Jason Abrahamson

Like most IT professionals I read a tremendous amount of news in regards to technology. This morning while scanning the headlines I saw a blurb on Slashdot about the world’s first four-screen laptop. Perhaps it was just the morbid curiosity as to what a four screen laptop would look like, but I clicked on the link. Truly I was expecting some sort of engineering marvel. Perhaps screens that were made of carbon fiber and paper thin LCDs that folded out? This would be as equally a bad idea as the one they made, but certainly more impressive.

So I digress, why make a 4 screen laptop? How is this useful? The article even highlights that this is never likely to be sold, at least to the masses, so why make it? Thus kicking off my first edition of “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should” segment to the blog.

One has to scratch their head on this one. I suppose it’s like a “golly gee whiz we did it!” invention, but not very useful. A much more useful invention to integrate into laptops: High-Res pocket projector – now that is a tool that people could use. The LCD’s are three smaller screens embedded into the top portion of the keyboard. The idea is with the touch of your finger you could switch between the content on the screens. Intel’s theory behind this technology is it could lead to new ways to interact with your computer…jury’s still out on that one…

World’s first four screen laptop

Today is September 11, 2009 and that marks the 8th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. During and after the attacks telecommunications were almost completely knocked out surrounding the towers. Phone lines that were open flooded with calls and were completely jammed. Radios weren’t working effectively, and most cell users on major networks could not even get their calls to send. Everybody from the NYFD to the NY Times was struggling to communicate.

That’s before somebody got an email. Thru the chaos and pandemonium that ensued on the ground in lower Manhattan the morning of 9-11-2001, that little electronic device kept right on working.

At the time a vast number of Blackberry users operated on a private network not tied to the big cell providers. This was setup by RIM when it originally launched the Blackberry product. This allowed everyone from the Sales reps to Emergency personnel to communicate that day by simply pushing send on their Blackberry.

The Blackberry was one of the only communication tools that worked with little to no interruption of service that day in lower Manhattan.

It was without doubt, technology at its very best.

Today we remember the lives lost, the people who helped, and the technology they used to do it.

One of the most challenging things in IT is making people believe we’re not an endless black hole. Every organization I have been a member of has struggled with the same viewpoint of IT. We’re looked upon as a cost not a savings. Typically it’s because we’re the one division of the company that is spending money without adding any to the bottom line. Sure most of the systems we put in for other departments such as Marketing or Sales save the company millions a year, but we never get the credit for helping make that happen.

Well there is a way that IT can take a little credit while adding to the bottom line. With popularity of cloud computing, SaaS, and VOIP users no longer need to come to an office. This concept can breed an entirely new form of Employee, one I like to call Employee 2.0. This concept is exceptional for call centers. Providing a user with access to a cloud or SaaS such as a Citrix Published desktop and a soft phone allows you to have a fleet of customer service representatives operating from their home. This can grossly expand the type of employee you can higher as well as reduce employee turnover. You can still monitor calls through the VOIP system and what the employee is doing through the application manager. This allows for call centers to expand or contract on an as-needed-basis. Why stop their though?

With technology companies are no longer limited to having employees in the office. For years sales teams have worked outside the office, but now departments can have employees scattered across the country. With utilizing things such as a cloud you are expanding your employee possibilities this prevents costly relocating expenses and expensive payroll demands depending on where your corporate office is located.

There are still some jobs that you can’t do remotely so it’s far from a magic bullet to cutting overhead – but – with the right resources IT can reduce overhead, and add some money to the bottom line.