Back in 1976, I was a very lucky 7-year-old to have a few modern appliances and equipment in the family home. We had a television that had a touchpad along with a sonic remote which changed the (three) channels that were available at the time ...
The Trim Phone we had, which sat on a corner stand on the third step of the stairs, had a jack plug and this meant that we had one of the first extension sockets of its kind from the GPO (General Post Office, state-owned and before the break up with the modern-day Post Office and British Telecom PLC).
I thought that it was the coolest thing ever that we could move the phone from the stairs to one of the rooms upstairs, especially mid-way through a call, as long as the call was incoming.
Our washing machine had, what looked like, two 3.5-inch floppy disks. One was orange in colour and one was white. Each plastic square had different grooves on all four sides and on each side. This gave the option for eight different programmable wash cycles per disk.
The orange disk was for hot wash cycles and the white disk for warm wash cycles. It was very innovative from Hoover for its time. Our vacuum cleaner, a Hoover Senior had an onboard light that shone constantly when using it around the home. All of this led to my love of technology and making it work in daily life.
Fast forward to 1990 and landing a job with Dixons stores Group, you will see now why I was in my element. Over 5 years, understanding and selling the first Amstrad PCs with Intel 286 and 35mm SLR cameras from Nikon, Canon, Minolta and Pentax, to name, but a few. Selling the first Pace microsatellite dishes and receivers for the beginning of the era of SKY TV and the first handheld mobile phones on contract.
Moving to BT Business in 1995 was the start of turning my passion for technology into learning more about systems used in the business world. When your knowledge is pivotal to a business's success, I made sure that my training was second to none and that included re-training as a BT Engineer, installing and repairing faulty lines and being there at the start of the broadband evolution in 1999/2000, way before the full fibre revolution that I was also at the forefront of by 2015!
There at least 70 plus VoIP phone systems all vying for a share of the changing telephony market. Every phone company wants to be an IT specialist and every IT company wants to be a telephony specialist.
Then all these companies want to add mobile phones, mobile broadband, WI-FI, Full Fibre connectivity and cyber-security into the mix to be an all-around portfolio holder. Some companies are bringing in the right specialists to enhance their sales teams, but what is also required are technical experts to make sure that the products that are on offer from a reseller or vendor, match your business requirements at the right value for money.
Remember, being cheap in a business sense means cutting corners and that can be dangerous to your livelihood, especially in today's cyber-centric world. If in doubt, find an independent specialist who has been in tech since caveman times.
If you feel inspired to find out more then do call me on 07555 807700 or leave a comment below and I'll be in touch as soon as I can.