland. I am working on projects in Upstream and Downstream. One project, Kotter re‑use as an FPSO, is a project developed on my own initiative, again working at night and on weekends, looks like it will go ahead and has a potential value to Conoco in the millions).

OK. But what does it cost? The top of the line laptop and docking station (on Conoco's list), a Compac 4131T with all the goodies goes for something like 4 grand. Well that's not peanuts, I agree. I wonder what it cost to lease? I made a couple of phone calls and I was told that we lease this type of system for 3 years at a cost of $150.00 per month. This is a lease, and a lease is an operating expense and operating expenses are deductible, our tax rate is 35% so that means we spend about $100/month to
get a 4131T laptop. $100/month, just what is that, is it a lot or a little.

Central Technology is charging $125/hr for each and every engineer on their staff. That's not too much
according to current industry surveys. Engineers are paid high salaries and have nice offices, phones, travel, other expenses. How much of this $125/hr is computer related? Keeping in mind that computers, the tools of the trade, the hammer for the carpenter (air nailers now), the wrench for the mechanic, the mechanism by which engineers add value, what is Superman without his cape? Only Clark Kent.

What does it cost per hour? About $0.60, sixty cents an hour, or about five dollars a day. That is not very much compared to our charge rate or even when we think of the nearly a third of a billion dollars for deepwater GOM leases and new drillships in the last year.

I don't have a home PC, I could buy one for myself and then bring it to work and use it for both home and office. But then there are issues about insurance and company IT support. I need a home computer and I need an office computer, and I would like to keep up with technology. Particularly a technology I think would increase my value to the company. I believe in this system (laptop docking station) so much so, that I would be willing to split the cost with Conoco. I am willing to pay to have access to a system that would help me at the office, at home and on the road do the job for Conoco.

Conoco has set some heroic goals, such as double our value by the year 2003 and we have set goals of 1.4 PI and 10,000 ft water depths. And I think it is right to do so. Setting goals and targets become objectives for all of us to strive to obtain, it gives us focus. We don't have to know how we are going to get there but we have faith.

scb
From: Bultema, Stephen
To: Woodyard, Alan H.
Subject:
Date: Friday, July 18, 1997 01:06PM

I'm looking for the Aramada 4160T (or Armada 7750T) with the following add‑ons:
166MHz Pentium w/ MMX
21" Monitor ‑ MONITOR: Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 91TXM
Max memory: 80MB Memory
Integrated Communications (33.6Kbps Telephony/Cellular Ready)
Li‑Ion DualBay Battery (NOT HANDLE BATTERY)
External Battery Charger
AC Adapter
10x CD
Optical Trackball (easy swap out with touchpad)
External Diskette Cable/Caddie
Built‑in Ethernet
+software (Win95, Microsoft Office 97.....)
Compaq SpeedPac 336 telephone Modem (modem for both cell and standard phone)
Convenience Base (can we get built‑in SCSI?)
Compaq Travel Case (specifically the TRAVEL CASE by Compaq)
APC Power Manager w/ APC UPS (say like Smart‑UPS 400)

any questions? I may have missed a few points but you get the idea.
I have catalogs if you need to look. (Hey, a guy has to ask and dream a little)

tks.
scb