Happy Birthday PC
25 years ago today, IBM introduced the IBM 5150 at a trim cost of $1,565 and with just a modest 16k of memory.
Last month Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s chief software architect told the company’s shareholders that the PC era was coming to an end.
“We’re now in a new era, an era in which the Internet is at the centre of so much that we do now with our PCs… and it’s important to start then from a different vantage point.”
Microsoft are starting to recognise that they have to move with the times. They have the most to lose from the shift towards Internet-based software; hence the move to Live services. Whether this is successful or not is debatable and one I’m sure everyone has an opinion on.
The noticable increase in a shift to computer integration into the home means that the focus on a pure business unit has less incentive to the customer than a nice shiney Media Centre . The demand for more (and better) mobile technology and the rapidly changing styles of business mean that the big guys such as Microsoft and for most of us as partners need to recognise that, as always, times are changing.
How many of us win new business purely on the ‘tin’ alone? Clients want to work from home or access their email from a cafe whilst on holiday and more and more of our business is solution focused rather than product driven. I can’t remember the last time I held the server aloft in my arms proclaiming ‘this is all you need’, instead I show them what I can achieve using the right technology with the right support. The proof is always in the pudding.
Talking to some of my friends in distribution, they are noticing more and more the increase in demand for machines that cross both the work and home camp. How many of us use our machines at home to record our favourite music, tv programmes, and images as well as use it to access our business email? If you use a distributor to sell hardware to your customers, ask them if you can purchase those products typically sold in the retail market to your clients - if you don’t ask, you don’t get! You may find that if you can, selling to certain customers (or even new ones) will be easier.
Understanding the balance required of our customers is important. I always use the example my friend Tom told me about. His customer needed a server solution, Tom sold him on the idea and gave him the quote and left the customer to get things in order so he could buy. On Tom’s next visit, the customer had bought a Bang & Olufsen sound system with the money set aside for the server. The customer still needed the server but prioritised his personal ‘wants’ against his less interesting (debatable) business ‘needs’. The happy ending is that the client now also has a server (Tom told him that I use him as an example and has realised that Tom was right).
Whatever the shift in technology, I hope partners like you and I will always be around. Our companies have been in business long enough not to jump on the latest band wagon and we definitely don’t miss a good opportunity when we see one. The PC may well be on it’s way out in a market reported to not be growing anymore, but it remains and industry that generates some $200bn each year. I am certainly happy to take a bit of that and the margin generated from the services I offer around it.
Whatever form the PC takes, and however our industry develops, those partners with solid foundations and a savvy understanding of their market will be in the background patching and supporting our clients. Solid foundations are build up on an understanding of every aspect of our business; be it technical, sales, administration, and the management of all round business development. Savviness comes from somewhere else, it comes from your experience and that of others. Nancy Williams comments on our industry by saying we are the only community to share information between us. I believe she is right and I believe it is key to the development of all our businesses if we want to avoid too many dead ends.
If you are trying to find a way to make things easier for yourself, then get involved, find a local partner/user group near to you, read the blogs, contribute to them and you’ll find that others like you will be able to help you along the way.
Plenty of the places that I roam around are to the right of this page. I recommend you get your RSS feeder up to date with some of them and begin to look beyond what you may already know. Stretch your mind, enjoy your business, and make sure your steering your ship in the right direction. And on that note, why not sign up for SMB Nation this September? There are heaps of opportunities to be gained by attending these types of events and what better way to start then something that has done everyone who attends a power of good?