Power to I – the power of a connected enterprise or individual

Today I set out the simple objective to get from point A to point B and back whilst meeting with a customer and upgrading some hardware.

Sounds simple and by all accounts it should have been.

So what really happened; well I arrived at the train station to find my train had left early, yes, early.  You literally couldn’t make it up, so out comes the smartphone and two minutes later I’ve found an alternative route and I’m on the way to the customer thankfully still on time.

On my way there a helpful lady from HSBC phones to tell me about suspicious activity on my bank account and that my account will be frozen until I confirm the purchases on my online account.  Really not helpful when you really need cash for a cab at the other end; so out comes the iSlab whereby I can confirm that the suspicious activity was indeed me on EBay earlier in the week.

About ten minutes from my destination I receive a panicky email from a reseller who is struggling with one of our product ranges and has until 10am to get their quote to their customer.  The iSlab comes into action again this time by downloading and annotating a PDF from the vendor by highlighting the various parts with their questions and answers.

And so I arrive; now anyone who knows me will know I have no North, navigation to me is a dark art right behind the wheel, gravity and cooking lasagne.  So back to the smartphone with GPS, granted it guided me to the wrong side of the building but it was still a darn sight closer than I would have got.

At the customer site I arrive safe in the knowledge that I have everything I nee…. Ah the USB pen-stick on my desk, at home, precisely where I’m not, with a large note that reads ‘Do not forget’ may be where I left it, still plugged into my computer wondering whether it has a purpose in life. 

I also automatically synchronise all my work and files just incase my laptop, backup – you ARE backing up your files aren’t you? – and USB pen-sticks go AWOL, spontaneously combust or just ignore me; which in the case of my work laptop it did just that.  At 5am this morning it looked at me blankly wondering whether jabbing the power button on side was meant for it as it was clearly too early to be doing anything useful…

This time the cloud comes into play as this is one of the places I have been backing everything up to.  Jump online on the iSlab and email the required file to the customer and ten minutes later we are all ready to go.  A further ten minutes later and the job is completed and I can return home.

This is seemingly an average day for me whereby my dependence on a connected device has proved to be paramount in order for my day to be successful.  Without the use of these devices and services I undoubtably would have got the wrong train, got lost, had no file, upset the customer, not saved another customer from missing their deadline, had money, got an absolute bargain off EBay and finally be on the way home at 3.30 in the afternoon writing this blog.

The power of a connected enterprise should never be underestimated, but the power of a connected individual is really quite awesome.

What’s your average day?