One of the benefits of being a veteran in the technology space is that you get to see a lot of trending over a lot of years and decades. Let me make a few observations:
The first time I made a call on a prospect for Rolm phone mail in the mid-1980s I was laughed out of the prospect’s office with such jeers as, “Like anybody would have their customers talk to a machine.”’ Obviously folks changed their minds and embraced automated messaging.
When I had my first “bag phone” with a backpack for a battery case, people mocked me mercilessly. “Like anybody wants that nuisance.” Obviously folks changed their minds and cellular took off.
When I used to sit at a dumb terminal and do data entry on a mainframe computer, some people had these newfangled things from IBM called personal computers running MS-DOS from this pipsqueak outfit named Microsoft. “Like anybody wants to haul a computer around,” they said. Obviously folks changed their minds and furthermore decided to network these curious devices on local area networks (LAN). Somebody got the damnedest idea to create a global network as well. What the hell is an Internet, you say?
The first time I saw a “gopher” (search kernel) so named because it was invented at the University of Minnesota, I was at the National Technology Transfer Center in Wheeling, West Virginia. You used to have to drive to the Internet and pay to use it at research institutions. I am old. The founders of Google were still pooping in their pants. You didn’t have to be a weatherman to know which way that wind would blow. Encyclopedias anybody? I thought not.
When we first started offering wireless mobile duress in the mid 90s, folks would tell us it couldn’t possibly work because they couldn’t see offering “garage door openers” instead of good old-fashioned hard wire (pronounced warr). Obviously minds changed.
Similarly it seemed preposterous to use packet switching instead of good ole circuit switching. AT&T and all the old-line telecom companies took a pass and Cisco ate their lunch with Voice over IP.
When Apple proposed revolutionizing the music business with this goofy little doohickey that you could load customized playlists on people initially scoffed. Minds changed.
I could go on and on, but this brings me to my point about innovation never being finished. And that’s what we’re here to do. A guy from the National Science Foundation told me a long time ago that “research is how you turn money into knowledge, and innovation is how you turn knowledge into money.” Planned ignorance is not a business strategy; it’s just apathy. But planned awareness is a strategy. We help people get strategic about risk management and how they can better protect their people and stuff regardless of industry.
Our people innovate around situational awareness solutions that have real impact and ROI. The next frontier is the in-room portal because the bedside phone, clock radio and remote control are dying, giving way to a single, multi-use device for communication and access to information everywhere (CATIE).
Automated self-service is here to stay as a burgeoning megatrend. It saves money by creating efficiency and eliminating waste and unnecessary expenditures. It makes money by harnessing corporate America’s significant resources. It improves lives by creating connectedness and brings a whole new generation into electronic self-sufficiency.
Status Solutions’ business model is based on producing positive societal impacts. We do things that matter.
