Mobile Computing: The HR Benefits
Mobile Computing: `Colocation’ Is Key
Corrections or additions?
These articles by Kathleen McGinn Spring and Michael Schumacher
were prepared for the February 28, 2001 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper.
All rights reserved.
Self-Promotion on the Net
Back in 1988 Ilise Benun was fired by the Kenyan
safari company where she was director of operations. “I was so
mad that I decided I’d never work for anyone else again,” she
says. And she hasn’t. Starting off in business for herself by
organizing
paperwork for the overwhelmed, Benun quickly discerned a pattern.
“At the bottom of everyone’s pile was a note about
self-promotion,”
Benun says. The tendency to neglect this chore, she says, “is
a bigger problem than clutter.”
Benun decided to change direction, working with businesses not on
organization, but on self-promotion. This task is difficult for most
people, she finds. “There are so many negative ideas surrounding
self-promotion,” she says. “People think of it as
bragging.”
Besides, entrepreneurs “have to do work, and market it. And no
one pays for the marketing.” Given that it does not directly pay
the bills — and is unpleasant to boot — self promotion can
be put off indefinitely.
“I’m working with a client now,” Benun says. “He’s about
to lose a major client, and is desperate. He really needs to
market.”
It’s a tough case, though, because the client has done no marketing
at all in 10 years. “He has no relationships to build on,”
she says, and self-promotion takes a long time. “You can’t just
send out a mass mailing and think you’re done. It’s an ongoing
process.”
The Internet creates new ways to develop and deepen relationships,
says Benun, a Hoboken-based consultant who is the author of Self
Promotion
Online. “There’s never before been anything that allows you to
reach people in their moment of need. You don’t have to send
anything.”
She speaks on using the Internet for self promotion on Tuesday, March
6, at 6:30 p.m. at the Princeton Public Library. Call 609-924-9529.
The rules on creating an ongoing self promotion plan that apply in
the real world are in force on the Internet, Benun says. “You
can’t just put up a website and expect that people will come,”
she says. Some of Benun’s thoughts on Internet self-marketing are:
If they ask, you still have time. Some industries arebehind in using the Internet, while others already consider a fullInternet presence a given. “If people ask for your web address,you need a website,” Benun says. “If people ask whether youhave a website, you still have time.” In general, she says, anyonedoing anything technical — or seeking technical clients —needs a website. Writers need websites, but professionals in thefashionindustry probably don’t — not yet. Businesses selling “thingsyou have to see and touch” may not benefit much from a website.Businesses selling information probably do need a website.Be careful about sending cold E-mail. Just a couple ofyears ago, gleeful entrepreneurs were crowing about reaching famouslyinaccessible decision makers via E-mail. No more, says Benun. E-mailfrom anyone not known by the recipient probably will be seen as spam,she says. “People I’m calling are reluctant to give out theirE-mail addresses,” she says. “I’m even reluctant to ask forit. People feel it’s part of their personal space.”Use the Internet in combination with the phone. Benunsays one of the best ways to begin a relationship with a new businesscontact is to leave a couple of voice mail messages and then followup with an E-mail. “They recognize my name. They feel they knowme,” she says. She also finds it effective to reverse the process.”There’s some kind of unwritten rule, if someone sends you E-mail,you have to respond in the same way,” she says. But rather thanreturn every E-mail with an E-mail, Benun says she sometimes picksup the phone and calls. This surprises people, she says, and generallyin a good way. “They’re happy to hear from me.” And that,of course, is all anyone can ask from a self-promotion campaign.Top Of PageMobile Computing: The HR BenefitsA friend of mine has an odd-looking piece of furniturein her house, so unique and antiquated that it would make an idealcandidate for the popular television program “The Antiques RoadShow.” It’s a telephone desk, a combination chair and table that’salmost child-size in proportion, with its low back and narrow surfacearea.While the side table still holds a telephone, the seat serves as adrop place for items needing temporary storage, such as laundry onthe way to the basement washer. That’s because, with cordless phonesor stationary ones installed in nearly every room of the house, theneed for a fixed phone station has long become a thing of the past,having joined the ranks of rolltop desks and leather-bound diaries.Besides, with multi-tasking the norm, who has time to sit down andjust talk on the phone?Many of us have become experts at conducting business — bothpersonaland job related — from nearly any location. Who today hasn’t satthrough a concert or worship service and not heard the ring of a pageror cell phone? Who hasn’t driven behind a driver chatting on the phoneoblivious to those around him? There’s no doubt that the PC, theInternet,and now wireless mobility have not only transformed ordinary livesbut in many cases turned them upside down.”We are facing the ultimate good news/bad news situation,”says telecommuting consultant and Monmouth Junction resident GilE. Gordon. “The good news about the explosive growth of mobiletechnology is that people can work just about anytime, anywhere —and the bad news is the same thing.”Gordon expounds upon the practice of telecommuting and managing workand play life in his forthcoming book, Turn It Off: How to Unplugfrom the Anytime-Anywhere Office Without Disconnecting Your Career.It is being published by the Three Rivers Press unit of Random Houseand will be available in brick and mortar and online bookstores laterthis month. Preview copies will be given out as door prizes atGetContactX’sfull-day seminar, “Colocation, Web-hosting & Mobile Computing:E-Business Everywhere,” on Thursday, March 8, at 8 a.m. at theSheraton Newark Airport Hotel. Cost: $39. Call 610-844-9880 or visitthe organization’s website at www.getcontactx.comAs people are getting more used to this mobility, they are alsodemandingit from their employers. And those businesses that resist, saysGordon,will be left in the dust. Businesses that are reluctant at first,he says, will change their attitudes if either the cost benefits aremade clear to them, or if they are in enough pain in finding talentedworkers. Some of the benefits businesses gain by allowingtelecommutingare:Cost savings on office space. Without the need for eachemployee to have his or her own workspace, businesses can save onexpensive overhead. When people do come in to the office on occasion,they can utilize a shared space since everyone probably wouldn’t bethere at the same time.Easier recruiting and retention. Having the option ofworking in a traditional setting or out of one’s home can attracttop talent. “People are tired of commuting, and they are makinggreater demands of employers,” says Gordon. “Working fromhome, even a few days a week, can be your best dream or your worstnightmare. I’ve seen telecommuters whose lives have literally beenchanged simply by being able to work at home a day or two a week —and I’ve seen others who tried it and ended it as soon as theycould.”Greater productivity. Workers are often frustrated withthe distractions of a traditional office setting. “I like to usethe analogy,” says Gordon, “that just like a hospital is aterrible place to get well, an office can be a terrible place to getwork done.”— Michael SchumacherTop Of PageMobile Computing: `Colocation’ Is KeyThe emergence of wireless connections, Internet access,and companion computing devices “will dramatically alter the waycompanies empower their employees and engage their customers,”says Steve Sroczynski, president of GetContactX, the organizerof the March 8 meeting. “This new level of mobility will requireorganizations to re-think the way they deliver applications andinformation.”GetContactX is short for Global Electronic Technology ContactXAssociation,a professional organization representing technology companies andindividuals. Participation in GetContactX, says Sroczynski, providesexecutives with access to a broad network of businesses andindividuals,as well as valuable programs and services. Monthly meetings,educationalseminars, and conferences such as the March 8 event, provideinformationabout leading issues and developments in technology and E-Business.According to GetContactX, over 600 million people will have mobileor cellular phones by 2004, with the majority having mobile computingor Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) access as well. WAP can bedefined as a suite of standards designed to support wireless accessto the Internet.It is the enormous progress of the less visible technologicaladvances,such as remote servers, that has made telecommuting possible. That’swhy the GetContactX conference juxtaposes two of the hottest topicsfacing the E-world today — mobile computing and colocation. Thelatter is the practice of housing computer servers in a location awayfrom the office where the computers they connect reside.The event’s keynote speakers are Sonny Hunt, co-founder ofFASTNET,a business Internet services, web hosting and colocation providerbased in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and David Angier Sr., productmanager at Data Center & Colocation in San Ramon, California.”Millions of small to medium-sized businesses are using theInternettoday,” says Hunt. “And globally more businesses are startingto understand the power of the Internet and the effect it can haveon their businesses.” Hunt estimates that E-commerce will growat more than 200 percent over the next several years.Hunt majored in economics at George Mason University before completinga computer studies program at the Computer Learning Center inSpringfield,Virginia, in 1983. Prior to co-founding FASTNET in 1994, he formedand managed HS&T, a provider of hardware, software and trainingservices.He was also a programmer for Nexus Inc., a company he acquired in1991.”Businesses have a need for high-speed Internet access, and theyare looking for alternatives to traditional T1 service. For thesebusinesses, collocation has become the ultimate answer,” he says.As an example of colocation, Hunt says “let’s say you are anewspaperpublisher, and you want to publish your paper electronically. Youwould have to have a server connected to the Internet in order forpeople to read it. If you keep the server at your location, you couldpay $500 or more to have the phone company put in a line to yourbusinessto get you out to the Internet. Then you would need to invest at least$2,000 for a router and CSU/DSU (a big modem). You then need to beconcerned that a power failure doesn’t bring down the server. If youdon’t have a generator, you will spend $30,000 or more on that.”For a fraction of the cost, he says, “you can find a colocationprovider that will allow you to put your server at theirlocation.”For telecommuters, colocation can play a big role in accessing acompany’sdatabase off site, or simply retrieving E-mails. “Rather thankeeping your mail server at your location,” says Hunt, “youcould use colocation and access your server remotely.””Security is an issue,” says Hunt, whether servers arecolocatedor kept in-house. While colocation may prevent direct access tointernalnetworks, that server is still open to the world and all of the badthings that can happen. External protection is available throughhardwareand software firewalls. Steps must also be taken to protect serversand networks from the inside, says Hunt, because many system breechesare caused by employees or others with access to a company’scomputers.”Have you ever walked into an office and walked past cubicleswith computer passwords taped onto the sides of PC monitors?”asks Hunt. “And who is responsible for the tape backups, and arethey properly secured?” Too often, according to Hunt, a business’sIT security is minimized by careless or naive employees who usesimplisticpasswords such as 1234 or share passwords with other employees. Andwhen employees become angry with their employers, there’s no tellingwhat data they could steal or transmit elsewhere. “It is veryimportant,” says Hunt, “that a business develop and adhereto strict security policies not only from the outside but from theinside as well.” Collocation can take some of that worry awaysince the data is stored remotely from a company’s hub of business.Another use for colocation is disaster recovery. “Manycompanies,”says Hunt, “are now seeking ways to ensure communications forboth voice and data if their local facilities are interrupted forany reason. Colocation allows a company to maintain off-site backups,servers, websites and even telephone service.””The start of the millennium took its toll on the Internet andthe telecommunications industry,” says Hunt. But even thoughinvestmentflowing into these sectors is down, he says, the need for collationremains strong. “If industry analysts are correct,” says Hunt,current demand is only “the tip of the iceberg.”— Michael SchumacherTop Of PageBoard MatchThe boards of nonprofit organizations are havingdifficultyrecruiting individuals with the skills and perspectives needed toconfront complex responsibilities. To meet the need, the Mercer CountyBar Association is hosting a “Board Match” program to identifylawyers with the skills, perspectives, and interests needed to serveeffectively on the boards of nonprofits.Serving on a board, the Mercer County Bar points out, is alsobeneficialto lawyers, providing them with experience. However, the organizationsays the match does not suggest that lawyers will handle litigationfor any nonprofit with which they are matched.On Tuesday, April 10, at 6 p.m. a Board Match event takes place atthe New Jersey Hospital Association on Alexander Road. Representativesof nonprofits will display information on their organizations andanswer questions about their programs. Attorneys will talk about theirexperiences serving on the boards of nonprofits. Cost: $25. Call609-585-6200.The deadline for registration is March 15.Previous StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
