Windows Vista

I'd be remiss on this day that Vista is launching to not say a few concise words about it. Here goes.

The interface is very PRETTY [yes that's a technical term :-)] and there have been incremental improvements in almost every aspect of the operating system. But, will it run your existing PC faster? No. Will you be more productive in your everyday work using it? Probably not unless you also get Office 2007 and then get trained. So how should you think about Vista? For a new machine purchase, absolutely. There's no reason not get it on a new machine. If you have to buy a new machine you might as well gain the benefits of the latest and greatest that Microsoft has to offer. I wouldn't upgrade an existing machine unless 1) you know your system can run it - you can check that here http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradeadvisor.mspx; 2) you are prepared to hire a tech or babysit it yourself through the inevitable issues with drivers and configuration glitches.

The one major positive I can say about Vista is that as each small business begins to embrace the new marketing possibilities brought about by the evolving internet and new media, Windows Vista is the OS I would want on a machine whose job it will be to develop and distribute that content. More on that to come...

Learn more about Vista here & here.

Want to buy a new Vista machine? Here are few I like - home desktop & laptop, business desktop & laptop.

New Media and Your Business Part 2

Did you know that right now you can tell Google that you like to run your display ad on YouTube and show it only to people that live in Illinois? You could also run a commercial (if someone clicks on it) on chicagohoops.com. Or, for you trial lawyers out there how about an ad on spineuniverse.com, "The World Leader In Back Pain Care", again only to Illinois, or for that matter Chicago, browsers.

So you can pick and choose where to advertise on the web, not only by location (Illinois, Chicago, Joliet, a 100 mile radius of Naperville), but by web site also. And you hit the demographic you want by choosing the subject matter of the site. Looking for african-american young men? How about streetballin.net?

Now lets compare cost. You could run a commercial on Comcast spot cable that reaches 100k households for about $20 per spot, per network. But how many people in those 100k households are actually watching TBS at 2pm on Wednesday? Your Comcast rep will try to avoid answering that question. I've crunched the numbers. If you ran the spot on TBS, the viewership would be approximately 1000 people, often less.

Compare that to $1 per thousand that is a typical bid for Google ads. That's 100,000 people for about $100.

Those are pretty nice numbers.

New Media and Your Business

It's important to understand that the entertainment world as we know it is is in the process of a convulsive transformation. The universe that encompasses movie theatres, television, radio, movie rental & purchase, web sites, magazines, newspapers, music CDs, almost all media types except live theatre are being transformed by the Internet. The shouts you may remember hearing from eight to ten years ago about the potential changes the Internet would bring, and that died down during the meltdown of 2001, are being taken up anew as broadband access has finally hit critical mass. (side note: A quick pat on the back for me: As the bubble was ramping up during '99 and '00 I was telling anyone who asked my opinion that I was mystified by it all BECAUSE there wasn't the bandwidth in place to support the business models being created. Broadband penetration was less than 10% as of 2001. It's now over 70%.)

Starting right now and ramping up steadily over the next 5 years, consumers will implement technologies that allow them to connect their broadband capacity through their computer (Media Center PC) and into their televisions, home theatre projectors and stereos. By doing this they will have access to libraries of TV shows, movies and music ON DEMAND. And importantly, at the same time broadcast and cable television will ramp down in usage because of it's inflexibility.

What all of that means for you and your business is two-fold: (1) that you'll be able to create a presence for your firm on the web, fill your site with streaming video commercials, infomercials, video news releases, along with the more mundane media types like text and images, and (2) you'll be able to promote your business using pay-per-click models through search engines and demographically selected websites (including streaming movies and TV shows) using text ads, billboard/display ads and streaming commercials or infomercials. All at a cost defined by what your firm can afford. Pretty exciting stuff! More to come...

Welcome to the Archi-TECH-ture blog!

Every day new technology emerges that, if used correctly, can have a positive impact of your business' competitive advantage. In this blog I will regularly survey the current technology landscape and attempt to monitor the horizon for evolving trends. The emphasis will be on using technology to make you and your company more powerful. Meaning things should get easier, more productive or both. Utlimately, you're trying to create a business that stands apart because of the unique and powerful way that it has been designed and operates. That's the formula for true business succes. For books that provide additional insight in to these ideas click here and here.