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datacentre End User

#rebelwithoutacause and other lyrical waxings

There’s a definite change in the air. The short British summer is coming to a close, people are squeezing in their last bits of holiday before school starts again and my kids are getting ready to set off for university, in one case, for the first time (yes I am excited).

It feels as if this is the last week before the rush. Traffic will get heavier and business get serious again. It’s not that it isn’t serious in August but not much gets done as half the world is out of the office – staff, suppliers and customers.

Next week all the shops will have their Christmas decorations out! There’s a lot going on in the world before you need to think about Christmas though. 4G launches in the UK, iPhone5 is supposed to be coming out, Windows8, perhaps.

There is always so much going on in the tech space that I often wonder how businesses cope with the pace of change. Which phones do you chose for your staff? Do you let them use their own? Cloud or not cloud1? What do you do about corporate security – for corporate read one man bands just as much as the FT100. Is your website working for you? Which Unified Comms vendor should I use? Do I need UC? Should I upgrade my broadband? Ethernet? Have I got my backup policy right? Can I stop buying desk phones and just use a headset connected to my laptop?

I could probably have written that last paragraph 5 years ago and it would still have been valid. Today’s pace of change is making it more necessary to get decisions right. Whilst technology is driving business savings and productivity we are growing accustomed to forking out £400 or £500 on a phone – that’s more than you need to spend on a PC or laptop. Because we are growing more reliant on that technology it costs a lot in terms of time and effort if it does go wrong.

I think the only answer is increased specialisation and focus. You need to specialise on what brings in cash to your business. We are doing the same here at Timico. There was a time when our product catalogue could have been used in world record attempts for ripping up telephone directories. It takes a strong will to ditch products but it needs doing.

Business also needs to embed quality in everything it does. Earlier this year we gained our ISO9001 status and are well down the path of PCI compliance and ISO27001. Lots of change has had to happen, improvement actually. It feels really good, a bit like that feeling when you come out of the gym after a hard training session. You look down at your waistline and realise that you need to invest in smaller fitting clothes. It’s a continuous process but worth it.

That’s enough lyrical waxing for now but we are certainly in for exciting times ahead. Drop me a line or make a comment if you have interesting things to say:)

1 I realise that I’ve banned the use of the word cloud from this blog but rules are meant to be broken #rebelwithoutacause

Trefor Davies

By Trefor Davies

Liver of life, father of four, CTO of trefor.net, writer, poet, philosopherontap.com

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