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Technology

Technology Tools for Better Client Service

Not everyone gets to share their personal mission statement with so many people, but if you’re a frequent reader of Randy’s column, you know that he’s had the privilege of living his mission statement: “To help as many people as possible use technology in the way that benefits them most.”

Apr. 15, 2009

From the April/May 2009 Issue

“To help as many people as possible use technology in the way that benefits
them most.” Not everyone gets to share their personal mission statement
with so many people, but as a frequent reader of this column, you know that
I have had the privilege of living my mission statement. More importantly, I
take the responsibility very personally and directly for each of you. Before
I stake my reputation on a technology, I have to believe it does several things:

  • provides a solution to a legitimate problem,
  • has a reasonable cost/benefit ratio, and
  • can truly make things easier.

I won’t claim to be right on every item, but if a baseball player bats
.400, they are considered a star. With that in mind, let’s consider some
special hardware that may merit some of your hard-earned money.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES WITH A ‘COOL FACTOR’
Okay, maybe some of these aren’t so new, but these items have a clear
place and are very safe bets:

Apple iPhone — This is a wonderful device, but it’s
focused more on being a great personal device than a corporate device. Still,
many of you and your clients would benefit if you had one in hand. (www.apple.com/iphone)

BlackBerry — For email delivery, this is a much more
corporate device, but it’s very email centric. The ability for IT to
remotely wipe this device clean protects your client data. (www.blackberry.com)

Fujitsu ScanSnap S300 — This is a great portable scanner that
has duplex (both sides of the paper) scanning capability and is powered off
a USB cable, making it exceptionally portable. Fujitsu showed the new S5100
unit at CES in January 2009, and many of you have the larger S510 units already
that will be replaced by this next generation ScanSnap. (www.fujitsu.com/us)

MacBook Pro — This is a great personal computer that, when
used in conjunction with VMware Fusion, allows you to have the best of all
worlds: a reliable operating system, ease of use, and the ability to run PC-based
applications. (www.apple.com/macbookpro)

ASUS Eee PC 1000HE 10-Inch Netbook — This product has a 1.66
GHz Intel Atom N280 Processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB Hard Drive, 10GB Eee (Cloud)
Storage, Bluetooth, and XP Home, runs for 9.5 hours on a single charge, and
at the time of this writing sells for $374. A great travel machine! (eeepc.asus.com)

Kindle 2 — If you read books, how can you be without this device?
Oh, and I guess this doesn’t really help a lot with client service …
unless the knowledge you gain by reading makes a difference. (www.kindle.com)


BUT WHAT’S BEEN IMPROVED ENOUGH TO BE USEFUL … OR IS MUCH MORE BLEEDING EDGE?

How about some digital pens:

And voice recognition:

  • Dragon Naturally
    Speaking 10     is a commercially successful product. It is not 64-bit
    compliant but it runs in a Virtual Machine just fine. The product comes with
    the Phillips VoiceTracer so you can dictate and transfer the file to a PC.
    The product works fine, but training and patience is required.
  • Vista
    Speech Recognition         works very well. Training is required, and
    we have found no Digital Voice Recorder transcriber. Voice Recognition has
    been a part of the OS since Windows 98, improving with each OS upgrade. The
    product can be used to start programs or accessories. Speech was in Office
    2003 and earlier, but not in Office 2007.

How about VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)? We recommend a good
quality headset and microphone with the softphone products like:

  • Skype 4.0
    — This new version improved audio and video calling, including conference
    calls. The working plan is for desktop sharing, which could replace some remote
    support tools. Heavy-duty integration products like VoSKY Exchange PBX-to-Skype
    application gateways connect Skype to PBX systems.
  • Microsoft
    Office Communicator R2     — This new version of Microsoft’s
    Unified messaging system allows for a shared desktop, improved video calling,
    audio calling, conference calling, instant messaging, integration into Exchange
    2007, and integration in VoIP phone systems. This could be a very effective
    way to communicate in the near future
  • In-house VoIP systems deserve a whole article, but I really
    like my TrixBox
    solution. This is a great fit for small firms.

Cell phones continue to improve, but most don’t satisfy my desires
and needs. Phones to watch include:

  • Google
    Android     — Primarily focused on consumers, this product
    is getting much software that will turn it into a business instrument. This
    product will do well when it expands beyond the T-Mobile system.
  • Palm
    Pre         — Palm announced its new WebOS at CES 2009, as well
    as the new generation phone. This retires the old Palm OS, and this instrument
    can be a competitor for iPhone and gPhone.
  • Polymer Vision’s
    Readius     — This 3G HSDPA tri-band phone allows worldwide
    calls and high-speed instant updates from personally selected news sources,
    special services and email. The Micro SD High Capacity storage ensures easy
    access to other favorite information and eBooks. Readius also features audio
    capabilities (such as MP3) for podcasts, audio books and music. Most importantly,
    it has a 5-inch rollable digital paper display.

Not every hardware or software product will make it for the long haul, but
the ones included here show a lot of promise. Most importantly, they are legitimate
attempts to improve all of our lives through superior technology.