Arriving at the entrance of a large technology exhibition reminds me of the time when I was very small, being taken to the sweet shop by my mum. The choice seemed amazing, and I knew that a difficult decision had to be made with limited knowledge; it was one that would use up most of my budget and the shopkeeper never let me try any sweets ahead of purchase. Once the choice was agonised over and then made I knew that I (and latterly my dentist) would live with the consequences for some time: an agony of indecision.

Now, having aged just a little, and having given up sweets by way of atoning for those previous excesses, and the consequent crowns, I still get the same sensation of bewildered amazement when I am confronted by a glittering array of technology and claims at a major show. And so it was last month at the Service Management Europe exhibition where the MCUG held a free, walk-in consultancy-clinic for visitors and members, welcoming those who were spoilt for choice, bewildered, or just plain confused.

Over the two days it became clear that most visitors to the clinic knew what they wanted, and they also could see that they could indeed make a solution by a “pick and mix” process from the suppliers in the hall. With specific needs, and the limited budget that many medium size enterprises have, how do you choose? Our team of consultants took visitors through a fact find, and hopefully provided some structure and suggestions for their further forays down the aisles crowded with visitors and beaming sales staff. The increase in numbers of medium-size businesses wanting mobile data solutions was noticeable, and their problems required affordable solutions without any of the costly re-engineering that our larger enterprises routinely expect. Quite a challenge.

In order to structure the interviews, the consultants on the stand were looking to define the main, must-have core requirement. We then established whether this was delivering data and databases, graphical data (maps and manuals) or whether it fitted a command and control model such as work management and work optimisation. Once the core user requirements were identified, we narrowed it down to hardware (rugged or not?) and communications, and whether it was appropriate to run a thin client, or thick client mobile system. The structured approach usually helps users avoid being dazzled by the hardware and sales promises, and tends to tease out the tricky hidden issues such as communications and data structures.  If readers missed the clinic, are still struggling with seeing the wood for the trees, and fancy a private session, then the MCUG has a list of the experienced consultants who ran the clinic, and will forward it (mail your request to library@mcug.org.uk)

Reliable Comms – the penny drops?

For the past two years at SME I have used the opportunity when presenting a seminar to an audience of end users, to ask them about their plans for communications, and whether they have any plans for resilience should their favoured network fail to deliver. Usually I get a blank response when we ask about secondary communications options, however at last month’s SME my unscientific straw poll got a show of five hands out of the 50 or so people seated. This shows a growing awareness of business dependence on communications and a growing realisation of its critical nature.

Private hotspots

Finally, our South-East Water sub group is pursuing its plans to trial a shared system of hotspots giving wireless access to staff at key locations saving dependency on GPRS, and providing points where large data sets can be accessed by staff out of the office. Any business user interested in the idea of creating private hotspots to make or extend an ad-hoc network should contact the MCUG secretariat (secretariat@mcug.org.uk) for an invitation to our next special interest meeting on the topic.

For a list of any other MCUG, or MCUG-supported events please mail library@mcug.org.uk

Martin Morey