Written March 2007
By Cliff Feldwick
Several months ago, a very good luncheon speaker mentioned that sales pitches – the “elevator speech” we’re all to have for our introductions at business events – should last from four to eight seconds. What? Many of us have worked on our thirty-second sound bites, as many leads clubs have promoted that as your time. And that does seem a little long – long ago I counseled my kids that if they were ever stopped by the police, they had maybe 15 seconds to sound rational and make their case, or they were likely to be ignored. Let’s face it; do you want to hear “Well, it’s a long story…”?
But four seconds? Short Attention Span News used to be a comedy bit – now it’s a business model. So what do we get? We get clichés without depth. We get “I help you save money”, or “I make customers into return clients” or some such. Obviously, these are meant as teasers and we’re going to be so intrigued that we’ll ask follow-up questions. Maybe not. I don’t know about you, but I’m not intrigued, and trite phrases don’t make it as an introduction. If you can’t craft a unique phrase that let’s me know some specifics in fifteen seconds, for heavens sake pay a marketing person (or get a dialogue or other support group, or some smart friends – preferably ones who actually know what you do) to come up with something. Foremost, it will be precise enough that we can tell quickly if any business conversation will follow. Then I’ll decide if you can save me money.
Vista – Just Say No
As expected, the switch took place at the beginning of February: everyplace you look (at least in the computer world), Vista is now the operating system being sold. If you do Dell.com, or wander into CompUSA, it’s all over. You really have to wonder how much the computer companies are just sucking up to Microsoft, or if they think they can create business by pushing us “forward”. People who read me regularly (up to three and climbing, thank you) know that I’m a firm believer in the philosophy of local singer/songwriter Damon Foreman’s song: “Don’t Believe the Hype”. There are no great advantages to Vista, especially for the business community, and quite a few drawbacks.
Really? Besides the general objection to being fed pellets for food and having to squeak for your lunch (go with me here – it’s a guinea pig joke), Vista is missing many of the drivers that will make it work with existing equipment for quite a while. Opening a wireless network card recently, the instructions specifically noted in large letters that it would not work with Vista, and asked you to check their website for “updates”. That’s useful. It’s not unusual, though. Current estimates are that about half of the needed drivers have been written. Half – and they released it as a done deal. This is in addition to the general problem of new system bugs and random occurrences that will no doubt plague it.
What else? Well, many programs will not work with it. Sure, the Office suite (at least a recent one) will load fine and probably be OK. But specific programs that are crafted for specific businesses are often databases with a “front end” that tailors the general to your desired functions, and many of these are, at best, untested with Vista or tested and will just not work. Again (insert squeaking noise here), you will be the tester.
And how about pricing? Upgrades start at $99 for Home Basic edition, and wind quickly upward to $259 for the “Vista Ultimate” version. That’s obscene. Maybe they’re trying to guide you to just buying a new computer with it already installed (the back-scratching factor), or maybe they think we’ll follow along and they’ll make some humongous profit. Not nice either way.
And lastly – there’s the “where the heck is it” factor. If you have gotten reasonably good at working on your computer beyond the turn-it-on-and-click-that-icon stage, you will find that things have moved, and not necessarily to a more logical place. Where is the control panel? If you have to edit the registry, where is it? Can you add restrictions to local users? Where’s that? If you’re interested (or forced) into Vista, expect to add some head-scratching time.
Luckily, many national accounts have an agreement with Dell, etc., to continue with XP for up to a year. Ask and you may receive. Or take my usual advice: wait for at least six months until some of the bugs have been squashed and the first “service packs” (which ought to be called “oops packs”) have come out. Talk to your vendors of programs and products and take the plunge only when you’re ready.
Cliff Feldwick is president of Riverside Computer Consultants, Inc. and does troubleshooting and network set-ups for small businesses. He has seen the future, and much of it looks like the past. He can be reached at 410-880-0171 or at cliff@feldwick.com.