The Conference Coach™ » Business

CEO Blog: Is Bigger Really Better?

Conference Coach Jon — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:22:12 +0000

Carolyn Bradfield, CEO

The conventional wisdom in America has been that bigger is usually better. Go into any fast food restaurant and you will be asked to “super size” your meal. Businesses consistently tout that they are the largest in their industry, that they are the number one provider, that they are BIG. But, does that really make them better?

Take the fast food industry. We are living in a nation of fat people. I know that is not a politically correct or popular statement, but the % of Americans that are obese or grossly obese is alarming. Super sizing a fast food entrée, getting a massive amount of food in your order, and having it served on a platter motivates the consumer to eat way more than they need to.

Let’s take the case of General Motors, the largest car company in the world. 2 years ago, they outgrew their ability to understand and manage their organization. They had redundant brands and operations, did not take advantage of the economies of scale and did not recognize that the consumer wanted quality and were willing to go elsewhere to get it. They teetered on the edge of bankruptcy and were only spared when the US government bailed them out and took a stake in their company. Remember the statement “too big to fail”. Today, they are smaller, have less brands, and are coming to the realization that they need to shed the “big guy” mentality.

In the business world, I think we are beginning to recognize that size isn’t what it used to be and that “bigger” comes with its set of disadvantages. In the technology arena, most of the small guys (and Copper is one of them) can create partnerships with bigger players to accumulate a suite of technology services it can offer to its customers. We’ve long gone past the notion that we have to “build it here”.

In the rental car business, Avis, who always played second fiddle to the giant sized Hertz had a genius advertising slogan “We try harder”. I think that is true about the small guy vs. the big guy. As a smaller company, a smaller technology provider like Copper, you have to distinguish yourself in other ways so the customer has an advantage in working with you vs. the giant organization that has many more people to throw at your account.

Smaller guys tend to be more responsive. They tend to be more personalized in the way they service an account. It’s like being in a small town where you know everyone’s name. There are certain advantages to picking up the phone and being able to reach a live person who knows you are and appreciates your business.

Remember that when you are the big guy, the one on the top of the mountain, the only direction you can generally move is down. If you look at the Fortune 50 over the last 100 years, many of those companies don’t exist, went out of business or fell on really hard times. That’s because they get fat, complacent, unresponsive, unmotivated and lose their drive and creativity.

The next time when you are evaluating who to do business with, think about whether in today’s marketplace, size really still counts in the same way it did in years past. In the conferencing industry, I can tell you that the answer is a resounding no. The largest conferencing company in the world is still InterCall. They are also the most reviled by their customers. They are known for their poor customer service, for their lack of response, and for piling on additional fees to cover for the customer base that walks out the door in disgust. They have been sued by their own customers who have questioned the ethics of adding fees that they didn’t agree to. (By the way, they lose most of these battles)

Copper Conferencing has no aspirations to be as big and it never loses sight that we have to earn our customer’s respect and trust every day. We never take that for granted. We’re the little guy and damned proud of it.

About Copper Conferencing
Headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, Copper Conferencing provides audio conferencing and web conferencing services to businesses in all industries. Copper’s Conference Coaches™ provide expert guidance in audio and web conferencing services and online account management. From On Demand reservationless audio conference calls to highly interactive webinars and special event calls, Copper Conferencing helps businesses save time and money while improving productivity. Copper’s audio and web conferencing services are backed by fully managed, carrier-class platforms to power communication for thousands of customers. For more information about Copper Conferencing, visit www.copperconferencing.com or call a Conference Coach at 866-903-7521.

CEO Blog: The Greatest Generation

Carolyn Bradfield — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:52:25 +0000

Carolyn Bradfield, CEO

They say that we lose over 1,000 World War II Veterans every day. Today is the day that one of those was my father, Tom Woosley who was 86 years old. He wasn’t sick; he had no lingering illness; he just walked into the hallway of his house and died.

Although my heart breaks at the loss, it’s not often that someone leaves this world with absolutely no regrets. He was one of those people. He grew up poor in Albemarle, North Carolina, the only child of a cook in a school cafeteria whose husband had left the family when he was very little. World War II came along and even though he could have gotten deferred, being an only son, he enlisted and flew in Japan as a radio operator on a B24 Liberator.

The GI bill gave him the only opportunity for a college education and he took advantage of it, graduating from college and graduate school in North Carolina. He went to work for General Motors, in their finance group GMAC, and spent his entire career loyal to the company, retiring early as GM right sized their workforce.

We moved to a sleepy small town, LaGrange in the 60’s, just after his beloved mother was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, dying in her mid sixties. There, he and my mother made lifelong friends and their life revolved around family, their church, and their friends. My dad retired early, but always gave back to the community, volunteering for Meals on Wheels, Habitat for Humanity and for any cause that needed his help. He was a life long Rotarian and lived his life by their principles:
• Is it the truth?
• Is it fair to all concerned?
• Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
• Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

In his later years, he was called on to serve again, but this time for a cause closer to home. As my mother became forgetful, began repeating herself, and needed to retreat closer to home, he cared for her unselfishly and endured her repeated questions when others came to visit. Their routine became one of church, and occasional breakfast meetings with friends.

Every Saturday, they joined a group of friends at Charlie Joseph’s, a hot dog place in LaGrange, to visit, to think about what is going on in the world, and to check in with each other. This Saturday, Tom won’t be there, but the group will still convene, talk about good times and miss their friend Tom.

Tom left the world with good friends, with a son and daughter that he raised to be confident and principled, with a love of the Lord, and with no regrets. We should all be so blessed.

Webinars: The Myths and Realities of Today’s Technology

Conference Coach Jon — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:01:59 +0000

Carolyn Bradfield, CEO

Using technology to create operational efficiencies and contain cost continues to be a key focus of law firm administrators and operational managers in 2011. One of the most useful, but often underutilized technologies that firms are exploring is web conferencing often referred to as webinars.

Firms across the country use web conferencing to hold meetings between offices without the time and expense of traveling. They train their employees, review policy and procedure, and have operational discussions. Firm marketers conduct promotional webinars to highlight the firm’s expertise or hold continuing legal education classes to bring in a wider audience.

Although many ALA members are not IT specialists, managing technology often falls into their area of responsibility and the thought of managing webinars may seem like a daunting task. However, webinars are much easier to manage and less expensive to use than they ever have been. Here are some myths about webinars and the reality of how this technology works today:

Webinars require IT support.
Webinars are accessed without the need to install special software or have a different connection to the Internet. Unlike video conferencing that requires equipment, special network connections and room set up, webinars can be done from the privacy of one’s office. Adding video conferencing to the call is as simple as having a web cam on your PC.

It requires special training to do a webinar.
In the past, web conferencing technology was hard to use. The key web conferencing services recognized this and made their services much easier to set up, deliver and manage. Many of the services today offer online tutorials that make it easy to get started. Although web conferencing technology has many features for the advanced user, most individuals find that learning how to invite people, deliver a PowerPoint, chat and record will handle 90% of their needs.

It’s hard for people to access a webinar.
Getting past a firm’s firewall has been an issue for many webinar users in the past. Today, most services do not require a download to attend and have no impact on the firm’s firewall settings. If you can access Google, then you can get into a web conference call. It’s as simple as clicking a link, typing in your name, and joining the meeting.

Most webinars work with only certain types of PC’s.
In the past, unless you were on a windows-based PC, webinars wouldn’t work for you. Today, web conferencing services work with both PC’s and Macs, regardless of the operating system you use.

You can’t record a webinar meeting.
You can always record a webinar and keep the recording to use later. For example, if you do a training, you can record it and post it so others that couldn’t attend can view the recording. If you have purchased web conferencing from your audio conferencing provider, the technologies are integrated so the audio and web recording are synchronized.

You have to commit to a contract.
Although you can commit to a contract to receive a lower price, you can always “try it before you buy it”. Some webinar services will let you use the technology on a month-to-month basis without a contract.

Webinars are expensive.
Webinars can be very economical, especially if you use a reservationless audio conferencing service for the audio portion. You can purchase the technology on a per minute basis or pay for it with a fixed, flat monthly rate. Webinars get expensive when you use the event management tools within the web technology. However, those services are also available for much less money outside the web conferencing provider. Web conferencing requires no special equipment to use.

Webinars are hard to manage.
Conducting a webinar requires that you promote it, register people and send the login to them prior to the call. This can be easily accomplished with automated online event management services. During the webinar, the tools you use are easy to find and designed to help you manage and control the call.

If your firm looked at webinars in the past or if you have been afraid of the technology, there has never been a better time to look again. Webinars have gotten much more user friendly, easier to access, and easier to manage. They can help you save your firm travel time and expense and execute the services you need to provide your firm and their clients.

CEO Blog: 100 Years and Still Counting

Carolyn Bradfield — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 14:05:26 +0000

Carolyn Bradfield, CEO

Believe it or not, this week IBM is celebrating its 100-year anniversary. People familiar with IBM are not only struck by how long IBM has been in business, but by how the company has continued to reinvent itself over the years.

IBM started its corporate life making clocks and cheese slicers. When the Social Security Act became law, IBM created the punched-card tabulator to keep track of Social Security recipients. Over time, they invented the Selectric Typewriter, magnetic tapes, he memory chip, mainframes and personal computers. Today, IBM is known for its services and its software.

IBM has been one of the richest and largest companies in the world and one that has been on the brink of financial disaster. In 1962, Tom Watson, Jr., the son of IBM’s founder, spoke to an audience on the 50th anniversary of the company, startling them with the following statistic. Only two of the top 25 industrial corporations in the United States in 1900 were still on the top 25 list with 6 being absorbed, 2 disappearing and 15 slipping way far behind. Fast-forward to today and only 2 of the top 25 companies at the time of Tom Watson’s speech are still at top 25.

The founders of IBM believed that success was fleeting, but if they created a philosophy that worked they could sustain the company for the long haul. In the words of Tom Watson from 1962, here is that formula for success:

“I firmly believe that any organization, in order to survive and achieve success, must have a sound set of beliefs on which it premises all its policies and actions.”

You could infer that this statement refers to a value system, but beyond that, it speaks to what makes the company unique and how it wants to be viewed in the marketplace. IBM clearly wanted to be known as an innovator. They wanted to bring creative solutions to the marketplace that solved a problem and allowed their customers to be more productive. They wanted their customers to come to IBM for these solutions that they could get from nowhere else.

Copper Conferencing models that philosophy by having a defined corporate value system that is used to benchmark all decisions. At the core of that value system is the premise that the customer needs always comes first. We also want to be known as an innovator, creating an experience that makes life easier from the customer and that get only from Copper. We developed easy to use online customer management technology. We deployed a nationwide network of local dial in numbers to control cost. We just launched Conduct to make the promotion, management and delivery of webinars much easier and much less expensive.

“I believe that if an organization is to meet the challenges of a changing world, it must be prepared to change everything about itself… except those beliefs…”

IBM’s long corporate history reflects their willingness to change, to evolve and to reinvent itself, preparing the company to serve the marketplace as it evolves. Look at the progression of computing. IBM had tabulation machines, then typewriters, then room-sized computers, then computers that sat on the desktop and finally the software and services that drove the information age. There is no doubt IBM will continue to evolve. Their slogan, “Think” is what they do best.

Conduct is positioning Copper Conferencing to evolve, to redefine itself and to prepare for the changing needs of the marketplace. We are not just making webinars easier to manage and deliver, but we intend to serve the need to have a focused solution for business people to easily find business content that helps them “think” and evolve. We want to make sure that this content is not co-mingled with videos of laughing babies and twittering celebrities. This year is the year for Copper to evolve.

Congratulations IBM. 100 years of keeping true to your core beliefs, of creating a culture for success and having the courage to continue to evolve. We hope that companies will take a page from your playbook so they can survive, grow and thrive. Copper has certainly watched you and is following your example.

CEO Blog: Three Little Words

Carolyn Bradfield — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:03:19 +0000

Carolyn Bradfield, CEO

Most of you don’t know that I started life as a middle school English teacher, still my favorite all time job. I spent the vast majority of my time teaching students how to write, a skill that I hope has served them well over the years. Part of the secret to good writing is to know how to be concise, getting your point across using a few powerful words.

Good Morning America on ABC has a fun segment that they call “Your Three Words” which couples viewers’ very short videos with 3 words that deliver a message. You’ll see a traveling college student whose words are “Send Money Now!” or “Practice Makes Perfect” from a Little League team holding their championship trophies. You get the picture.

I thought I would use GMA’s technique and use my three little words to describe Copper Conferencing’s new service, Conduct.

Make Life Easier
We’ve been inundated recently with the news that the Dow has dropped below 12,000, that jobs aren’t coming back and that budgets are still tight. That means that we have to learn to continue to do more with less. Conduct takes the process of webinar and event management to a new level and makes life easier by creating and managing the marketing and management activities without a lot of staff and with minimal expense.

No Training Needed
Going through the frustration of trying to figure out a piece of technology, of having to ask your I/T department for help or having to spend hours in training takes away from the job of creating, marketing and selling. Conduct is self-directed with no training needed.

Promote, Manage, Deliver
In order to execute a webinar, you have to promote it to your audience, register people who are interested in attending, remind them to show up and manage all of the communication needed to get them into the call. Once you go through the 5-minute set up process, Conduct creates the promotional email, the sign up page and all of the registration and reminder emails automatically.

Be a Hero
When you generate high quality leads, attendance on your webinar, or a great promotional campaign and you do it at a fraction of the cost of trying to manage multiple systems and services to get the job done, you’re going to get noticed. That’s how people get recognized and promoted – by delivering revenue and reducing expenses!

OK, you get the “your three words” concept. Here are my last three words – “Try It Now”. Copper has just launched Conduct and for a limited time, you can try it for free. Just go to the Sign Up Page on this website and check it out (whoops, another 3 words!) – No contract required – there I did it again!

CEO Blog: It’s Time to Conduct

Carolyn Bradfield — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 14:04:56 +0000

Carolyn Bradfield

Over the last week, we’ve been thinking about the obstacles that continue to make conferencing harder than it should be and keep sales, marketing and training professionals away from delivering webinars. The technology has been intimidating. The process to promote, manage and deliver them requires time and resources. The services have been expensive.

Because web conferencing is a cornerstone of Copper Conferencing’s services, we have been paying attention to these challenges and listening to our customer fears and frustrations that make webinars difficult if not impossible. We recognize that a good webinar is not just about the call, but it’s about the promotion, planning, and management activities.

Tomorrow, Copper is launching Conduct℠. Conduct is an easy to use service that promotes webinars, registers participants and reminds them to attend. It doesn’t require special training, doesn’t affect any current technology, and doesn’t require a contract or commitment. It frees customers from the expensive event management tools in webinar technology and from the need to rely on their I/T department for handholding. It is far less expensive than most alternatives on the marketplace.

Here is how it works:
• Set up a webinar event in Conduct. The process takes about 5 minutes.
• Select your audio conferencing service and enter the URL for any web service you want to use.
• Conduct automatically creates a promotional email, a sign up page and notification and reminder emails.
• Upload an invitation list.
• Let Conduct go to work!

Conduct automatically delivers the promotional email to your invitation list. Those that are interested are automatically signed up or are taken to your sign up page so you can collect more information. The notification email details how to access the webinar and Conduct will deliver up to 4 reminder emails.

You can give your emails and sign up pages your own look and feel without having to be a design expert. Select from design templates, upload a header, pick custom colors, and edit text and titles. You can also add additional fields to the sign up page to collect more detail about your participants. There are easy to follow instructions every step of the way.

Conduct was developed by listening to the needs of the customer, managing the development process, and keeping the customer experience simple and straightforward. We analyzed other services in the marketplace like Cvent and made a conscience decision to avoid having too many features and too much complexity. The technology was so easy, so straightforward and so useful, we expanded the use of Conduct so it could manage other events as well as promotional campaigns.

Tomorrow, the press release goes out, the website changes and Conduct goes live. We invite all of you to explore the service, give us feedback and let us know how we did. We want all of you to think about webinars differently, to not be afraid of the process and to experience the power of Conduct.

CEO Blog: Webinars – I’m Afraid

Carolyn Bradfield — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:59:17 +0000

Carolyn Bradfield

In the last blog, we explored how major web conferencing providers have made web conference calls easier to attend, easier to deliver and more affordable. Yet, the word webinar often strikes fear in the heart of many sales, marketing and training professionals. Webinars, unlike web conferences, generally involve larger audiences and are used to attract participants outside of the company. If the call itself has gotten easier, why are webinars still so difficult?

Conducting a webinar is like conducting an orchestra. Delivering a webinar requires planning, promotion, management and delivery so your audience can appreciate your “music”. Those that have to make webinars happen are often afraid. They are afraid that they can’t attract an audience. They are afraid that they don’t have the experience and resources to manage the details. They are afraid that people won’t remember to show up.

That’s even before the call is delivered. They are afraid of how they will coordinate the audio and the web services. They are afraid of their speakers – will they be prepared? Will they be nervous? Can they manage the technology?

I’m sure it seems odd to all of you to have the CEO of Copper Conferencing give all of the reasons that people shy away from webinars. After all, webinars are one of the key services that a conferencing company offers. Yet, as I have pointed out before every conferencing company, including the large ones like PGI and InterCall who started life as an audio conferencing company, have a very small percentage of customers that generate webinars. If we don’t acknowledge what our customers are afraid of and determine how to address those fears, this trend is destined to continue.

Webinars are designed to educate, inspire, inform and motivate the audience to action. They require thought, coordination and planning, a process that seems to intimidate the individuals who desperately want to use them but are afraid to fail. Our commitment at Copper is to unlock the keys to success, make the process easier and make webinars much more affordable. We want to make the user confident so they can get the job done without an army of people holding their hand.

In order to reduce “webinar phobia”, the “conductor” must address the following questions:
• Who is the audience I want to attract and how do I get them interested?
• How do I deliver the information needed to join the webinar and make sure they remember to show up?
• What web conferencing service meets my needs and what will it cost?
• How do I choose the right audio conferencing services to complement the web call and what will that cost?
• How do I structure and deliver a webinar that will hold the audience’s attention?
• What do I do after the webinar is over?

Webinars are one of the most effective promotional, sales, and educational tools that a company has at their disposal. On June 15th, Copper Conferencing is going to help eliminate the fear and anxiety surrounding webinars. We’re going to answer the questions that we have posed about the webinar process and deliver a plan and process to make planning, promoting, managing and delivering webinars easy.

CEO Blog: It’s Too Hard

Carolyn Bradfield — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 13:54:05 +0000

Carolyn Bradfield

In April, I celebrated 20 years in the conferencing industry. When I co-founded InterCall in 1991, AT&T owned 95% of the marketplace and conferencing was not a widely used technology. Today, most of us just dial in, enter a code and the call starts, but back then conferencing was pretty hard.

In 1991, an AT&T call began with a reservation and every call had the operator dial out to each participant. Before the call, you had to give AT&T the name of each person and one or more phone numbers to reach them. Even for small calls, the set up time was lengthy. The operator had to call each person and then try and recall them if they didn’t answer. If the call ran long, AT&T would drop all of the connections so the next call could start. No wonder that many people found conferencing too hard.

Although conferencing has gotten way easier, there are certain aspects of how it functions that are still too hard. Let’s start with audio conferencing. Not all calls are reservationless. Sometimes, you need an operator to capture the name of each individual, formally open the call, introduce the speaker and perform other duties.

Even though operators aren’t dialing out to participants, getting them into the call can still be difficult. Participants still have to wait for an operator to answer and take their name, entering each person one at a time. Because most calls happen on the hour, the wait times can be lengthy and participants can get frustrated.

There is an easier way to conduct an operator assisted call, removing the frustration and manual intervention needed to enter a participant but still capturing key information. This new process reduces set up time, minimizes waiting and is many times more accurate than having the operator take the person’s name and other key information. Here is how it works:
• Participants dial in to the conference call and enter a conference ID as they would for an automated call.
• Each participant then enters a unique PIN code that is matched to that individual.
• When the post-conference report is delivered, the participant name and other key information about that person appears on the report.
• The operator opens the call as usual and manages their other responsibilities.

Here is why this is so much better:
• Participants don’t have to wait.
• The information about that participant is accurate
• The call is easier to produce, requires less people and is much less expensive.

Managing a call this way combines all of the advantages of an automated call with the benefits of having an operator to moderator and direct the call. Now I’m sure everyone is thinking about managing the logistics of delivering a unique PIN to each and every participant on a large conference call. A PIN entry operator call seems easy, but the management of the PINs must be considered.

On June 15th, Copper brings the advantages of automating an operator assisted call to the marketplace by offering a new service to register participants and automatically deliver their dial in information, including the personalized PIN. It’s easy, straightforward and a much less expensive way to produce a high quality operator assisted call.

No conference call needs to be too hard and Copper is ready to demonstrate that there is always room for improvement.
hings in life. I love chocolate, but hate the calories. I love shopping for shoes, but hate the credit card bill.. You get the picture.

CEO Blog: The Kitchen Sink

Carolyn Bradfield — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 13:50:58 +0000

Carolyn Bradfield

In 2002 my company, InterAct Conferencing, was acquired by Raindance Communications making me the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, aka “Prisoner of War.” Now, it wasn’t really that bad, but I did have a particularly negative experience in developing and launching new technology.

Raindance, founded in Denver in 1997, was an audio and web conferencing company. A year earlier, a company named WebEx entered the web conferencing space, grew exponentially and became the darling of Wall Street while Raindance limped along without any real interest in its stock. Not to be outdone and tired of lethargic stock prices, Raindance set out on a mission to take on WebEx by launching its own web conferencing technology.

By the time I came to Raindance, the new product train was already moving down the track. The CEO and CTO had their vision, had defined the product and the developers were coding. Although my experience in new product development was quite limited, it was clear to me that it was important to the executive team to not only be able to match WebEx feature to feature, but to go above and beyond their capabilities.

As head of marketing, I urged the company gauge the reaction of potential customers and thus began a series of focus groups and market research. The response was not promising. They found the technology confusing, were concerned about the need to involve their I/T department, and were struggling with how to use it. Although these results were delivered to the group, the decision was made to press forward, add more features, and take on WebEx.

Raindance Meeting Edition was launched in 2003 and despite a dedicated web conferencing sales team, few customers engaged with the product, fewer bought it and it was a financial dud in the marketplace and for the company. Although it was clear to me why Meeting Edition didn’t work, at the time, it was crushing to the others on the executive team.

Here are the lessons about technology development that I learned and that still apply today:
• Make sure that your perceived marketplace is underserved and that your solution fills a need.
• Engage with the customer before you begin designing and developing to understand what customers need and want.
• Listen carefully to the feedback and make design adjustments vs. expecting the customer to adjust to your design.
• More is not always more. Adding features and capabilities to look good on a side-by- side report likely will clutter your product and make it harder to use.

Many companies develop services and software called “enterprise solutions”. They consider how large companies like Disney or General Motors would respond to an RFP and then put as many features as possible into the product to make sure they will stand out. However, they often create a service that is hard to use, requires the I/T department to spend lots of man hours training and managing it, and turns the customer off. Not to mention that technology likely doesn’t serve the small to mid sized business well.

Next week, you’ll get a chance to look at Copper’s response to the technology “Kitchen Sink”. We recognized a need in our market, talked to the customer first, then started designing. We went slowly, gathered feedback and put our egos aside to make the needed adjustments.

In a side-by-side comparison against the competition, you’ll find that some of the feature boxes will not be checked. That was a deliberate choice on our part. You will find that it’s easy to use, that it doesn’t require special training and that the I/T Manager doesn’t have to accept responsibility to manage it. Watch for a special announcement on June 15.

CEO Blog: Love/Hate Relationships

Carolyn Bradfield — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 13:48:03 +0000

Carolyn Bradfield

I’m sure you’ve all heard the term “love/hate relationship” applied to quite a few things in life. I love chocolate, but hate the calories. I love shopping for shoes, but hate the credit card bill.. You get the picture.

William Shakespeare, one of my favorite authors said, “In time we hate that which we often fear.” After working with thousands of customers spread across many industries, that statement most often applies to technology and those that are chartered with managing it. You know them as the I/T Manager, the Telecom Supervisor, the Director of Technology. Why is it that there is such a love/hate relationship between technology managers and the rest of the company?

Let’s face it. America has a love affair with its technology. We are addicted to our laptops, Blackberry, and iPads. If they don’t work, if the Internet is not up and running, or if we can get our email, life on the planet ceases to exist. We go screaming, begging, and pleading to the IT Manager to drop everything, look at the blue screen on the laptop and fix it right now.

Beyond things that need fixing right away, we are constantly looking at new technologies to make us more efficient, help us to do the jobs of 3 people and to reduce our cost. Naturally, we engage the IT manager to evaluate, hold our hand and help us decide.

However, we are often met with a lot of statements like, “It’s not on the development schedule”, “I don’t have the budget for it”, “It’s not a priority.” Or “I can’t get to it.” And we just hate that. We perceive that we can’t fix things, get our job done, and move forward with the I/T obstacle standing in our way.

Although I have experienced all of those same frustrations, I’d like to stop for a minute and look at the other side of the coin. I/T departments are famously understaffed and companies are famously populated with people who fear the technology that helps them do their job. They are afraid to try and resolve their own problems, experiment with something new, or learn how to manage independently. It’s too hard, too mysterious and too “technical”. As much as you would like the blue screen of death to go away, the I/T guy has the health of the corporation to think of, making sure the network is up, the firewall is secure, the phone system is functioning, and that the server is responsive.

Given the proliferation of technology and the lack of resources to hand hold, I have some advice for all of you engaged in the love/hate relationship with your I/T manager.
• Learn the basics about the technology you use. Take advantage of online information, tutorials and other resources to learn how it functions.
• Engage in preventative maintenance. Install software updates, turn off and reboot the computer regularly, and don’t overcrowd it with open files.
• Watch the downloads. They have viruses and other implications for business machines and systems.
• Explore technology on your own. Many technologies today don’t impact your internal systems, have gotten easier to use, and are much more affordable.

Copper Conferencing is committed to help change the love/hate relationship between our customers and the I/T Manager, particularly when it comes to webinars. We’ve seen way to many I/T managers have to babysit a webinar event or handhold a marketing department to support the registration and notification activities surrounding it. We’re going to empower the end user with a service that reduces their fear, anxiety and dependence on their overworked I/T department.

It’s time for all of us end users (and you know who you are) to get better educated, more responsible and more independent. Watch for the big announcement from Copper on June 15.