M & A Rainmaker

In this article here

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/370012/dell-death-of-the-pc-is-complete-nonsense?DCMP=NLC-Newsletters

fairly predictably Michael Dell argues that HP is wrong to sell off it’s PC business, joining IBM in doing so, because the PC sales give ” volume ” purchase prices to the server side of the business.

Comments on this article are mostly in favour of the PC, or some variant of it, being around for some time.

I agree. I am always interested in what the younger generation think since they are the future. My son and his friends use iphones, ipads and laptops. Just the other day they were talking and agreeing that they saw no need for a desktop PC because a laptop was all they needed.

Despite this being a ” personal/consumer  ” view rather than a ” business ” view I see their point.

I use a Blackberry and a laptop much more than a desktop these days.

There are a few things that you want or would prefer when you are sat at a desktop. Amongst them are :

– A big screen. As with TV’s big screens are nice. Having big screens or multiple screens with a number of applications open are preferable or essential in some work situations.

Although these might be extreme work requirements there is something ” must have ” about these systems for even personal use

So we want the best visual experience that we can get.

– Speakers. We also want the best audio experience that we can get, especially for watching video or gaming.

– Keyboard. It seems beyond time that we could sit down and ” speak to our PC’s ” instead of having to type information in to the computer. But whilst the technology exists for converting voice to text it is not widely used and the keyboard is still the device of choice with the touchpad and right and left buttons being typical for the laptop and some desktops

and the mouse and keyboard being used for desktops.

The touch screen is an alternative

and most of us have seen those films where someone stands in front of a huge screen, dragging information in manipulating it and then ” throwing it away “.

So, we are probably going to end up talking to the computers with typing, touching, dragging and clicking as back-ups.

Inevitably we will STILL want print outs !!

The paperless office still seems a very long way off.

The key for the desktop PC is seamless access to the information that exists on the more mobile devices being used – the mobile phone, pda and laptop. You want to be able to bring your mobile devices to the desktop and then be able to access any information that you want to on them from your desktop.

The question is ” Is that information actually going to sit on those devices in the first place or is it, in fact, in the cloud ? ”

( If it is in the cloud then the other advantage of the desktop is that it is going to have ” landline communications “i.e. high speed Internet access ).

The answer, I think, is that a lot of it will be in the cloud and some of it will be on each device. This will mean that the desktop will need to have easy access to the other devices for the occassions where the information is, for some reason, being held on the device. Since less information will be held on any single device they don’t necessarily need to have as much processing power and memory – except that they probably will because we will keep asking each individual device to do more.

So, I think the future of the Desktop PC is quite clear – to provide an enhanced experience relative to more mobile devices visually, audibly and for input and output. Also to facilitate high speed access to the cloud and to the mobile devices themselves.

Google + Hangout set-up

Dorsets Global Production company IPP Joules defies the snow with an Asterisk based Phone System from Poundbury Systems and Microsoft Small Business Server

That was the news from Poundbury Systems this week. With most of Dorset (and the UK) hit by snow and ice, what was the impact on local businesses?

Poundbury Systems have long understood the benefits of flexible working solutions for their customers and this week the foresight in this approach showed its true value.

‘Many of our customers had issues in getting some or all of their staff to their offices. The solution was simple. The Microsoft Small Business Server based remote working facilities that we had set up allowed staff to use their home PC’s to have quick, easy and secure access to their work files. No time was wasted and no business was lost. The picture was completed by diverting the Asterisk based phones to home and mobile numbers, something that is quick and easy to do.’ commented Clare Jenkins, Director at PSL.

Bob Cottell of ipp agreed “At ipp, much of our work is time critical and, as we deal with our clients around the world, guess what – they don’t care what the weather is like in the UK and they expect us to have contingency plans in place. During the current weather, we are able to work equally well from home as we can in the office, thanks to PSL putting ‘remote access’ in place. We can access information and documents on our servers as normal, maintain email contact with clients and use ‘instant messenging’ as an effective way to maintain internal communication.

PSL has given us the flexibility to allow staff to work from home, delay coming into the office until the roads are less icy or even leave early to avoid congested roads. We are able to spend less time worrying about the weather and road conditions and more time maintaining service levels for your clients, during these chilly times.

Many thanks to PSL”

With more snow predicted, if you would like any advice on how you can minimise business disruption, contact Clare and her team on 01305 259849 or enquiries@poundbury.com.

For Global Production and Distribution Solutions contact IPP Joules at http://www.ippjoules.com/