The Fear of Being Too Connected…
May 22, 2008
By Marissa Jacquay
As I’ve begun to meet with more customers and prospects and define Unified Communications, and how it plays into enhanced productivity within their organizations, I keep getting the same response. Well Marissa, I like the idea, but I don’t want to be TOO connected.
Mobility, in regards to communications has changed so much over time. I think back to childhood, and life seemed simple. Maybe it was due to the fact that I was young and had a child’s perspective, but making trips out and about, and running errands with my parents was simple. We put on our shoes and our coats and we left…I never heard them say, “Oh, hang on, I forgot my cell phone,” or “I will call or text you when I get there.” I remember my neighbor had the first cell phone I had ever seen, and it was connected to a bag that you had to carry around, and I thought that was so cool, strange, but cool. Then pagers came into the picture, you were somebody if you had a pager, and knowing the lingo that if someone paged you with a “911″ after it, that meant, it was urgent. Suddenly more convenient analog cell phones came into the marketplace, and yes they were bulky, but they were better than the original phone in a bag and these allowed for more mobility. And today, well, most people have some sort of a mobile device.
Okay, you’re probably asking yourself, why is she rambling? The point I’m trying to make is this, just as we grow up and mature from children to adults, technology does the same thing, and as technology evolves, society adapts to that changing technology and although we have early embracers…we also have those who wait, and wait, and suddenly the technology embraces them. They have to adapt or they’re lost. Look at the World Wide Web. Company web pages were a thing of the future, but today, if you don’t have one, or don’t have some aspect of e-commerce you’re losing a piece of the pie and the competition might just leave you in the dust.
We’ve gone from basically not being connected at all, to developing ‘Blackberry Thumb’ and being connected to our devices 24/7. You have the two extremes, and you’ve got that happy medium. Technology is only going to keep progressing and changing, and it’s up to all of us to “Roll with It,” but remember that we have choices, and it’s up to us to determine the boundaries that we set with our communications. Productivity is what is pushing these changes, but remember that increased productivity may allow you to still stay on top of your work responsibilities, and still manage to have a life outside of work, and the benefit of this is that you know can have the best of both worlds, and one or the other doesn’t have to suffer. In the past, you had to choose to stay late at work to answer e-mails or leave early to attend your child’s baseball game. Now, you can leave on time, answer the e-mails from your smart phone while you’re waiting for the game to start, and still have the life you choose outside of the confines of the brick and mortar office. It’s a balancing act that may take some practice, but with being TOO connected, the positives outweigh the negatives, and at the end of the day, it is all about CHOICES, and it’s okay to turn off those mobile devices and CHOOSE to come back to them when you’re ready.
Marissa Jacquay is a technology specialist with G3 Technology Partners and works with businesses to analyze and assess how technology can solve business problems. She can be reached at 317.876.6535 or by email at marissa.jacquay@g3tp.com.
Tech Tips Coming Soon!
May 3, 2008
Stay tuned for ‘G3 Tech Tips’ which will offer you useful tips, tricks, and how-to’s related to better managing specific applications and technology products. Our project managers, engineers, and technical support personal possess a wealth of knowledge that we’d like to share so you can make the most effective use of your time, resources, and technology.
If you’d like to request a specific topic or technology to be addressed, leave a comment to this posting and we will work on developing a post targeted toward your interest!
Change Management. A Big Deal In Implementing Technology
May 2, 2008
In the following audio podcast, Ray Hoffman, G3 VP Operations, discusses change management throughout a technology journey. He says there are four things you really need to think through: “What is your vision?” “Do I have the right people in place?” “Are they going to help me get my business where it needs to be?” And “How much change can your organization withstand?”
- How to know when there is too much change
- Get acceptance from user community prior to going to phases two and three
- Technology is never ending - there will always be additions
- Must have a change control process - more important now due to many converging forces
- Why people want to fight change - negative energy
- With implementation of technology, there will be some level of temporary productivity loss for a few weeks.
Other Areas
- Senior management must have buy in and “believe” that there is an ROI
Make sure you have the right people in place - understand the “vision.”
Select correct technology, and the right partner, so you can quickly get to productivity gains - How we used to sell technology - strictly phones. Today, this is not so.
Now, we find we deal with C-level execs on health of business, marketing and sales department heads, inventory control people, IT, database people. Each one must be committed to change.
Technology today is about interaction - not telephones. The question is, “How do your customers want information so they may utilize it best?”
Ray Hoffman is the Chief Operations Officer of G3 Technology Partners and a contributor to this site. He can be reached at ray.hoffman@g3tp.com
Technology as a Business Strategy
April 24, 2008
When you think of business strategy, you think competitive advantage, or pricing, or promotion. But what if Technology could actually give you an advantage in growing your business?
When we talk with business owners/presidents/leaders, we ask the very simple question:
“Based on what you want to accomplish over the next few years, what are some of the strategies you will engage in to get to that vision.”
What we are looking for is how technology can actually help quicken the process from your Current Reality to your Future Reality.
One company we know told us their vision was to be the largest producer of their product in the state. In order to get there, they had to invest in infrastructure so they could grow quickly.
Fortunately for them, there were distinct advantages that technology could bring them–one of which actually helped them bring more customers - which was part of their goal.
Your business strategy can include many things–but technology just might be something that can touch other elements of strategy. Thus, it makes your path to your vision quicker and more efficient. G3 is committed to understanding what’s most important to your business and takes a future oriented approach to reaching your objectives. The bridge below helps illustrate this ideology.
Of course your objectives may differ from those in the model and that is where we can help. G3 adapts to your situation to provide you with the most ideal technology solution to realize your vision effectively.
Be Careful About Being in a Hurry . . .
April 21, 2008
This is a short interview with Jeff Dean, head of Professional Services at G3 Technology Partners. Here, Jeff addresses the dangerous habit of ‘being in a hurry’ to implement technology. At the end, he gives a tip on how to get ready for technology solutions.