cc:Sync

The 12 Text Groups of Christmas

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:49:45 -0800

Twelve Carolers Caroling (or drinkers pub-crawling). You have a bunch of friends meeting up for fun and there will be all kinds of logistics that will be frustrating unless you just put everyone in a Text Group. Text Groups are a straggler’s best friend!

Eleven Farmers Farming. Okay. This isn’t holiday-specific but we think it is so cool that farms use ccSync. Makes us feel rugged!

Ten Teens a Texting. There is a family using ccSync with nearly that many kids - several home from college for the holidays - using a Text Group to coordinate family meals, negotiate curfews and share news. Dad says, “It has definitely bought us closer together, but in a very mobile way.”

Nine Players Playing – Team sports is such an obvious use for a Text Group we almost hate to say it, not to mention that sports Text Groups tend to be a lot bigger than nine – for instance 22 soccer players, 25 parents and 3 coaches in one Text Group. Last minute game, practice or after-party change? No problem.

Eight Workers Working – It would be nice if all work was finished the morning of December 24^th and did not require another thought until January 4^th, 2010. But for those of us with projects that may or may not need attention over the holidays START A TEXT GROUP FOR EACH PROJECT NOW. If something comes up you can reach everyone instantly and you aren’t even interrupting their holiday.

Seven Skiers Skiing – When you ski in a group, you are always regrouping, “Meet you at the top of KT22!” and trying to find out when everyone wants to eat. A Text Group for you and your ski buddies can keep you from freezing at the top of a mountain wondering if you are in the wrong place or your friends are just slow. Plus you can hash it out about lunch and whether or not to stay until the lifts close, missing no one’s input.

Six Sailors Sailing - How about when you and your pals take your boats out for the holiday light parade? You aren’t going to use email to find each other out there!

Five Freelancers Freelancing – Joe’s got an iPhone, Sam won’t part with her Blackberry, Lloyd has a Droid and noone has EVER seen Tami’s phone but you know for sure she has one. You call this an agency? No – but with a Text Group for each project any combination of freelancers can keep highly coordinated and productive. Luckily Text Groups works on any phone without a download.

Four Framers Framing – There are construction contractors starting to use Text Groups to coordinate and order activities and deliveries at a job site. Farmers and framers! Very cool!

Three Driver’s Driving – Caravanning to grandmother’s house? Make sure you have yourselves a merry little Text Group so you can coordinate stops and keep on course. Also make sure you don’t text while driving, we want you to make it to 2010!

Two – Too Little – We can see why a dialogue between two people might envy the archiving and other features available on ccSync for Text Groups of 3 – 50.

and the Partridge Family – We like to think of how having Text Groups would have changed our favorite 1970’s sit-coms. We think it may have ruined the dramatic tension of Scooby Doo, but it would have greatly improved The Flying Nun. (I can see my house from here!)

Enjoy safer, saner, funner, closer and more productive holidays with your Text Groups on the ccSync Beta. If you need a Beta Code please email beta@ccsync.com

Happy Holidays!

ccSync

ccSync vs Twitter-group-tools

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:44:22 -0800

With the explosion of “group” tools for Twitter, we are hearing the question “How is this different then Twitter-____________(insert name of Twitter group tool here)?”

Wow. It’s so cool to be mentioned with Twitter! But we are about as much like Twitter as FedEx is like chain-letters.

ccSync is an utterly secure way for a group of people who work together (usually 5- 12) to have private, instant, mobile text conversations where everyone gets every message and anyone can send a message. Our solution works on every mobile phone without a download. We peer with mobile carriers to exchange messages, which is how we get away from short codes, keywords, hash marks and reliability issues. Think of a ccSync group as a closed circle. To form a ccSync circle an organizer enters the names and numbers of the group and viola! - The conversation begins.

Twitter is a social tool that distributes short bursts of information to a writer’s “followers”. In general, when you “tweet” you don’t know exactly who will read your message. You may or may not be reading the messages of the people who follow you. As a social tool, Twitter need not offer the features business groups need: message authentication, instant group formation and closed circles.

Some Twitter applications will allow you to “group” tweets by topics, hash tags or user names. They are not designed to support a private, mobile text conversation and require downloaded applications for mobile use. They are extremely useful for a Twitter user who wants to filter and organize their tweet stream.

Who needs secure, instant, mobile text conversations? Our beta users include construction contractors, ad agencies, sports teams, non-profits with field operations and even an organic farm. Many are Twitter users, but when it comes to business they need a closed circle like ccSync.

The Year of Business Texting

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:11:27 -0800

Last year was the year it happened: Texting arrived at work. Up until 2007 texting was something our kids did. Prior to 2008 we texted out of necessity – when it was the only way to communicate with our kids. But in 2008 we discovered that text was a great tool for business.

We started using text for the same reasons our kids love it:

It works on every phone – Virtually everyone has a mobile phone and text works on every single one of them. It doesn’t matter what carrier or what model or what is loaded on the phone. All we need is the mobile number and we know the message will get through to the phone.

It’s “always on” push communication - Like the pagers doctors and IT techs use to wear, text messages are pushed to the mobile phone, no waiting. They require so little bandwidth that even when a signal can’t support a call it can deliver a text message. You send it – they get it instantly. Like magic.

It’s non-interruptive – Unlike a call (or Nextel’s push-to-talk) you can retrieve a text with a glance without interrupting you’re doing. You get the information instantly, and you can choose to reply at your convenience. Or you can text conversationally much like AOL instant messaging.

It’s discreet – You can silence your phone and still quietly send and receive texts. Just like our kids have become masters of texting under their desks during school, we text in meetings, on the bus and while on conference calls.

We are so enamored with text messaging that in 2008 texting surpassed calling. And it wasn’t just the huge volumes of texts sent by teenagers. In Q2 of 2008 every age group under the age of 45 sent more text messages than placed calls. And the break point gets older every year.

The trend is clear in the enclosed chart based on Nielson Data.

Where does it go? What does it mean for companies?

I think mobile phones and text messaging are incredibly useful tools that will ultimately help nearly every worker have more mobility and productivity. I believe we need more text and mobile services for business – but I’m biased.

What do you think is the best role for mobile phones in your industry and at your company?

Mobile Stress

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:51:07 -0700

I remember when the first day at a new job meant you got a desk, a phone and access to an area associate. The two-hour orientation session taught you how to set up your voicemail, fill out your W2, and what to pay attention to in the HR manual. Two weeks later you got your business cards and were ready to attack the task assigned.

Things have changed. Executive assistants are as rare as FAX machines. To actually get ahold of someone, the number on their business card doesn’t help—you need their mobile number.
Nearly three fourths of all
knowledge workers are mobile. IDC identifies several factors driving the growth of mobile workers:

Greater demands for productivity on an increasingly distributed workforce
More sophisticated mobile devices
High bandwidth wireless data services
New tech-savvy workers entering the workforce

This is radically changing the way we work and making it harder to work together. Unlike our office phone and email, our cell phones are our own private channel: we turn them on and off as needed and give our numbers out judiciously. Our companies reimburse the costs, but we pick out the handsets and data plans. We also support ourselves.

Cell phones have given us flexibility; but made it harder to find people when you need them. According to Forrester Research most of us experience regular significant delays due to trouble locating mobile coworkers.
Worse yet, the expectation that we should be always working, or at least available, is causing significant stress.

The cc:Sync service gets teams of people back in sync regardless of where each team member is and how they communicate. It provides a central point of constantly up-to-date connections to the people you depend on for professional success. It gives you complete control over how you manage your end of the connections.

With cc:Sync I believe you can actually enjoy the flexibility your cell phone has long promised.

The Future of Work

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:50:30 -0700

What is the future of work? cc:Sync, Inc. was born out of a desire to improve that future. In the good old days there wasn’t going to be any work in the future. Maybe just bossing some robots around. But here we are. It’s nearly 2010, we have robots yet we work harder than ever. In the future we will probably need to be even more productive. We will need to work faster, with more far-flung groups across barriers of language and time zone. Why does that excite me?

I have been lucky enough to work with groups of very talented people spread all over the world with a diversity of experience and expertise. We have been lucky enough to build businesses and products that make a difference for companies and people.

But even though we had the latest personal technologies and our companies had the best enterprise technologies we could have used better team technology. As good as our results were, they could have been better. That’s what drives cc:Sync, Inc.

The “Younging” of the Workforce

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:23:29 -0700

We are obsessed with aging baby boomers and their impact on social security and health care. We are also completely misguided. True to character, baby boomers are so self-absorbed that we are missing the larger and more important demographic truth - the burgeoning new workforce.

In the US, 45 million people will be entering the workforce in the coming decade. Simply put, more people are poised to enter the workforce than to retire.

In skills and expectations this coming generation differs dramatically from Baby Boomers who control political and business decision making today. They are better educated, more adept at using technology, and more global in their perspective.

There are more 15 to 25 year olds in the US today than there are 45 to 55 year olds.

So can we please stop gnashing our hands about the manufactured (and conceited) crisis of the aging workforce and begin to focus on this tidal wave of new workers?