Upgrading to iOS 5 is Like Going to the Gym – No Pain, No Gain

By Joe Puckett, director of recruiting and training at PC Helps

The Rave:
Once iOS 5 is in place, future updates are faster and much less disruptive. Key changes that contribute to this improvement are that the updates are incremental, run in the background and can be done without a wired connection to a computer running iTunes. It all starts with a shift from erase-everything-then-reload-it updates to changing only the things that need to be changed. This allows the device to remain functional during the update and reduces the size of the update package to the point where it can be handled wirelessly. Incremental updates are an improvement that makes everyone happy.

First in a series about upgrading to iOS 5 – No Pain, No Gain.

The Rant:
The update to iOS 5 is not very incremental at all and is more disruptive for many than some of the previous updates, mainly because the introduction of some welcome new applications requires icons to be added. However, the resulting effect on the organization of some people’s existing applications was not so welcome. Read more…

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Jenny Sweeney iOS 5 Rants & Raves, iPad, Rants & Raves Apple, iOS 5 Rants & Raves, iPad, IT leaders

In previous posts, I examined why corporate workers hesitate to call their help desks when stuck with a software quandary. I referred to the so-called stupidity factor, or fear of looking stupid, as one of the top reasons.

In an e-mail response, a reader pointed out an even greater obstacle, something he called the infuriation factor. Read more…

Jenny Sweeney Computer Literacy, How To, ROI, Worker Productivity best-of-breed, CIO, Help Desk, IT leaders, Outsourcing, ROI, software support, Worker Productivity

In a previous post (see Real-Life Help Desk Tales, Part 1), I touched upon why people don’t call the help desk when they need software assistance (fear of looking stupid, unpleasant past experience, assumed time investment). In this post, I will take a closer look at the stupidity factor. Read more…

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The Obama Administration today announced that it has appointed Edward Tufte to the US Recovery Independent Advisory Panel. Tufte, a Yale professor and author who is probably best known as a PowerPoint hater, will serve on the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel, which will track and explain to the masses just what is being done with the $787 billion in recovery stimulus funds.

PowerPoint style “routinely disrupts, dominates and trivializes content.”

This is good news for the obvious reasons – because he believes in transparency and accountability – but also because he is such an information purist. Perhaps some of his presentation principles will rub off on corporate workers.

A little background: Tufte’s article, titled “PowerPoint is Evil” and published in Wired in 2003, should be required reading for the c-suite, if not business majors. In it, he laments the fact that PowerPoint doesn’t serve as a supplement to presentations, as it promises; rather, it has replaced them.

Tufte continues by saying that the PowerPoint style “routinely disrupts, dominates and trivializes content.” He even compares it to Stalin.

He offers a colorful metaphor:

“Imagine a widely used and expensive prescription drug that promised to make us beautiful but didn’t. Instead the drug had frequent, serious side effects: It induced stupidity, turned everyone into bores, wasted time, and degraded the quality and credibility of communication. These side effects would rightly lead to a worldwide product recall.”

Tufte’s piece is funny, and you could say it’s a bit impassioned, but think of the presentations you have sat through, or the ones you’ve forced upon your colleagues.  Many workers would benefit from a little PowerPoint training, at the very least.

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We read a variety of tech publications to keep up on industry news – Wired, CIO.com, Computerworld, Ars Technica. Each fills its own niche. A brand-spanking-new publication has joined the fray, and it’s worth a read.

Monday marked the launch of EnterpriseEfficiency.com, a social community of sorts for CIOs and IT leaders where they can discuss and swap ideas on how to make IT departments more efficient.

For a site that just launched, it’s remarkably robust, and has an impressive lineup of contributors, including veteran tech pub journalists, authors and supergeeks.

Of note is editor-in-chief Fredric Paul’s blog post about the challenges of supporting multiple mobile platforms in the enterprise. (Read the post here, “How Many Smartphone Platforms Do We Really Need?”)

And speaking of efficiency and CIOs,  PC Helps is a sponsor of Windows Intelligence, the largest one-day Microsoft conference in California. The conference is being held on March 29, 2010, in person and online. Brian Bradley, PC Helps’ VP of business development, will be speaking about Office 2010. Visit the Windows Intelligence web site for more information and to register. (Be sure to use Microsoft promo code PCHELPS for a discounted rate.)

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Jenny Sweeney What We're Reading CIO, IT infrastructure, IT leaders, tech pubs

Dear Mr. CIO:

I understand we’re in a recession, and the pressure for you to prune your budget is great, but how on Earth do you expect to get the same quality IT outsourcing for less money? I didn’t major in business, but I do know that in a capitalist society, nothing is free. Didn’t they teach you that in economics 101? Read more…

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You’ve invested in Office 2007, and now it’s time for the actual migration. You cannot afford to approach the undertaking willy-nilly — a switch to Office 2007 promises to be like no other. The user interface is radically different, and your employees will hit snags just trying to figure out how to perform basic tasks. How you handle the inevitable learning curve depends on your preparedness – and it may dictate future budget allocations, even the health of your IT department. In this series, we break down the components of our Office 2007 migration readiness kit, and give you the information you need for a snag-free switchover.

Part Five, the White Paper:

The anticipation of rolling out Office 2007 and Vista to thousands of end-users has many IT professionals sounding like kids at the doctor’s office who are about to get a shot. Read more…

Jenny Sweeney Office 2007 Migration Assurance Program, ROI, Worker Productivity CIO, IT leaders, Office 2007, Office 2007 Migration Assurance Program, ROI, software support, Worker Productivity

You’ve invested in Office 2007, and now it’s time for the actual migration. You cannot afford to approach the undertaking willy-nilly — a switch to Office 2007 promises to be like no other. The user interface is radically different, and your employees will hit snags just trying to figure out how to perform basic tasks. How you handle the inevitable learning curve depends on your preparedness – and it may dictate future budget allocations, even the health of your IT department. In this series, we break down the components of our Office 2007 migration readiness kit, and give you the information you need for a snag-free switchover.

Part Four, a Case Study:

Client Profile
Toys-R-Us, a public, U.S.-based, consumer goods company with 6,000 global PC end-users.

Business Challenge
Toys-R-Us made the decision to migrate all global end-users from Microsoft Office 2003 to Microsoft Office 2007. The company realized that it didn’t have the internal support resources to handle the learning curve end-users and IT staff would face, nor did it have the training aids available to deliver quick adoption and continued workflow.

With the company’s Office 2007 upgrade investment, Read more…

Jenny Sweeney Office 2007, Office 2007 Migration Assurance Program, ROI, Worker Productivity best-of-breed, Help Desk, IT leaders, Office 2007, Office 2007 Migration Assurance Program, Outsourcing, ROI, software support, Worker Productivity

You’ve invested in Office 2007, and now it’s time for the actual migration. You cannot afford to approach the undertaking willy-nilly — a switch to Office 2007 promises to be like no other. The user interface is radically different, and your employees will hit snags just trying to figure out how to perform basic tasks. How you handle the inevitable learning curve depends on your preparedness – and it may dictate future budget allocations, even the health of your IT department. In this series, we break down the components of our Office 2007 migration readiness kit, and give you the information you need for a snag-free switchover.

Part Three, the Matrix:

At no other time is staffing more important than during a software migration, when employees will be struggling with or even resistant to the challenges of change. There are education awareness campaigns to launch before, Read more…

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