Not Your Typical IT Guys

I call it the Pantry effect.  Consider this for a moment.  Your hungry and need a snack.  So you go to the kitchen to peruse the shelves for something to satisfy that hunger.  However, finding the right snack all of a sudden becomes a daunting challenge.  You have organized your kitchen into a dozen different pantries organized by type of snack.  A pantry for chips, another for pretzels, yet another for variety fruit cups… and so on. So now, you either need to open all 12 pantries and try to make a decision OR you need to decide which type of snack you want before you can even begin perusing the right pantry of choices.

This is the same challenge that companies adopting all SaaS solutions are running into.  Here is a typical employees thought process, “I need to look up a client phone number… which application do I need? what is the web address? what is my username and password?… doah i hope I picked the application with the most recent information!”

Don’t get me wrong… I love SaaS, it has MANY benefits that make it a perfect solution for many organizations.  But we need to review what history has taught us.  For years everyone said, “Pick best of breed apps.” Now everyone is retracing their steps… “Maybe I should have picked the time and billing system that integrates with our contact management system even though it was missing a few bells and whistles.” There is something to be said for truelly integrated systems.

One day, Alexander the SaaS Great is going to slice this Gordian Knot in half, however until then you are faced with many pantry’s that don’t talk to each other and don’t have the same path’s to entry or username and password requirements.

Until then Cloud Solution providers like Simplified Innovations are the better choice.  We can take all of your existing “Shelfware” apps and put them in the cloud for you.  You maintain all of the integrations and benefits of having a single pantry plus get ALL the benefits of the “Cloud.”  In addition there is nothing NEW for your staff to learn.  Everything maintains the same comfortable interface you have been using in your business for years.

Many software providers are beginning to SaaSify their apps, however before jumping into their cloud weigh the options and consider sticking with the model you already have, just get rid of the hardware burden.  Another thought to consider… how many apps do you have that you have put off an update too because of some feature change that would disrupt your business??  If you are in that vendors SaaS cloud you no longer have the power to hold off on that update until it makes sense for your business!  When they decided the update gets pushed its a disruption you have to handle at that time. 

Bottom line, embrace the cloud, but don’t jump into the SaaS bucket without considering all your options.  SaaS can’t completely replace your existing technical infrastrucure… however we can!

Anyone else using the BlackBerry Bold with AT&T?!?

First, before I rant…I love the phone, its clean, great screen, decent battery, and 3G.

Moving on…I get “Call Failed” close to a dozen times per day.  We have reported to AT&T and the reaction is, “Hmmm, that’s odd.”  Well I can tell you this much, I did a Google search using the keywords “Call Failed” Blackberry Bold…20,300 hits all complaining about this same issue.  Not so unique.

Daniel has now had 3 BB Bolds to try to address the issue and no luck.  We get failed calls in Baltimore, Bel Air, Pennsylvania, driving on 95, and even in Las Vegas.  So there is no blaming the towers in any one location.  This is a device issue with the AT&T network.

Please anyone else out there having issues…have you found a resolution?  I’m dying here!

OK…off to the AT&T store to get a new SIM card……………………….