Upon hearing that her elderly grandfather had just passed away, Katie went straight to her grandparents’ house to visit her ninety-five-year-old grandmother to comfort her. When she asked how her grandfather had died, her grandmother replied, “He had a heart attack while we were making love on Sunday morning.” Horrified, Katie told her grandmother that two people nearly a hundred years old having sex would surely be asking for trouble?
“Oh no, my dear,” replied granny. “Many years ago, realising our advanced age, we worked out the best time to do it was when the church bells started to ring. It was just the right rhythm. Nothing too strenuous, simply in on the Ding and out on the Dong.” She paused to wipe away a tear and continued, “He’d still be alive if the ice cream truck hadn’t come along.”
So, what has the above got to do with choosing the right mobile phone?
It’s about getting it right. Mobile phones are such an integral part of our business lives, with which you have the ability communicate with every part of the world. It can turn every member of your organisation into its ambassador, creating new pathways into the marketplace. So, choosing the right mobile platform for the company is something to consider wisely.
Over the years, I’ve worked with companies where the teams were using five or six different types of mobile phones, which is fine-individual choice when choosing a mobile phone is one way of doing it. But then there are all the ancillary bits that come with phones: various power leads, charging systems, cases, different apps on the interface, lens quality, and methods of storing data and information.
Who’s not shouted across a work place floor, “Who’s got a Nokia charger?” And that happens to be the day that everyone who made it into the office despite the train strike has an iPhone. So, there is a case for a company to have all its team use the same mobile phone/platform.
Mobile phones can either make your business life a misery or they can be a complete joy. The wrong phone and the wrong contract type can add grey to your temples faster than any old lady. So, which mobile phone is best for your business use? A platform that works for one company may not support another, but you know that, right?
Can you take it too far? A firm once told me they wanted not only the same phone, the same colour and the same memory capacity. And that all the apps were also to be in the same place. Wow, that has to be the Hilton Hotel of mobile phone interfaces. I can see their point, the rationale being that each and every member of the company knew exactly how to use the phone-the company essentially had eighty-nine experts all on the same phone.
So, if someone said, “Where’s the App for futures markets?” for example, I can tell you now that the App was top left, two down. Mobile phone interface shorthand is a good thing, but we do like to give them our own character. For instance: my Skype App is just in the right place, right hand side two up-this is the length of my right thumb and I can reach the weather App from here. I’ll have it here. Or how the green of my travel app looks quite nice next to the red and white of the You Tube App, all technical stuff.
BOOM, it’s out the door and I’ll take all the mobiles we have and trade them in for a bulk order of iPhone 7’s. No; hold on to your mobile phone until it dies. Keep using the phone until it can’t be repaired or there are no more updates for the platform you’re on. Then when it’s done, give it to your kids or to charity (WWF is a good one).
Pointers for when your contract date comes up:
- Consider this: when it comes to end of contract time, make a list of the things you want from your mobile-make sure the mobile phone platform (iOS, Android etc) fits your needs and not the other way around.
- Don’t get into a mobile contract just because the iPhone 7 looked good on the tube poster. Which is better for the company-smartphone or dumbphone? It’s hard to download a malicious app onto your company network through a dumbphone.
- Some industries and government institutions require dumbphones only, for security issues-no camera and they are substantially cheaper.
- Pricing: which is better value for the company-a two year or three-year contract? Which length fits in with your plans for staffing and or expansion?
- Just before you upgrade your phones-will everything sync? Check whether moving mobile platforms will create any electronic cul-de-sacs in your office.
- If you do decide the grass is greener and you’re going to swap over to another platform, it’s not tooooooo difficult, it just requires careful planning. There are plenty of Apps and the Cloud to help you swap information over carefully.
- And finally, if your mobile phone does have bells and whistles on it, make sure they don’t all go off at the same time. You want to make it to ninety-six, don’t you?
