MJ's Business IT Blog

A Funny Video About Our Home State of New Hampshire

My Latest Gadget Love

My latest gadget is the Motorola EQ5 portable bluetooth speaker system.  I am in love with this thing.  I carry a ton of stuff in my bag.  It's quite literally a portable office, so I am always looking to slim down and consolidate.  I've been very successful with these pursuits and over the last month have successfully moved from a rather large backpack to a more slender Targus vertical Messenger Bag.  It's lighter, smaller and is a much better fit under airplane seats.

I have been carrying both a nice pair of iHome portable audio speakers, for listening to music, DVD's or my SlingPlayer and a Polycom USB Speaker Phone for my Whaleback Softphone.  Both are great, but together they take up space.  The MOTOROKR EQ5 is a bluetooth, wireless speakerphone and stereo speaker set.  It's really innovative.  The sound quality is excellent and if you get a call while you're listening to music, the music is paused so you can take the call.  Now that's cool.  It's about the size of an iPhone, so it's lught and small.  The only thing I don't love about it is that the battery is not replaceable, but it's rated for 500 charge cycles and I'm sure there will be a better unit available by the time this one fails.  For under $100.00, this device is a bargain and will get a lot of use by me.  If you have a need for an excellent speaker system that can provide both audio and speakerphone features, check out the EQ5.  It's great! Nice job Moto!

Virtual Workers Can Improve Customer Service

Here is a link to an interesting article by Forbes on how larger companies are using virtual workers to improve customer service.  This is nothing new, but it's an interesting read and something nearly all business can leverage to their benefit, if they do things right.

While this article talks about larger organizations, there really is no reason that small business cannot take advantage of cost savings and productivity improvements associated with a well thought out and implement virtual worker program.  Even here at Jenaly, we take advantage of virtual workers every day.  Hardly a day goes by where at least one of our staff is not working remotely.  In all cases, what I see is that the remote worker is equally as productive and effective as those of us working in the office.  Sometimes even more so!

We work with multiple clients that do this too.  Right now, we're working with a client to implement a sophisticated call center application where some times, based on day of the week or time of day, the call center agents may be working from their home instead of the office.  This is one of JetBlue's claims to fame.  When you call JetBlue, you never speak with someone working in a JetBlue office.  You speak with one of their customer service agents, who are working from their home, but you would never know that.  That's because the technology is seamless, as is the experience to the caller.  The call can be easily transferred from the customer service agent, working from their home, to others who may be working at their home or may be in JetBlue's corporate office.  The caller does not know and does not care, becaus they are being taken care of.

That's the key.  The technology is there.  Your business can benefit from reduced costs and the same or better customer service experience.  The employee can benefit from flexibility, reduced commuting costs and maybe even reduced stress.  The customer experiences the same, or even better, first class treatment that you want to be known for.  It's a win all around.  If you have not yet embraced a remote worker policy for your company, do it.  You won't be sorry!

Mr. Shoer Goes To Washington

I know, bad play on a famous movie title, but I am very excited and proud to be participating in a congressional lobbying day in Washington, DC this coming Wednesday, May 13th.  I have been invited, along with 16 other similar companies from around the country, to join CompTIA in DC to meet with several committees and hear from some very interesting speakers.

We will be meeting with theSenate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, theSenate Commerce Committee and the House Committee on Small Business.  In addition, we will hear a presentation from a business development specialist from the Small Business Administration.  I am also, personally, looking forward to a private meeting with the Legislative Director for our local New Hampshire 1st District Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter.

I expect many of the discussions to focus on health care, access to federal stimulus funds and cyber security issues, to name a few.  My understanding is that these meetings will be pretty free flowing and the topics may change as the discussions take root.

I am most interesting in discussing pending legislation's, federal and state, that may impact our clients and if some of these IT related mandates do become law, will our clients have access to stimulus funding to implement the proposed requirements.  I'd also like to know where the health care debate is headed and what positive developments we can expect for our staff.  I don't know any other industry that consistently raises its rates double digits year after year.  If we did that, I doubt we'd have the client loyalty we enjoy today.

If there are things you may be interested in that I can look into for you while I am at Capitol Hill, please let me know.  I have a ton of reading to do this weekend to get prepared.  This is my first visit to Capitol Hill in this capacity and I am really looking forward to it.  Thanks to CompTIA for making opportunity available to its membership.  This member truly appreciates your efforts.

Powermat Aims To Tame Charger Madness

If you are like most people these days, especially mobile workers, you likely have a bag full of chargers that you cart around with you.  This made me crazy years ago and I've dealt with the ever growing number of chargers I require by leveraging USB charging cables and most recently, investing in an iGo universal charger and the tips I need to keep everything powered up and charged.  Even with that, I still carry both a USB battery and a unique battery based USB charger from Boxwave to insure I always have the power I need.  Still, this means I'm also carrying around a bit of extra bulk and weight everywhere I go.

My friend Tom Andrulis from Intelligent Technical Solutions in Las Vegas sent out his newsletter recently and in it, he highlighted a very intriguing product, the Powermat.   It's due on the market in the Fall of 2009.  Simply put, it's a mat that can wirelessly charge the devices placed on it.  This means, one plug into the wall and then a lightwieght, portable mat that you unfold and simply place your devices on to charge.  This is really ingeniuous.  I haven't fully researched their technology yet, but there web site does a nice job explaining their technology.  Depending on the price point and the breadth of the devices they will be able to support, this could be a fantastic development.  I would love to lighten my load, that's for sure.

My current portfolio of devices includes my Toshiba M700 Tablet with extra capacity battery, my Samsung Saga smartphone, my Plantronics Voyager 510 bluetooth headset, my 80 GB iPod (lots of audio recording and music), my Amazon Kindle (1st generation, though I'm coveting the Kindle 2...someday) and my DocuPen scanner.  If I had to carry an individual charger for these 6 devices I probably wouldn't do it.  Not to mention all the chargers that you may have scattered around your home and office to be sure your devices are always charged.  If Powermat can do what it says it can, it will be revolutionary.  I know I will try one out when it is released and will post back on what I think about it.  In the meantime, keep your eye on this product.  It should be great.

It IS A Great Little Scanner

A short time ago, I posted about the PLANon Docupen RC800.  Because I had an upcoming trip to a conference planned, I decided to get one and test it out.  Yes, I like my gadgets, but this also looks to be a gadget with a whole lot of useful potential, so I just couldn't resist.

I read a lot when I travel.  It passes the time.  It also gives me a lot of ideas and pointers to things I want to research more thoroughly.  As a result, I often wind up turning a lot of page corners or just tearing pages from magazines.  The problem is that I also wind up with a lot of scratched notes and pieces of paper to keep track of and even through I carry a folder to put things in to, it's not an efficient system for me.

Arrive the DocuPen RC800.  It's tiny.  That's it over on the left.  The unit is a whopping 8.75" long and barely .5" high and wide.  It's basically big enough to scan any page of paper up to 8.5"wide.  There are a series of small icons on the left side that indicate the various settings and statuses you have access to.  The larger area on the right side is where the USB connector, battery and memory card are.  It comes standard with a small amount of build in memory and may be upgraded with a 1 GB SanDisk MicroSD memory card, which of course I have done :)  The battery is rechargable and charged from the USB port, which is a mini B male connection.  All in all, it's a tiny package that delivers some impressive functionality.

I used it to scan articles of interest, ads, literature and more and stuffed it all in a "To Follow-up" folder on my tablet PC so I would know right where to find it when I'm ready.  This is not a top of the line photo scanner by a long shot, but I have to say, I'm impressed with the scan quality.  Here's an example of an article from the front page of the NH Business Review, our state-wide business newspaper.  And no, I am not planning to apply for this award!! 

The quality is pretty impressive for such a small device.  It's very legibile and the color quality is quite good.  The size of the scanned images is reasonable as well.  There is a small application that you install that allows you to manage the device and download the images stored on it.  You can also format the memory and in theory, manage multiple memory cards, though I'm not sure that would be necessary.  It also comes with a version of Nuance PaperPort that you can download directly to, though with the included pen application, there is no reason why you can't work with whatever imaging or document management software you prefer.

I returned from my trip with no new scraps of paper or hand written notes.  All the information I wanted to remember is stored in my trusted electronic systems.  I find this device very valuable indeed and encourage you to check one out for yourself.

The Technology of Travel

Sometimes travel can be a pain, but technology is helping to ease that quite a bit.  I'm currently out of town at a meeting and technology has certainly made the trip easier.  I booked my flight online, printed my boarding pass at home and at the hotel, so I could walk right through the airport to the security checkpoint, saving precious time.  Before leaving for the airport, I was easily able to check my flight status, and continue to do so on my smartphone en route.  During the winter months, with the unpredictable weather of late, that's a very important piece of technology that helps avoid or deal with unexpected delays.  I don't exactly love to travel on business, but when I need to, technology helps make the process a lot more tolerable.

The Power Of Technology To Help A Rural Area

This past weekend, I had the extreme pleasure of visiting Hancock, Michigan in the very "upper" part of the Upper Peninsula.  My Dad was born there in 1921 and he, my older brother and I went for a visit.  In the early part of the 20th Century, the area was booming as a result fo the copper mining industry, thus the moniker Copper Country.  Today, it's still dealing with the effects of the demise of that industry in the late early to mid 1900's.

The main economic and cultural engine of the area of Michigan Tech in nearby Houghton, which was originally the Michigan School of Mines.  If it were not for the "Tech" as it's referred to, I'm not sure if the area would have survived.  At any rate, in no small part due to Tech, the area may be on the cusp of a resurgence.  Much like my own area in the Seacoast of New Hampshire, Tech benefits from many graduates who fall in love with the area and choose to stay, start careers and raise families.  This is exactly how I wound up living in Portsmouth, NH after graduating from UNH.  Of course it didn't hurt that my wife was a year behind me in school and I hung around waiting for her to graduate :)

At any rate, as I was told during my visit, many Tech graduates are choosing to stay in the area and help it rebound.  This is made possible because of technology.  Many of these U.P. transplants are able to remain thanks to telecommuting technology.  Whether this is allowing them to live where they want and work for a company that is not local or whether this is allowing them to start their own business and deal with clients near and far, technology is enabling a new generation of Yoopers to stay in the beautiful Hancock area and help it learn to thrive once again.  This is a great example of technology enabling people and places to thrive.

GPS Is Great Technology

Global Positioning System is simply great technology.  It's origins are with the military, but it's been available to us civilians for years and has just about become mainstream.

For business use, if you have any employees on the road a lot, it's invaluable.  Whether it's for delivery or service personnel, sales people or simply a traveling executive, it's wonderful technology that will save time and improve efficiencies.

I've really become enamored with GPS over the last year.  Last October, we bought my wife a new vehicle, the Hybrid Toyota Camry.  I could digress about the hybrid technology here, but I'll resist that temptation.  Suffice it say, I was not in favor of going this route, but I'm a convert.  Hybrid vehicles are where it's at.  I can't wait until I can justify getting rid of my current SUV for a Hybrid Highlander or whatever equivalent may be on the market when that time comes.  Getting back to GPS, the new Hybrid Camry has built in GPS and that was my first real hands on experience with it.  Based on that experience, I purchased a portable GPS for my Palm Treo, so that I could have it with me at all times.

Whenever I need to travel to client sites, I use the GPS to find the fastest, most efficient route.  If there are traffic delays, or I encounter a detour, the GPS will either dynamically recalculate the best route or I can ask it to find an efficient way around the delay.  I've even taken it with me on business trips to other states, when I've had to rent a car, and it's ably guided me to my destinations.  If you are on the road, or have people on the road, you want GPS.  Garmin and TomTom are two of the leading GPS manufacturers.  If it's not built in to your vehicle, a portable unit is a great way to go, as you can move it from vehicle to vehicle and take it with you.  Safe travels...