From the desk (and BlackBerry) of Keith Parnell

According to a Harris Interactive poll, 42% of 18-to-34-year-olds and 33% of 35-to-44-year-olds are at least somewhat interested in receiving opt-in mobile alerts from their favorite places.

Would you? From your favorite restaurant or shoe store?

NeedLocalHelp.com is interviewing for Hamptom Roads sales reps today at 2:00 PM at the Hilton Garden Inn & Conference Center.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

I think a very important question for company decision-makers is, How Tethered Should My Team Be?

My world is very interesting and overall I think unique. Not unique for the tech industry but unique as compared to the work force as a whole. I require myself to be electronically connected at almost all hours of every night and day. Much to Nicole’s chagrin, yes, ‘every’ night and day. My tech team is nearly the same and during their disconnected times there should be another connected person capable of filling the needs of the organization.

Let’s move to other member (sets) of the organization’s team. Should the Operations team be consistently connected? Should the Creative team be consistently connected? Should the Sales team be consistently connected? Should the Marketing team be consistently connected? Within each of these teams an evaluation of senior management, team leads and team members should also be weighed. Should they, or at least their role, be consistently connected?

Here’s my answer - YES! Yes, they absolutely sure should. Each of these teams occupy a vital role in the decision-making processes that are important to the organization’s success. A senior member of each of these teams should be always available, reachable and able to communication at any given time as dictated by the real-time needs of the organization.

So how do we make this connectability happen? Smartphones. Smartphones that are reliable, (platform) stable, secure, usable, functional and yes, okay attractive. RIM’s BlackBerry tops the list of recommendations from every top organization around the globe. Nokia (the N95) makes fine smartphone products as does Palm (the Treo).

CIO.com’s Survey Results for “How Addicted to Your SmartPhone Are You?
5% - My phone is for business. I put it away at night, unless I’m traveling for work.
2% - I check messages every few hours after work and on weekends. But I’d never bring my smartphone on vacation.
19% - I’m more productive because of my smartphone, and it doesn’t negatively affect my work/life balance. I wouldn’t call it an addiction.
67% - My smartphone never leaves my side. At work, rest, play, vacation, you name itmy best electronic friend is with me.
7% - IMHO That’s NOYB. BB4N. EOM. (In my humble opinion, that’s none of your business. Bye bye for now. End of message.)

Where do you stand?

During my 10 minutes of downtime this weekend I was able to catch up on a little reading. I ran across this quote: “Out with the new, in with the newest.” I was excited. This kind of thought gets my blood rumbling.

But then I paused. Aside from the blink at the end of the sentence that made me re-read it 2 or 3 times, the quote brought on a few thoughts. Really I think it brought more questions to mind than thoughts or answers.

If we stick with the original context, technology solutions, can we really afford to always stay in the newest? From a small business perspective, technology upgrades are usually permitted solely through planning and budget allowances projected months in advance. SMB budgets usually don’t allow for that type of extensive flexibility.

Also keeping inline with ’smart’ thinking, do we want to stay in the newest? We all know the problems with jumping on a version 1 solution and dealing with launch bugs and patches and bugs and patches. SMB productivity goals usually can’t afford the luxury of delays that could be caused by nagging problems.

But one of the advantages that SMB’s like to tout is the ability to be nimble and change directions like Barry Sanders. How do we exercise quick technology adaptation that could make a difference between winning a contract and losing to the big boys but yet keep security risks low with productivity high? There’s an art to walking this fine line that I think many successful SMBs have found through experience.

What are your thoughts on this topic?