Tech talks to tech, but only if you do it right. The easiest way is to stick with one brand. In my personal home, we use Apple products. I’m not paid to represent them or anything like that, I just learned along the way that if I wanted my phone to talk to my computer and my tablet and my television, they basically all needed to start with a lowercase letter i. It was easy to make the leap when we finally embraced it, because we had already purchased the iPhones and iPads, the Apple TV was comparable in price to the other tv-box systems out there, and when it came time to replace the main desktop computer, we realized that was the last hold-out and we took the plunge. Haven’t regretted it for a moment.
But it’s not necessary to be a Brand Fan to make a system work and most of the time that’s not even an option. I had to make one new purchase to finish the set, but in an office environment you would have to make a much greater investment. Even if there was only one missing piece of the puzzle, if it’s a piece that sits on 25 desks, or a piece that has to connect to 25 work-stations, that’s a big piece. Purchases are often made in stages to allow the expense to work within the quarterly budget, and that means there’s no such thing as a clean-sweep where everything is shiny and new at the same time. So how does one thing talk to another when they generally come from different planets, tech-wise?
That’s why there are Engineers. There is no automatic answer for how to get (blank) to talk to (blank), but there are amazing professionals who actually enjoy the challenge of finding the right converter or configuration that streamlines the process, solves the problems, and includes a plan for the future for the most reasonable expense for the company. It’s like a game to them.
The other day, one of our Engineers actually asked me if there were any new challenges for him—if he could please get the next available “impossible” case—that he didn’t mind solving all the same old problems for new people, and he really likes the people, but he’s bored. No joke, he asked me for harder work. And I listen to my team.
Anyone got a challenge for us?