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Cyber therapist George Allen improves the relationship between the network and server supporting the new ERP.

Story and photo by John Perry

Panic attack.

That big meeting is coming up. Your supervisor expects you to present the numbers you crunched all last week.

But your computer is on the fritz and unable to retrieve files.

Who do you turn to for help?

George Allen, the computer problem buster, who exorcises electronic gremlins making mischief in city cyberspace.

“My job is to give our employees access to the critical data they need to do their job,” Allen said. “If our employees can’t perform their jobs efficiently, then our citizens can’t be served the way they deserve to be.”

Allen’s responsibility for maintaining server availability keeps him on the go. At 6-foot-2, he walks with the determined headlong gait of a man committed to putting out a fire. His wireless earphone, always on his face, seems more a prosthetic attachment than a mobile communication device.

Many days are spent responding to distress calls from employees trapped in computer purgatory. Since Allen, Information Technology senior central network administrator, can’t attend to every SOS personally, he dispatches some of his seven-member staff to various cyber crises.

“They do a lot of the hands-on work,” Allen said. “I supervise over the phone whenever I can.”

Into the future
Allen’s BlackBerry vibrates. There’s a connectivity issue with the systems applications and products server located at the Houston Emergency Center, core site for servers of the new Enterprise Resource Planning system. He cell phones two staff members to meet him there.

SAP, a comprehensive software application used to run the city’s streamlined ERP system, will expedite payroll, budgeting, invoicing, purchasing and inventory reporting, Allen said.

The IT Department, created in 2003 to incorporate new technologies and improve cooperation across city departments, is taking the lead in getting the new ERP technologies up and running. Allen has become a frontline leader striving to complete the last mile in a smooth transition to Phase 1 of the city’s technological advances.

“This is an exciting time,” Allen said. “Phase 1 of SAP-ERP went live July 5.”

Allen received weeks of training on the new application.

“It’s fun to learn a new skill set,” Allen said. “I embrace new technology. It’s taken the city from an obsolete program to a more efficient and user-friendly system.”

Blade runner
Arriving at HEC, Allen meets two members of his staff: senior microcomputer analysts Ron Reeser and Charles Trotter. EVA is giving them trouble. She isn’t “talking” correctly.

EVA, the Enterprise Visual Array 8000, is a high-performance data storage area network supporting the ERP. EVA houses row after vertical row of disks with blinking green lights.

“Those are blade servers: the latest technology for efficient deployment of services, doubling the server content while decreasing space,” Allen said.

Eight blades stacked in a space condensing rack system, each make a separate server with 64 gigs of memory to support the SAP environment, Allen said.

Allen and his team are here to repair the connection between two fiber optic feeds in the storage area network that should be “talking” to the SAN server.

Under Allen’s watchful eye and a portable cooling system, the repairs are made and EVA is “speaking” with proper grammar once again.

Allen’s supervisor appreciates his contributions.

“George is a lifesaver,” said Mark Whitt, information systems administrator. “SAP is the big push right now. George is project manager in the services division, supervising a team of specialists supporting the ERP efforts.

“He brings total commitment to the job,” Whitt said. “Wish I had three more like him.”

Allen, a native Houstonian, graduated Smiley High School and served 21 years in the Air Force. Part of that time was spent running the UNIX mainframe system, that tracked the munitions inventory at Edwards Air Force Base.

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in business administration, he joined the city in November 1999 as a temp in Human Resources. By January 2000, he was a full-time senior microcomputer analyst in the IT organization.

Allen said he loves his job and couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

“Computers and the city both serve people. That’s just fine for me.”

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