Plug and Play

Honestly, I rarely speak to the people who actually use the technology, given that we're a technical publication and have a technical audience, and most coal-face users might not be able to talk to the intricacies of coding and development. Not that I can, of course, given that I'm a politics major, but the point is that I've been on the receiving end of technology implementations this week, and a lot of what's been said in the few times that I've had those conversations rings true. Namely, when I ask what they want out of something, the most common response is that a user wants to be able to come into the office, sit down at their machine, turn on a computer and have something just work.

We've transitioned to a different newsroom here at Incisive London this week, and there are certainly teething problems. A lot of people are cynical about and hesitant to adopt the hot-desk philosophy that's been introduced, and it doesn't help that it's two hours after work starts while I'm writing this, and a lot of us don't have phones yet. Mostly, though, it's been an ironic experience. I have a tendency to roll my eyes when people start talking about core competencies, and how technology isn't a part of them, but this has certainly highlighted how difficult it can be for non-technical staff to adapt to a technical environment. Particularly if the implementation has been, shall we say, rocky.

Different Ways
This, of course, is one of the areas where good vendors are differentiated from great vendors. A great vendor will work with the client to ensure that the bugs, the kinks, and the requirements are all fully worked out and resolved before day zero, when the employee begins work. A poor vendor might have great technology, but none of the above. The perils and pitfalls become far more pronounced in financial services after all ─ a telephone interruption is annoying for us in the media, a trading interruption can prove fatal if it occurs at the wrong moment.

This is perhaps most pronounced in cloud technology, where a stripping away of the physical infrastructure provides the biggest psychological transformation . As an example, despite the fact that I've been covering unified communications systems, cloud storage, and other new-fangled ways of working for years, it's still a bit weird that I won't have a handset most of the time going forward. Now, if I can just get this ridiculous headset to work...

A great vendor will work with the client to ensure that the bugs, the kinks, and the requirements are all fully worked out and resolved before day zero, when the employee begins work. A poor vendor might have great technology, but none of the above