Welcome to the Service Desk. How can I help?

I had to make a call this week to an IT Help Desk. It came as no suprise that the local number I rang was answered by a customer service representative in another country.

The representative on the phone was cheerful and welcoming and had a distinctive american accent, which was interesting given that the country he was based in was India.

My problem was simple. I was rebuilding a PC and I could not complete the reinstall of some software because the license key could not be reactivated. Well, I thought the problem was simple but clearly my friend on the phone did not agree. If there was anything simple about the call – it was me.

It seemed what I clearly needed was someone to walk me through the install process. After two attempts to restate my problem, I decided to go with the flow. I had phoned a free call number, had some spare time, interrupting seemed to be delaying the inevitable and sooner or later he would get to the ‘activate the software’ part of the process. So with short concise explanatory sentences, he walked me through the A to Z of how to install the software on a PC. At last we got to the key part.

He said:”‘Enter your activation code”. I stated my problem. He took some action. It sorted the problem. My license key was accepted. The software installation was completed. I thanked him for his assistance….until next time.

Thinking about it, the service desk is not a new concept and it has definitely become a necessary, if at times frustrating, part of our lives. It seeks to solve an age old problem that has, in different guises, been with us throughout the ages:

All new technologies have ancestors

I met a retired work colleague for coffee this week. Stan, my first manager in the industry,  retired from his engineering role in the Telecommunications industry 15 years ago and at the age of 81 years still maintains an active interest in the technologies in this sector.

When he moved into the retirement home, he may have had to give away his beloved Ham Radio interest, but he updated that network of friends with new ones on Twitter, Skype and Facebook.

Over the course of an hour, and a couple of lattes,  Stan regaled me with stories about magneto phones (crank phones) and manual exchanges, telephone switches (the brains of an automatic exchange) and jumper running, video conferencing and mobile access radio (MAR).

Our chat confirmed for me that the telecommunication vision of the 1960s and 1970s that his generation aspired to has still not come to pass. He also gently reminded me that all new technologies have ancestors.

In 1969, the Post Office Research Station in England made an 8 minute film to predict what the future of telecommunications may be like. From a technology perspective, it is a great reminder of how far we have come, and how far we have yet to go. It is hard to believe it, but forty years later we are still working to get some of these technologies integrated into our daily lives.

Look out iPhone cause the Droid is advancing

In this ever changing technology focused world, the battles lines are being drawn.  A new technology platform is maturing and it is very mobile.

As important as laptops and notebooks have become in the lives of many, I am absolutely convinced that mobile devices the size of cell phones will start to replace PCs for users as manufacturers diversify this market over the next five years.

Today, Gartner delivered the ‘kicker’. They have predicted that smartphone shipments worldwide will grow year over year to the point where they will soon outnumber laptop unit shipments. Gartner has also predicted that end users will spend more on a smartphone than they will on notebooks.

I know I am going to upset a number of people by making this statement, but contrary to what some parties believe,  I do not think that Apple’s iPhone OS will win the mobile device war against devices with Android OS.

The good news (for me) is that Gartner has recently provided some analysis that supports my view by predicting that by 2012, the number of devices with Android OS will exceed devices with iPhone or Blackberry OS.

Although the iPhone looks like it has a head start, the question of its survival does not rest solely on the premise that is has a diverse application base. Other factors are equally as important as a killer application that everyone ‘just has to have’. One of the other key factors that determines the success of a platform is that it has an engaged community of third party vendors and suppliers who can make money from it.

As much as my iPhone using friends try to convince me otherwise, the fact is that applications alone do not provide the base for a growing and thriving economic community and the Apple model is a closed one. It actively discourages the establishment of supporting economic communities.

With Android OS now being deployed on a number of connected devices, such as ebook readers, the battle lines have shifted more in Android’s favor.

Don’t get me wrong, I do not believe that the iPhone will disappear in the near future. There is a diverse market out there and customers all have differing needs.  Apple’s iPhone will, as a minimum, retain a niche market.

It is also important to remember that Apple has been here before.  It is not the first time Apple has gone to battle and lost the war.  The important question is – can Apple take the learning from its battles in the past?

The future will reveal the answer. What do you think?

Digital artistry – an emerging art form

Last week the historic Ferry building in Auckland, New Zealand was transformed into an interactive light and sound experience to celebrate the launch of Telecom New Zealand’s new logo and brand.

Inside Out Productions, and their team of international digital artists and animators, mapped an amazing display onto the face of this much loved city icon which held an audience of young and old enthralled.

Earlier that week, I had come across Sweatshoppe and their multi-media performances. This artistique duo, based in America,  performs visual exhibitions using tag and graffiti concepts on all types of indoor and outdoor surfaces.

These types of exciting, innovative  and dynamic exhibitions using visual media are opening the door wider on a maturing artistic art form with street cred and, in my opinion, there is a large group of people willing, ready and able to participate and appreciate these interactive canvases.

Cloud Computing – the next wave

You may have read about it, heard about it or are already using it. The hype is definitely out there. Cloud computing is currently being touted as the next computing revolution.

Opinion of what Cloud Computing comprises varies but, in simple terms, as a customer of this service you access the application or service through a web browser and do not know where it is being run at any one time.

To quote Nicholas Carr, author of The Big Switch, “The World Wide Web has turned into the World Wide Computer”. The information technology industry has begun a journey to a utility model similar to that of the electricity industry – but instead of selling power, the service being supplied is information processing.

At this point there is not a mature functioning cloud computing grid in place to provide these services. Building the grid takes time and money. However, it is clear that the foundations for this technology are in place and Google and Amazon are currently acknowledged as the dominant players in the market. In recent years, both these service providers have been very busy building data centers to house computer servers and establishing product sets to enable their cloud service offerings.

Cloud computing services available today are best suited to individuals, sole traders and medium to small companies. Without the need to invest in building data centres and infrastructure and employ technicians and engineers, it allows start ups and smaller commercial entities to invest their capital and focus their meagre resources on establishing and growing their businesses.

The current role of this technology within large companies and enterprises is less understood. This industry sector has already invested their capital to establish an infrastructure to support their business needs. They are not about to divest these investments until the industry is more mature and the answers around a number of important questions, including those in relation to corporate data security and viable cost models, remain unclear. In the short term, large companies will spend their money building private cloud computing services than buying services from cloud computing providers.

If you are in the market for Cloud Computing services then now is a good time to sample the free service offerings available in this market. As the product set matures and the market grows, the business model will shift with it – although to what extent is still being debated. After all, the purpose of a service provider is to make money and one way to make money in this operating model is to charge for your services.

Will Cloud Computing live up to the hype and be the ‘next wave’?  Time will tell – but for now I am happy to dip my toes in the water.  As the old saying goes ‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained’.

Computers can change the world

Today there are more than two billion people in the developing world living in remote rural communities that do not have access to information and communications technologies.

Imagine the positive impact you can make in a person’s life, and the world you can open for them, if you can give them access to the computer and telephony toolsets most of us take for granted at very little cost.
 
I have seen the impact that access to these technologies can have for myself as I work with a small team of people who source solutions for communities in these small rural villages. Linking these rural communities into relief and human rights organisations, health services, learning communities and business and economic opportunities empowers them to change their lives.  
 
The devices supplied are easy to use, simple to support, use open source technology, a cheap chip and can be run off a car battery. Add a crude wireless system, some pedal and/or solar power and you have established  the means for people to connect with the world using the internet and VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) technologies.  
 
It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money to enable a community and over the last 5 years programmes run by organisations such as Inveneo, OLPC (One Laptop per Child) and India’s National Mission on Education are taking on the challenge.
 
Must be a bit of a nightmare for the big boys. An estimated two billion people in a market and no Intel chips, Microsoft software, IBM technologies, HP or Dell computers in sight. Perhaps that is the reason that in the last three years they are showing an active interest in this space. Or am I just being a tad cynical?

Never let your PC know you’re in a hurry

Have you been there? Up against the clock with time almost running out and stress levels at maximum, knowing that if you can just get that document away in the next 30 seconds everything will be ok.

With moments to spare and with victory in sight, you punch the air … and then your world comes to a shuddering halt. Well, at least your PC does. Up pops that little hourglass doing its infuriatingly tedious little dance. Hours pass in a matter of seconds, and the dance continues. 

You say unkind words, and start searching frantically for the cause. Fingers fly on the keyboard and then it hits you. The cause is obvious and it is all your fault.

It is 11pm on Monday night and that is the default timing for a key scheduled task. A full virus scan has kicked into life. The resolution is simple and you cancel the scan. Seconds pass as you stare down the barrel of a deadline on a final countdown and face the possibility of a second problem.

You let your PC know that you were in a hurry. A fatal error. That PC is going to take its own sweet time.

Bye bye deadline. That will teach ya!