BlackBerry Triumphs

So the company I work for has decided to go BlackBerry… I’ve got mixed feelings on this – I’m a Microsoft guy. While I know that this is a good decision for the company, it pains me slightly to not leverage our investment in Exchange the way I had hoped. Windows Mobile has made steady progress moving into the mainstream, and this quarter is probably one of the most exciting times for the platform as no less than 7 Windows Mobile phones have been released by all four nationwide carriers. The flexibility of the Windows Mobile platform is astonishing, and I’ve had the privilege of participating in the evolution of the platform for the last several years.

From a corporate perspective, choosing BlackBerry is a great choice for our end-users. The more intuitive interface of BB and a single support infrastructure worldwide is what is the real selling point of BB. The knowledge that RIM’s NOC and support structure will be able to help any of our BB users around the world and around the clock is as comforting as push-mail itself. Hopefully, as we wonder the path through the mobile woods that we are able to build on the strengths of BB and offer either “Web 2.0″ or AJAX apps that really offer new services to our end-users.

Unfortunately it will not be Windows Mobile. I really believe it is a better platform no matter what many others have and will say. The platform is just too powerful and broad in its approach to not support corporate America well. The ability for the device to be a phone, a PDA, media player, Internet terminal, data storage device, etc… the list is endless. The software solution set is endless. In our case though the support costs outweigh the platform strengths – or is it simply that the BlackBerry is just more “sexy”?

Technorati: Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Pocket PC, Smartphone

Outlook Signature

Ahh, finally got around to creating a custom HTML Outlook signature.  Even looked up some CSS formatting to get it right, that was tough as I’ve never worked with CSS before.  Ok, so it wasn’t hard, just different since I’ve not used it.  I worked on two tonight, one for at home that lists all my personal online communications venues, and one for work that I *should* be able to put the company logo into.  We’ll see.

Speaking of work, there is supposedly a big announcement coming from the CEO and President, should be interesting.  We’ve got an ambitious 3 year plan ahead of use, and it should be exciting to see whats coming next.

Work Blogs

Today want to talk about Work Blogs, or blogging within a work environment. There is some small discussions at work right now about blogs and wikis, and if they are useful tools for our corporate culture. Traditionally, we are like many companies in that we don’t jump on the latest trends in technology just because it may be ‘cool’, but in recent years we have invested more time and resources in leveraging the best technologies for the business and its employees. Thats not to say that we are up to date on all things, one of the areas that could stand improvement in-house is communication, again like most companies.

There are many opportunities for simple communications all parts of the business through blogs – whether their individual employee blogs where workers can post on topics of the day, or departmental & group blogs where workers can post on a common blog about status within a team and so on. Project related blogs are another option, where project team members would be able to post on status, issues, remediation, solutions, communications, costs, ideas, etc… The point being that the potential is endless for more simple communications with a company.

If I could point to one post on one blog that I belive speaks to the importance of corporate blogging today this is it. Written by Richard Edelman, it speaks from a PR point of view from someone who is quite well known in that field.

I’d like to invite anyone from my office to view my blogs and see what I do on a personal side with blogs. Its my outlet for ideas and conversations. I’m not into keeping a diary or journal, and don’t feel comfortable posting my “most inner secrets and fears” to a blog – or grips either! The last thing I think someone wants to read about in a blog is how bad my day/week/life is – who cares? But the release of a stream of ideas that someone (hopefully me) can leverage and move forward is a power tool, and I want to be right in the middle of it.

What I’d love for my supervisors and managers to take away from by personal blogs here on the ‘net is that they should be “transparent” as many in the blogsphere like to say. Naked Conversations by Shel Israel & Robert Scoble is one book I recommend to anyone contemplating work blogs & corporate blogging. This “transparency” is the true power of a blog, whether its for an individual, team, department, or company – simple clear honest communication will leverage the time and resources invested in blogging – anything else will be a disappointment in the technology in my opinion.

Please visit Rick’s Ramblings, a Blogger blog where I cover tech news and my thoughts on technology.
Of course there’s this blog (Rickster) here at WordPress where I talk about many random things on the use of technology, though it seems at the moment that I’m rambling about blogging quite a bit here.

Technorati: Blogging, Corporate Blogging, Wiki, Robert Scoble, Rick Mahn, Richard Edelman, Naked Conversations, WordPress, Blogger

Blogging for a living…

It’s an interesting concept, and while I don’t believe that I’ll be making a lot of money at this for a long time, the aspects of pushing the boundaries of business communication really interests me.  I’ve been working on getting some pieces in place for consulting services for awhile now and I belive that I’ll be adding blogging as a service along with messaging, systems management, and other traditional IT consulting services.

The idea that businesses are waking up to the idea of direct communication with employees and customers has a huge potential that I’m just starting to truly understand.  My biggest question as a corporate employee at the moment is – do these businesses really understand what blogging will bring?  Do they truly understand that blogging will bring transparency to their communications faster than they will be able to adapt, and may make traditional businesspeople nervous?  That what is today considered internal communications are so much easier to communicate to those outside the company?  I don’t mean intellectual property – that can be pulled out of any unhappy employee.  What I mean is daily communication that happens as easily as talking at the “water cooler” with your coworkers.

 It’s a new communications universe that is exciting to me because I see the opportunities it brings, but it may be frightning to those traditional coporate-minded execs.  Some will see the light though and leverage it to grow their business.  That will be good, because it could be growing mine!

Company’s Mid-Winter Party

We just had our company’s mid-winter party tonight. What a blast! I thought it would be dull and boring – another corporate event. I was wrong. The company went all out, it was a fantastic dinner with a great band afterwards. I’ve not had this much fun at a corporate sponsored event in many many years. The company has made its 9th record year of growth, and I’m proud to have been a part of that – whether I made a big difference or not. Many of my co-workers in IT made it to the event, quite a surprise to all of us! We ended up shutting the place down at midnight (we live in Minneapolis, MN) and it was a great time without being “wild”.

To everyone who attended tonight, we’ll see you Monday – try to rest up tomorrow!

To the party planning commitee, who was made up of about 4 people, all I can say is Thank You for a great time and a well thought out and executed party.

How can I encourage corporate blogging?

So after one of the IT Cheifs asked about blogs and wikis, I’ve been looking for more information about corporate use of these tools. How can a rather conservative egg, potato, and refridgerated goods distributer understand and then leverage the power of communicating through blogs to both employees and customers? I’ve run across a good article called “The Me2 Revolution” (thanks to Tech Memeorandum) which talks about this very issue quite nicely. I recommend reading this article, as it describes a new growing perception in readers today.

[Update]
Corrected the link to the article.

Changes

Change is occuring again at work.  People moving from one position to another, and I’m wondering how some of the staff is taking it.  Since I’m not a manager/supervisor, I’ve got no direct reports and am able to really get a feel from talking to a number of people.  It will be interesting – that’s for sure.  Also wondering when the salery increases will be communicated to everyone.  That is a frustrating thing – management should have that done by now as they are supposed to take affect in the first payday of February.  If they don’t have it together by now, then they really don’t have it together if you know what I mean.  In the mean time, I’ve got more work than I now what to do with, and minimal assistance.

 As usual, hurry up and wait!