IT Weapons is 13 years old on Sunday June 16th. Visitors to our office occasionally notice the numbers above our reception desk. The superstitious types might think 13 is a source of worry – not us. Every ITW Anniversary is an opportunity to get nostalgic looking back, and excited looking ahead. Read more…
The Message
We had a dozen Wepz and 10 clients in Anaheim last week for the annual Citrix Synergy conference. The guiding theme for all their solution development and strategy is now “Going Mobile”. The integration and presentation of all their products as a unified set of solutions to mobilize the enterprise is a fantastic turn in their evolution. And a natural one for Citrix. Given the product releases they announced and the demos they put on, they’ve obviously put a ton of investment into their mobile access technology, the SaaS GoTo product family, and especially my favourite: ShareFile. It’s one thing to see the carefully crafted and rehearsed product demos on a stage … Those are always impressive, and sometimes 6-12 months away from being Weapons Grade enough for us to roll out to clients. However, to actually see the stuff in action with IT professionals around the conference was pretty cool. Read more…
Here’s a slight dramatization of the most rewarding meeting I’ve had in a long time.
The client has 120 people with a small IT team and they are set grow this year with a Calgary acquisition. In the meeting was IT Director Peter, CFO Steve, and the owner/CEO James. I love seeing business owners take an interest in IT, but I feel bad when they get inundated with techno-talk; losing sight of the business forest through the IT trees. Shady sales people like to exploit these situations, I like to help prevent them.
Ever bought the same car twice? Plenty of people do it. Why repeat yourself? Isn’t variety the “spice of life”? That sentiment might ring true when it comes to salad dressing, but cars, homes, and especially your business are not things you ought to experiment with. You drive that thing because it never lets you down – you get a new one every few years. The folks at the dealership come to know you and they take care of all your issues without question. Why do they do it? Because every good organization rewards and respects loyalty. And they secure that loyalty by providing good value. Read more…
Citrix has some cool messaging around the idea of mobile workstyles and workshifting. Like most cool ideas … they aren’t really new, but Citrix has done a great job showing how the trends toward mobility and a decentralized workforce are shaping the future of IT. Recently, Jay & I met up with Mark Templeton, Citrix CEO, at their head office in Florida. We traveled down for a Platinum Partner business update and see his vision for Mobile Workstyles. Why the Cafeteria? They have a Genius Bar set up there. Mark’s long been one of our most important mentors, so this was a treat. Read more…