FEAR THE TECHNOLOGY REVOLT

As the hourglass on my laptop continues to slowly tick away, I am forced to revert to pen and paper to start this column. It seems like I experience at least one time-sink a week, where something that should take 5 minutes lasts 5 hours. The bad news is that I'm not alone. In the last few weeks, a friend lamented how a 1-hour Web site project consumed 12 hours, while another explained how he spent 8 hours trying to burn a second copy of a DVD he had created.

Despite the anecdotes, technology clearly is providing incredible productivity gains. A lone person working from home in rural America can now do the work of many and give the appearance of a large corporation in an urban hub. The fear, and opportunity, is that as people waste hours speeding down a path only to find an unforeseen roadblock, there will be a technology backlash that slows down the technology adoption.

In a backlash, companies that can truly simplify customers' adoption and regular use of technology — to make technology invisible — will be powerful differentiators. Scott Sandall, vice president of marketing for independent telco D & E Communications, characterized the challenge carriers face when he stated that D & E has two kinds of customers, those who “appreciate value” and those who “appreciate price.” A technology backlash might actually move some of the price-sensitive customers into the “value” camp, as a reduction of time-consuming technology hurdles will have value.

The companies that successfully integrate technology will be those able to remove the dead ends and, more important, make sure customers do not head down those paths in the first place. It has been said the success of Apple's iPod is its simplicity — not just the user interface, but Apple's bringing together of the entire music food-chain, making it effortless to purchase an electronic song.

Ultimately, a service provider will be judged more by simple things, like how long it takes to turn on the TV and channels versus new features such as a fancy user interface or the number of camera angles. The challenge for operators is to communicate and educate customers about their differences. Cox Communications has the right idea with their recently introduced brand icon, “Digital Max.” Their tag line, “Your Friend in the Digital Age,” sums up their approach to making the technology invisible.

Similarly, D & E has already implemented a, “high-tech, high touch,” approach by having a real person with the character name Bob Fox follow up with customers to make sure they understand how to use the features that are part of the service.

I am positive independents will continue setting examples for the bigger tech companies by providing new technology that works better for the end user. Now, can anyone help remove the Aurora spyware from my lap-top?

Note: it took the author three computer crashes to complete this article.