Sharing the Risk

Windows 7 Phone vs iPhone

Well I thought I would try the Windows 7 Phone since I really do not like the "phone" part of the iPhone. I mean I really want to make phone calls and not get "Call Failed" or just random drops. But oh well.

So when I got the new Windows 7 Phone, I went with T-Mobile and the HTC HD7. I ordered it from the T-Mobile website and all went well. I received the phone relatively quick and off I went.

First impression, the screen is really big and nice! But first impression faded quickly as I worked on using the phone.

Speed Dial

Windows 7 Phone 

I wanted simply to add my favorites to the phone for calling people. Well the Windows 7 Phone design idea for that is to create a tile for each contact on the home screen. Ok this results in 12 different tiles and the screen that require a lot of work to scroll through. And even that is just a link to the contact, you still have to select the number you want to call. Overall takes too many steps.

So I thought let's look for an app in the MarketPlace for Speed Dial. I found a number of cool apps that have SpeedDial functionality but they all had one major flaw, you had to re-type each of your contacts!! UGG!

So I thought, that I would write my own app for SpeedDial and make millions on a SpeedDial app that would pull straight from the People in WinPhone7. Well another failure in that there is no API method to get to that data. I can understand the security concerns but they should leave that up to the end user not restrict the development of apps that can use contact data.

But I was willing to live with this lack of usability.

I cannot sync AND listen to music

So I use a Mac at home and Windows at work. It is intentional, I really like WIndows 7. And I really like OS X. But to be honest, it is all about the applications more that it is about the operating system. But that is a review for another time.

So I was excited to see that Microsoft has a Windows 7 Phone Connector for Mac. So I downloaded it and it works extremely well syncing my music for iTunes and also syncing photos from iPhoto. Which is really cool! It also charges the phone. Very cool.

But that is the end of the coolness. While it was charging I wanted to listen to some music on the phone. But NOPE, it will not let you. The phone tells you that you must disconnect the device first. Ok I will watch a video instead, no go there either. Seriously?

So I tried this on my iPhone and it let me play music, watch a video, etc. Now to be fair, it does cancel any sync that is happening but so. Again put the power in the hands of the end-user to make choices not cripple the device just because you do not see why would anyone use that.

Battery Life

Well this is not really Microsofts fault but rather HTC fault. Battery life is about 1/2 day for active use and 3/4 day of light use. By time I got home each day (6pm) it was alerting that the battery was critically low. My iPhone can go two days before getting the 20% warning.

Plugging into Car

Alright, next thing I want is to listen to music while in my car (Jeep Grand Cherokee). So I plugged in the Win7Phone and all was going well but I could barely hear anything. So I turned up the car stereo but it was still really quiet. So I turned up the volume on the phone to max and then I could actually hear the music. Now I am not going for super loud music or anything but just to be able to discern the words of the song. 

Seeing the screen

So I was outside and wanted to see what was on the phone. Not so good. I had the shield the screen to be able to see what the sections were.

Overall

Well I wanted to like the Windows 7 Phone. I really did. But I could find NO compelling reason to switch from my iPhone. In the last few days with my iPhone again, no failed calls,etc. So maybe the Verizon deal has made it where ATT's network can handle the traffic or maybe I have just been lucky!

If you are coming from a different non-smart phone, I think you would be happy with the Windows 7 Phone device. T-Mobile had a GREAT deal in that the phone did not cost anything and their plan was reasonable so it does make a great case for switching from a non-smart phone to the Windows 7 Phone.

Now to switch from the iPhone, no way. And the recent update that Microsoft only appears to address Copy/Paste and searching in the MarketPlace.

So if you have an iPhone, keep it! There is NO reason to switch.

Power of Facebook

Initially I thought Facebook was a complete waste of time, really I did. And I definitely thought there was absolutely no use for Facebook in the business place let alone an effective marketing tool. 

I was wrong. Let me give a little background as to how I discovered my mistake.

I started a hobby game store earlier this year called, Dragon Crown Games. This was and is my first experience with a retail business and to say I was clueless is a drastic understatement. To make matters worse, I did not go with a traditional retail location but instead decided to use the extra space I have in the eMonarch suite to house the store. Not a big deal but we are 51 floors up so drive-by traffic was going to a problem.

So I began trying to figure out how to really get the word out about the store and looking at inexpensive ways to market. Being a technology guy my first thoughts were of using various websites, etc to improve our exposure. I also began looking at how to advertise events that occurred in the store on a weekly basis. In the hobby game market, it is ALL about events. Events drive people to the store and then people (hopefully) buy product.

I look at numerous tools for managing events on line and even looked at software I could buy to use in our hosting environment at eMonarch but then I came across Facebook events and then the light bulb went off.

I also had been watching how other companies use Facebook and I thought let's give it a try. So I started listing events and using Facebook as a way of inviting others to attend the events. Facebook events keeps track of who will attend and who will not attend and even those that might be able to attend. This proved to be extremely valuable.

We have regular attendance to our Facebook page, people respond to our events and almost 100% of our attendance at events has come via Facebook and/or word-of-mouth.

Facebook is actually a strategic part of the game store business now. I am able to post pictures, videos and create a sense of community amongst my customers. In the hobby game environment, community is critical as it is really hard to play hobby games by yourself.

During my experience I learned another interesting idea for social media site, Twitter. Wizards of the Coast (makers of Dungeon and Dragons) has a weekly event run in hobby game stores like mine called DnD Encounters. But what is interesting is that they are using Twitter during the game times to change the dynamics of the game. So one minute the floor your group is on is a concrete floor and the next minute it can be covered in grease. This creates a  really interesting game session and the players really seem to enjoy the interaction

Still have a lot to learn about how to use social media for business but it definitely shows a lot of promise. Do you have a plan for using social media to grown your business? Would love to hear about it!

Twitter for Small Business

So today is not original content but a great article from eMyth regarding Twitter for Small Business.

http://www.e-myth.com/cs/user/print/post/twitter-for-small-businesses

Twitter has great potential and some businesses have already figured out how to really utilize it to generate REAL revenue. For example, Dell has generated $6.5 million in product sales since it has started using Twitter with respect to its Outlet sales. So essentially Dell is going to the customers instead of waiting for the customers to come to them.

For a quick lesson on how to use Twitter for business take a look at the following article from Twitter:

http://business.twitter.com/twitter101/

iPad Review

So here is my review of the iPad. I wanted to wait at least a week of using the device before I actually reviewed it so that I could give an actual review after real usage. So I am going to break this review into two parts as I see the iPad being used in a variety of places but mostly split between personal use and business use. And I am writing this post from the iPad as well to show that long things can be written on the iPad without much effort.

Overall the device gets an A in my book as I have found that I spend more time with it than i do my MacBook Air. But let me describe how I use it. First I use it to read websites followed by reading email. That is what I bought the device for but have found that after a week I use it for more than that. The absence of Flash is a tad annoying but I figure someone has to give. I doubt it will be Apple and so I except a lot of sites to begin to phase out Flash in favor of HTML5 but that will probably be a ways off.

I also find that not having tabs is a bit of a loss as I like to cross-reference sites quite a bit when browsing. But overall the browsing has been great.

For business I was a little skeptical at first because I was not sure how the iPad would fit. But I have discovered where eMonarch will be using it. Up until now when we make a call on a prospect we have never used a presentation as pulling out the laptop and a projector was just too cumbersome. Printing the slides also seemed a little low-tech for a technology company so we just did not use them. Even though I feel that a good presentation would make it a little easier to describe our services.

But here is where the iPad will shine for us. Now with Keynote for the iPad, we can open and start the presentation in less than 30 seconds and also get a little of a Wow factor for using the device. The orientation and the simple navigation will make going through a few slides a very effective tool.

Another place in business I see the iPad being a big win will be in the medical community. Up till now, battery life for laptops has been a real limiting factor as well as having this clunky laptop getting in the way. But now with a true 'slate' device, I think that medical professionals will feel more comfortable using the technology as this is no bigger than a notepad or legal pad to take notes.

One of the key things is that it will all come down to the apps though. So far the apps i have seen for business have been OK but not great as of yet. But it has been only a week. So as the apps come out, the iPad will probably become a staple in many business environments.

For personal use the iPad has lots of pluses. One the key things that gauges how successful a piece of technology will be is how it is received by my wife. If she embraces it then I know it is a winner. So I got her and iPad as well and shee took to it right away! We both took our iPads to church on Easter Sunday as our Bibles. It worked! I was a little nervous as to how it would go as I did not want the technology to get in the way of spending time worshipping God. And it didn't. My wife and I were actually able to both read from the Bible easily and even take notes.

Another very cool usage is in the kitchen. For years i have struggled trying to figure out how to have all the recipes we have in cookbooks readily available and use an electronic version while actually cooking. Having a laptop in kitchen could work but the iPad ended up being a much more elegant solution. We found a great app, Epicurious, that has a lot of great recipes and when in landscape mode makes it a viable electronic cookbook.

Watching movies on the iPad works as promised and provides a great experience using Netflix. I watched two separate movies and am going to watch another tonight after I finish this post.

So overall is the ipad worth it, I think so. I have decided to stick with just the wifi version and not get the 3G version. I figure any place that I am going to be at will have wifi. I am considering getting one of those mifi type devices to use with my existing data card. I just could not see paying for yet another data plan. This is where tethering would have been a great feature to have.

An often asked question so far has been will the iPad replace a laptop. I do not think so just as I do not think it was ever intended to do that. There are probably folks that could replace their laptops with the device but not me.

Battery life has been right on. I use it everyday and have had to charge it once. And I charged it when it had 30% left so I could have gone much farther.

A thing I do dislike is having to clean the screen every other day! I am looking forward to the OS upgrade that the iPad will get this fall with the addition of multitasking and a consolidated inbox. Those will be nice features for sure.

But back to to business use. So far - yeah apps are not there yet or if they are I have not seen them. So far I think we will end up sticking with the "presentation mode" for the iPad at work. However I do expect this to change in the near term as developers get going with creating rich business applications for the iPad.

Oh forgot, I have had NO issues with the wireless connection issues that others have commented on. Does not mean those issues do not exist but with the wireless routers I use, no issues here.

So go out take a look at one or if you are in Tulsa and want to have some coffee and discuss what it can do, give me a buzz and I will be more than happy to meet you and show you how I use it. You just have to buy the coffee!

Outsource v2

Just read an articlefrom David Bellini, the President of Connectwise, that discussed outsourcing the help desk if you are an IT provider. He mentioned some benefits and also outlined the reasons why he keeps it internal.

I agree with the internal point of view for eMonarch. We staff our own help desk, we offer our own backup service, we provide hosted Exchange,Sharepoint, OCS, and even soon MS CRM. Why? Because I do not want to be like every other IT provider out there just reselling other peoples stuff. eMonarch is an IT Provider not an IT Reseller.

Could eMonarch make more money in the short term if we just resold all these other services? Oh you bet! But I think they are just short term gains. Instead I believe the long term strategy for eMonarch is to innovate our own solutions for customers and to be the provider of those services where we can.

But perhaps one of the most important part of what David mentioned in the article is the discussion around relationship. Small Business customers want to talk to someone they know. They want to be able and come see your team if they wanted to. Even with our remote backup service, I can say to my clients "You are more than welcome to come see where your data is being kept safe at". Now to be honest are they likely to take me up on that offer, no. But often times it is the fact that the option exists.

So in the end, outsourcing makes sense for some things. But I go back to an earlier post on this topic and I feel that outsourcing your core business is a bad idea.

But the real question many should ask is "What is your core business". Find that out and it makes determining what to keep internal vs. external a lot easier discussion.

iPad - Long 60 days!

First off I am excited about the upcoming iPad from Apple. You can view the press event here. And to be honest I was not going to blog about it as I did not have that much to add to the content that has already been published about it. But then there was this article at CRN about MS partners not feeling the tablet love.

Now as it would have it, I have had two (2) Microsoft Tablet PC's. They were both Toshiba and good laptops but they were terrible tablets. Too cumbersome and nothing overly special about them other than you could write on the screen with a stylus. I REALLY wanted the Tablet PC to be my only mobile computing device but it was nothing more than a laptop that I could turn landscape and write on the screen. Battery life was marginal. So I eventually abandoned both of them as there was nothing that special about them. I found that I type faster than I can write and it is more legible.

Now I have seen some great implementations of Tablet PC's. The best was when our company signed up with PayChex. The sales guy whipped out his tablet with a InfoPath application that allowed for me to fill out the form and sign it with out any paper. Then when the sales guy got back to his office, he could just dock his tablet and then it would automatically submit the application and sync everything to the backend. So definitely a great use of a Tablet.

But the iPad will rule the tablet space and not because it will have limited exposure. The iPad pricing is perfect for widespread adoption and has a lot of great potential. It was interesting to hear that some believe this to be niche product when I have talked to many a non-technical person who is excited about the iPad. 

Steve Jobs said it best when he discussed their vision for the iPad in that it had to be better than anything already out there. It could not just be a better Netbook because he was right, NetBooks are terrible! They are limited in everything except that they are cheap. Seriously what does a NetBook do that a decent small laptop does not?

So what needs to happen for MS to compete in the tablet space? They need to work with one hardware vendor extremely close and develop something completely innovative that is NOT tied to Windows 7 or anything else they have devised to date. They need to look at how to integrate it with the upcoming Office 2010 Web version and integrate with some Cloud Storage service but have some options for it to integrate into other web services. Make it work fantastically with hosted CRM and Hosted Exchange. Not to mention Sharepoint. 

Me, I will be standing in line the day that the iPad is available and trying to think about what I am going to use my MacBook Air for now!

NOTE: eMonarch (my company) is a Microsoft Gold Partner and make a great living working with Microsoft products. I love what MS does in the business space and the XBox 360 is the best consumer device I have ever seen!

The Cloud Continues . . .

Could not sleep so was reading some news and came across a piece that IBM has now signed the largest cloud deployment with the move by Panasonic with 100,000 users initially and then moving to 300,000. Panasonic will be replacing MS Exchange with IBM's LotusLive.

So the Cloud continues to get adoption as more and more companies realize there is a better way to manage the technology instead of deploying it internally and managing it internally. What I find fascinating about this is that technology is finally becoming just a tool as it was originally intended. 

No one goes out and makes their own hammers or saws these days. We just go to Home Depot and pick up hammer so we can do whatever job we are doing. And the same will continue to happen with technology. Instead of making or managing our own infrastructure, business will continue to look for ways to outsource those tools and reduce their costs by not having huge teams to manage the environment.

Values vs Revenue - Google Choose Values!

Yesterday Google did a remarkable thing, they announced (read the blog post here) that they are going to be stop censoring their search results on google.cn. 

This is great news and here is why I believe so. Companies have values and sometimes those values do always line up with the values of the increasing revenue and bottom line. In fact often times there are decisions that have to be made based on the values of a company that actually cause revenue to decline.

Seeing a company as big as Google decide to not bow to the absurd rules and horrible actions of the Chinese government is fantastic. NOTE: I am specifically mentioning the laws and actions of the government of China and not the Chinese people.

China continues to violate human-rights on a regular basis but US companies and consumers continue to look the other way because it is cheaper to do business there and therefore they are able to increase their profits. Well of course labor is cheaper in China, they operate horrendous labor practices. In this article from the New York Times, there a reports of people making $150 dollars a MONTH and working 12 hours a day for 6 days a week! The site ChinaLaborWatch is full of reports of human rights violations that are stunning to say the least.

Ok did not mean to turn this into a human-rights post but what is really important here is that in life (and business is a part of life albeit for some business is the life) there are more things important that increasing profits or revenue. So when the values of a company conflict with an opportunity to increase revenue, what will you do? Violate the value or sacrifice the money?

So way to go Google! In fact because of their stance, I will look for more ways to do business with Google.

The Coming Cloud ‘Catastrophe’ – FUD Alert!

Mark Anderson is the CEO of Strategic News Service and he provides annual predictions with respect to technology. To be honest, I have never even heard of this guy until three days ago when someone sent me a link to an article in BusinessWeek with respect to his prediction with regard to a "Coming Cloud 'Catastrophe'". So I read the article and I had to find out more.

In a nutshell, Mark Anderson predicts as the #6 item on his top ten list for 2010 that there will be a "Cloud Catastrophe" where "something" will happen in the Cloud that will erode the trust of CIO's with respect to the Cloud. Mark has NO idea what this will be and even says so in his speech which you can listen to here. But he believes it will be something along the lines of an outage or a security breach that will slow down the adoption of the Cloud.

Ok and your point is . . .

I am calling this Hog Wash!!! I do not doubt there will be some event that someone will be able to point to that will say "See, Mark was right!!!" But this kind of thing has already happened without the dire results that many are trying to push. This very year (2009) T-Mobile lost a LOT of customers data when they LOST data for users of the SideKick. But crazy thing happened, people still keep using SmartPhones and T-Mobile even resumed selling the Sidekick with a month!

Google had an outage on February 2, 2009 and then again on September 1, 2009 but another crazy thing happened also – The City of Los Angeles moved their email platform to Google in December to the tune of 30,000 users! Another company MWV moved 12,000 users to Google Apps as has Delta Hotels and Resorts and MANY other companies all since the outages have occurred. Hmmm, does not sound like a "Catastrophe" to me!

But there is more . . . In the US there were 34,017 FATAL car crashes for the year 2008 (around 93 a day!) but we all keep driving our cars to work every day and making cross country trips during the summer. AT&T is DEAD LAST in customer service but people are still buying the iPhone.

So while I will agree that there will be an "event" that occurs in 2010, I strongly disagree with all the coverage this prediction is getting. In fact it is the typical FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) that many like to spread around so that they can continue to operate in the status quo. The concept of Cloud Computing/Utility Computing is a fundamental shift in the implementation of technology that will require a significant portion of the IT community to rethink how they do business. I have a question that I have been rolling around for most of 2009 - "What will we manage when there is nothing left to manage?". As an IT provider, I better be thinking about that change in the IT space or else I am going to be out of business. It will not be enough to be "the trusted advisor", we will have to be the provider.

IT providers will not be safe enough to just "resell" other people's stuff under their own brand or outsource their core offering to someone else. Instead IT providers will have to change how they do business. We will have to "provide" something of tangible value to the customer.

We must adapt and change!

FUD will only keep us around long enough to go bankrupt!

Windows 7 Update

Alright this one took a little longer than I thought it would take to get ready for. But I have upgraded/installed Windows 7 on both my main office workstation and also my work laptop.

First Impressions: Not bad at all. Overall very nice.

But let's put this all in context for a minute. I am coming from Windows Vista not XP so to be honest the changes have not been that drastic for me.

Install goes extremely well and I have had no problems with any of the applications I am running. There have been some really nice features that have saved me some time. One of the most notable for me is when you click the Start button you will see the typical menu of applications but the Word, Excel and even Remote Desktops icon will have a submenu with all of the recent documents that you have worked with. This has proven to be quite a helpful option for me.

Performance is good but my desktop is not really a fair comparison to what others will probably be using. My laptop on the other hand is pretty typical and it works well.

Overall Windows 7 is good and I would even go so far as saying really good. It will be worth the money from XP and ok from Vista.