02.28.08
Posted in Home at 2:47 am by JohnB
I have movies on DVD… lots of them. Recently I’ve started converting a few to watch on my PSP when I’m travelling and, of course, I keep the resulting files on my PC (I’ve not found decent software for the Mac which work so far!) and this got me thinking.
My music is both physical CDs and MP3 files, am I destined to duplicate this for my movies too?
To be honest I wouldn’t really mind going through the process of stripping out the movie file itself and putting it on file, but the process would have to be a little quicker and better than it is at the moment. I guess the big differentiator is in the resolution of the output file. MP3 will play on anything I want it to and sound the same (hardware notwithstanding). Video files are different though, with there being no real default for my video I have to choose my device and match the software and processes accordingly
Currently the device is the PSP, but what happens whan I change? Do I run the risk of needing to re-encode everything to suit?
Answers on a postcard.. or a comment will do!
- J.
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02.27.08
Posted in Work at 6:28 am by JohnB
There are some topics which seem to re-occur in my working life.. and effective messaging is one of them! Even today with the good folks I’ve spent some time with on my latest voyage into the murky waters of Marketing and Operations, this simple thing seems to have become lost in the passage of time and the seemingly eternal “we’ve always done it this way!” approach to life.
The phrase which specifically caught my eye.. and which will therefore NEVER make it into final copy was this “Increases the security and reliability from Windows Server 2003″ A seemingly innocuous sentence and one which the copywriters concerned may well have been proud in distilling from the verbose and overly technical information splat they were surely presented with!
The context is, as ever, of premium importance here and, given that it is concerned with the launch of product and services built upon Windows Server 2008 also provides the context for the statement concerned.
My question to the team was this though… “What is this telling me, not what are the words, but what is this statement saying to me as a consumer?”
The answer of course is a pretty blatant “Windows Server 2003 was insecure and unreliable” which, for the record, is simply not true!
And that is the crux of the matter here.. simplicity rules in pretty much everything that we do. If, when boiled down, the core of our message is good, the message itself cannot fail! This message is not good and actually serves to undermine, not only an existing product set (this is Windows Server 2003 after all!) but also the credibility of the customer.. it’s saying “You bought something which isn’t very good and now you must pay again for your mistakes” (again I take pains to point out that this isn’t actually true!) AND the credibility of the hoster who sold the solution to start with!
A better statement would be along the lines of “Improve the security of your business data and the reliability of your operational systems by deploying Windows Server 2008… today!” When all things are equal this is essentially the same thing, but the delivery and positioning makes it a desirable step forward, rather than a mitigation of past mistakes.
I think the message got through and I truly believe that my new friends have a clearer understanding of what it means to position a solution. I await the launch with eager anticipation.
- J.
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Posted in Work at 12:31 am by JohnB
There are days when I just have to accept that I don’t have the mental capacity to take everything in. I don’t offer this as some kind of excuse for not getting things done, but more as an acknowledgement to myself that I have limits and I know what they are!
Over the last few weeks is seems like I’ve had a blistering number of things to deal with and have struggled somewhat to keep all of these balls in the air. There does seem however, to be a break in the clouds up ahead and I think that I’ll make it! 
On of the things taking up brain space at the moment is how we work to promote the delivery of, previously on-premise installed, systems and applications as Services – expanding the SaaS principal and bringing it to those organisations who would not have
a) considered “buying” software in this way
or
b)would not have considered a CRM or Finance or ERP system at all due to the high implementation costs
The answer I believe – and it’s become pretty much a core of the sessions I’ve been delivering to, and the conversations I’ve been having with, hosters over the last few months – is to identify specific Services for specific markets, verticals if you like, and offer them effectively by focusing on how they deliver benefits. The technologies underpinning these services and solutions should, of course, be robust and effectively answer any concerns that may exist in this area, but they should not be used to sell the product – they are simply an enabler, nothing more.
If this can be positioned correctly and the right ‘education’ can be delivered as part of the marketing process then there is no reason why every business cannot take advantage of the best of the so-called Enterprise systems.
- J.
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