Simplify Your IT and Empower Your Business, Part 1 – The Problems @mattnevans

My hope is that everyone had a wonderful Holiday weekend!  Somehow, I came down with a nasty summer cold – congested, coughing, sneezing and everything in-between.  Today is going to be filled with rest, Vitamin C and Nyquil!

Last Friday, I mentioned how I asked my good friend Matt Nevans to take over the pen this week with some incredibly helpful IT solutions for small business owners and entrepreneurs.  Here is Part 1 of the series.  If you’re interested in joining us, Matt and I will be hosting an IT Webinar, but you have to sign up to get updates here or you won’t know about it.  Enjoy and we welcome your feedback here or on my Facebook page.  Have a great week!

For years, information technology blogs, magazines and pundits have been saying how simplified IT is coming. Has it? That’s the question I aim to answer in this 4 part series.

Part 1 – The Problems

Ten years ago Google launched their email service called gmail. Its promises were grand: 5 GB of free storage, easy access from multiple devices, great SPAM filtering and a simple to use interface. However in those ten years since its launch, nothing has really changed. We were hopeful that gmail would be the answer to an ongoing problem: email! Many of us receive 100’s of emails a day and the things we least look forward to are reading, organizing, and responding to those oh so important messages. Simplified IT it is not, frustration it is.

When we take a look at our daily habits, tasks and rituals we see a commonality among many of us. Most of us wake up and the first thing we do is look at our smart phones on our nightstands. Before we grab a cup of coffee or tea, before we take a shower, before we brush our teeth and before we even bother to put pants on. We have to see those oh so important emails that came in overnight. Is it self-taxing? Absolutely! Is it necessary? No, and far from it. Is it normal? Unfortunately yes. We have ingrained ourselves with this notion of connectivity, awareness, social media and interaction at every level and time of our long, sometimes frustrating and dissatisfying days. What if we could take the services, devices and people we interact with each day and make them more streamlined, more real, more rewarding, more simplified.

About 15 years ago, Research in Motion introduced The Blackberry, a device to rule all devices. For its time, it was truly amazing. If you received an email on your device and marked it as read, it was reflected on your computer. Create a contact in Outlook and send them a calendar invite and they were instantly on your device. This device didn’t just send email, it empowered its users to be more productive and connect with people in a new way. In the 15 years since its introduction, what has changed… nothing! Fundamentally, every smart phone we use today from iPhone to Windows Phone to Android are all the same. Are they convenient, absolutely! But do they really simplify our lives, not by a long shot. In many ways they complicate our lives even more so than they already are. So how can we utilize these devices and services to better suit our lives and truly simplify our work and play? The answer is simple. Take a step back, really look at what you do and find the service and devices that fits what you do.

Join us tomorrow as Matt takes a look at Part 2 – The Tools:  The Collaboration.

Have an awesome Tuesday!