Time tracking blog

While sitting on my local equivalent to the LIRR the other day, I took a look at the amazing device in my hands and what I was doing with it.  My new shiny iPhone (or any current generation smartphone for that matter) allows me to read, create, and send/receive email, write documents and/or notes to myself, view and create spreadsheets, presentations, stay in touch with both family, friends, and clients, and administer my blogs and websites, all in the palm of my hand at 65 mph.

With the wide variety of applications now available for smartphones, there’s something for every type of user out there, and this really got me to thinking about mobile productivity.  Obviously at TSheets, we’re a bit biased on the ‘time is money’ and ‘being more productive’ opinion, but with costs of said phones falling everyday, isn’t it about time YOU started thinking about a mobile strategy for your business?

What does this all mean for you and your business?  How do you go about it?  Which plans?  Which phones?  How do I deploy all of this seemingly complex gadgetry?

Well, hold the phone partner (yes, pun intended).  Here’s a list of things to think about before you take your growing enterprise mobile.

1. Are your communications mobile friendly? While time might be money in the TWorld, size is often money in the mobile world.  Are you using a logo in your email footer?  This extra bit of transfer can add up to quite a bit of extra, unneeded cost at the end of the month.  Think about slimming everything down.
2. Are you working with the best Technology? While Palm and Apple (and quite possibly the T-Mobile/Google Android phone soon enough) have been making great headway into the mobile enterprise market, there’s a common misconception that Blackberry is the way to go.  Perhaps the pricing structure might work best for you, but don’t be too quick to rule other smartphones out simply because they’re not carrying the crackberry logo.
3. Are you in sync? If you’re using Microsoft Exchange, chances are you’re already covered, but a good thing to think about is ‘Is everyone on the same page?’  Can all mobile users synchronize email, contact lists, calendars, etc. to ensure that everyone is, literally, on the same page?  Would this help grease the productivity wheels within your team?
4. Do you have a mobile plan? If you’re already issuing company phones, check with your wireless carrier if they offer enterprise smartphone packages, what features they offer, and what the price difference would be.  It’s entirely possible that some of the features designated for smartphones are already covered in your package.  Try getting a test phone or two that you and another trusted member of the team can use for a month or so.  Keep track of the usage: emails, calendars, meeting planning times, how often you use it to increase productivity on the LIRR for example.
5. Is your website mobile compatible? Here’s one that often goes unsaid, but is your main website already mobile compatible?  Do you offer a .mobi version of the site, or perhaps a text only based version.  Again, these things might not seem like a big deal now, but once smartphone mobile deployment is issued, with your entire staff accessing the site on a regular basis, it IS something you’re going to have to think about.
6. What’s your 20? This may be your most important consideration when deciding on a mobile strategy for your business: Security.  Do you have a backup plan if/when a smartphone goes missing?  Not just the actual hardware, but the potential loss of data and thieves access to sensitive company data.

Obviously, there’s a lot of factors to consider in whether or not you should or even need to deploy a smartphone solution for your business.  I personally know some managers and execs that couldn’t live without their mobile devices, while others that I’ve spoken to enjoy simply leaving the phone at the office.  Interesting to note, these people often also have a corporate smartphone tucked in a briefcase or bag nearby.

Having access on the go certainly leads to increased productivity, as there’s never a moment lost.  This mobile productivity can even lead to increased creativity, as a changing landscape often leads to changing thoughts, ideas, and ways to tackle a project.

Welcome back to the TBlog folks!  Before I even get started talking about the title here, I have a disclaimer to make: I bought my first iPhone last week.  I’ve been going a bit loco in the apps store and found quite a few useful tools to boost productivity, but more on that in a ‘coming soon’ kinda way.

Naturally with any new toy, I’ve now got to figure out the best way to use it, which in turn of course leads to hours upon hours of internet research, accompanied by a whole smattering of news taboot.  So when the, what I would consider less than ceremonial announcement of Google’s Android phone came out last week, I was a bit puzzled.  Even more so, when the news came through that T-Mobile had stopped taking orders, the red flags really went up.  Let me back up a bit here – to be technically correct the phone is named the G1 and is produced by HTC.  It’s slated to go on sale on October 22nd and is priced at $179.99 for those that sign the 2 year contract dotted line with T-Mobile.  Ok, nothing special here; touchscreen phones have been around for quite a while, but what DOES make this phone special is it’s operating system: Android.  Android is a software platform and OS for mobile phones that’s based on Linux and developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance.  To put that in human speak: Android is an operating system for your phone that allows programmers to work with Google developed Java libraries (but conversely will not work with programs developed in native code).  Ok maybe that wasn’t human enough – but hopefully you get the point.  It’s Googles entry in the mobile business.  Wouldn’t that be enough to write home about?

You might think that Mountain View would be throwing one of their famous shindigs and taking this new toy to Cupertino singing iPhone killer all the way.  Now, I read a lot of tech blogs, and while the G1 phone did show up, it wasn’t exactly the fanfare you’d expect.  Earlier this week, T-Mobile announced that it had stopped taking orders on this what very well may give Apple a run for their money phone.

Sorry! Due to the overwhelming popularity of the new T-Mobile G1, upgrades are temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.

My first reaction was, what the heck is going on?  While the iPhone has reigned supreme in the mobile world for quite a while now, it seems like T-Mobile didn’t exactly count on the massive number of folks interested in the G1.  While they’re keeping a tight lid on exact numbers, estimates place the figures in the 25,000 to 60,000 in week 1 range.

And now for something completely different rather coincidental.

In a remarkable coincidence, news also surfaced over the weekend that Apple has decided to free to shackles of a locked iPhone – provided you want to buy it from the Hong Kong website.  Call me a bit of a cynic, but remarkable timing here, eh?  And this just after I purchased my ‘locked’ version.  Sure, there are ways to unlock the phone, but it’s still new to me, and I’m not going to toying with any warranty voiding processes,  but it’s nice to now have the option.  Why is this particularly noteworthy?  The Hong Kong policy is a start contrast to the official Apple policy worldwide.  Sure, you can get an unlocked iPhone directly from ebay if you so choose, but that doesn’t mean that papa Jobs is happy about it.  Perhaps he has a soft spot for the Chinese market?  I doubt it.  Personally, I’m looking at the Hong Kong iPhone as a testing ground.  Let’s see how many people will fork over the $695 ($HK 5400) for the 8gb version and $798 ($HK 6200) for the 16gb version and take it from there.  With all the flurry over previous iPhone updates ‘bricking’ unlocked phones, I don’t see why this approach hasn’t been released previously.

From the Hong Kong Apple store:

iPhone 3G purchased at the Apple Online Store can be activated with any wireless carrier. Simply insert the SIM from your current phone into iPhone 3G and connect to iTunes 8 to complete activation.

If Google and T-Mobile can come up short on the supply vs. demand rule while taking pre-orders, clearly there is a significant interest in the product.  Is it enough of an interest to swing on the fence, would be iPhone purchasers?  It very well may be, but if the Hong Kong iPhone 3G is any indication, Apple isn’t going to wait around and find out.  Let’s keep our eyes peeled here and see how this whole scenario shakes out.  Add the extra sales push of the upcoming holiday season, and we could be in for an all out war of the smartphones in 2009.

A couple of weeks ago I took a look at Google’s Chrome browser and it’s ‘interesting’ EULA, and if it was right for enterprise users.  As with most products that come out of Mountain View, Google stole the show from an otherwise equally interesting product designed to not only make you more productive, but in a fun and easy to use format: Mozilla Lab’s Ubiquity.

Plain and simple, Ubiquity is an experimental Firefox extension that bills itself as “a powerful new way to interact with the web.”  After using ubiquity for a few weeks now, I say that’s a bit of an understatement.  For those of you on OSX, think of ubiquity as a Quicksilver, but for the entire internet.  For those of you on windows, think of it as, ummm..well, like something you’ve never seen before!

While a good friend and colleague has been extolling the virtues of semantic web to me for years now, I’d yet to see a ‘well functioning, real world’ example.  Quite simply, we’ve all be raised on the standard point and click, drop down menu, long URL strings way of doing business.  Ubiquity seeks to change all that through a highly intuitive interface.  For example, when I find an article like this one, and want to digg it, I normally have to search for a digg button somewhere on the page, clicky clicky, etc., or have to copy the URL myself, navigate to digg, login, paste the URL, click submit.  Ubiquity?  “digg this”.  Done.

With Ubiquity,  semantic web just made one small step for computers, and one giant leap for computing.  By recognizing the phrase “this”, we’ve just connected the word to a variety of input mechanisms.  Granted, this seems like an incredibly simple solution, but until now there really hasn’t been the correlation between “What I’m looking at right now” and “input”.

OK, so what’s the big deal?  What’s ubiquity going to do for me?  Well, glad you asked friend, step right up to one of the most powerful moves in productivity in years.  Ubiquity will do just about anything you tell it to, and how!  Not so hot on your one line command writing skills?  Me neither, so without further adieu, some common and helpful ubiquity productivity tools:

To summon ubiquity to your service: Alt/Option + Spacebar

Email this:  Here’s a great time saver.  Let’s say you just found a really great article about Time Tracking software and want to send it over to Jim in accounting.  Normally, this would require a copy of the URL, a trip over to the email client, new message, Jim, subject line, paste URL, click send.   With Ubiquity open, simply type email this to (contact), and Ubiquity launches gmail, inserts the correct address and, subject line and text.  Time saved?  Approximately 20-30 seconds.  Not a big deal right off the bat, but think about how many emails you send per day.  The time savings begin to add up quite quickly.

Define:  As seasoned a wordsmith as I am, even I, dear readers, come across a phrase every now and then, when I think, is that REALLY the correct meaning?  Or better yet…what the heck does that mean?  Simply type Define in Ubiquity and either jump to answers.com, or give ubiquity a second to call answers.com and deliver the definition of the word right there in your ubiquity window.  Quite handy when readying legal or technical documents.

Wikipedia: Who doesn’t love Wikipedia?  For all the strengths and weaknesses, Wikipedia is still packed with an amazing amount of information.  Instead of surfing over to the big W everytime you want to do a bit of research, bring up ubiquity and simply type w.  Ubiquity calls Wiki and delivers an astonishing amount of information on the word you’ve highlighted in the webpage, or any other phrase you choose to enter.

Map:  Whoa nelly!  If I had to rank a favorite feature thus far, Ubiquities’ mapping features would take the cake.  This one is a major time saver and productivity tool.  Need to find the address of that widget company in a hurry?  Bring up ubiquity, enter the map command, and type the name of the business.  Sometimes this works, sometimes not.  The other solution is to find the company address somewhere on the site (usually under the ‘contact’ page), highlight the address, open ubiquity and enter the map command.  Google maps will deliver up a fresh and tasty map of the location.

But wait…there’s more.  Simple mapping of a location within Ubiquity might not save you a bunch of time, but what if you could enlarge that map to get a better view, drop it into an email, AND attach a restaurant review?  With Ubiquity, all this can be done with a simple few clicks.  If you’re on a regular HTML page, the ‘insert into page’ option is obviously not going to work, but if you’ve already opened an email to a friend with ubiquity, you’re then in an ‘editable’ HTML section on a page.  In other words, dropping a map into an email now can be done in a few clicks instead of the previous 5 minutes it took prior to ubiquity being on the scene.

So what’s the big deal?  If these few examples haven’t started you thinking about shaving seconds, minutes, hours off regular everyday tasks, keep in mind that Ubiquity is still in the ‘experimental’ phase, meaning alpha, beta at best.  Given Mozilla’s open source philosophy, the additional uses and functionality are limited only by user’s creativity and need.  Speaking of which, the Herd has already sprung up, and is addressing the collective as a one stop shop for safe Ubiquity scripts (I’m already using the facebook scripts with delight).  Is Ubiquity perfect?  Far from it.  There are still a number of holes in the dam that need plugging, and it’s certainly got room to grow before anyone calls it a finished product.  But, right out of the gate ubiquity is saving time and endless searching all from within your current browser.

Give Ubiquity a download and a go.  It’s going to take a few hours to get used to, but once you do, it can be a massive time saver, and a great productivity tool.  Hey TLabs guys…how about a Ubiquity script that will allow me to clock in/out and switch job codes?

In case you’ve been sleeping for the past few days, you’re probably already aware of Google’s new release: Chrome.  Chrome is an open source browser Google’s built to take on the likes of IE and Firefox.  Since it’s another free product coming out of Mountain View, naturally, it ranks high on the coolness factor, and the blogosphere has been abuzz with tips and tricks to already customize the newest offering in your daily surf.

Amongst the buzz, Google’s even produced a comic book detailing Chrome’s features and how it differs from other browsers.  To be fair, I made it about halfway through the comic and figured I knew all I needed to know.  A former college roommate with a dual degree in Computer Science and Bassoon performance (I’m not making this up) came back to me with a few highlights from the end pages, but again…Google’s fun and easy users manual gave me just about all I needed to know.

One standout is the way Chrome handles data.  They’ve of course incorporated a number of today’s standard operating system functionality and protect browser sessions and data from each other.  In other words…one tab can’t crash the other or flummox data in other tabs, or windows via what Google refers to as individual ‘sandboxes’.

I mention Windows here as Chrome is only out in a Windows version (for now), and for the first time since converting to Mac, I actually had a 100% valid reason to crack out Parallels and run the VM.  Chrome runs on Windows only for the moment, mainly due to the complexities that arrived along with sandbox technology when Google acquired GreenBorder a few years back.

Basically, sandbox technology boils down to a checks and balances system for your browser.  Code that runs in it’s own sandbox is free to do whatever it wants, but the second it tries to step outside that sandbox and play with others, big brother steps in, gives the code a once over and decides whether it’s safe or not to join the OS party.  Obviously, Big Brother (The IT department) will be able to set limits and restrictions of any type, thereby leading to tighter security.  On the (slight) downside, since each sandbox is self contained, CPU resources and memory usage will increase, but in my honest opinion, a few more cycles and processes vs. lock tight security is a fair trade off.

Sounds like a dream come true, no?  Well before we head off to the bar and start swinging from the chandeliers, let’s take a look at the EULA.  Google, at the end of the day is a business, and the main goal of any business to turn a profit.  Pulling out the magnifying glass to view the fine print brings up a few points where the ‘enterprise’ community might raise an eyebrow or two:

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

Let’s get this straight:  You own the data that runs through Chrome (and any other Google “Service”), but Google obtains a perpetual, non-revocable license to it.

Google also reserves the right to ‘update’ the software you’ve downloaded.  And of course, the standard EULA copy of you’re not going to hold Google responsible for any malfunction that may occur in it’s code while using it’s product.  So let’s look at this from a pure and simple point of view.  You’re excited about and want to use Chrome as your default browser.  You maintain a number of documents hosted at Google docs.  You own the data, no problem…but Google also has a license on it.

And then there’s the immediate buck coming through the door: Advertising.  Naturally, Google makes the largest turnover from their advertising revenue streams, and you can bet your bottom dollar that Chrome’s gonna be optimized to serve up some juicy adsense-ness.

17.1 Some of the Services are supported by advertising revenue and may display advertisements and promotions. These advertisements may be targeted to the content of information stored on the Services, queries made through the Services or other information.

17.2 The manner, mode and extent of advertising by Google on the Services are subject to change without specific notice to you.

17.3 In consideration for Google granting you access to and use of the Services, you agree that Google may place such advertising on the Services.

Ah yes, legalese; the great language spoken by millions of software vendors (and their teams of lawyers) to prevent you from doing just about anything.   Enterprise customers are certainly going to have to sit down at the negotiating table with the Mountain View folks on these ‘small’ caveats, but at the end of the day, once the deals are brokered, I’d hate to be standing in the way of any enterprise solution powered by the great and mighty Google.

For any and all questions concerning Sandbox technology, give the Chromium Developers a visit.