Welcome to the award-winning blog from Rapid!http://www.rapid.co.uk/ http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/the-shape-of-things-to-comeLast week we attended an industry event called Shape at the Etihad Stadium, so called as it’s a taste of things to come.  As usual there was some impressive stuff there but I found 3 things particulary impressive. First thing that stood out was the new SMART Room System which includes one or more SMART Board interactive displays, an ultra wide-angle, high definition camera offering 109-degree field of view (which customers have been crying out for), speakers and microphones along with an extra-large room control console with an 11.6” display. Each component has been specifically designed and manufactured by SMART for seamless integration with Microsoft Lync ensuring a consistently rich meeting experience and getting buy in from Information managers in organisations everywhere. Apparently Microsoft’s internal studies have indicated that it takes on average of 8 to 12 minutes to begin a meeting using technology, but with the SMART Room System for Microsoft Lync the start-up time for an active session with full access to audio, video and presentation data is reduced to a single click ensuring optimal use of meeting time.  We think this will be a massive product for Smart and our customers find out more at rapid.co.uk/smart-room-system-for-microsoft-lync   Second thing that was exciting was the new Extreme Collaboration for Smart Notebook 11 in schools.  This really tapped into our BYOD mantra with customers as it makes great use of mobile devices like iPhones and iPads in collaboration with a SmartBoard.   It enables students to contribute to class discussions by sending text and images from their mobile devices to a SMART Notebook page in realtime for the whole class to see and explore.  Looking at this I found that this would be a massive engagement tool in the classroom and was really easy for teachers to use too.  The website has some great blogs on how it can be used in the classroom www.extreme-collaboration.com/blog/ The final thing that impressed me was the latest version of Bridgit which is now at version 4.6.  Bridgit 4.6 improves participants’ collaboration experience by increasing the number of shared webcams to nine (from 5) per meeting and increasing the number of open microphones to nine (from 5) per meeting. The improvements to webcam sharing also include higher resolution and better frame rate making it comparable with other video meeting platforms on the market. Bridgit 4.6 software now also supports virtualization on VMware vSphere ESX Hypervisor 4.1, which enables customers to deploy on virtualized servers. If you are interested in any of the above products please do not hesitate to contact our advisors on 0800 195 0938. Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:54:31 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/the-shape-of-things-to-comehttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/a-smashing-time-in-amsterdamIn my short time at Rapid I have overseen the marketing on some big changes like being the 1st Smart Reseller in the UK to achieve Smart Gold Reseller status and being the only company in the UK to sell and Market iObeya the revolutionary Visual Management Platform.  This has obviously been a challenge for my marketing team and we were very proud to hear at the end of the year we had been nominated for the AV News AV Reseller of the year sponsored by BENQ.  So at the end of January our MD and I attended Intergrated Systems Europe (ISE) in Amsterdam so see if were successful in winning the prestigious award. ISE is a fantastic event held every year at the at the end of January and its where the AV industry get together to launch new products and share their wares.  The great news for us: we beat off some really strong competition to walk off with AV Reseller of The Year 2013. I know all of the team here at Rapid are extremely proud of this award, but we'd also like to thank all our partners and customers for making it possible. The MD and I spent the rest of the day there meeting manufacturers and vendors to improve our range of products and services mixed in with a fair amount of networking. In fact, we spent so much time networking we realised we needed to get back to the airport in a hurry ! Dashing through Schipol we got to security where I ended up getting stopped because of the strange object in my bag (The Award I hasten to add ! It is made of an engraved heavy steel base with a glass feature declaring our Reseller of the Year status).  The security guy clumsily opened the bag and out fell our award onto the concourse smashing into pieces !!!!!!!  Mark (Rapid MD) and I were understandably completely dismayed !   The Security guys didn’t know where to look as I started to pick the pieces of the award up of the floor and were very apologetic. To add injury to insult we ended up delaying our flight and got the customary glares from our fellow passengers. Thankfully on our return to the UK the team back at Rapid saw the funny side and after talking to the great guys at AV News (Thanks Sue) we are arranging for a replacement at great expense to the security company at Schipol Airport ! Fri, 08 Mar 2013 15:03:58 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/a-smashing-time-in-amsterdamhttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/new-smart-product-raises-the-barAs usual every year I attend BETT, the Education Technology show, normally to catch up with customers and see some of the latest products coming to a school near you.  There were some fantastic new products there but the one that stood out for me was on the Smart Technologies stand.  Smart as usual had a great presence at BETT and their stand is normally one of the busiest as they are normally launching some new products.  Last year you could barely get on the stand as they were previewing Notebook 11 and this year was no different.  I thought the buzz was around their new interactive table which whilst great and massive improvement the real star of the stand was the Smart LightRaise 60wi Interactive Projection system. The SMART LightRaise™ 60wi interactive projector is a touch and pen-enabled projector that allows two students to simultaneously interact and collaborate with either a pen or finger, making it the only interactive projector solution that enables rich, seamless multi-student collaboration using either touch or pen. The LightRaise 60wi projector allows users to turn virtually any surface into an interactive learning space and is designed for teachers who want the flexibility to deliver interactive and collaborative digital content.  So instead of that write and wipe whiteboard having a projected image only, it can an interactive board ! The LightRaise 60wi projector allows educators to deliver collaborative digital content with finger-enabled touch functionality for increased accessibility and ease of use. Using a finger or the interactive pen, two students can simultaneously write, draw and manipulate content in SMART Notebook software. The LightRaise 60wi projector uses SMART's proprietary DViT® (Digital Vision Touch) technology, offering the advantage of effortless zero-force touch, the ability to scale images to large sizes and support multiple touches. Designed for use as a lesson delivery and student collaboration tool, the projector can produce screen sizes up to 100 inches (254 cm) in widescreen format, making it a flexible solution designed to fit into nearly any classroom or collaborative space. With its ultra-short throw, the LightRaise 60wi projector eliminates most shadow and glare and delivers a crisp, bright image. The LightRaise 60wi projector includes the award-winning SMART Notebook™ collaborative learning software and access to the SMART Exchange™ website, where educators can connect, share and download over 60,000 digital resources. It features easy integration with other SMART products as well as training and professional development offerings. The new projector is part of a comprehensive solution of products from Smart for delivering interactive content that engages students and enables improved learning outcomes. It provides educators and administrators with the flexibility to meet the specific needs of individual classrooms and learning spaces for small-group and whole class collaboration.  I took a couple of customers over and they were blown away by this product, its definitely a game changer in the classroom and I am sure this is one product you will be adding to your budget shopping list this year !  Check out the product here  Fri, 08 Mar 2013 14:52:56 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/new-smart-product-raises-the-barhttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/iobeya-the-smarter-way-to-get-leanSo those of you who know me when I start talking about getting lean you might laugh as I have been trying for years to get that little bit leaner with no success.  But when it comes to practising Lean in the workplace I think I may have just about cracked it.  Lean principles are being practiced in organisations up and down the land from large manufacturers to small precision engineering firms to agile IT solution providers.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with Lean Principles it’s all about managing your projects visually and more importantly monitoring and cutting out the waste.  You have potentially seen these large rooms in organisations with big A1/A0 sheets on the wall covered in post-it notes.  These rooms are called War Rooms or Obeya’s (Japanese for Large Room where Lean is big with companies like Toyota) and the main problem with anything that’s on paper they exist in the analogue world and therefore harder share. As the UK’s first Smart Gold Partner in Business we have been at the forefront of working with businesses large and small and have been coming across these rooms more and more.  The requirement we were hearing was we need to make this (pointing at their huge walls covered in post-it note) digital and more accessible….can a SmartBoard do this?  SmartBoard could do a certain amount up until a degree, but then we saw the iObeya software solution that was being used by a large car manufacturer on SmartBoards we were training them on and I had what alcoholics call “a moment of clarity”. Like Jake in the Blue Brothers “I had seen the light!”  It literally blew my mind and someone who has been working around SmartBoards for the last 12 years that’s pretty unique. This software which works great on a SmartBoard or Smart LCD and you can create a virtual board like the one in your War Room very easily, it has virtual post-it notes, virtual labels and virtual rolls, it allowed you to capture active boards in the iObeya and mail to colleagues worldwide but the biggest benefit was allowing remote users anywhere in the world to work on the boards without being in the meeting room.   You see one of the biggest wastes that were occurring was people travelling from all over country or the world to sit in meetings in their Obeya’s to discuss projects.  Now they could review the project anytime, anywhere thus saving money and coming to decisions a lot quicker.  Another massive benefit was you could display their whole Obeya (could be 10 boards or more) on a single wall or display thus reducing real estate costs to the business. You can see a brief video of the product here on our dedicated iObeya Web Site. So we engaged with the nice people at iObeya and  the last couple of months we have been demonstrating how we can improve visual collaboration in War Rooms and Obeya's up and down the country, we are meeting a lot of mangers involved in Continuous Improvement in their business and when they see the solution , they get it straight away .   We are hosting a half day launch event at the Jaguar Land Rover Estate in Liverpool on the 26th July called “Lean to the Future” you can register here .  If you can’t make it give us a call and we will arrange one of our consultants to meet with you and demonstrate.     iObeya…The SMARTer way to practice Lean in your business, available through Rapid Technologies the UK’s first official iObeya partner ! Thu, 28 Jun 2012 11:07:46 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/iobeya-the-smarter-way-to-get-leanhttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/theres-a-freestorm-comingSmart hosted their 1st Dealer conference since restructuring their reseller programme recently to unveil their plans for the future, and as the UK’s 1st Smart Gold partner we attended and I have to say I was pretty impressed.  Smart have rebranded their business collaboration solutions under the “Freestorm” banner.   Freestorm Visual Collaboration Solutions by Smart have completely turned the idea of buying an Interactive Whiteboard for the meeting room into investing in culture change for your business by drawing together 5 key components which include Intuitive Displays, Collaboration software, integrated data collaboration, comprehensive services and industry compatibility. Freestorm is about visual collaboration, people using digital content and resources, sharing ideas, skills, experiences and inspiration to achieve common goals.  We believe a company adopting Freestorm Visual Collaboration Solutions (or VCS…we don’t even call them interactive whiteboards anymore you will notice!) as part of their workflow will increase innovation, boost productivity, make more informed decisions and most importantly reduce costs ! In a nutshell Smart are formalising there meeting rooms solutions and positioning themselves as the go to collaboration platform for meeting rooms big and small. As you can imagine we are very excited to be offering this solution to our customers. We all know about the benefits of the SmartBoard 885i and the Smart 8070i with Smart Meeting Pro 3, but with the imminent launch of the Smart 8055i, super lightweight 55” Interactive LCD Visual Collaboration Solution Smart really do have a solution for every workspace.  The SmartBoard 600 range remain a part of our Smart offering but only to non-business customers.  The reason for this is with the success of mobile technology such as Apple iPads customer’s expectations of technology has shifted significantly, and the products in Freestorm Visual Collaborations Solutions from Smart meet that demand now. Freestorm fits very nicely with Rapids range of Smart apps such as iObeya for Lean manufacturing and production,  OpenWard for healthcare professionals and The Meeting Cloud, our hosted data / Video / Voice conferencing service opening up the world of instant collaboration to everyone. So check out our Freestorm page for more details and a very funny video explaining how Freestorm by Smart can benefit your business today. Wed, 30 May 2012 11:23:44 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/theres-a-freestorm-cominghttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/whats-new-smart-notebook-11-is-here-thats-whats-newRapid Technologies have been at the forefront of promoting SMART Technology solutions for just over 12 years now and SMART Notebook (the software bundled free with educational SMARTBoards) has gone through a lot of changes in that time, benefiting both teachers and students alike.  Smart recently previewed at BETT 2012 the latest version (v.11) of Notebook to great reviews.  Well, the long wait is over and SMART Notebook 11 is here! So what’s new in SMART Notebook 11?  Well the toolbar has been greatly improved and now the brand new SMART Notebook 11 features an embedded web browser that can be inserted onto a live Notebook page allowing users to bring web content directly into a Notebook file. The tools in Notebook can then be used to write or draw over web pages and images can be dragged and dropped directly into a lesson. “Is that it?” I hear you say “What else is new?” Well we took a look under the hood and these are some of the additional great benefits.   ·         Activity Builder – This tool can be used to create activities where selected objects can react to actions by either accepting or rejecting other objects ·         Adaptive toolbar – choose an action from the toolbar and the relevant options attached to that action will appear ·         Crayon – authentic crayon added to the pen options ·         Customized creative pen - Build your own creative pen using any image ·         Audio recording – Record sounds directly into a SMART Notebook lesson ·         Shape image fill – Fill any irregular fully enclosed shape ·         Reset page - Use this feature to return a page to its last saved state ·         New gestures – Shake objects to group and ungroup them ·         Updated tables – Scale, move and interact with tables more easily ·         New text engine – Provides improved text formatting and consistency within SMART Notebook ·         Fade ink – Fade any regular ink ·         Page sort – use the page sorter tab to jump to any page or drag and drop to put them in any order ·         Rotate and move objects – use the handles to resize or rotate, or select and drag around a page And that’s just for starters if you have recently invested (or considering investing) in the fantastic SmartBoard 800 there are additional features for instance. ·         4 user freestyle interaction – Allows up to four users to perform different tasks at the same time anywhere on the interactive whiteboard or display surface ·         Touch gestures – Accepts common multitouch gestures for two users currently recognized in Microsoft Windows 7 and Mac Snow Leopard, including one- and two-finger gestures such as pinching, zooming and tossing ·         Object awareness – Distinguishes automatically between fingers, pens or other objects, recognizing the tool choices of up to four users ·         Locking pen mode – Locks the SMART Board interactive whiteboard in pen mode, so students can write and draw with a finger, pen or other object There is also a handy tutorial in the help section that will take you through all the new features!  Its worth noting too that SMART Notebook 3D Tools is now available for Mac users (but sadly Smart Notebook Maths Tools is still only available for Windows versions) “So how do I get my hands on a copy?” I hear you say, well you can Download SMART Notebook 11 now.  Rapid will be offering refresher courses on Smart Notebook to bring your teaching staff on the these great benefits. If this is of interest do not hesitate to contact our sales team free on 0800 195 0938. Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:41:18 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/whats-new-smart-notebook-11-is-here-thats-whats-newhttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/coming-soon-smart-bridgit-45As part of their FreeStorm collaborative solutions, Smart Technologies have announced the imminent launch of the latest upgrade to their award winning Bridgit data collaboration platform.  SMART Bridgit software is fully integrated with SMART solutions and allows remote users to use the features of SMART Meeting Pro software and SMART Ink. It enables remote workers to:  Collaborate with others to solve business problems and improve productivity  Participate effectively in remote meetings to enable informed decision making New features in SMART Bridgit 4.5 software include: Auto-join SMART Bridgit sessions from the SMART-enabled meeting rooms invited to the meeting (using SMART Meeting Pro with MS Exchange integration turned on) Enhanced Region Sharing to give more control of the shared region to the presenter Intelligent viewer screen resize - you are no longer restricted by the resolution of the presenting display Knock to enter meeting without password Raise Hand to notify the presenter that you have something to say/ask Resizable video window to allow a bigger video window and let you control the size vs. quality trade off We will be meeting customers during May to discuss these updates if you would like to arrange a demo or meeting please give us call on 0800 195 0938. Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:44:33 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/coming-soon-smart-bridgit-45http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/coming-soon-smart-meeting-pro-3Smart Technologies have announced as part of their FreeStorm Collaboration solutions that at the end of the month they will be making available the latest version of their award winning collaboration software Smart Meeting Pro. SMART have made the wise move of consolidating three versions (SMART Meeting Pro software, SMART Meeting Pro Premium software, and SMART Meeting Pro Premium Multi software) to a single version called SMART Meeting Pro 3. This new software includes all of the features previously available in SMART Meeting Pro Premium Multi software, as well as a number of exciting additions to help keep meetings efficient and aid ineffective collaboration such as. Integration with Microsoft Exchange Easily access information including attendee status, meeting details and attachments Keep meetings running on time with Meeting Progress toolbar Automatically email notes to yourself or all meeting attendees when the meeting ends Improved SMART Ink Use SMART Ink to write onto any window, letting you collaborate using any application Make annotations into any application that supports native ink Enjoy improved stability with ink that stays with the window, even when you minimize or move to another window New content gallery Access templates, icons, images and backgrounds from the extensive business-centric gallery Create your own images and easily save them in the gallery for re-use We have been lucky enough to play with a pre-release of the software and believe me we think it makes a vast improvement to your SmartBoard experience.  We will be meeting with customers in May to discuss these enhancements, if you would like a meeting, please give us a call.  Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:41:41 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/coming-soon-smart-meeting-pro-3http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/its-the-way-of-the-futurePicture yourself walking down a high street, you turn to the shop window and its displaying its latest wares that you can buy and allowing you to browse by hand by just interacting and touching the window.  You carry on down the street when the digital sign erected in the middle of the pavement changes to show an advert that reflects your demographic.  You reach your meeting at an office block to be greeted by a talking digital sign with a live person who can see and hear you.  She then advises you to enter your appointment details into the touch screen to find your floor.  You get to the floor to be greeted by a row of rooms with small digital panels by the door showing the various meetings and participants until you reach yours and start your meeting with on an interactive LCD screen.   Sounds like something from the Sci-Fi thriller , The Minority Report and you might be thinking the future looks really exciting, but you would be mistaken, these are some of the ways that digital signage are being used today.  Rapid currently have, as part of its digital signage portfolio, interactive glass windows, Digital signage with built in cameras that can deduce the demographic of the pedestrian, Digital Signage that can act as an information kiosk for customers and room management panels that tell you what is going on in a room.  We also have external signage allowing you to attract customers or update passers by on your latest offerings and of course the very latest in meeting room technologies such as SmartBoards and Video Conferencing. If you’re  looking to give your offices or retail premises that futuristic feel and win new business maybe you should give us a call and speak to one of our consultants, it’s the way of the future you know ! Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:16:28 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/its-the-way-of-the-futurehttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/thanks-rapid-i-have-a-better-understanding-of-byod-but-what-are-my-next-steps If you have been following our series of BYOD blogs it seems BYOD can be pretty simple, but it’s often not. Shifting the ownership of mobile devices has many complex implications for how an organisation conducts its day to day business, many of which have limited precedent. In our series of blogs, we’ve discussed several considerations for building a program to address some of these issues. The initial adoption of the BYOD program will depend on effective preparation, while its long-term sustainability will depend on the on-going quality of the users end-to-end experience. The goal of our blogs is to provide an initial framework for that early preparation. BYOD holds tremendous promise across multiple dimensions. While many organisations look at BYOD as a possible way to reduce costs, the real value of a well-designed BYOD program is increasing user satisfaction and productivity, while speeding up the rate of technology adoption in the organisation and its network. We are currently visiting organisations around the country advising on BYOD strategies and recommending the right technology solutions in partnership with organisations like Enterasys Network Security who coined the BYOD phrase and have been advocates of this trend worldwide. To find out how Rapid and Enterasys can help with your first steps in to the BYOD world please give us a call today. Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:47:28 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/thanks-rapid-i-have-a-better-understanding-of-byod-but-what-are-my-next-stepshttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/internal-marketing-how-do-i-promote-byod-in-my-organisationBYOD offers an opportunity to improve the organisations internal perception of IT’s role and value. This is a great opportunity for internal marketing of both the organisations mobility strategy and the IT team responsible for its implementation and support. Many organisations don’t realize the value of this until well after the BYOD program is instituted. The components include:  Communicating why the company is moving to BYOD: What is the desired perception “to shift the cost burden to the employee” or “to let employees use their favourite devices at work”?  Understanding BYOD is an HR initiative as much as an IT initiative: What is the desired impact on my organisations culture, communication, and recruiting? Defining IT’s “brand”: Is IT a user advocate, an innovator, a source of best practices for mobility? IT can prove itself an end-user champion and ahead of the curve on technology through a BYOD program. Supporting the brand message with appropriate action: BYOD puts the burden on IT to provide a positive end-to-end experience to users, who need to easily understand the program, choose and provision the device, troubleshoot problems, and potentially migrate to new devices each year. The reality of the BYOD program needs to match its marketing. BYOD gives IT a unique opportunity to impact perceptions, productivity, and culture across the company. Thinking through the internal marketing strategy up front will influence communications and decisions in a way that can improve IT’s standing with its internal customers and users. Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:47:50 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/internal-marketing-how-do-i-promote-byod-in-my-organisationhttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/byod--what-are-the-economic-benefits-to-my-organisationSo what are the cost benefits in implementing a BYOD strategy? The short-term economic analysis of BYOD generally revolves around eliminating the cost of device purchases and moving from full service payment to a predictable monthly stipend. But the long-term economics may well come from more unexpected sources. BYOD strategies have not been in place long enough at most organisations to definitively assess their economic impact, but here are some key dimensions to consider:   Device hardware: Not needing to purchase hardware is appealing. However, many large organisations have traditionally purchased highly subsidised smartphones or tablets, so the actual savings can be less than expected. Excessive charges: When users have personal visibility into their usage, especially excess usage, their behaviour tends to become more responsible. They use the device more sparingly when roaming, and they are less likely to lose it. BYOD drives personal responsibility. Productivity: It is harder to quantify, but access to network functions on the user’s preferred device instead of the company’s preferred device drives not only satisfaction but also increased productivity. Employees now have the tools they want to use for the work they need to do. Service level agreements: Some organisations continue paying for full service, while others move to a fixed monthly stipend for the user, many times based on seniority level and function within the organisation. However, negotiating leverage with the wireless operator can be lost if the billing model does not provide any consolidation. Helpdesk: A lot of network managers will assume that BYOD will increase helpdesk costs because of the fragmentation of adding device choice. Implementing new helpdesk policies around full support and “best effort” do create additional complexity. However, we have seen a countervailing force as well, which is that employees who own their devices are willing to invest time in troubleshooting instead of calling the helpdesk. They are increasingly knowledgeable about technology and, more importantly, don’t want IT to touch their personal device. With the right self-service tools, the helpdesk may become a last resort instead of a first resort for BYOD users. Tax implications: Some regions have different tax implications for corporate vs. personally-funded devices. The cost of the BYOD program will be affected by whether the company has the obligation to tie reimbursement to a percentage estimate of business use, and how detailed that auditing needs to be. Compliance and audit: In an earlier blog we posed a question around liability “Does moving device ownership from network estate to the user increase or decrease the company’s liability?” The answer to this will impact actual compliance costs dramatically. If the organisation views itself as no longer liable for actions other than network data protection, there can be substantial savings. The return on investment of BYOD programs is a combination of the above weighed against the value of user satisfaction and productivity. The hidden economics of BYOD centre on increasing productivity, managing the cost of complexity, and realising the value of more responsible staff or user usage.  Mark Stevens Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:48:14 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/byod--what-are-the-economic-benefits-to-my-organisationhttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/designing-your-byod-app-and-governanceThe trust model and device choice considerations we described in prior blogs both have a fundamental impact on the apps strategy for BYOD. At first, organisations assume BYOD is simply a device ownership decision with minimal impact on apps. However apps involve network data, and if the trust level of a BYOD device is different than that of a traditional device, it will affect app design and distribution.  We are already seeing schools and large organisations designing and developing their own internal apps and a fundamental pillar of a successful BYOD strategy.  Additionally, users will expect internal apps to be supported on all the approved BYOD devices, not only a subset. That implies either a deeper investment in app development and testing by the organisation, or clear education and communication for users on what apps are supported on what devices, and why. User confusion will drive helpdesk calls and increase an additional overhead on already over -burdened resources. Some considerations around app design and governance include:   Designing mobile apps to match the trust level of personal devices: App development teams will have to decide whether they design apps differently for personal vs. corporate devices. These differences generally centre on how the app handles local data and are driven by the trust level of the target devices. Modifying app catalogue availability based on device ownership: Certain internal applications may not be appropriate on personal devices for security reasons. For example, all devices might have access to the mobile accountancy app, but only the network devices to the mobile financial projections app. Updating acceptable use policies: Users will demand freedom to use a broad range of personal apps on their BYOD device. In their minds, the fact that the device is also being used for your network apps doesn’t justify restrictions on their personal apps. Therefore, any such restrictions that are necessary for network security purposes need to be clearly described to the employee, e.g., “App X is known to access and transmit personal contact lists to unknown third parties.” Committing to the resource investment: There can be incremental investment to support core network apps on personal devices – for example, apps may now need to support more operating systems and device types. So the app development team must either support the broad set, or clearly communicate to the user base how and why support is limited. Defining enforcement levels for app violations (notification, access control, quarantine, or selective wipe): Once again, clear communication is as important as the actual policy and outcome Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:07:11 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/designing-your-byod-app-and-governancehttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/byod--the-user-experience-and-their-privacyBYOD itself reflects a realisation that employee/user satisfaction is a primary goal for IT. However many times, security and user experience have been viewed as conflicting interests; therefore, the usability of traditional network applications has substantially lagged behind that of consumer applications, which are designed with user experience as the top priority. The core pillar of successful BYOD deployments is preservation of user experience. BYOD programs will not be sustainable if the user experience is compromised when employees start using their personal devices for corporate email and apps. User experience can be compromised along many dimensions: poor battery life, 3rd party email apps that don’t preserve the native experience, complex authentication, lockdown of useful features, counterintuitive interfaces, or lack of privacy. A social contract must be established between the organisation and its users. This social contract is the agreement between organisation and employee/user about their respective roles in the BYOD relationship: Identifying the activities and data IT will monitor: On personal devices, IT will generally monitor less user data and activity, such as location. There will be an on-going set of security vs. privacy trade-offs to make. For example, IT might still need to monitor app inventory on the personal device in order to protect against rogue apps that might otherwise compromise enterprise data. Clarifying the actions IT will take and under which circumstances: The employee must understand the link between action and remediation, for example, the circumstances under which IT will wipe a device and the content that will be wiped. Transparency will create trust. Defining the BYOD privacy policy: Granular controls across IT actions like activity monitoring, location tracking, and application visibility should be consolidated into a privacy policy and then applied to each mobile device. These policies will differ not just by device ownership, but also by organizational function, seniority, and region. Exceptions to the privacy policy should be minimised, but employees will still need to understand the circumstances of those exceptions, such as legal mandate. Critically assessing security policies and restrictions for sustainability: If the user experience is compromised by the security policy, the BYOD program will be at risk. Common restrictions that impact experience are lockdown policies for apps, browsers, or media features like camera. Deploying core services (email, critical apps, WLAN access) to the employee or user: The more compelling these services, the more willing the user is to accept some level of control over their personal device. Preserving the native experience: Networks managers want to use their preferred native apps for core functions like email, calendar, contacts, and communications. Forcing these activities to different apps in the name of security will fracture the user experience and limit sustainability. Communicating compliance issues clearly to the user: How will the employee or user know when his device or actions are out of compliance? What are the consequences? A closed-loop, automated notification process ensures that the user, who will likely never fully read the user agreement, knows immediately when there is a compliance issue and what actions the company is about to take. BYOD users expect to be given the chance to self-remediate. As mentioned in a previous blog, user experience is the litmus test for policy sustainability. In many organisations, BYOD programs are implemented with the intent of increasing user satisfaction, but end up compromising user experience. Without a clear social contract that extends beyond a written agreement to daily activities and actions, an effective BYOD relationship cannot be established between the organisation and the user. Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:07:35 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/byod--the-user-experience-and-their-privacyhttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/whats-my-organisations-liability-implementing-a-byod-policyAll networks have long-standing approaches to assessing the risk of employee or user actions and the corresponding liability. These actions range from unsecured use of the organisations data to accessing inappropriate applications or websites. BYOD introduces a new consideration: The device on which these actions may take place is not the property of the organisation. So the question is “Does moving device ownership from organisations network to the employee or user increase or decrease their liability?” Some considerations around BYOD liability include: Defining the elements of baseline protection for network  data on BYOD devices: All organisations must protect their data on the mobile devices. However different protections may be required on different devices. For example, more protection against over-privileged consumer apps might be required on Android vs. iOS.  Users will also need clarity around which actions create and limit liability. Assessing liability for personal web and app usage: The users expectation is that they can use their personal device however they wish. Is inappropriate use still a liability for the organisation, even if it doesn’t affect network data? Assessing liability for usage onsite vs. offsite, and inside work hours vs. outside: Should usage be monitored when at work, but not when away from work? The boundaries of work time and personal time blur for many knowledge workers, so most companies avoid this additional complexity. Evaluating whether the nature of BYOD reimbursement affects liability (partial stipend vs. full payment of service costs): Many organisations have assumed that the level of payment doesn’t impact the level of liability, but this is an area with regional variances. Financial responsibility may dictate legal obligation. Quantifying the monitoring, enforcement and audit costs of the BYOD compliance policy: If liability is lower, the corresponding compliance costs will also be lower, and potentially a significant contributor to your cost savings. Assessing the risk and resulting liability of accessing and damaging personal data (for example, doing a full instead of selective wipe by mistake): Most organisations will cover themselves legally in their user agreement, but at minimum, this creates employee frustration and concern over privacy. BYOD implementation has seen many large organisations decide that their liability on personal devices is limited to protecting your data, and that they are not liable for personal web, app, or other activity. In other words, their corporate liability decreases if they move to BYOD. However, we have also seen other organisations decide that their corporate liability remains unchanged. Each organisation should seek their own legal advice on how to frame and assess liability variances between BYOD and traditional mobile programs. Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:08:03 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/whats-my-organisations-liability-implementing-a-byod-policyhttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/your-byod-trust-modelTrust remains the foundation for enterprise security: Which users do I trust with which data or apps under what circumstances? Every major organisation has gone through data classification to establish this underpinning for its security policies. However, even without BYOD, trust models for mobile add an additional level of complexity because the device itself easily falls in and out of compliance. The trust level of a mobile device is dynamic, and depends on its security policy at a given point in time. For example, a company’s accountant is trusted with financial data on his tablet, but not if he inadvertently downloads a risky consumer app or disables encryption. Because mobile devices are not locked down as comprehensively as traditional laptops and desktops, they fall out of compliance more frequently. BYOD adds another layer to the trust model, because the trust level for personal devices may be different than for your network devices. Privacy policies will vary, as will user expectations. For example, users may accept not being able to use social networking apps on corporate devices, but that type of policy is unacceptable for personal devices. Building a BYOD trust model requires: Identifying and assessing risk for common security posture issues on personal devices: Employees use personal devices differently than corporate devices; for example, they download more apps. So with BYOD, devices may fall out of compliance with corporate policy more frequently, or for different reasons. Defining remediation options (notification, access control, quarantine, selective wipe): These options may differ in severity from BYOD to corporate devices. For example, on a corporate device with a moderate risk compliance issue, the remediation might be an immediate full wipe. But on a personal device, it may be a less severe action initially, like blocking enterprise access, followed by a selective wipe of only enterprise data. Setting tiered policy: “Ownership” is now a key dimension along which to set policy. As a result, personal and corporate devices will each have different sets of policies for security, privacy, and app distribution. Establishing the identity of user and device: As device choice becomes fluid, confirming identity of user and device, usually through certificates, becomes more important. Lending a critical eye to the sustainability of the security policy being instituted: What is the impact on user experience? Will users accept that trade off over the long term? If the trust level of the personal device is so low that security requires extensive usage restrictions, the employee’s personal mobile experience will be damaged, and neither the policy nor the BYOD program will be sustainable. Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:48:33 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/your-byod-trust-modelhttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/byod--whats-your-weapon-of-choice-or-how-do-we-decide-what-devices-we-are-going-to-allowWe have all been there were a director or head of department got an I-pad for Christmas and he wants to use it on your organisations network.  This is usually the primary catalyst for implementing a BYOD strategy as its quite common now for employees  or network users to have personal preferences for devices other than those that the network has traditionally provided them. This is one of the major benefits to an organisation.  The most common example is an employee or user who has a network-owned BlackBerry for work, but a personal iPhone or Android device at home, and would prefer to carry one device instead of two. However, in a world where consumer preferences shift annually, or even quarterly, and the mobile device and apps landscape itself evolves constantly, defining how much choice to allow employees is difficult. Building a policy around device choice requires: Analysing users preference and understanding which devices they have already bought: A BYOD program that doesn’t support current and intended purchases will have limited appeal. Defining an acceptance baseline of what security and supportability features a BYOD device should support: The goal is to include all employees’ desired mobile platforms in the program, without creating security gaps or support headaches. The acceptance baseline generally includes asset management, encryption, password policy, remote lock/wipe, and email/Wi-Fi/VPN configuration. Without these fundamentals, the mobile platform is not viable for the enterprise. The more advanced list generally focuses on app-related functionality and advanced security such as certificate-based authentication. The device platforms that match the advanced list get access to a higher level of enterprise functionality in the BYOD program. Understanding the operating system, hardware, and regional variances around that baseline: On Android especially, similar devices may actually support very different capabilities based on the manufacturer and the geographic region. The brand name of the same device may also vary by wireless operator, adding confusion. Developing a light-touch certification plan for evaluation of future devices: Most organisations invest in upfront certification when launching their BYOD program. However, new devices are introduced into the market every 3-6 months so the certification process must be on-going and continually evolving. If the process is too heavy, it will become expensive and eventually fall behind, so speed and efficiency of certification is essential. Establishing clear communication to users about which devices are allowed or not, and why: Going BYOD without this clarity results in users purchasing unsupported devices or becoming frustrated that the service levels they expected from IT are not available to them. Ensuring the IT team has the bandwidth to stay up-to-date: The allowed device list is strongly influenced by user demand and so may change rapidly, often multiple times a year. Someone in your IT support team must become the expert on device and operating system evolution; otherwise, the BYOD program quickly becomes obsolete. This is especially important when the program moves beyond iOS and BlackBerry to operating systems with more variants. Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:48:55 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/byod--whats-your-weapon-of-choice-or-how-do-we-decide-what-devices-we-are-going-to-allowhttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/sustaining-byod-in-your-organisationNothing scares people like an acronym,  just sit in a meeting and say are you are aware of XYZ and you either see people nodding sagely or panic in the eyes of individuals frantically thumbing through their last memos and emails !  So we know BYOD is new to most organisations and, as a result, best practices for implementation are only now being developed.   One of the traps many customers fall into is establishing a rigid set of BYOD policies that is not sustainable over the long term. To be sustainable, BYOD policies must meet the needs of both IT and employees for: Securing your data Minimising cost of implementation and enforcement Preserving the native user experience Staying up-to-date with user preferences and technology innovations We see organisations focusing the majority of their time and resources on the first two requirements. However we feel the latter two are much more important for sustainability in the long term. If the BYOD implementation damages user experience or quickly becomes dated, employees will either find a way to circumvent policy or end their participation in the program.  This obviously a waste of time and something we want to avoid at all costs.  In both instances, the needs of neither the user nor the organisation are met – either security is compromised or service/business value is lost. It’s important for you to consider your user experience as this will be the litmus test for BYOD policy sustainability. If it breaks, so does the BYOD program and all the acronyms in the world can’t save you then! Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:09:35 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/sustaining-byod-in-your-organisationhttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/how-to-build-a-bring-your-own-device-(byod)-strategyHere at Rapid we are on a mission to educate our customers about the ICT phenomenon known as BYOD and more importantly help your organisation prepare for it.  So this is the first part in a series of informative blogs designed to help organisations to develop their “BYOD” (bring-your-own-device) strategies for personally-owned smartphones and tablets. This blog provides an overview of the eight components that we have found to be the foundation of a secure and scalable BYOD program and we will be covering over the coming weeks.  We call them the 8 pillars of BYOD and they are : Sustainability Device choice Trust model Liability User experience and privacy App design and governance Economics Internal marketing   Many organisations are considering opening up the use of personally-owned mobile devices for business and educational apps. Their goal is to drive user /staff satisfaction and productivity through the use of new technologies, while simultaneously reducing technology costs.   The BYOD trend is one of the more dramatic results of the consumerisation of IT, in which consumer preference, not corporate or academic initiative drives the adoption of technologies in the organisations network. However, many of these technologies were not built with enterprise networks requirements in mind, so IT teams often feel uncomfortable about security and supportability.   Within the Rapid Technologies customer base, we have seen a broad spectrum of BYOD approaches, ranging from top-of-the-pyramid, where a small set of executives or technical staff get to use their own devices, to broad-scale, where BYOD is opened up to a larger percentage of the user base (education clients especially). In many organisations, IT users are now offered a choice between a corporate-funded BlackBerry or a personally-funded iOS, Android or other new-generation device.   In her Spring 2011 presentation, “Bring Your Own Mobility: Planning for Innovation and Risk Management,” Monica Basso, Research VP at Gartner, Inc., predicted that by 2014 “90% of organizations will support corporate applications on personal devices.” As a result, IT teams are preparing for a mixed-ownership mobile environment.   But BYOD is more than just shifting ownership of the device to the employee or network user. It has many complex and hidden implications for which a strategy needs to be defined in advance of implementation.   So look out for our upcoming blogs on the 8 pillars of BYOD. Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:09:57 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/how-to-build-a-bring-your-own-device-(byod)-strategyhttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/please-please-lease-let-me-get-what-i-wantPlease, Please, Lease, …..Let Me, Get What I Want…… Yes I know Morrisey and Johnny Marr are probably disgusted at my casual use of their lyrics in my latest blog, but I couldn’t think of a better way to describe it !  So first let me qualify that I want to talk about something that is considered a bit of a dirty phrase in our industry because of miss-selling by a minority of less scrupulous companies and that phrase is lease finance, but please bear with me. We know that both public and private sector organisations are facing tightened budgets this year and with banks hardly falling over themselves to meet or exceed their “Merlin” targets for lending to SME’s how are you going to fund that refresh of ICT equipment.  It may surprise you to know that in the 12 months to June 2011, UK asset finance providers funded almost £1.1bn of investment in ICT kit and services now when you take into account that UK ICT spend was worth £13bn in 2010 it doesn’t take a genius to work out that finance is a an expanding and flexible way of funding that ICT capital expenditure. We have in the past and continue to work with companies like BNP Paribas Leasing Technology Services who specialise in the IT and telecoms sector and found they have been extremely helpful in funding projects that include the whole wraparound of technology (Hardware & Software !), training and maintenance.  They have been great at helping us engage directly with the company and meet those funding issues head on.  In fact through financing vehicles such as an Operating Lease organisations can continue to benefit from new ICT systems without having to use capital expenditure to fund this.  We have found it also helps with budgeting and reduction of net debt, freeing cash into the organisation to focus on other core activities. Education has been particularly badly hit when you consider prior to the spending cuts more than 60% of their ICT budget was spent on maintenance and service level agreements.  Obviously many are now actively considering leasing or rental schemes with ourselves and even considering parental contribution programmes that a good partner company (like mine!) can help with. So whilst leasing has been traditionally the reserve of business we feel that is going to change with more public sector customers considering this as a viable option in this tough financial climate . So give us a call today to find out how we can help you fund your next ICT project. Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:36:26 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/please-please-lease-let-me-get-what-i-wanthttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/is-ict-in-schools-more-advanced-than-businessyou-bettI have been working in the industry for 25 years and its weird how your career can come full circle.  Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s I was speaking to SME’s about putting a TV with a green screen and a keyboard into the corner of their office to do the accounts and to replace the typewriter.  This later progressed to putting colour screens around an office and joining them together with a bit of wire, so they could share files and printing.   Our experience in this area led schools to approach us regarding installing IBM compatible networks after they had struggled along with BBC B’s and Acorn Archimedes.  Microsoft became the de-facto solution, and was adopted with great aplomb at a faster rate than was happening in the business market space. Our business in education grew really quickly in the late 90’s and early 2000’s leading us to make inroads into installing SmartBoard Interactive Whiteboards, and the rest, as they say, is history. SmartBoards became a really big part of our business, and by mid 2005 we were being approached by business people who had seen them in schools and wondered how they could help their business. Today, my part in Rapid Technologies is totally dedicated to providing SmartBoard and collaborative meeting room solutions, and, like the education market back in the 90’s, is growing really fast.  SME’s and corporations are really getting the Smart bug at the moment, and I can’t help tipping my cap to my old education clients.  None of this would have happened if it wasn’t for schools pioneering this type of technology, something they continue to do to do this day. A big part of my education regarding ICT in schools has come from attending BETT every year.  In its 28th year, BETT (formerly the British Education Training and Technology Show) is an event held every January at Olympia in London, showcasing the very latest in ICT that is going into schools. Basically, things you see in this show start showing up in businesses a couple of years later and why is that you ask?  Well, the reason is simple, students are growing up with this technology, and because they have the time to be creative with it they are maximising this technology to its full potential, and as they progress from the education system into the world of work, they carry this knowledge with them. Long may this continue. The event is great at helping to develop people who are fully engaged with the latest technology, and helping businesses in the 21st century.  Don’t take my word for it, just ask the 29,000 people from 100 different countries who attend every year to carry this knowledge back to their respective states. So I’ll find myself attending again on Wednesday, not however, to meet new prospective education customers, but to escort some enlightened  business customers around this unique event, and show them what tomorrows workforce is doing today.  If you’re in London this week it’s well worth a visit, I will be tweeting on @rapidtechtoday #BETT as usual with my observations. Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:49:19 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/is-ict-in-schools-more-advanced-than-businessyou-betthttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/always-believe-in-rapid-because-we-are-goldApologies for paraphrasing great lyrics by Spandau Ballet, but it’s something that’s getting hummed and sung around our offices all the time at the moment. That’s because Rapid Technologies are proud to announce they are the UK’s first Smart Technologies Gold Accredited Reseller for Business Solutions. It’s part of the new reseller programme launched by Smart Technologies in the UK, and is only awarded to the companies that deliver  highest level of quality service and support around the Smart Technologies proposition. We are all immensely proud of this achievement, which represents the highest tier for resellers, because we have put considerable time and investment into being a best of breed provider of Interactive Data Collaboration solutions for our business and enterprise customers. This also formalises the great work we have being doing in the corporate market sector over the last 6 years. Gold accredited resellers will offer the very highest levels of service and will be the only companies that can sell and integrate the award winning Smart Bridgit data collaboration system.  We will also be working closely with companies looking to integrate their SmartBoards with Microsoft Lync. Rapid have been a Smart Technologies partner for over 12 years and have an extensive portfolio of high profile corporate clients using SmartBoards and Smart LCD’s and this has culminated in the imminent launch of our hosted cloud based conferencing service “The Meeting Cloud” offering even greater collaboration between our video conferencing and interactive whiteboard offering, so watch this space. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my dedicated team and the directors for the hard work and support they have put in.  Looks like 2012 is already going to be a GOLDen year for Rapid Technologies, and that’s before the Olympics even start! Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:43:23 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/always-believe-in-rapid-because-we-are-goldhttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/is-your-business-ready-for-byodDid you know …..? ·         Gartner’s predicts that by 2014 “90% of organisations will support corporate applications on personal devices.” ·         Gartner’s also states that a business can save between 9% and 40% on their IT spend by adopting a BYOD strategy. ·         1 in 10 employees already use their own personal IT for their day to day work These very statistics that have led many businesses to implement a BYOD (“Bring your own Device”) strategy, to re-imagine the concept of “The Business Network”,  and to capitalise on this ability to promote collaboration in order to truly deliver IT services Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere. So what is BYOD?  Simply put, its adopting a policy within your business that allows your workforce to use their own wireless enabled devices.  This benefits your business by providing improved access to services, greater convenience, greater cost savings, employee satisfaction, cost savings, supports devices already in service, increases employee production and the costs savings go without saying. Now you may have noticed I mentioned cost savings 3 times in that last paragraph, and it’s not because it’s my favourite part, it’s because for businesses, the savings around BYOD can be huge, especially when you take into account IT procurement, training overheads and maintenance costs. In the US, where the business sectors tend to adapt quicker than their UK and European counterparts, CIO’s are not merely consenting to people bringing in their own devices in, they are actively encouraging it. The challenge for many businesses has been in making sure that that a BYOD policy doesn’t turn into BYOH (“Bring your own headache”). The typical scenario that kicks off the fuss is when a CEO or Director brings in the I-Pad they got for Christmas into the office, and asks the IT guy to get his email and other apps working on it.  Generally this throws up issues surrounding Wi-Fi access, image and security, as there has been no effective strategy thus far to meet this demand. Now, in your office, how many people have smart phones? Tablets? Laptops? This list goes on... However, with virtualisation and cloud based computing, it doesn’t really matter which device out of the many hundreds currently available, or which operating system, be it Apple, Microsoft or Google Android that you are using, they’re all compatible! So it’s reasonable to assume that CIO’s and IT managers should consider a rethink of their infrastructure to allow a seamless and secure service with a low support overhead. Rapid Technologies are a specialist in delivering secure wireless infrastructures to organisations, and have been for over 10 years now, and through our partnership with Enterasys secure solutions , we can help your business develop a coherent BYOD strategy. We’ll meet with you and your IT team to discuss the challenges of BYOD and advise you how to implement an effective infrastructure strategy that allows you and your staff to get on with the really important job of making your business profitable. Why not make the most of having an engaged workforce who use their own devices? Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:49:45 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/is-your-business-ready-for-byodhttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/a-smarter-way-to-lync-upIt was great to hear recently about SMART Technologies forming a formal partnership with Microsoft®, it was especially important when they announced that they were forming a strategic partnership around the award winning SMARTBoard Interactive Whiteboard Technology and Microsoft’s Unified Communications platform Microsoft® Lync™. SMART Technologies have long had great success with their data collaboration solution Bridgit but by allowing their Meeting Pro collaboration software to integrate with Lync™ they have pulled off a major coup and opened up the benefits of using SMARTBoards to a much wider audience. For the un-initiated Microsoft® Lync™ provides a single interface user experience that combines voice, Instant Messaging, audio, video, and Web conferencing and is forming the backbone of unified communication strategies in companies great and small. Whilst Microsoft has OneNote, the challenge has been for companies to have an easy to use, intuitive interface for making and sharing notes in meeting rooms across sites.  SMART has been at the forefront in recent years promoting the SMARTBoard as a collaborative tool in the work place and has certainly been gaining traction in this area through the easy to use Meeting Room Pro. Meeting Room Pro allows people to whiteboard and save notes digitally, annotate and capture over live applications and with the integration of Microsoft® Lync™ these notes can be shared via a data conference session whilst participants join via voice, web cam or Instant Messaging.  Smart have a vast range of solutions to meet any meeting room ranging from 66” in diameter through to 85” size screens and now that they have the multi touch 800 series, 2 people can write notes digitally on an interactive whiteboard simultaneously, thus increasing the participation in a meeting. The intuitive touch screen facility is an instant hit with users, especially when you consider a lot of users are familiar with touch screens through the smartphone in their pocket. When you consider companies are looking to increase efficiencies and save costs in time and travel this collaboration between SMART and Microsoft® represents exciting times ahead for companies working in the collaborative working space.  Here at Rapid Technologies we are already working with companies who are deploying Microsoft® Lync™, and how it integrates with SMARTBoards and indeed video conference systems. We have found that we are also working with Microsoft Gold Partners about how we can help their customers too, so if you are looking at a SMARTer way to Lync™ up, drop us a line! Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:43:42 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/a-smarter-way-to-lync-uphttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/lets-meet-up-my-ipad-just-got-smartWe all know about the great features that a SMARTBoard offers in terms of capturing ideas and presenting them interactively but how many of us use them to collaborate across great distances.  Well it appears more and more people in the corporate space are doing just that by making great use of the SMART Bridgit data conferencing solution.  I was lucky enough to meet David Martin the chairman of SMART Technologies and inventor of the SMARTBoard and ask him what was his inspiration to invent this touch screen device back in 1991(that’s right the SmartBoard is 20 this year !) decades before Mr Jobs and co got the touch screen bug.  To my surprise he said the need for the SMARTBoard was originally driven by the success of the SMART Bridgit application.  Many years later it turns out that when we show people the SMARTBoard the Bridgit application is getting equal if not more attention. For those of you not in the know, Bridgit allows you to securely and easily share your desktop PC with other users remotely, it means someone using a SMARTBoard (or not) can share their notes and annotations with any other user across the world via the Internet.  If the person running the session so wishes they can allow the remote participants to interact and annotate over the meeting in session.  The system also allows remote users to share their desktop with the host and they can make annotations and capture them with white board software such as  e.g  SMART Meeting Pro Premium.  In fact products like SMART Meeting Pro premium instigates a Bridgit session as soon as you start using the board, it intuitively knows that you will want to share this meeting with an audience outside of the meeting room and if you want them to join you, Bridgit makes allowances for people who don’t have the Bridgit client by allowing you to email an invite to them with a link and password to access the meeting.  In fact SMART have just launched a free Bridgit App for the Apple IPad allowing users  to view and annotate over a meeting from literally anywhere with their IPad, and they  will soon be launching an app for the android platform.  Bridgit will also support voice and web cam but I have found it at its most effective when used with a voice conferencing phone or a video conferencing system. What has come out of a lot of our meetings with end users considering this technology is the fact that being able to collaborate on data and whilst on a conference phone seems in some cases preferable to a video call.  We know this as we allow prospective customers to use our hosted Bridgit service free for 30 days to get a feel for the technology and judging by the amount of customers we see logging in and out this service will only get more popular.  Our hosted service is gathering more customer’s everyday as they realise the benefits of using a hosted service that is secure and doesn’t put any additional burden on their existing IT platform. If you’re interested in greater collaboration and saving operational costs within your organisation then please drop me a line and I will demonstrate from my desk how easy it is for you to continue to work wherever you are.  Be ahead of the digital curve and act now.  Its the future………..  Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:50:05 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/lets-meet-up-my-ipad-just-got-smarthttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/this-feels-like-too-much-fun-to-be-workingWe were recently commissioned by a global retail organisation operating in the financial sector to provide some consultancy around using SMARTBoards in their staff development and continuous learning programmes.  This company prides itself on its investment in customer service and is continually seeking to improve how it develops their staff so that they not just meet customer demand but exceed it.  I’d had a couple of meetings with representatives from the company and they were very interested in the technology and after some extended conversations it was agreed that we needed to share the capabilities of the technology with a wider audience within the organisation.  We facilitated that through a combination of an agreed consultancy period and the rental of some SMARTBoard 885ix with an integrated ultra-short throw projector and Toshiba Laptops with SMART Meeting Pro Premium collaboration software installed. We were first of all invited to sit in on some training sessions in one of their regional training facilities to observe how training is delivered and see how delegates participated.  Like a lot of training it was expertly delivered with a combination of Flip Charts and PowerPoint.  This fitted the SMARTBoard solution well as SMART Meeting Pro Premium is an ideal replacement for the flip chart, bringing flip chart sheets from the analogue world into the digital domain.  With Smart’s InkAware facility they could also realise a lot more collaboration and audience participation with established Microsoft packages like PowerPoint and Excel. The next event we attended was a conference of learning development managers whose responsibilities include training whole sections of the workforce on products and services this organisation delivers.  We arranged rental of 2 x SMARTBoard 885ix which arrived the day before and I arranged to meet the divisional director to develop some content prior to the event.  We put together some excellent worksheets including a sign in sheet, which meant all delegates were met by an Interactive whiteboard as they came into the first session.  Here they wrote their name on and what they hoped to achieve from the day.  It was amazing to see new users embracing a technology that many of them had not seen before, the easy to use nature of picking up a pen and writing in digital ink was well received and in fact a lot of people had a great deal of fun. After an initial PowerPoint presentation using the SMARTBoard from the Divisional Director,  the delegates then returned  back to the boards to take part in an ice breaking exercise where they  had to find someone in the room that they had never met before and then go to use a SMARTBoard . In this session they had to describe themselves to the person they had just met who in turn then annotated over an almost transparent WeeMee type character their interpretation of that persons description.   In addition we demonstrated how the SMARTBoard 885ix allows 2 users to annotate at the same time, so we had a pair of delegates at either end of the board carrying out this exercise. This was a great ice breaker of a session which produced some very interesting and funny results, but more importantly this really broke down barriers to using the board.  This session enabled the business to build up confidence in using the technology.   More PowerPoint followed where staff made annotations over their presentation as they spoke.  The session split into 2 groups again for a collaborative exercise.  I observed from a distance as the organisations own facilitators aided the delegates in their brainstorming session.  I then witnessed  to my horror , that one of the facilitators had setup a flip chart.  I leapt from the comfort of my observation point and wrestled the flip chart from his grip “You won’t be needing that” I said with a smile and guided him to the SMARTBoard and the white boarding feature in SMART Meeting Pro!  After 30 seconds he had got into his stride and afterwards thanked me for pointing out the error of his ways!  I said it was just a habit we would have to help him break! After lunch the group where tasked with creating content on the SMARTBoards and in true Generation Game style I gave them a brief overview of the additional features of the board like screen capture, handwriting recognition and object linking. Then they had to go away and think of creating content on the SMARTBoard they would use in everyday training sessions.  Now remember these people had only been introduced to the boards that very day and far from producing the content equivalent of a wonky piece of clay, they produce fine vases !  The creative nature of these individuals meant they had no issues grasping the use of the board and I was really only called upon to help the groups from an advisory capacity to remind them what software application tool was best for the job.  They produced games and interactive slides to engage their delegates and created content to help increase audience participation.  At one point I heard a delegate say to another “This feels like too much fun to be working” which apart from giving me a great deal of job satisfaction, made me think who said work has to be exclusively boring and repetitive, the fact they were enjoying the tasks made them more productive and the very nature of how easy the technology was to use, appeared to motivate them to challenge the technology to do more and more engaging things.  It very much reminded me of the Dan Pink video on YouTube about what motivates creative people and all in all, the event was a great success.   The success of this consultancy piece will be measured by the level to which the company invests in the technology and the signs already look good as we have been commissioned to run a multi-site pilot and our rental division has never been busier as we have seen a “dandelion effect” of people spreading the word and scheduling SMARTBoard rentals from us to show their departments what a great technology it is. Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:34:05 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/this-feels-like-too-much-fun-to-be-workinghttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/take-my-wi-fipleaseTake My Wi-Fi…Please!  A nice little play on the oft spoken one liner by Liverpool born, American comedian Henry “Henny” Youngman, but quite apt at the moment as Wireless Networking appears to be the in demand service our customers are looking for.   With the rapid proliferation of wireless devices in the classroom and work place such as laptops, tablets and I-Pads, the demand for managed wireless solutions has never been greater. Our business started to deploy managed wireless solutions early 2003 into schools and colleges and whilst relatively expensive some of them are still operating to this day and have posed very little problems to the managers looking after them.  In fact it was often said the greatest thing about Wi-Fi solutions was they just ran in the background with zero management.  This means they have delivered fantastic value for money, but it appears that times are a changing.  We used to mainly deploy 3COM wireless solutions which were a Trapeze product, however since then 3COM have become part of Hewlett Packard and Trapeze have changed hands a few times and are now part of Juniper, so maintaining and expanding those wireless networks has now become pretty much impossible. So that would be probably reason enough for most staff to request their managers to change their system that maybe creaking. The onset of the 802.11n standard offering greater bandwidth and extended coverage of these systems are ageing, managers are now at a technological crossroads.   More and more devices are coming 802.11n ready replacing the slower 802.11g standard it becomes more inevitable with each new technology release. We love managed solutions as they offer great wireless performance allowing different groups of people different levels of access to network services and resources.  They provide features such as guest access and Wi-Fi management to prevent co-location issues.  Uniquely Enterasys, a global market leader in Wi-Fi, can now offer different organisations under one roof access to wireless services from one controller within a single wireless Infrastructure.  There is increasing demand within the public for buildings to support shared ICT services; a typical example of this would be a county council, primary care trust and education authority under one roof, sharing a wireless network infrastructure whilst maintaining network autonomy.  This is a priceless benefit to any facilities manager trying to offer the very best ICT service, allowing them to protect their budgets, keep their costs down and deliver an effective flexible working environment. One of the areas we are seeing recently gaining the greatest demand is in the Primary school market sector, where mobile device proliferation has grown massively. The development of teaching and learning in key stage 1 and 2 has meant that ICT has become a tool that’s embedded across curriculum, and technology needs to be flexible i.e. wireless.  The approach that has been taken in some of these schools has been deploying the odd wireless access point around the school giving sporadic unmanaged connectivity.  Not only has this been frustrating for the students (who by the way are used to a superfast, reliable connection at home) but meant that teaching staffs confidence becomes further eroded. Managed solutions haven’t been taken up in Primary School partly for cost reasons but also the lack of ICT management that is enjoyed by high schools.  That’s why this year we have launched ClouFi, a managed rented wireless cloud into a school.  Under the tag “Wireless without Worry” after a detailed site survey we provide the schools with enough access points giving a campus wide wireless cloud but manage it remotely from our data centre.  This is backed up by a maintenance contract so if there is a blind spot or access point failure we will know about it before the school.   This service is completely scalable as the schools demand grows and the services can be provided cost effectively for an annual rental charge. Demand for this service has been massive so far, and rightly so because Primary schools deserve a hassle free Wi-Fi solution like their secondary cousins.  When I hear some of the stories about how wireless surveys are carried out by companies proclaiming to be wireless experts I shudder and realise why some schools have such a bad experience with wireless.  Thankfully after nearly 10 years of providing wireless solutions we have customers who have had nothing but a good wireless experience and are quite pleased to consider trading in their old Wireless for new. So do your organisation a favour, Take My Wi-Fi….Please. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT CLOUFI, PLEASE USE THE LINK BELOW Cloufi Brochure.pdf (341.60 kb) Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:50:37 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/take-my-wi-fipleasehttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/a-refreshing-changeThe word I am hearing a lot in schools at the moment is refresh and I wanted to share with you why there might be more reasons than the projector being old and not very bright for you to consider “refreshing “ your projectors and whiteboards. We see a lot of schools out there who have projection systems that are 7-10 years old.  How many of you out there have TV’s older than say 6 years old?  Not many I bet, and why because you wanted to make sure your TV was ready for High Definition or Digital TV.   Well in projection terms those projectors are normally the old SVGA standard and have less variation in colour than that of your average national flag.  Projectors are now equipped for the high definition era with choices in XGA and WXGA with more colours than a Jackson Pollock.  The latest generation of projectors also come with short throw lenses allowing you to mount the projector on the wall above a whiteboard (no more long poles in those high ceiling spaces) and have the added benefit of reduced shadow on your screen.  There are even LED projectors with lamps that last 5 times that of traditional projection systems However all these developments pale into insignificance when you consider the real revolution in projection …..3D Ready.  Now before you think “Isn’t that a bit gimmicky” take a look at this “3D Proves Hit in the Classroom”.  I was fortunate to witness some 3D lessons in Biology and History and the 3D content really did bring the lessons to life as the students were really engaged and excited about the content.  After speaking to staff I was pleased to hear that students using 3D attained higher scores in those subject areas because of being able understand how a Bee works or allowing students to walk around a virtual World War 1 trench gave then a greater level of understanding.   Considerable advances have been made in design and engineering 3D content bridging the gap between educational and vocational use. 3D comes in two flavours, Passive, which is more commonly used in cinemas (where the image goes back into the screen) and Active (the image comes fully out of the screen) this is the system preferred by projector manufacturers like NEC, BENQ and Hitachi.  There are some great solutions around mobile storage of robust (student proof) 3D glasses which recharge when stored ready for use when the teacher and students need them.  More importantly, more and more content is becoming available every day, it’s not  a question of IF you will be using 3D, it’s a question of WHEN !  Now for the really good news….the vast majority projectors are coming 3D Ready, when you couple that with the advances in the SMARTBoard solutions around dual touch and Multi-Touch and the fact that SMART are offering trade in’s on your old SMARTBoard and Promethean boards, the next couple of months have never been a better time to refresh the teaching and learning technology in the classroom. As Jimmy Conway said in Goodfellas “Its gonna be a good summer!” Sat, 28 Apr 2012 23:08:20 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/a-refreshing-changehttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/if-you-think-training-is-expensive-try-ignoranceThese were the immortal words written by Peter Drucker, to many the father of modern management philosophy.   Nevermore have these words been important as businesses strive to make cost savings, and as companies look to squeeze more out of their assets and staff. “If you think training is expensive, try ignorance” has always been our mantra typically where IT equipment and software that has been bought off the shelf or a web page by a business manager and thrown into the workplace.   We meet staff who are too often expected to learn it on the fly,  to put this logic in perspective it’s like investing in a really expensive car and giving it to someone who not only does not know how to drive it but hasn’t even got a clue how to open the door! Recently we have found this has been relevant around our range of SMARTBoard interactive whiteboard products with schools, colleges and businesses investing in the technology but not have any training strategy behind this.  Initially there was a rush to get this technology into the classroom due to funding being available, lots of companies without  SMARTBoard knowledge jumped on to the bandwagon and sold it.  We noticed this about 2 years ago when the budget cuts were starting to be felt in schools and there was a growing demand to get more out of the technology already in the classroom that we were getting a lot of enquiries around our SMARTBoard Training.  We also witnessed a considerable increase and also training on other related products such as video conference systems and Visualiser’s. The feedback we were getting from staff after they had attended the training was amazing stuff like “didn’t realise it could do this” “why haven’t we had this training sooner” and more importantly “how can I learn more”.  This said two things to me, it said there is a desire to learn more about this type of technology which with all its tools is intuitive and easy to use (if your shown !) All too often it has  been easier to blame the users, thus eroding their confidence in this type of technology.   It also pointed out how with a little more investment in the time of a trainer and the development of a structured training programme, that schools and businesses could be achieving so much more with their assets , improving training, measuring outcomes and saving money in using the technology to reduce travel costs by using the boards for data conferencing. Like I quoted earlier “If You Think Training Is Expensive, Try Ignorance ? Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:34:31 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/if-you-think-training-is-expensive-try-ignorancehttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/smart-rings-the-changes-and-gives-the-customer-more-choiceAs some of you will know I have been promoting Smart Technology products for just over 12 years, whether it’s just been training days or product pitches and more recently via Twitter. In short I am a bit of a fan!  It’s a fantastic market leading product that was really ahead of its time but whilst the software has stayed up to speed with the requirements and expectations of education and business, the technology itself or the basic usage principles haven’t really changed a great deal.   With the advent of more intuitive touch technology products like Apple and Windows 7 the user expectations have changed demanding more and more features. Up until recently Smarts range of SMARTBoard systems remained single touch meaning that you could only touch the board in one place at any time but now with the launch of the SMARTBoard dual touch range you can take full advantage of some of the greatWindows 7 expressions such as Zoom (using 2 fingers) pan and swipe.  The SMARTboard’s 680, 680i, 685i/ix and 690 are all available in dual touch solutions, this has been a great benefit to any customers with old 500 or 600 boards who are looking to upgrade and take advantage of the great features in Windows 7 and Apple Leopard O/S.   Indeed 500 Series users can take advantage of trade in packages currently offered on new products. Smart have also launched 2 great integrated LCD touch screens the SMARTBoard 6052i which is a 52” LCD and the SMARTBoard 8070i which is a whopping 70” LCD touch and annotation screen.  These screens are easy to use and fit very well with our corporate client portfolio. The great thing about working with Smart is they know how to take it to the next level and anticipate their customer’s needs and this has never been more self-evident with the launch of the SMARTBoard 800 Series.  This board is not only dual touch, but is also Multi-touch, allowing two participants to use the board and the pen tray at the same time.  This intuitive and easy to use feature will allow collaboration at the board like never before and I believe this is a massive leap forward for your classroom or meeting room, and really shows Smarts determination to lead this market with the very latest innovations. When you also consider the latest innovations in Smart Notebook 10.7 for education and Smart Meeting Pro Premium for corporates which enhance the use of these boards it really does not look like Smart have all the tools for an increasing sophisticated user base and will be a growing presence in the meeting room! Sun, 29 Apr 2012 11:19:10 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/smart-rings-the-changes-and-gives-the-customer-more-choicehttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/data-services-outsourcing-on-the-rise-after-recessionAfter a rough twelve months for the market, our data services division of Rapid Technologies has noted increased willingness among UK IT buyers to start outsourcing at least some of their data requirements. These have included Data Warehousing, Email, Voice and Video Communications. In a new report investigating business attitudes to outsourcing, we found 75% of large UK organisations were outsourcing, down from a high of 85% in 2009 but up from 67% last year.  Out of the 24% who said they were not outsourcing currently, 18% said they had plans to do so in the future. However, while the survey uncovered a market that appears more knowledgeable and confident in outsourcing data services, we have found there is also growing concerns over security, service provider expertise and lack of trust. These very real business concerns certainly seem to suggest that a thorough procurement process will not offer an easy point of entry to new companies looking to provide services in the sector. To me this shows that although the industry is starting to move towards outsourcing again, it will be doing it at a very careful and considered pace. Sun, 29 Apr 2012 11:40:40 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/data-services-outsourcing-on-the-rise-after-recessionhttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/2010-the-year-that-made-video-conferencing-a-business-necessity2010 has been an interesting year, especially if you travel a lot. Beginning of the year we had some of the worst snow falls for years meaning people were stuck at home.  Then we had the Ash Cloud halting flights out of the UK.  We have Sir Philip Green saying that a lot of expenses charged by civil servants and MP's could have been avoided if they had been more creative and imaginative about meetings.  Finally we are now facing another cold winter (more travel chaos), record costs of unleaded petrol and a massive hike in train fares.  All of these factors have meant it is getting harder to do business.  The answer is obvious why dont you have your meetings over video. When I speak to people, there seems to be a misconception around the quality of video conferencing (or teleconferencing as some call it), people recall there own early experiences of stuttering images or their use of a web cam on Skype or MSN.  The technology now is in HD giving you an image so clear you can see the dust on the conference table and the audio is 7 times the quality of a normal telephone call, so you can hear the treble and boom in the voice.  Couple that with the fact you can share data across the video call as if you were in same room giving a presentation and improvements in broadband services,  is travelling to meet someone really necessary ?  Making a video conference call now is as easy as dialling a phone, even easier with speed dial options ! Consider the costs benefits, time and travel costs are rising, imagine how much more efficently a business or organisation could run if your top fee earners used video conferencing everyday. The return on investment is very quick when you consider the following issue a client had, they had to send 11 people to a meeting via train at a cost of £ 250.00 per head include their wages in the equation and a basic Video Conferencing system could have paid for itself in one go ! Isn't it time you invested in Video Conferencing and increased your bottom line ? Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:44:05 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/2010-the-year-that-made-video-conferencing-a-business-necessityhttp://www.rapid.co.uk/post/bsf-so-where-does-ict-in-education-gove-from-hereI have a good idea for a new film (not so much action more horror) that has to be made on a limited budget, Michael Gove, Minister for Education would star in “The Governator”, he plays a sort of reverse terminator has travelled from education’s past history to terminate its future. Whilst Building Schools for Future (BSF) has been not been terminated it has certainly been mortally wounded and the prognosis does not look good. No crowd pleasing endings on this one unfortunately (although a few people would like to see his BSF plans melt in a vat of molten steel) and subsequently a lot schools have been dealt a massive blow. Schools who had been making plans for new facilities are now being told they will have to make do with what they have in both buildings and ICT. Education assets and resources are now having to do the management equivalent of darning socks and cobbling shoes! So where do we go from here, what is the future of ICT in schools? The truncation of BSF has been met with dismay and outcry but a lot of the schools I have spoken to are starting to take a more pragmatic or even positive view. Sure it means no new school or shiny new toys but some schools are saying haven’t we got some fantastic facilities already. Schools are now considering how to sweat the asset a little bit more. Its true to say over the last 10 years there has been something of a revolution in technology in schools so much so that it has become as vital to the smooth running of school as running water or electricity but this hasn’t been achieved without mistakes being made along the way. There is a case to say that schools can get more from their existing ICT assets by working a little smarter. On the whole ICT in schools is pretty well run, however we think schools would benefit from implementing some of the following ideas. In 2003 BECTA announced they were putting Interactive Whiteboards into every classroom, and this was going to revolutionise the way teachers delivered lessons. Yet in 2010 we are still coming across so many of teachers who use these fantastic resources as projection screens or worse still, they are not used at all. The reason for this has been lack of training.  With the rush to get the boards into the classroom some people forgot the most important thing, the teachers who were expected to use them. These mistakes are still happening today, I came across a school recently who had replaced all their write and wipe boards during a summer holidays with Interactive Whiteboards and hope the teachers could pick it up as they go along. Schools who invest in regular Interactive Whiteboard Training for their staff get so much more value for money from their existing assets and grow teacher’s confidence and expectation levels in the ICT in the school. Also get the most out your projectors by cleaning the filters on a regular basis, schools can outsource this service which works out cheaper than replacing a number of projectors over the year. Another area where we see a lot of wastage is around network infrastructures. A lot of schools continually spend fortunes on new servers to meet the growing demands of their school network. We find schools where there seems to be a server for every network task, one school I was recently in had a ratio policy of 1 server for every 50 users, they had 25 servers, not only do these servers need renewing every 3-5 years the costs associated with backing up and power consumption are added on costs a lot of schools are not considering. Network demands can be met more efficiently and we are starting to see network managers considering Virtualisation of their network infrastructure. This allows servers to perform multiple roles on a single piece of hardware this makes it easier to manage, backup and has a lower carbon footprint than traditional forms of networking. Correctly deployed Virtualisation can also help schools get more mileage out of their laptops and desktop computers as servers deliver more services to the network. Rather than being restricted to a service level agreement with their local LEP which would have been the case under BSF, schools now have the opportunity to shop around and engage with local businesses with the limited funds devolved to them. I think this will mean in the long run not only getting greater value for money and better customers but will mean the school is maintaining that important local link with SME’s. The changes to BSF is a huge blow, but schools can still maintain an excellent level of teaching through getting more from their existing technology and continuing to maintain their successful partnerships with partners they have built up over the last 10 years. Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:35:21 GMT http://www.rapid.co.uk/post/bsf-so-where-does-ict-in-education-gove-from-here