#Bring Your Own Device

I wrote a blog recently about the trend towards BYOD to work, and a thought struck me this morning as I increasingly see pieces about the subject.

The increased use of mobile devices means that increasingly we are mobile (obviously Graham – what’s your point) and not plugged into the mains. I think you are probably ahead of me now – right!

Yup – BATTERIES. My personal experiences with battery life are mixed to say the least, but suffice to say that being mobile all day on a device for calling, emailing, web surfing, document browsing…..etc, does tend to have a fairly profound impact on the battery. So what’s the answer?

I’m not really sure is MY answer, as I have tried several different ways of addressing the issue, mostly unsatisfactory thus far. My attempts have included: multiple batteries – inconvenient and a pain to change on the go, but does provide the life needed; external battery pack – was a complete pain, as the connector didn’t stay in the phone, and it was like trying to hold an octopus with the cables; second mobile – well we all know that multiple SIM and single number isn’t widely available; phone sleeve with battery – not tried this yet, but may well give it a go, as it looks by far and away the most elegant solution.

But what about a better battery – wouldn’t that be the answer? Well yes obviously (presupposing we remembered to charge it before we left home this morning). I heard recently about some research that had discovered a new “way” of producing a battery that had increased power storage and performance, but sadly it indicated that production would commence in several years time. What do we do in the meantime – I suspect this issue will become a bigger one as we all find ourselves out-and-about with a “dead” device, and either nowhere to charge it, or the charger at home “on the side”

But what do I know

Bring Your Own Device

I was recently pondering technology and specifically the kind of technology that I’ve spent a significant portion of my working life with and that is telecommunications – telephones and data communications if you will.

For a long time the enterprise or business community led the way as far as technology adoption went and especially telecommunications. I’m sure you all recall the first mobile phone “bricks” that were for a long time “status symbols” in the workplace. But now it’s all change,as nearly all of us have I am sure, very “smart” smartphones full of the latest apps, and tablet devices aplenty for our own use, and acquired personally. And so most people have better technology available to them in their pocket than many enterprises have afforded them today. As a result of this “dynamic”, increasingly individuals are deploying their own devices in the work environment (Bring Your Own Device) causing an absolute headache for the IT department as far as security of information is concerned. Notwithstanding this, many enterprises are stepping up to the plate and enabling their workforce to deploy their own devices which on the face of it might seem to be a good thing for the enterprise – allowing them to save money on not equipping everybody with new technology – perhaps?!

However this is only part of the conundrum given that ultimately communication is all about, well …..communication and the very disparate nature of these devices with different operating systems et cetera clearly presents a challenge in terms of integration and of course making them all work seamlessly. And that’s before we even get into a conversation about support. So having said all of this what’s my point. Well my point is this. The Legacy PBX and communications infrastructures are clearly creaking at the seams, in fact many haven’t been updated since the end of 1999 (when the Millennium bug was going to see planes falling from the skies) amidst fears of failure if nothing was done, and I begin to wonder who today is really offering the greatest innovation to meet the needs of the way we’re choosing to communicate and work these days?

Many of the usual suspects are struggling with the very legacy that everyone else is, and I can’t currently see any vendor really rising up to the challenge, however, I can’t help feeling that one of the worlds biggest players albeit not known for their “voice” credentials – Microsoft may well have the answer with their Lync offering and the partnership ecosystem (or ISV ecosystem) that I’m seeing beginning to evolve.

There are increasingly so many compelling reasons to ensure we review and change the way in which we communicate, not least of which the challenges around travel and the drive for organisations to become increasingly more green and create a much smaller carbon footprint. So I guess the biggest challenge here really is the disparate nature of these technologies and the understanding for organisations in order to be able to successfully integrate these technologies to work effectively and of course in these austere times to find an affordable solution. So in the final analysis I can see that we will increasingly see the adoption of the aforementioned technologies and in a “use what you require” cloud supplied utility price model. And it seems to me that for the next few years certainly that this will increasingly be the preferred acquisition model. Services organisation with a heavy bias on knowledge workers will be the “glue” that makes it all work, and ultimately free us from the “desk”??  – well that is I believe a completely different challenge and discussion for another day.

But what do I know…..

Happy Christmas everyone and remember to put your out of office on

I’ve not long finished reading a really interesting book by Tim Ferris titled 4 hour working week and there were some interesting take-always for me which could potentially work in my situation.
I do wonder how some of the concepts introduced would work for most people though, and in particular I’m referring to his slant on email communications. Tim asserts that email is too intrusive and one should aim to read and respond far less frequently than most of us do.
Consider how “helpful technology” has enabled us to receive and read our emails at any time in any location on a myriad of different devices, and the culture this appears to have driven…. A culture of email appearing to be an urgent communication. I have witnessed (and indeed have succumbed to) MS Outlook appearing to drive daily activity of email conversations. Tim suggests that an auto responder should be set to reply with a clear message setting expectations that a response will be delayed to preset times each day, or even each week (over time as part of a transition plan).
Personally I like this idea, as I agree that email has become far too intrusive and that there is no better way of urgently communicating, than the telephone, after all we all have at least one and it is good to talk.
I reckon if we all decided to treat email as a communication tool rather than our god, then we would almost certainly increase our overall productivity, and get far more done.

But what do I know… Happy Christmas everyone and remember to put your out of office on.

Slow Dance by David L Weatherford

I came a cross this poem and wanted to share it as I thought is was beautiful and inspiring. It is by David Weatherford and can be found on his web site

Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round,
or listened to rain slapping the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight,
or gazed at the sun fading into the night?

You better slow down, don’t dance so fast,
time is short, the music won’t last.

Do you run through each day on the fly,
when you ask “How are you?”, do you hear the reply?

When the day is done, do you lie in your bed,
with the next hundred chores running through your head?

You better slow down, don’t dance so fast,
time is short, the music won’t last.

Ever told your child, we’ll do it tomorrow,
and in your haste, not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch, let a friendship die,
’cause you never had time to call and say hi?

You better slow down, don’t dance so fast,
time is short, the music won’t last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere,
you miss half the fun of getting there.

When you worry and hurry through your day,
it’s like an unopened gift thrown away.

Life isn’t a race, so take it slower,
hear the music before your song is over.

The Major Key to Your Better Future Is YOU by Jim Rohn : Inspirational Quotes – Personal Development – Motivational Quotes & More – Jim Rohn International

The Major Key to Your Better Future Is YOU by Jim Rohn : Inspirational Quotes – Personal Development – Motivational Quotes & More – Jim Rohn International.

I can see you

Isn’t it funny that even though we know intellectually things like videoconferencing and audio conferencing in general are a good thing as far as the green agenda is concerned and of course from an efficiency and effectiveness point of view. Yet we still don’t seem to adopt them in our business lives quite as wholeheartedly as you might imagine.

Why ever not?
Is it merely standards, usability or acceptance or is it something more esoteric?

Perhaps it is all moving a lot faster than we think, for example in our personal lives the availability and uptake of technology particularly in terms of mobility is staggering. Much of this technology is now being driven into the enterprise through our adoption at a consumer level. We are finding increasingly, use for Skype and facetime for example. These applications are being broadly adopted by generation Y and increasingly by their parents . Furthermore these consumer technology products are also being brought into the workplace as you will see increasing use of personal iPhones, iPads and other tablet devices in use for work purposes and IT departments having little choice but to embrace and “allow” it.

If you add to this ubiquitous nature of data anywhere any time from any device and the always on availability of (increasingly higher bandwidth) data connections we can see that there is a need to understand and embrace if we are not to be left behind when it comes to competing for customers, staff and profits.

So what will you be doing to ensure you embrace the unstoppable change that all of this enables?

 

Technology sales – are they difficult?

I was musing over some of the really cool technology available today, like the new Flare Experience from Avaya, launched this month, and in particular how sales in this area has or as not changed in the past 5 years or so. In particular, I was considering the sales approach and whether or not there is a greater degree of sales resistance and perhaps it is getting more difficult to open doors, or if general improvement in available information via the internet and social platforms that the opposite is true. My sense is that the right approach is varied according to audience, but absolutely can be successful – and that’s a conversational, business language oriented conversation, not a strong closing aggressive language. Ari Galper discusses this in his unlock the game while others claim that cold calling is dead. Personally I think that good clear professional communications has always and will always work.
What do you think?

Leaders are they born that way?

I was watching my two daughters at gym club today and one of the activities involved gently jogging around. My youngest was at the front and continually looked behind her checking for her sister. I turned to my wife and posed the question that our youngest was perhaps not a leader! Her response was that according to her pre-school leader, she was most definitely a leader. It got me thinking about the old question of nature or nurture and group dynamics and whether leaders are born or created. Personally I am absolutely in the space of nurture and the impact on us of our environment. I do however feel a strong sense that nature prepares us.

Personal leadership

I really like these two words when presented as they are here. It represents accountability and self mastery to me and talks of being in control and making it happen.
Over the years I have been in the business world I have witnessed many different styles and approaches to day to day challenges and issues and sadly too many of those involve waiting for someone else to provide the stimulus to act. I’m not blaming the individuals at all, as more often than not people are simply a result of their experiences and constantly being told that “you can’t do that” over time has a lasting impact.
I consider myself very fortunate to have been given some guidance early in my career that put me on track. I remember clearly being told that if I expected things to change I must first look at myself and begin there. This led me to invest time in continual personal development and one man in particular Dr Stephen R Covey, whose 7 habits of highly effective people was, for me a life-changing experience. Learning that you never have to do anything is indeed liberating. So to the title here- it’s up to us all individually to face up to the personal responsibility of personal leadership rather than abdicate to someone else who really doesn’t care like you should.

Being “OPEN”

What does this mean…..for you?
I posed the question as I did on purpose in order to demonstrate the point that for all of us, we have a unique perspective that may be similar or indeed very different from the next person’s view. For me, this means allowing myself to be influenced by others as frequently as possible- not to be confused with brain washing or lacking personal thinking. By doing so, I can allow myself a shift in view that can often be hugely enlightening and useful. For instance, imagine a situation where you are in the thick of battle (work place) and a potential supplier is asking for a meeting… You rebuff the approach because you are just too busy. The sales guy takes his proposition elsewhere and your problems remain… What if you had been more open? You may have discovered that the potential supplier had just what you needed!
I guess in the final analysis, it is a personal choice to be closed or open. What will you choose?