It was a great pleasure to be the guest speaker at the Hemet, San Jacinto Area Chamber of Commerce “Women in Business Networking” meeting on 02/01/2024. The presentation started by telling a personal experience with my dad back 105 years ago when I was in high school. Let me start by stating my dad was a mechanical engineer who built devices that were used in aerospace. I was sitting at the kitchen table late one night during the school week. My dad had come out of his bedroom to get a drink of water and inquired as to why I was sitting up so late on a school night. Thinking I had the most legitimate excuse in the books, I stated I was studying for an algebra test, and I was having a hard time memorizing the formulas. It was at that moment my dad gave me the most profound and impactful statement of my life. “Dan, you can memorize the formulas and you “Might” pass the test but if you learn why it works, you will never forget it.”

I have now been in the business communications and technology industry for over thirty years. I have used this philosophy to build voice, data, and video solutions for businesses based on the idea it is just as important for the customer to understand why I was proposing the solution I had on the table as it is for myself. Although taking the time to research and create a complete understanding of the business environment, the client’s specific objective for the project, and the best process in which to accomplish a successful deployment seldomly fit within predetermined expectations, it will ultimately save both time and financial resources. In today’s competitive and fast-paced business. environment, it is all too easy to become anxious about meeting deadlines and getting one more bullet point off our to-do list. The problem lies in the truth that although technology is a necessity in our day-to-day business, it is also a balancing act between benefit and risk. Ultimately, it is less expensive to build it right than to rebuild it.

With all this being said, what advice could be given to best prepare a business manager/business owner for making a business critical purchasing decision regarding any technology application? The obvious challenge is in the multiple and diverse origins of each project. Every company is unique, with unique staff experiences, a unique combination of voice and data equipment, in diverse geographic locations. Taking all this into consideration, the answers lie in the story. Every story should consist of a beginning, a body, and a logical end. The story begins by “Defining” the short, intermediate, and long-term value of the project. A good question to ask in the process of “Defining the value is “What does а successful project look like”? The natural follow-up question would be “What impact will the failure of this project have on the company”? The ability to articulate the answers to difficult questions like these is the gateway to a successful technological solution.

When purchasing any technology product or solution, it is natural for the salesperson to direct the potential client’s attention to a list of advertised benefits. We will call this “The new car smell”. Let’s assume the purchase is a new business phone system. There are plenty of reasons to explore moving from an older legacy premise-based phone system to a cloud- based UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service). The technical support for Toshiba, Mitel, Avaya, Panasonic, Samsung, and others has virtually disappeared. A cloud-based phone system has automatic software updates that don’t require scheduling a truck roll, waiting for a part to come in, or a capacity limitation. In addition, the list of features and third- party integrations grows every time a student of MIT or another technology institution is given a class assignment. All too many times the trouble starts after the contract is signed and all the featured benefits are a conversation of the past. It is not until the day of installation that the brutal realization that the cabling to 30 % of the phones is older CAT3 or even CAT5e cable terminated in a phone room 100 feet from the data network. It is possible to create workarounds in some cases but even when these workarounds are possible, the customer stands to lose a good percentage of the capabilities they attempted to purchase. The majority of attention migrates to a fire drill diverting valuable time and resources from completing the intended full-featured deployment. This is when frustration, disappointment, and compromise replace the desired excitement of utilizing a perceived amazing technology tool to reduce operational time intervals and increase company profits.

There are a growing number of “gotcha” examples in the archives of technology purchases. If we all remember back a few years, technology was supposed to make our lives easier. The complication lies in the fact that the technology industry and commerce itself have evolved and continue to evolve into one connected monster. Arm / disarm your burglar alarm, lock or unlock the door to your office or the door to your car from an app that sits on your cell phone.

You can ask Alexa, Siri, or Google to wake you up, tell you what the weather will be like, and remind you to buy the boss a birthday gift on the way to the office. It is a world of information connected by a now global data network known as the Internet. It is so easy to buy into the plug-and-play concept. The truth is the data must reside on a network server somewhere and flow through a web of switches, routers, fiber optic cables, wireless cellular waves, and interior data cables. To acquire a clear understanding of how and why the solution works and that it will meet your needs, do not be afraid to request a process flow chart. Take into consideration any potential data access fees associated with data pulls from third-party vendors such as AWS, Azure, or Google. One more piece of advice is to research customer references, internet reviews, or business associates who may have purchased a similar technology product in the past. At the end of the day and the end of the story, I hope that you and your company can grow through a successful technology purchase and implementation.