Chapter 70 New Mission of the Information Department

Lin Ruoyan carefully examined the current results file. "The question bank has a very wide range of applications. It seems that this framework can be expanded to include a lot of content, such as Mathematical Olympiads and college entrance examination simulation questions, right?"

"Of course. As long as there are questions, we can fill it in and keep updating it. Now the core of this program is complete. I have taught two receptionists how to enter questions. They both have computer skills. The girl types very fast and has already helped me enter many questions in her free time."

Ah, the front desk has this use. No wonder those two kids have been working overtime recently. It turns out they were conscripted.

But the question bank website is a good thing. In addition to what she said last time about the membership-based functional control, she also added some "new" ideas today based on the existing framework.

They've created membership rankings based on age and learning level, with only top-up users qualifying. They've also designed a unique VIP medal system, occasionally hosting quizzes and offering free membership renewals. They've completely transformed a legitimate practice site into a money-making scheme reminiscent of a web game.

Points are awarded for logging in and signing in every day, and for charging money. Points can be exchanged for virtual avatar title rewards, or physical gifts such as study books. Students need to accumulate physical strength by completing tasks so that they can practice questions and participate in additional qualifying competitions. We strive to make children regard learning as "entertainment". If they don't do questions for a day, their ranking will drop. Learning must be persisted every day to the point of addiction.

These customer retention and promotional techniques, common on later learning or gaming websites, were eye-opening for Hao Heshan. Crucially, they weren't technically difficult, much like programming a mini-game. This new goal suddenly gave him a new direction to strive for, and he left Lin's office grinning like a fool.

However, the two front desk staff alone wouldn't be enough to manage the massive question bank and compile those lucrative tasks. Lin Ruoyan called Wen Erya from the Human Resources Department and asked her to arrange for the recruitment of interns specifically for the Information Department. She consulted Hao Heshan about the interns' expertise and skills. If they were suitable for the job and willing to join the team after graduation, it would be a great addition to the Information Department's staff.

Hao Heshan was delighted to hear this. After all, professional ability is something you don't have to be unaware of; it's only through project experience that one can truly determine strength. And interns are great: they're young, cheap, and willing to work overtime. So, using his 100,000 yuan monthly budget, he equipped his department with four new computers. Besides comfortable chairs, he also provided four camp beds and sleeping bags at the workstations, hoping that the interns would feel like home, just like he did, and never leave.

Li Jia from the Cost Department had no idea what the Information Department was up to, but he brought his newly hired assistant to sort out the contract documents for the building used as the sales office. He also visited the site and brought along Old Jiao to confront the previous construction company, pointing out every area that failed to meet the contract standards. The construction team was forced to either lose money or complete the project properly.

Given Lao Jiao's influence in the construction industry, if the construction team wanted to receive serious work in the future, they couldn't shirk their responsibilities. Ultimately, they had no choice but to send people to complete the work as quickly as possible. These tasks, which were originally additional items for the later-arriving renovation team, were now directly cut, saving the company over a million yuan.

Li Jia waited until the task was complete before taking the optimized contract to Lin Ruoyan for a talk. He saw this as his duty: controlling costs, verifying the contract, and identifying and addressing any gaps. The work was done, and he wasn't taking credit; it was just a normal work summary.

Lin Ruoyan was naturally satisfied. With a stroke of her pen, she gave Li Jia's department an extra 30,000 yuan bonus this month. Li Jia wanted to refuse, but Lin Ruoyan said, "Through your efforts, the company has saved more than this amount of money. The bonus is what your department deserves."

Although Lin Ruoyan will spend less money on the sales office project because of this, she is smart and the money saved on decoration is justified in giving bonuses and praises to the relevant comrades.

Furthermore, she had come up with a new way to spend money: increasing the budget for the Information Department and hiring more people. She asked Li Jia, "Are your cost calculations still off-grid? Each province and city simply has its own data for reference."

Li Jia nodded. "Yes, I used to do the calculations by hand with a calculator, which was very laborious. Now with the help of computers, it's much faster to calculate in a table."

"Then have you ever considered that there's software specifically designed for your project cost estimates? Just like the drawing software they use for building structures. You could also have software tailored to my country's national conditions, compiling national data, updating it in real time, and naturally generating the kind of statistical tables you're looking for."

Lin Ruoyan was referring to a type of professional engineering cost estimation software available in the real world. This software is fully integrated with domestic engineering models, as well as material and labor supply systems, and can solve various cost estimation issues in domestic engineering projects.

This was something Lin Ruoyan had just thought about after her last conversation with Hao Heshan, when she returned to the real estate industry. The internet was just emerging in the book's time, and the mapping software was imported from overseas, so it was fine to use it without Chinese translation. However, project costing still needs to be considered in light of China's national conditions to be meaningful.

The profit model for this software is to sell electronic locks, similar to the USB-shields used by banks for online banking. In the real world, these small electronic locks used in construction cost estimation can fetch thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan annually, making them standard equipment for engineering design and real estate professionals, who otherwise wouldn't be able to conduct business.

Anyway, once it's developed and launched, it's going to be a very profitable business. Lin Ruoyan plans to use part of the money saved from the sales office renovation to hire people to develop the software, and the other part to increase investment in decoration and landscaping.

Since Hao Heshan has such strong R&D capabilities, and Li Jia is also an expert in cost and engineering cost, the two of them working together, with a group of people, will definitely be able to create new sparks. Maybe this software can be developed before she leaves the world in the book.

In short, seeing that Hao Heshan was so efficient at work, Lin Ruoyan was afraid that her company would not be able to retain this great man, so she quickly proposed everything she wanted to do and let Hao Heshan complete them one by one.

So Lin Ruoyan described the general situation of the software to Li Jia and asked him to find time to talk to Hao Heshan.

Li Jia, of course, wanted to use advanced tools sooner rather than later. He thought to himself, no wonder the Information Department was hiring new people. If this kind of software could actually be developed, it would surely be a hit within the industry. Besides picking up the kids on weekdays, he had nothing to do on weekends and weekends, so he might as well invest more energy in developing this tool.

A few days later, four interns from the Information Department arrived at their posts.

Li Jia also sorted out the requirements and ideas for using the engineering cost software and went to talk to Hao Heshan privately. Hao Heshan was of course interested in the new project and immediately felt that he had been very wise to provide the intern with a camp bed in advance.

Then Hao Heshan said to Li Jia, "Why don't you recruit a few interns?"