Valentine's Day is all about love and that includes showing affection for your favorite technology. Here are 11 things that get bMighty all warm and fuzzy, from red-hot netbooks to the consumerization of IT and more -- things every business owner should embrace.
From an IT perspective, you might get a little jealous of all those consumer gadgets and services that work better, do more, look slicker, and cost less than the business options you make available to your company's users.
Get over it and learn to love 'em.
Those iPhones, they're better than the BlackBerrys your folks carry (except for heavy e-mail use). Gmail? It's a worthy competitor to the Outlook client and Exchange server you pay big bucks for. And it's free (or a lot less expensive, anyway). Open Officeis free, and while it may not have all the bells and whistles of Microsoft Word and other paid word processors, it's more than likely better than good enough for most things you'll actually use it for.
Similarly, Facebook is probably better than your company intranet at bringing your employees together, and your blog and free Twitter account may do a better job reaching customers than does your high-powered marketing campaign. AOL IM is more widely used than any of the fancy corporate alternatives, and why wouldn't you store your data with Amazon?
The tides have turned, and business technology isn't going to regain its innovation domination any time soon. Your users love their consumer technology, and it would behoove you to do the same. Your goal should be to find ways to leverage and empower the best technology has to offer to benefit your business. And right now that means making a place in your heart for consumer technology in the workplace.
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