Hello, I’m Peter Ramacher and I am going to speak with you all today about my second internship with Eaton at Eaton Center here in Cleveland. I’ll go through the projects, assignments, and tasks that I have been working on, development opportunities, and some takeaways from this internship. Before we get into all of that, I’ll start by telling you a little bit about myself.
I am currently studying Management Information Systems at Bowling Green State University with an expected graduation date of December of 2015. However, most recently, I have studied at the University of Strasbourg, France. This was year-long study abroad opportunity where I developed basic proficiency in the French language, developed intercultural competencies through courses and travel, and received a Bachelor’s of Science in French and European Management. Before this study abroad experience in France, I interned during the summer of 2013 with Eaton for the first time. My first internship with Eaton primarily entailed process mapping the Oracle Order Management system as well as maintaining a SharePoint site that was functioning as a CRM to track synergy sales following the Cooper acquisition.
What was the focus of my internship this summer and what did I do? That’s a great question as this summer internship has been quite wide-reaching enveloping a diverse array of challenges. Most notably, I worked with Robert Boazman on the Windows 2000 Server Elimination project. This is an effort to remediate the remaining 303 Windows 2000 Servers within Eaton, as they pose a great security risk to the organization.
I also had the opportunity to develop a custom SharePoint site for Employee Engagement Committees here at Eaton Center making it even easier for employees to get involved in the community.
Finally, I had a number of additional notable tasks such as creating the server inventory for the Windows Server 2003 Elimination project that will be starting in a month, as well as assisting with some Network Infrastructure tasks and the restructuring of the ITDP SharePoint site.
I’ll be explaining these assignments in more detail and defining terms next.
A large part of my internship this summer focused on gathering information upon the 303 remaining Windows 2000 Servers. To do so, I sent out Excel surveys to sites around the globe asking for information on the servers, applications, and databases on these servers. This effort required continuous back and forth communication with over 40 sites simultaneously. In this process questions in addition to those on the survey were asked to learn more about how the servers were used and efforts already in place intended to remediate the servers. This information enables our team’s engineers to immediately start remediation of the servers with basic information on the site configuration.
In addition, when servers with particularly complex application and database configurations were discovered I conducted detailed investigation on the servers through questioning IT representatives of associated sites.
On top of working within the W2K Elimination process, I also had to step back, outside of the process to document it. This was done to create a project playbook and process maps. When combined, these materials illustrate and explain the Elimination process, decisions that must be made, responsibilities of actors, and more. These resources were created by working within the process and observing it through site meetings as well as speaking with the project manager, Robert Boazman, and engineers on our team.
The playbook and process maps I created will not only guide the W2K Elimination project but will serve as a basis for designing an approach to the remediation of Windows 2003 Servers.
Mention that process mapping from previous internship came in handy. Was able to complete these maps about twice as fast due to experience.
In addition to the W2K Elimination project, I also worked with Corporate HR on the construction and development of a SharePoint site for Employee Engagement Committees at Eaton Center. The site functions to provide EC employees with a single place to access all of the committee and event information desired, making it easy for employees to get involved.
My role in this effort spanned all project phases. I worked with Corporate HR to assess needs and then define requirements. Furthermore, I requested and then structured the SharePoint site and then again worked with HR to develop requirements for skinning the SharePoint site and developing custom forms for more intuitive user interaction. Skinning is essentially laying graphic design elements on top of SharePoint to make it look like a web page, as you can see in the screenshot. This and the form development were defined and then outsourced to Eaton’s Creative Shared Services Team in India whom I worked with to ensure requirements were met.
As a result, we now have a user-friendly and visually appealing, yet easy to maintain resource for Eaton Center employees to become more engaged!
On top of the two primary assignments discussed, I also completed many side tasks providing me with diverse learning experiences and an overview of the functions of IT at Eaton.
First off, I created an inventory of the remaining 2,250 some Windows 2003 Servers that will be used by the upcoming Windows Server 2003 Elimination project. This exposed me to ServerCentral – Eaton’s central database of all servers within the company – and provided me with a better understanding of Eaton’s organizational structure as I was required to find numerous IT resources as well as BRMs for the hundreds of sites around the globe with Windows 2003 Servers.
I also assisted in the restructuring of the ITDP SharePoint along with the other IT interns. This allowed me to further hone my SharePoint skills and to gain a better understanding of the ITDP program through the development of content for the site.
Lastly, I helped with a number of tasks in the area of Eaton’s network. From a 40,000 foot view, these tasks ensured that Eaton’s customers and employees can continue to access the many Eaton web sites and portals of the company as well as getting former Cooper sites completely onto the Eaton network.
What have I accomplished this summer while at Eaton?
The W2K Project Playbook was approved by the Program Manager of Program Phoenix, Wayne Hartmann, and will be used as a basis for developing processes for Windows Server 2003 Elimination project.
Completed 75% of W2K site surveys. Required by Server Engineers to start remediation of W2K servers.
SharePoint site ready for 780 some employees at Eaton Center, allowing them to become more engaged in the community. Need number for positive feedback
Throughout my internship with Eaton, a great deal of learning and development has taken place on-the-job. However, I’ve also developed and learned through training and development opportunities Eaton provides. With regard to training, I was able to complete a number of courses, many pertaining to project management. These courses ranged from a PROLaunch for IT seminar to Online Eaton University courses, and even included a course on MS Project. In addition, I took a course on Excel Macros, learning how to create my own.
In the realm of development, I conducted 10 leadership interviews. These interviews allowed me to meet with senior leaders to discuss how they have seen success in their careers and to assess where I want to go in my career and how to get there. I also had the opportunity to learn more about Eaton’s network and server infrastructure through meeting with networking and server engineers. Finally, I was able to learn more about the products and people whom IT supports. Here I saw the production process and some of Eaton’s aerospace products.
I’ve come away with a number of learnings and insights from this internship. Most notably I’ve developed a better understanding of Windows Servers in the enterprise setting that I’ll be able to apply to coursework and will allow me to better work with technical server people.
I now also have a good understanding of PROLaunch through the courses and small PM work I have done that I hope to apply to another internship with Eaton.
Walking out of this internship, I’ve also taken away many things, with the most notable and pertinent being the following two realizations:
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State your interest in future internships and, ultimately, the ITDP program. Questions?
