Saving Companies Thousands. Be One!

I was pondering about some everyday products we use. There are so many things we use that we never asked for, but one day they came along and we suddenly can’t live without them. You look at products like the T.V., automobile, and yes cell phone, and you think about how you lived without them.

Now if you knew me several years ago I was almost always ranting about not having a cell phone and how I didn’t need one. Things changed a little bit, I changed jobs and all of the sudden my staff needed to reach me. So I had two options; stay home and field all the calls from there or buy a cell phone and be able to do what I needed and still be reached.

So as time passed I used new things like text messaging, internet on my phone, GPS, real E-Mail and so on. Not only did my phone allow me to make and receive calls it allowed me to throw away the map. It allowed me to leave my laptop in my bag, and using Viigo it allowed me to have all my RSS news feeds “hand” delivered to me. So now my cell phone is as much a part of my job as my computer.

I am sure there are people out there that try to think out of the box, and think about what would be really cool on a cell phone, but not expected. I use things like TwitterBerry to update my Twitter account. I use Vlingo to dictate text messages and e-mails. So do some research or ask us for suggestions and get applications and tools that are useful for you. Remember next time you think that the cell phone has not given you new uses, think about what you use as an alarm clock or watch.

While I have had the sheer joy of moving this past weekend (do you taste a hint of sarcasm in my tone?), I also enjoyed giving out directions to my new home.  You know what I’m talking about…take the second left, go through the stop sign, no, no…the second left, etc.  Well, that is where I have a leg up on my non- BlackBerry neighbors.  As my brother was coming back from a week long vacation, he promptly asked me for directions to my new house.  He’s a great guy, but he couldn’t find his way across the street, so his Sprint Telenav is a godsend.  But this was not the program of choice today; it was his good old fashion BlackBerry Maps.  I simply found the address and with one click of my menu button, I was able to send my brother the exact location.  Upon receiving it on his BlackBerry, he clicked on the link and started using his BlackBerry Maps GPS navigation.  Within 15 minutes, and not a single wrong turn, he and his family showed up at our front door.  As the weekend passed I used this method at least a half dozen times, all with the same outcome…smiling faces at my new front door!    In this case, the simplicity of using BlackBerry Maps made me take a second look at the application as a whole.  While it is not as robust as Telenav, it certainly will remain on my BlackBerry.