Santa was in the workshop and noticed that there were many elves who were processing orders on etch-a-sketches instead of using their communication devices to submit and process the orders to the Santa's Village Computer Network. Although this has been done for many, many years, it was defeating the purpose of the computer network and causing some backups with the order processing and creating some extra work in data entry for the order takers. Even worse, if the etch-a-sketches get bumped or shaken on their way to the order takers, then some time is lost going back to the craftsman elf and ask them what they wrote down.
Santa asked the craftsman elves why they were not using the communication devices and relying back on the old methods. Surprisingly, he found out the issue. The elves were so used to using the wheels on the etch-a-sketch, they were having problems trying to learn how to use the keyboards and the buttons on the communication devices. To them it was just quicker to use the old ways and move onto the next task as hand.
Something you should know about the workshop craftsman elves is that they are very mechanical and set in their ways. They are extremely focus on creating, building, and painting toys and gifts and could really care less about anything else. For them to stop and learn something new is really a waste of time in their minds. They have been building toys and gifts that exact same way for hundreds of years. Why do they need to change anything?
Once Santa knew what the issue was, he went over to the Office of Research and Development and asked them if they could come up with some way to make an adapter for the craftsman elves' communication devices that looks and operated just like the traditional etch-a-sketch. It would convert what they write on the screen to information being sent through the computer network and over to the database for the order takers. This would be tremendously helpful in clearing up that bottle neck of the flow of information and one of the main reasons why the installed the computer network in the first place.
As Santa entered their offices, he ducked down to get through the doorway and said, "Well my experts, I have another problem for you to solve for me. I need you to take this (as he held up an etch-a-sketch) and make it work with this, (as he held up a communication device in the other hand).
"But Santa, you realize that is not possible, right?," asked one of the engineers, and they all laughed at him.
"I have full confidence that you will use your knowledge and skills and come up with something," he replied. "All you need to do is make the craftsman elves think that they are using this (as he shook the etch-a-sketch). Build something and put the guts of the communicator inside it. They won't know, and really won't care to be honest."
The department agreed that they could probably come up with something, but the major component would be the software that would be needed for this conversion. Before they started developing something themselves, they took to the Internet to see if there was something already out there developed, and they came across a blog post by Ben Collins that talked about taking a Google Sheet and making it work like an etch-a-sketch.
This would be perfect for the software. Now, all they had to do was the simple part to create an overlay for the communications devices and the Craftsman Elves would be none the wiser and just think they were doing what they have doing for years.
You can get your very own copy of the template by connecting to Ben Collins' blog post and find out more about the Etch-A-Sketch in Google Sheets. CLICK HERE to connect.
