Last week I sat on a panel in Manchester, aimed at SME’s discussing technology.  Representing the views not only of a hardware manufacturer, but also as a Director of a large business who uses technology to gain competitive advantage.  Any conference examining tech needs to cover the advantages of cloud computing.

The main triggers for IT upgrades in SME’s tend to be the following: -

1. They are moving.
2. They are a new business.
3. They are growing.
4. They have an urgent need to repair something that is broken (what we call a “distressed purchase”).

In my view, businesses that are new or moving (1 or 2) are much more likely to adopt a higher level of cloud services into their business than those that are growing or repairing (3 or 4).  Once a business is established, in a premises and focussed on growing, it becomes all about adding or growing to the existing IT set-up – evolution, rather than revolution.

One of the primary reasons that large enterprises, who have the resources to look at such things, are considering cloud computing is business agility and competitive advantage.  It means less people plumbing technology, less software development, server maintenance and support – in fact there’s a lot to be said for it.

The number one consideration continues to be security, closely followed by available network speed for access.  It’s a big job to move away from a network infrastructure, however many large enterprises are developing plans towards virtual private clouds.

A new start can doesn’t need a server, applications,  e-mail server, CRM system or finance system, they can rent all these services in the cloud.  They can benefit from the latest software developments, don’t have to worry about capital expenditure for hardware and can focus on what matters most for their new business – sales, marketing and growing like crazy.

They, potentially may benefit from competitive advantage over more established SME’s who may stick with what they’ve got, preferring to not change for reasons of business continuity.  Those that continually refine what they use, how they use it and how they can review their working practices will continually benefit from these new services.

They may well come down to earth with a bump as the future is predicted to be smartphone/tablet based and the concept of “BYOD” (bring your own device) is already being investigated by major CIO’s as part of their future technology policies.

The lesson is this.  It’s worth reviewing what you do and how you do it regularly.  Some major advancements are right here and right now, you could be benefitting from them.  Read up a bit, see what others are doing, go to a conference, invite a supplier, check out a few blogs – the possibilities are endless.

So after Wednesday’s leaked memo to staff, Nokia CEO – Stephen Elop – today announced a new “broad strategic partnership” with Microsoft (no surprises given he’s an ex Microsoft man himself).

Elop is clearly a man on a mission and is determined to drive through the radical changes Nokia needs to stop it leaking market share like a bucket with a hole in it (facing the brutal facts).  The memo set the scene for this announcement which has clearly been nutured in the background.  It seems there will be big job losses as Nokia opt to use the Microsoft operating system, rather than their own – inevitable when you bring two teams of developers together.  I think this is the right decision and Elop has called it right in terms of dumping their own native operating system and going with something developed by someone else to address the “ecosystem” issue. 

BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones called it right when he said “two turkeys don’t make an eagle,” there is an inter-dependency in this new relationship and re-labelling old wine as new, won’t work.  Both businesses are being battered by the progress both Apple and Google have been making in the operating system marketplace and some genuine innovation is needed if they are to catch up.  Whether the horse has already bolted, we’ll see.

Mobile marketing.  Mobile search.  Mobile me.

The next decade will be the decade we remember for it’s advance in mobile technology.  Signalling the shift to location based shopping, services and convenience.  Apps are coming out by their droves and one that caught my eye recently was this one from Red Laser which I think gives an indication of where it’s all heading.  Using an i-Phone, you simply scan a products barcode, the app then identifies it and presents the current web pricing for that product from it’s database.  Instant price checking and hugely convenient.  Just one thing to do, scan the app.

From the user feedback so far, it seems the pricing isn’t perfect in their back end database, that can soon be corrected.  It’s the process that interests me more. Another shift in the way people shop, instant comparison pricing and perhaps a decision to not “buy it now” but buy it when you get home, if the price is significantly different.  Retailers watch out.

Mobile search is where it’s going to be at, presenting your website in a mobile friendly way.  Manchester Search specialists theEword have already cottoned onto this and have a tool in development which will effectively convert your site into a mobile friendly version, which I consider to be an essential step for all businesses moving forward.  Pay per click and search engine marketing also takes on a new persona, with specific activity needing to be done in parallel to your conventional SEM.

What’s evident is that the future is about mobile, the customer journey, convenience, location based marketing and immediacy.  If you’re not working on “mobilising” your digital resources, you should be, it’s where it’s all heading.

Recognise this? It’s a laptop from 1990 – 20 years ago.  How life has changed since.

Chatting to a 19 year old student at a recent social gathering about life through his lens as a Generation Y, it hit me how much change I had seen in my lifetime in the way our lives work.  Things that today’s generation just take for granted.

Jumping on the tube back into central London, I let my wander for a bit and mentally tagged a few of the things that I’ve seen become commonplace since my working life started around 1988.  So, in no particular order, here are 20 of them which have become commonplace in the last 20 years.

1. e-Mail (Corporate and Personal) – we talked more or wrote letters to people.
2. Internet/Google – we used encyclopedias or went to the library.
3. Mobile phones – we used phone boxes or land lines.
4. Facebook/Twitter/Linkedin – we met people in person.
5. e-Bay/Amazon/Marketplaces – we went to jumble sales, had garage sales or held on to it!
6. MP3 music/i-Pods – we bought vinyl or tape cassettes.
7. i-Pads/e-readers -we read paper books.
8. Youtube – we watched wrestling on World of Sport.
9. Wireless networks – we accessed computer networks at the office, not at home or out and about.
10. LCD displays/Plasma  Televisions - we used huge clunky CRT’s and TV’s needed a full corner of a room.
11. DVD’s – we used video.
12. CD’s, CD players in cars – we listened to vinyl LP’s or the radio/cassette in cars.  I didn’t get a CD player in my car until around 1996 from memory.
13. Sky TV - we only had BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and later Channel 5.
14. Dab Radio – we listened to conventional radio, often on Longwave.
15. PVR (Personal Video Recorders like Sky+) – we set times on video recorders.
16. SatNav – we used maps in atlases.
17. Skype – we used a normal phone.
18. Blogs – we kept secret diaries.
19. Digital Cameras - we used film and didn’t see the pictures until they were developed after a week or so.
20. Texting – seriously, we didn’t have text then.  We talked.

There is great cause for celebration. The world has taken an almighty shift and here we are, Generation X, right in the middle of it.  Witnessing the old and the new.  What the future might still bring is really exciting, augmented reality, facetime calling over high speed wireless broadband, 3D laptops and retinal scanning lasers.   Wow.

With technology change also comes societal change.  And when I’d moved on from thinking about the tech, I went on to think about things that I did growing up,  compared with now.  Things like: -

1. Going to Corner Shops more than supermarkets.  It fuelled the idea of us being a nation of shopkeepers, now the multiples rule.
2. Listening to the radio on a Sunday night to hear who was number 1 in the pop charts.  Monday morning conversation (yes, you had to wait till you saw your mates at school) was all about who was number one.
3. Visiting record shops to buy music meant you had to go out to town, it meant the high streets were much busier places.
4. Major household items like washing machines or televisions were purchased weekly from people like Provident or Radio Rentals.  Now they are seen as disposable items.
5. Having more adventure as kids.  I had a local adventure playground where you could just ask for wood, nails and a hammer and off you would go.  Today’s health and safety driven culture, just wouldn’t allow it.
6. Writing letters to people.  This was a skill in itself which is regretably dying.
7. Faxing important business information.  Retaining the formality of a written letter with more instananeousness and a proper signature!
8. Breaking bad news face to face or by phone call, rather than by written electronic means such as text or e-mail.  It’s so easy to hide behind technology nowadays, whereas folk tend to just want it straight, face to face.
9. Taking more in.  What I mean by that is that time wasn’t filled with constant interruption from mobile calls, texts, e-mails, status updates, there seemed to be more head time.
10. Computers didn’t rule our lives.  We did!

And on that bombshell, I’ll wish all of my readers a fantastic 2011.  It promises to be full of opportunity – if you look for it.