Make iPhone and Apple support a reality (and remain cost effective). According to Apple’s first quarter earnings report, 8.7 million iPhones were sold, that’s a 100% increase over the same period the prior year. Apple sold 300,000 iPads the day they were released and analysts predict 7 million will be sold within one year. As a result, IT leaders might soon be forced to embrace the idea of Apple products in the workplace. The theory or what many human capital consulting firms continue to prove, a happier workplace that provides end-users with applications and technology they feel more comfortable with and want to learn will result in amplified productivity and increased efficiency levels.

See how PC Helps is supporting business end-users today: Remain cost effective by outsourcing iPhone and Apple support on a pilot basis

admin Uncategorized Apple, iPads, iPhones, MacIntosh, Office 2008

What a difference a little style makes. If you compare the hype surrounding the release of Microsoft’s Windows 7 with that of Apple’s most recent gadget line, you’d think someone had died.

Gartner group is calling the new operating system “all but inevitable.” Sounds kind of like the flu.

Here is a sampling of the words that have been used to describe Windows 7: “much better”; “less prone to unexpected delays”; its impact on PC sales “won’t be huge”; and there are “good things to be had” with the new OS.

Sheesh.

In an opinion piece in Tuesday’s New York Times, Robert Cyran and Una Galani write that “if the key to happiness is low expectations, then Microsoft’s customers and investors have it in spades.” Read more…

admin Office 2007, Windows 7 Apple, Gartner, key to happiness, New York Times, XP, ZDNet

Some of our customers are so surprised that our consultants are friendly, they send us letters like this:

“Now I must tell you that I’m not the brightest when it comes to technical-type stuff. I’m sure I asked a lot of ‘silly’ questions, and probably had to ask them more than once. [Your consultant] never made me feel stupid and demonstrated the utmost patience and kindness when dealing with me. I have had to call back on a number of occasions and requested to work directly with him because he was so knowledgeable, helpful, personable, and, oh, did I mention patient?”

While we welcome praise like that, it does make us wonder why dreadful customer service is the accepted standard — at help desks for sure, and in business in general.

It’s a fact that if customers are treated poorly, they will hesitate to call back the next time they have an issue.

In a recent piece in Information Week magazine, staffer Art Wittmann argues for a more customer-friendly future. In IT, Wittman says that interest in end-user satisfaction needs to increase. Help desk techs need to learn soft skills, and how to use them.

Wittmann’s piece was a response to Microsoft’s move to open Apple-like stores in the near future, complete with digital media walls and a space fit for birthday parties (!). It seems Microsoft wants in on the good-customer-service game.

The lesson to be learned from Microsoft’s efforts, Wittmann writes, is that the drive to create customer loyalty is something all enterprise CIOs should have on their minds.

“If you still have pockets of technologists sitting around swilling Red Bull and laughing at ‘lusers,’ wake up and smell the clouds rolling in,” he writes.

We couldn’t agree more. It’s a fact that if customers are treated poorly, they will hesitate to call back the next time they have an issue. Instead, they’ll ask a colleague for help and waste the time of two employees, devise clumsy workarounds, or do nothing at all. Morale will suffer too.

Who is losing money now? The company, that’s who. (Jen Darr)

MORE INFO IN: Desktop Application Support | Contact PC Helps

admin Customer Service Apple, Art Wittmann, CIO, Help Desk, InformationWeek, Microsoft, productivity, soft skills

With all the press this week about Apple’s newest toys, I thought I’d focus this entry of IT Buzzwords on phrases related to mobile devices.

We know you’ve been nodding your head in agreement when your colleagues (or underlings) discuss the pros and cons of the 3GS, even though you have no clue why the world is so miffed about tethering and MMS. Here’s a chance to school yourself, so you know what your employees will be griping about in the near future. Read more…

admin BlackBerry, Mobile Devices, Tech Babble, iPhone 3GS, Apple, AT&T, BlackBerry, dumb phones, iPhone, Palm Pre, smart phones, tethering