Welcome to the Penland Corner Consultants technology blog. In this blog we hope to shed some light on the rapidly changing communications technologies that our clients face.
This blog is for you, our clients. If there is a topic you would like us to discuss please let us know.
As I have said before, one of the great things about my job is that I get to see and use some really cool technology in the projects I work on. I recently saw one that is worth mentioning. This particular technology is a flexible LED panel from a company called NanoLumens. NanoLumens is a startup out of the Atlanta area.
We have all seen LED panels before in sports arenas and entertainment venues — the Las Vegas strip is essentially one big LED panel. What makes this panel unique is that it is built on a thin, flexible substrate. This means it is extremely light weight and flexible. Unlike normal LED panels which are rigid and must be mounted on a flat surface, the NanoLumens panel can be mounted on a curved surface. You can use it to wrap a column or mount it on the contour of a curving stairway. This flexibility along with its light weight (a 108 inch panel weighs only 70lbs.) makes it ideal for portable or temporary uses.
This is just one of the many technology innovations that are beginning to appear. Stay tuned for more.
One of the things we try to do at PCC is keep up with the latest developments in technology that can benefit our clients. I was recently doing some research for a client in the entertainment industry and came across something really cool. It is called Light Touch™by a company called Light Blue Optics. It is a small interactive projector that can turn any flat surface into a touch screen. Think iPad on your tabletop. I have come up with some really cool applications for my entertainment industry client. This is why I love being a technology consultant.
One of the great things about my job is that I get to be involved with some really innovative business ideas and projects. I am currently woking for a client that is putting together a state of the art entertainment complex in the heart of the DFW metroplex. When I say entertainment complex don’t think of Six Flags think Las Vegas strip hotel without the gambling. This place will have world class restaurants and bars, a multi-use theater, and outdoor stages. Take my word for it — it will be very cool!
Where do I come in? I get to design or help design all of the “technology” for the project. Everything from voice/data to entertainment video will be incorporated into a highly integrated network. Sometimes I really love my job.
We at Penland Corner Consultants have been always amused at the trendiness related to the concept of “going green”. Clearly the popularity of this term and the subsequent push to get everyone on this page has gained momentum beyond the few original tree huggers in their sandal shoes; professing doom and gloom if we do not go green. Given the traction of this, it seems this term, as we see it, has become a mantra used rather loosely to address a variety of agendas in the business world hidden under the umbrella that the business is making our world a better place. Now anyone will attempt to attach a green tag on their product or service to associate with this popular trend, even if there is an obvious tie or not. Marketing 101: brand as you see necessary to increase the bottom line and pay little attention to little else.
I am not advocating that going green is not good for the environment. I am just amused at the notion of so many jumping on the band wagon to promote products when the company really does nothing adhere to green initiatives in any other way than their green branding is meant to build sales. Jump on the political correctness train, what it can hurt if it increases your customer base.
Well, we do believe in green initiatives. You can certainly reference our landing page (www.penlandcorner.com) to see our strong statements on practicing green initiatives. Given the above, some explanation is in order. You see, we do believe we should concentrate on making the world a better place for generations following us. We do believe in clean air, modest consumption, and recycling. But at the end of the day, we believe that going green means reducing costs. Its that simple. Our clients engage us for a variety of reasons, and green initiatives are included. What this ends up resulting in is that the green initiatives means designing IT centers and telecommunication strategies to significantly use less energy; optimize solutions so less maintenance and resources need to be applied. If you wish to categorize this as green under the political correct definitions, fine. But we categorize this as pure cost savings that can be applied straight to the bottom line or to facilitate growth and subsequently more jobs for our economy.
Call it “green”, OK. We call it great business sense, and that’s why we at PCC practice green consulting. It is good for our clients bottom line in cost savings and for the environment.
We have received inquiries from our clients regarding Web 2.0 technologies. I would like to address some of these technologies and their potential impact on our client’s business here.
Web 2.0, as defined by Wikipedia, is
Web 2.0 is commonly associated with web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web.
It is most closely associated with social networks Facebook and twitter, blogs, and web-based applications. At the same time mobile devices and networks have made tremendous gains in data handling capacity, sophistication, and speed. It is a nexus of high speed mobile networks and social networking, location based services (LBS), where I want to focus for this article.
While location based services such as fleet tracking have been around for a while they have historically been too expensive for most businesses to use. Enter social networking. Location based social networking applications like Loopt and Google’s Latitude may be instrumental in bringing LBS to a broader range of businesses. Both of these web applications use the GPS chip in today’s cell phones along with mobile data connections to provide detailed geographic information about the cell phone user. Ostensibly they are friend finder services. You want to know where your friends are? Just pull up the application on your phone and it will show you their location on a map. The applications also let you text message these friends. Like all Web 2.0 applications they are open and collaborative. They let the users decide how to use them.
It is the openness and low (in some cases, free) cost of these applications that can make them useful to our clients. For example, suppose you run a business that has people in the field. It could be vending machine restocking or copier repair. In all likelihood you field folks have cell phones. You could uses these LBS applications to dispatch or keep track of your field people. If one of your technicians need a part for a broken copier he could pull up Loopt, see what other technician is close, and call or message her to see if she has one on the truck. That is much better than running back to the shop for a replacement. Your technician wastes less time and you customer is up and running faster – everybody is happier.
This is just one example of how Web 2.0 can solve business problems. Let us help you explore other ways new technologies can benefit your business.
Given the ongoing state of the economy it is not surprising that we have received a number of inquiries from our clients on how to save money on their communications expenditures. While there are a number of ways we can help our clients, the one we recommend as a starting place surprises many — the bill audit.
For those who are unfamiliar with this service, a bill audit is fairly straightforward. The audit is a comparison of the service provider invoices received by the client against the service providers internal records. If errors are found we work with the service provider to correct the error going forward and request refunds on past over-billings.
While this may seem straightforward in theory it is extremely complicated in practice. The service provider’s customer records are written in an arcane codes called USOC codes. The reasoning behind the USOC is best left to another time. Suffice it to say that everything in the network has a USOC code. The combination of elements into features and features into saleable products that appear on an invoice is what make it complicated.
There are a couple of reasons why we recommend the audit as a starting place in a cost savings program.
We recommend that all of our clients get a telecom audit to establish a baseline and anytime major changes are made to their service. It is the best way to stay on top of communications costs.
