Top Five Things to Expect at MWC 2015

Mobile World Congress, the world’s largest mobile industry exhibition, is just around the corner. Based on the numbers from last year, we can anticipate some 85,000 attendees from across the globe to check out close to 2,000 exhibits of the latest solutions and gadgets the mobile industry has to offer.

With the show about a month away, what’s already on the must-see list? Here are just a few rumored announcements:

These are just five announcements expected at this year’s show. What other gadgets and innovations are you excited about?

Does Your Company Culture Have a Healthy Relationship With Time?

In almost 20 years of managing a professional services firm, I have learned a lot about time. I am in a billable business. We get paid for our time. I have learned to create a company culture that both respects time and keeps it in its proper place.

Inc’s article, The Best Way to Manage Time Wasters, has great management tips on managing the time wasters. Management’s job of prioritization, leadership’s job of motivation and human resource’s job of making sure the right person is in the right job all impact a company’s time-based productivity.

What I have found to be the most important factor in management is the company’s culture as it relates to time. What culture have you consciously created related to time? Do you know what your company’s underlying cultural beliefs are surrounding time? Do you place enough focus on outcomes or do you reward based on time spent?

I have led many types of people with a broad range of relationships to time. Productivity levels differ greatly from person to person. Some people have tendencies toward time wasting and procrastination While some people have a great deal of stress about time, others wouldn’t notice if they were abducted by aliens for 3 hours out of their work day. Because I have learned to measure outcomes, I have seen over and over again people that work 70 hours a week most surely do not deliver outcomes greater than the talented 40-hour-a-week person. The law of diminishing returns comes into play with burnout and a lack focus on the most important goals that comes with filling the time space that you allow yourself.

One interesting thing about time is the degree to which people want to be recognized for it, regardless of their outcomes. I believe this is a trap. Some desire recognition for being the first one in and the last one out of the office. It is a trap that will ruin the quality of that person’s life and take the focus away from what counts – delivering an outcome that matters.

The real truth is that time is not a measure of value. The outcome is the value. The quality, creativity and strategic relevancy of the outcome is what defines the real value. It is up to a company’s leadership to create a culture that puts time in its place.

How to Print with iOS from Any Windows Sessions

The fact that iPads and iPhones are widely used amongst mobile workers isn’t new. While so many workers have been and continue to use iOS devices, at the same time, they’re often using Windows. Until now, they were not able to perform one of the most basic and common of tasks – printing with an iOS device from a Windows session.

This week, enterprise mobility leader Cortado unveiled ThinPrint 10.6 to overcome this barrier. ThinPrint is THE solution for everything print related. The newest version includes ThinPrint Mobile Print. It is the first and only solution to enable users to print from iOS devices with every Windows session and any Windows-based virtual desktop, such as Citrix Receiver and VMware Horizon.

This shows that regardless of the OS or the platform, Cortado provides mobile workers and employees the freedom to choose the solution that best fit their needs. Full details on ThinPrint 10.6 are available here.

ThinPrint Delivers World’s First Solution for Local iPhone & iPad Printing From Any Windows Session

The new ThinPrint 10.6, with ThinPrint Mobile Print, closes an important iOS feature gap when using Citrix, Microsoft, VMware, and other Windows sessions, as well as virtual desktops on mobile devices

(DENVER, January 27, 2015) ThinPrint, provider of the world’s leading print management software for businesses, today released a new version of its ThinPrint Engine. With the latest version, ThinPrint 10.6, and its patent-pending technology, ThinPrint Mobile Print, iPad and iPhone users can for the first time print directly from Windows sessions to local, AirPrint™-enabled printers. With this, ThinPrint closes an important gap when working with mobile devices.

With the increasing prevalence of iPads and iPhones in businesses, the number of users who work with their mobile devices in a session and access enterprise applications continues to grow significantly. However, as soon as users want to print from the session or from the virtual desktop they ultimately end up being disappointed. While preconfigured network printers in the company could be used, it was simply impossible to print documents from the session to a local printer.

With ThinPrint Mobile Print, the missing link for printing has been solved by ThinPrint. If a user wants to print from an application in the session, then they are offered in addition to the network printers, the Mobile Printer. If this is selected, a push notification is instantly sent to the user’s mobile device confirming that a printout may now be printed to an AirPrint™-compatible printer of their choice. Then, the user is guided through the printing process. The user doesn’t even need to leave the session in order to do this.

The new ThinPrint feature works with every Windows session and any windows-based virtual desktop, so with all RDP clients, with Citrix Receiver, VMware Horizon or other third-party solutions. A printout with ThinPrint Mobile Print is possible with all programs and file types.

“It is finally possible to print instantly and intuitively from an iPad session in home or branch offices,” said Thorsten Hesse, chief product officer and member of the management board at ThinPrint. “Once again we have not only increased productivity and flexibility for mobile users, but proved that we are the pioneers when it comes to innovative printing solutions. Our software continues to help companies integrate all mission-critical print scenarios into their everyday business.”

With ThinPrint Mobile Print it is even possible to initiate print jobs from other devices such as a laptop or PC and retrieve them later in the meeting room with an iPad or iPhone.

ThinPrint has pure user-based licensing which means companies only pay for users who actually use the solution. ThinPrint Mobile Print is part of the new ThinPrint Engine 10.6 Premium version which is available as a perpetual or yearly license. Customers with ThinPrint Engine licenses can upgrade at any time to ThinPrint Engine Premium.

Just how easy ThinPrint Mobile Print is to use from an end-users point of view can be seen in this brief video: www.thinprint.com/mobileprint.

Interested companies can download the software at the manufacturer´s website and can use it with full functionality free for the first thirty days: www.thinprint.com/start

ThinPrint GmbH

ThinPrint, with 15 years of continuous development and internationally-patented ThinPrint technology, is the leading provider of print management software and services for businesses. Whether printing from traditional PCs, mobile devices, thin clients, virtual desktops, or from the cloud, over 20,000 companies across all industries and of all sizes optimize their printing infrastructure and increase productivity thanks to ThinPrint. In addition, more than 100, and growing, Desktop-as-a-Service, and Software-as-a-Service providers deliver reliable, high-performance printing from the cloud to their customers all due to ThinPrint. The investment in ThinPrint leads to a fast ROI because the easy-to-implement and manage print system reduces the burden on IT departments, results in significant performance improvements to the network while ensuring optimal, reliable print support at every workplace. ThinPrint technologies and components enable its use in almost any infrastructure and take into account integration of branch and home offices as well as mobile employees. The solutions are developed and rigorously tested at ThinPrint’s headquarters in Berlin – software Made in Germany. Offices in the United States, the UK, Australia, Japan and Brazil, as well as more than 200 channel partners around the world offer direct and on-site customer care. Thanks to numerous OEM partnerships, ThinPrint technology components are integrated in a variety of terminals, print boxes and thin client of leading hardware manufacturers. Special significance is placed on the strategic partnerships of the company with Citrix Systems, Fujitsu, Fuji Xerox, Hewlett-Packard, IGEL, Konica Minolta, Kyocera Mita, Lexmark, Microsoft, OKI, Samsung, VMware, and Wyse.

The Conceptual Brand Test – Do You Have an Actual Brand?

Some define brand as a company’s look and feel, a visual viewpoint. Perhaps some define it as a company’s method of operating, a viewpoint that captures a company’s true nature and brand promise. Others see it as the unique selling proposition, a customer-centric brand. I offer my opinion as yes, yes, yes, and I would not stop there.

I present the ultimate goal of the conceptual brand — the brand concept that rises above the visual, operational and customer-centric brand to capture all that and more.

A conceptual brand defines the building blocks of a company’s essence. It is the authentic articulation of the company’s promise and the connotations that the brand will hold in the customer’s mind. Conceptual branding is what gives a company its personality. It lays out why a company’s prospects should embrace the brand and believe in the company. It is a framework to back up the company’s claims. It changes perceptions. It makes the prospect feel compelled to purchase. It engages both mind and heart, and insights action. It is beyond feeling yet emotive. It provides the background of credibility and expertise. It provides the solid backbone to meet the challenges of the market and competitive environment head on. It has the strength to win without fail. It goes beyond the business goals and operational charge, yet it creates a framework to support each.

A five-question test can tell you if your brand needs work to reach the level of a conceptual brand. You may use and share this infographic of VisiTech PR’s conceptual brand test.

VisiTech PR's five questions to check your brand's strength

VisiTech PR’s five questions to check your brand’s strength

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THE Journal: Santa Fe Public Schools Expands Optical LAN Deployment

“It’s Just Business” is a Fundamentally Flawed Statement

Take a moment before you judge. I believe in business, profits and making tough business decisions. I believe in rewarding entrepreneurial risk, shareholder investment, and taking good care of the leaders that do more than others are capable – or more likely, willing to do. These things drive our economy.

Here is what I am suggesting. “It’s just business” is flawed logic. It is flawed because in reality, business IS people. Business is the…

  • Entrepreneur that depends on the business to make a living
  • Employees that do the work to receive paychecks that support their families
  • Clients that have their own business demands and challenges
  • Customers that depend on your products and services
  • Shareholders that fund retirements with company profits

It all starts and ends with people. Each business adds to, or subtracts from, the life of many people.

Which people should be your highest priority? Richard Branson, founder of Virgin, in an Inc. titled Companies Should Put Employees First goes so far as to say that companies should put employees first, even before customers and investors, because this has benefits for both customers and investors.

With these things in mind, if you have the urge to make the statement “It’s just business,” I propose you look deeper. I invite you consider that people, relationships, loyalty, kindness and honesty matter. Character is what counts. In the longer term, business wins with this approach. There is plenty of research to back this pro-business = pro-people philosophy. Mashable’s article The Exponential Business Benefits of Putting People First offers insights on the benefits of this approach.

As a business leader, how do you set the tone? We all know the warm and fuzzy side — listen, acknowledge, appreciate, reward. What about the harder part?

In some cases, perhaps firing someone can be the most compassionate action. Many business experts suggest that 10 percent of your workforce is not trying or does not have the skills to ever be successful at your company. Every person loses in this case. The underperformers lose because they are in a position for which they can never be successful. Your top performers lose because they pick up the slack for the bottom 10 percent. Shareholders lose with a company that does not perform at its optimum potential. So in essence, everyone loses because you don’t have the guts, time or insight the make the decision that is in the best interest of all people – to fire the underperformers.

It is not just the senior leader or manager that has the opportunity to embody this value system.

  • If you work at a service firm, your clients are people with their own lives, stresses, goals, strengths and weaknesses. Do you maintain a human empathy for their challenges and support their personal goals?
  • If you work at any publicly held company, have you considered that many of the investors may be just like your parents or grandparents that may depend on that income to live?
  • If you report to someone, have you considered that your performance or bad attitude may impact your manager’s stress levels?
  • If you manage an underperformer, have you considered that they may be dealing with the death of a loved one, disease, divorce or serious personal problems?
  • When you quit a company, do you consider the colleagues that will be left carrying your weight? Do you leave with ample notice and do your best to leave your work in good condition?

So next time you are tempted to say, “It’s just business,” rethink your planned action.  When it is the right decision, you should be able to say with confidence, “I make this tough decision, or choice, because I value people.”