We're slowly getting everyone up to speed on the new phone system and getting them to use it. One of the really cool features (well I think it's cool) is the "Single Number Reach" (SNR) facility. Using SNR, when someone calls my office number, it rings both in the office and on my mobile at the same time. I can answer on either and move the call between the two.
So, for example, I take the call on the desk phone but I need to leave the office while I'm talking (or I want to go somewhere private), I can transfer it to my mobile at the touch of a button and off I go. The same is true the other way round. So if I answer the call on my mobile and walk back into the office, I can simply pick up the desk phone and carry on.
What this means in practice, is that I don't have to worry about diverting my phone to my mobile or worrying about calls I might miss if I'm out. If someone rings the office, I will always get the call. In addition, I don't have to give anyone my mobile number.
When we were looking at the justification for the phone system, one of the points was that we would have much less requirement for people to divert their phones to their mobiles when they were working from home (they can use the softphone from home). With single number reach, I'm now thinking we could incur higher charges because we will use the facilities much more. So the real benefit is in better call management and working more effectively as an organisation, not saving money.
Thursday, 21 April 2011
Monday, 4 April 2011
VOIP
Last Thursday we installed the VOIP system Cisco have kindly donated to us. What really surprised me was how hassle free this was. Admittedly we have a Cisco Voice Partner, Unifi, doing all the work, but even so, the whole process was very hassle free. We had about 5 minutes downtime swapping cables from one router to another, plus 30 seconds a user plugging the phones in. Remarkable compared to my previous encounters with similar systems.
There was one amusing interlude. We had BT in to install some new circuits. They needed to pull a cable from the 3rd floor to the basement. They started at the top and worked down. On the first floor the cable started feeding through a bit quick. It got quicker and quicker until about 20 metres of cable had emptied itself on top of the engineer! Thick Laurel and Hardy and you'll get the idea.
Anyway, we are still waiting on the BT circuits coming live, then its onto the interesting bit: training the users!
There was one amusing interlude. We had BT in to install some new circuits. They needed to pull a cable from the 3rd floor to the basement. They started at the top and worked down. On the first floor the cable started feeding through a bit quick. It got quicker and quicker until about 20 metres of cable had emptied itself on top of the engineer! Thick Laurel and Hardy and you'll get the idea.
Anyway, we are still waiting on the BT circuits coming live, then its onto the interesting bit: training the users!
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Handbuilt by Richards
There was a TV commercial in the 1980's for the Fiat Strata (or Ritmo if you are reading from outside the UK) with the strapline "Handbuilt by Robots". The Not the Nine O'Clock News team did a brilliant satire of it with the alternative strapline line of "Handbuilt by Roberts". Watch the two in the above order and you'll get the joke.
On Tuesday this week, I felt like I was on the Not the Nine O'Clock News set. I had a meeting with our IT service partner Appichar. The four people in the room were me (Richard), my CEO (Richard Craig), their CEO (Richard Ferriman), and our account manager (Richard Eynon).
CTT IT, Handbuilt by Richards!
On Tuesday this week, I felt like I was on the Not the Nine O'Clock News set. I had a meeting with our IT service partner Appichar. The four people in the room were me (Richard), my CEO (Richard Craig), their CEO (Richard Ferriman), and our account manager (Richard Eynon).
CTT IT, Handbuilt by Richards!
This is why I get out of bed
There's a horrible feeling on the Monday after the clocks go forward, when you get out of bed and the alarm says 6am but your body is telling you 5am, and you wonder why you do this? So it's really timely when something comes along that tells you why (OK so it actually arrived Friday, but it really helped).
The New Shoes Theatre company in Kent are one of the beneficiaries of the Huddle donation programme that CTX runs. Their story reminded me that what I do really does make a difference.
The New Shoes Theatre company in Kent are one of the beneficiaries of the Huddle donation programme that CTX runs. Their story reminded me that what I do really does make a difference.
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Cloud Hype
I guess I first heard the term "cloud computing" around about three years ago, but in the last six months, just about everything seems to be tagged "cloud". My old colleagues at Gartner have a long standing model for this phenomenon called the "Hype cycle". It runs through five phases from a technology "trigger", through to a "Plateau of productivity". Right now, cloud computing must be right at the top of the "Peak of inflated expectations"!
What follows is peak this the "Trough of disillusionment" as organisations dive into "cloud" technology and discover half of what's out there is only superficially "cloud", and lots of things don't really deliver. We're already seeing lots of debates on what really constitutes "cloud", which marks the start of the decline.
The model of delivering discrete applications over the web has been around for over ten years - variously called application service provision (ASP) or software as a service (SaaS). Those applications that have developed and survived over this time have jumped on the "cloud" bandwagon. Expect them to jump off again as the term becomes seriously devalued. They will go back to selling the benefits of their applications, and its delivery mechanism (over the web), and all talk of cloud will disappear from their vocabulary.
Meanwhile, large organisations are adopting the flexible processing power models that have also been labelled "cloud". Most charities will only run into this as their web hosting providers adopt it. Even then it will be pretty transparent, except perhaps in some of the contractual terms.
Perhaps the most interesting developments to survive and thrive will be the ability to access many more applications from anywhere on the web (or mobile device), and the advent of the "app" model of downloading applications when I need them to run on my particular platform (mobile or static). There are some gamechangers in there that will have their own hype cycles.
Anyway, for me, the term "cloud computing" is dead for any useful purpose.
What follows is peak this the "Trough of disillusionment" as organisations dive into "cloud" technology and discover half of what's out there is only superficially "cloud", and lots of things don't really deliver. We're already seeing lots of debates on what really constitutes "cloud", which marks the start of the decline.
The model of delivering discrete applications over the web has been around for over ten years - variously called application service provision (ASP) or software as a service (SaaS). Those applications that have developed and survived over this time have jumped on the "cloud" bandwagon. Expect them to jump off again as the term becomes seriously devalued. They will go back to selling the benefits of their applications, and its delivery mechanism (over the web), and all talk of cloud will disappear from their vocabulary.
Meanwhile, large organisations are adopting the flexible processing power models that have also been labelled "cloud". Most charities will only run into this as their web hosting providers adopt it. Even then it will be pretty transparent, except perhaps in some of the contractual terms.
Perhaps the most interesting developments to survive and thrive will be the ability to access many more applications from anywhere on the web (or mobile device), and the advent of the "app" model of downloading applications when I need them to run on my particular platform (mobile or static). There are some gamechangers in there that will have their own hype cycles.
Anyway, for me, the term "cloud computing" is dead for any useful purpose.
There's Always Something!
Last week, we upgraded all the office PCs to Windows 7 and Office 2010. Most were running XP and Office 2003. To say things went really well would be an understatement. My experience of mass upgrades is that there are usually a whole host of things that crawl out of the woodwork when you do them, however well you plan.
A couple of nasty little problems cropped up: a PC that attached to the network, but steadfastly refused to see the internet (Apples fault); and a very large mailbox that wouldn't download to a PC (fixed by running it in online mode). But otherwise I was really happy.
UNTIL: Monday morning one PC can't get into the finance system. We installed the finance software on two others, and they worked like a dream. This one refuses point blank. Actually its the user account because it all works when signed in as administrator. No one seems to be able to tell me why!
A couple of nasty little problems cropped up: a PC that attached to the network, but steadfastly refused to see the internet (Apples fault); and a very large mailbox that wouldn't download to a PC (fixed by running it in online mode). But otherwise I was really happy.
UNTIL: Monday morning one PC can't get into the finance system. We installed the finance software on two others, and they worked like a dream. This one refuses point blank. Actually its the user account because it all works when signed in as administrator. No one seems to be able to tell me why!
Friday, 18 March 2011
Is Social Media More Powerful than Governments?
This was a question posed for a spectrogramme at the recent TechSoup Global Contributors Summit in California. If you've not come across the idea before, a spectrogramme is a line from one end of the room to the other, with one end labelled 'agree' & the other end labelled 'disagree'. Everyone in the room is asked to stand somewhere along the line in response to a specific question.
The summit took place post Tunisia and just as things in Egypt were coming to a head. Of the 50 people in the room, the vast majority were hanging around between ‘don’t know’ and ‘agree’. I was firmly in the ‘disagree’ camp. When I was challenged on this, I noted the age demographic of the people in the room and observed that I was one of those who was old enough to have been there when the Berlin Wall fell (I wasn’t actually in Berlin, but some of my friends were).
In 1989 the internet hadn’t been invented, nor had text messaging or Social Media. The latest technology was a mobile phone that needed a suitcase to carry the battery! Yet the Berlin Wall still fell. Why? Fundamentally it was because the dictatorships of Eastern Europe (starting with the Soviet Union) had lost the appetite, or the ability, to command their armies to suppress their people by force. When the people rose up, no one was willing to do what it took to stop them.
Contrast Eastern Europe with China in 1989. The Chinese leadership was prepared to crush the Tiananmen Square demonstrators with force, and they were able to rely on the support of their army to do it.
Fast forward 22 years. Popular uprisings topple long standing regimes in Tunisia and Egypt with remarkably little bloodshed. But then we come to Libya. A brutal dictator prepared to crush all opposition with a military that remains loyal to him. Sounds a familiar story?
Social Media has many benefits in helping people communicate. But it is people on the street that change regimes and Social Media doesn’t help them against tanks, planes and machineguns.
The summit took place post Tunisia and just as things in Egypt were coming to a head. Of the 50 people in the room, the vast majority were hanging around between ‘don’t know’ and ‘agree’. I was firmly in the ‘disagree’ camp. When I was challenged on this, I noted the age demographic of the people in the room and observed that I was one of those who was old enough to have been there when the Berlin Wall fell (I wasn’t actually in Berlin, but some of my friends were).
In 1989 the internet hadn’t been invented, nor had text messaging or Social Media. The latest technology was a mobile phone that needed a suitcase to carry the battery! Yet the Berlin Wall still fell. Why? Fundamentally it was because the dictatorships of Eastern Europe (starting with the Soviet Union) had lost the appetite, or the ability, to command their armies to suppress their people by force. When the people rose up, no one was willing to do what it took to stop them.
Contrast Eastern Europe with China in 1989. The Chinese leadership was prepared to crush the Tiananmen Square demonstrators with force, and they were able to rely on the support of their army to do it.
Fast forward 22 years. Popular uprisings topple long standing regimes in Tunisia and Egypt with remarkably little bloodshed. But then we come to Libya. A brutal dictator prepared to crush all opposition with a military that remains loyal to him. Sounds a familiar story?
Social Media has many benefits in helping people communicate. But it is people on the street that change regimes and Social Media doesn’t help them against tanks, planes and machineguns.
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