Today we have a guest post from Gene Marks. Gene, an idiot, is also an author of four best selling small business management books and a frequent online columnist for Forbes.com, Businessweek.com and American City Business Journals. Gene owns The Marks Group PC, a ten-person CRM and Financial consulting firm located in Bala Cynwyd, PA.
I am a remote worker. And I am an idiot.
I'm also the owner of a small business and everyone in my company also works remotely. We used to have an office. We now have a virtual private network supported by a local IT firm.
And now Windows 7 is released. Now that really sucks for my IT firm.
My ten person company is no different than many other small businesses around the world. Most of the businesses my size are still in Windows XP Land. That's because they were smart enough to stay away from Windows Vista and all of its shortcoming. I recently read Windows Vista has been adopted by only 8.8% of potential users. At the same stage in its lifecycle Windows XP had been adopted by 87.1% of potential users.
The bad news is that I've been told that my company is going to have to migrate to Windows 7 in the next year or two. Citrix Online recently conducted a poll of 200 IT professionals in the SMB world and found that 42% of them expect Windows 7 will have "more than a small impact" on their operations next year. And at the same time, only 13% of these guys plan on hiring extra staff to help migrate their clients to the new platform.
I've got everything PERFECTLY organized on the computer I've been using for the past five years. Upgrading me will not be fun.
Thank God for GoToAssist. Whether I decide to upgrade my existing computer (unlikely) or get a new computer (probably, but it still kills me to do so), my IT guys will be using GoToAssist to take control of my system. This way I can turn my computer on while they connect and do what they have to do to configure my system.
And thank God for GoToMeeting. Because even before I let my IT guys touch my beloved, perfectly configured and trusted Windows XP workstation, I'm going to need to have an infinite number of conversations with them. With GoToMeeting, my IT guys can show me what I'll be expecting to see on my screen and how they're going to get me there.
The research firm Forrester says that there are about 34 million "teleworkers". They say that by 2012 enterprise mobile workers will make up 73 percent of the workforce. My IT firm, and many IT firms like them, will have their hands full supporting idiots like me when we all have to upgrade to Windows 7. They're going to need all the remote tools they can get their hands on.
By the way I forgot about one other remote connection tool. That's GoToMyPC. I'll be using it to connect to my old Windows XP box which I fully intend to keep up and running. Just in case Windows 7 hiccups. Hey, maybe I'm not such an idiot after all!
If you want to read more detail about Windows 7 migration, online tools and why I'm an idiot, check out the extended version of this post, er, a whitepaper (or so I'm told): Windows 7 Migration and Online Tools.
If you're sick of reading, check out the webinar I recently was a part of: Windows 7 Nirvana Roundtable.
Photo Credit: techedlive
I am a remote worker. And I am an idiot. I'm also the owner of a small business and everyone in my company also works remotely. We used to have an office. We now have a virtual private network supported by a local IT firm.
And now Windows 7 is released. Now that really sucks for my IT firm.
My ten person company is no different than many other small businesses around the world. Most of the businesses my size are still in Windows XP Land. That's because they were smart enough to stay away from Windows Vista and all of its shortcoming. I recently read Windows Vista has been adopted by only 8.8% of potential users. At the same stage in its lifecycle Windows XP had been adopted by 87.1% of potential users.
The bad news is that I've been told that my company is going to have to migrate to Windows 7 in the next year or two. Citrix Online recently conducted a poll of 200 IT professionals in the SMB world and found that 42% of them expect Windows 7 will have "more than a small impact" on their operations next year. And at the same time, only 13% of these guys plan on hiring extra staff to help migrate their clients to the new platform.
I've got everything PERFECTLY organized on the computer I've been using for the past five years. Upgrading me will not be fun.
Thank God for GoToAssist. Whether I decide to upgrade my existing computer (unlikely) or get a new computer (probably, but it still kills me to do so), my IT guys will be using GoToAssist to take control of my system. This way I can turn my computer on while they connect and do what they have to do to configure my system.
And thank God for GoToMeeting. Because even before I let my IT guys touch my beloved, perfectly configured and trusted Windows XP workstation, I'm going to need to have an infinite number of conversations with them. With GoToMeeting, my IT guys can show me what I'll be expecting to see on my screen and how they're going to get me there.
The research firm Forrester says that there are about 34 million "teleworkers". They say that by 2012 enterprise mobile workers will make up 73 percent of the workforce. My IT firm, and many IT firms like them, will have their hands full supporting idiots like me when we all have to upgrade to Windows 7. They're going to need all the remote tools they can get their hands on.
By the way I forgot about one other remote connection tool. That's GoToMyPC. I'll be using it to connect to my old Windows XP box which I fully intend to keep up and running. Just in case Windows 7 hiccups. Hey, maybe I'm not such an idiot after all!
If you want to read more detail about Windows 7 migration, online tools and why I'm an idiot, check out the extended version of this post, er, a whitepaper (or so I'm told): Windows 7 Migration and Online Tools.
If you're sick of reading, check out the webinar I recently was a part of: Windows 7 Nirvana Roundtable.
Photo Credit: techedlive
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