Thursday, December 22, 2011

My cool new old phone

Ok I'm a little behind the times.  Well I have my dads 2 year old Droid incredible.  This is awsome.  I'm very happy to say I think this will put me back in the blogging business.  I'll have more to say in my next post.  Just wanted to try out this cool new app for connecting and adding content to my blog from anywhere.   Super fun!!!

Friday, July 8, 2011

About the windows mobile phone operating system

It seems like people like to pick on Microsoft.  I think it's because they are a big target.  I also think it's human nature to not want to be confined to one way of doing things.  Thus Mac's are very popular in the desktop market and Linux is very popular in the server operating system market along with being a perfect solution for many other solutions like phone systems and mobile devices.  Regardless of all the people who say that the Iphone and Android are going to crush Microsoft in the mobile phone market I gladly took the opportunity to work with the new Windows mobile phone.

I like it.  I think that we tend to over complicate our technology.  We expect our computer/phone/TV/game console to do everything.  I love having options.  Now I can download Netflix to my TV and my game console.  Wait....I don't need to be able to do that.  I can only watch one movie at a time.  So I'm happy with my windows mobile phone.  After all I can:  1. make a call 2.take a call 3. look up a contact  4. check my email 5.Text.  6. Surf the internet. 7.Download apps from the app store. Easily!

Stay safe online: 5 secrets every PC (and Mac) owner should know | ZDNet

This is great Advice for keeping your pc safe.


Stay safe online: 5 secrets every PC (and Mac) owner should know | ZDNet

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Microsoft acquires Prodiance to integrate risk-management into future Office releases | ZDNet

With Data spread over multiple machines, hard drives and in the cloud it seams that Microsoft is making a smart move here. I think that today people are relatively unaware of the risk they face with how their documents and spreadsheets are stored and tracked. I believe this will become a much bigger issue as our quest to leave paper behind increases.


Microsoft acquires Prodiance to integrate risk-management into future Office releases | ZDNet

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Microsoft preps users for the move to Office 365 cloud platform | ZDNet

Many people have been unaware of the product from Microsoft called BPOS (Buisiness Productivity Online Service). It was there way working on a product to be competitive with Google Apps. Now it looks like they are ready to move forward with a greater effort. Read how they plan to move everyone forward with Office 365.


Microsoft preps users for the move to Office 365 cloud platform | ZDNet

Friday, April 29, 2011

Oil giant to buy $1.4B stake in SunPower | Green Tech - CNET News

Like many kids, I was slow to take my dads advice. In the same way as I've grown older I've also come to the realization that he knows a lot. In fact, he has not been wrong about much. Like, he saved me from the Dot.bomb He also saw our most recent recession ahead of time. I give him credit, he reads a lot. Like stuff that would make most people cry. he is reading the biographies of all the presidents currently.

Recently while vacationing with him he said something that really hit home for me. He said, "there will be plenty of jobs in the future for those who are involved with the green technologies" I agree. Technology is obviously a big part of that. So what part will it play?

Already I'm working with customers to keep their data centers cooler and have them use less power. I'm helping companies put more and more on the same data pipe and optimize their use. What will the future hold? How is the attached article related to this conversation? I think that technology and green are designed for each other. We can monitor our power consumption with technology to : use less gas in our hybrid car, run our laundry at non-peak power times and turn down the heat at night....thats just for starters.

I'm excited to see major power companies embracing the green power sources. I'm exited to see the day when carbon footprint is also a cost that is calculated. Basically I think we face an exiting future of endless possibilities. As long as we face it with courage and innovation.

Oil giant to buy $1.4B stake in SunPower | Green Tech - CNET News

Friday, April 15, 2011

Private or public cloud?

What is the difference anyway?

Public :someone else owns it and you rent space that you share with the other renters

Private: you can own it and or rent it but don't share it with the other renters

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is defined by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology as follows:
“Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable
computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and
released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction .”
Essentially, cloud computing is the provision of IT services that are on-demand and network accessible, using flexible pooled resources
that are simple to deploy and expand, with a low up-front, pay-asyou-go cost model. Cloud computing is typically delivered with
a combination of commodity hardware, virtualization, management.

I'm convinced that not all of our IT infrastructure will end up in the cloud. One of the main advantages of the whole "Cloud" idea is to have
applications and servers share resources. The advantage is that we can build more highly redundant hardware underneath the applications that we rely on.

My father who has been very successful investing in the stock market told me that when you see everyone jumping in that is when you should be thinking about jumping out. Thats not exactly how I feel about the cloud but it makes me think. What are the cloud providers not telling us? What have we not discovered or experienced that would make us more cautious? or make us ask better questions? Thats why I feel there is a lot of merit to the products we see coming out like the new HP servers. They are scalable and make the appropriate use of Memory, Processor, Disc, Power and cooling. The other important part. You can own your cloud.

both solutions have merit for the different types of customers out there. Right now I'm just trying to make sure I've got a handle on what all the options really are.  I'm pulling back a bit as I see more products coming to the market.

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/DS_00168/DS_00168.pdf


Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Monday, April 11, 2011

Microsoft takes its ERP technology to the cloud | Microsoft - CNET News

As I work with many different companies on their Infrastructure. Many have Dynamics embedded into their business but want to take it to the cloud. It looks like Microsoft is paying attention.

Microsoft takes its ERP technology to the cloud | Microsoft - CNET News

Friday, April 8, 2011

Amazing use of technology

Check out this really cool new use of technology.  With our world becoming flatter and solutions coming from a world wide economy I believe this kind of technology will take off.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20051924-1.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Cycles

One of the hardest lessons to learn as a salesperson is that customers buy on their own schedule not the salespersons.  This runs counterintuitive to the to the sales process and management of most companies.  I'm happy to be at the point in my career where I work for a company that works to respect the customers buying cycles.  Our challenge as technical advisors and consultants is to have our customer make a decision early enough in a cycle to allow enough time for a thorough implementation and training.  We also want to help our customers avoid and major down time or data loss due to failure of aging equipment or out dated software.

The only way to be fair in this process is to spend the time and energy to give our customers several choices along with the positives and negatives of each choice.  This often takes more time and there is not a guaranteed payoff at the end.  As a result consultants and advisors end up becoming product focused and limiting their options.  How do we provide our customers and prospects with enough information and options while not starving to death by giving out free consulting?  How can a customer or prospect assure they are getting enough options and not wasting time and energy of the consultants who are helping them out?

I surely am always learning new ideas on how to accomplish this from my end but I've got a couple of ideas


  1. Be honest.  Talk about the competition up front and acknowledge the sales process for what it is.
  2. Be ok with no.  The customer needs to be ok with saying "no" and the consultant needs to accept "no" up front.  Not everyone is a fit
  3. Check in at each step.  Did we provide what you are looking for?  If no,  why go to the next step? If yes, lets set clear expectations for the next step
These Three ideas seem to be common sense but are very difficult to accomplish.  The reason is that we are all preconditioned by our own "bad" sales experiences.  It takes time to trust and make these ideas a priority but it is worth it.  

Thanks for reading ~pz

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Getting There

I've been observing a phenomenon lately that has me completely fascinated.  No matter how much time that we have as business to prepare for our technology upgrades we seem, more often then not, to be in a rush to complete them once the decision is made to move forward.  We get panicky and start questioning our decision if issues start to arise after install has begun.  I started wondering why this is?  I guess since I've been at this for a while it's allowed me to sit back and observe behavior instead of getting wound up in it and panicking.  I've also been able to take a closer look at my own buying behavior.

Recently my wife and I decided to get a 3D TV.   This is something we had been thinking about for a long time.  We had saved up money and we were very excited.  We ended up purchasing from Best Buy.  In the process we upgraded our TV service to Direct TV.  Once we ordered the TV and services they delivered the TV right away.  Then we ran into problems having HD Direct TV delivered.  They missed their first delivery date.  Then when they finally came a month later the TV,  which we had now had for a month,  decided to stop working.  Finally a month and a 1/2 after making the decision we had our new TV and HD service installed.

What I observed is that right after making the decision I wanted to have the solution in hand and working.  It's hard not to.  When Direct TV screwed up the install and then the TV broke I really started to question spending $2200.00.  Well,  now I'm glad I have the solution but getting there was emotional and at times frustrating.  I don't think its the fault of Best Buy or Direct TV.  I think that is just the way things go.  I think it is natural to question when things start going wonky.  I think its great to be excited about moving forward and panic a bit when things are not perfect.

What I need to remember is that my buyers experience some of these feelings when we don't perform perfect.    I'm also calmed by the fact that I work for a company that is committed to seeing things through to the end.  We don't panic when things get wonky.  We step back come up with a plan and bring it through to completion.  Ultimately I've come to trust in the people around me.  I've come to understand that trying to make it all happen myself is more stressful for me and everyone around me.

Thanks for reading and following my blog

~pz

Monday, February 7, 2011