NICK ALECK

SENIOR PRODUCT LEADER

Over ten years of experience providing product design and development solutions for companies including JPMorgan Chase, DocuSign, American Medical Association, American Library Association, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Groupon, Allstate, DePaul University and Northwestern University

Master of Science degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) from DePaul University,

Bachelor of Arts degree in Marketing from Columbia College Chicago

Certificate Master of Product Design and Development from Northwestern University

Aleck Plumbing Mobile Dispatch Strategy

Having worked at Aleck Plumbing in a full time capacity for eight years, I had the opportunity to learn almost every aspect of the company. From managing and tracking inventory on technicians’ trucks to strategizing the A/R and A/P schedules to customer service needs in regards to dispatching technicians.

In my time at Aleck Plumbing, the company made three transitions from dispatch management software. Each time seemed to be more disruptive than the last not only for the staff that handled the dispatch for the company but also for the customer records that was included in the software. In 2013, I was approached by the company to assist in a dispatch overhaul. Issues had arisen with technicians going to the wrong service location due to an error in the software and oftentimes the daily schedule for the technicians’ were not printed in time for their 6:30 AM start. In addition, it was important that this software worked side-by-side with the company’s Quickbooks accounting software. Beyond that, I also knew that the office’s server was nearing its death. What happened was a perfect storm of events that needed to be planned out as concisely as possible for a company that relied almost exclusively on service dispatch. 

My research began by investigating the possibility of removing the aging server with a cloud storage strategy. The information and files the company had were sensitive but nothing so sensitive that a server was the only possible storage solution. In addition, there was no in-house staff available who knew how to properly maintain the server and its backups. It became clear that a cloud strategy was, in fact, a feasible option and one that would exceed the expectations of the office’s day-to-day tasks.