Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website

Playing Telephone

May 17th, 2016 - Posted by Ellen Hurwitch, Director of Operations - The Americas

13

Picture this:
 
A group of good friends are sitting at a table at the local restaurant, when all of a 
sudden the phone rings. Everyone looks down at once to see if it’s theirs and one 
of your friends sheepishly pulls out his flip phone to take the call. A flip phone! In 
2016! The rest of us give him a hard time about his not keeping up with the future 
and point out all that he is missing. No photo taking, no “Words With Friends” no 
videos, no apps. And what about all of those built in features?
 
He starts trying to defend himself. “I don’t need all of those things! I am very 
happy with what I have!” But then he went on to question the rest of us, asking 
each one of us if we really used all of those “things” that are part and parcel of a 
smart phone. 
 
When it got to me, I showed off some of my photos, a game I was playing against 
another friend, and some news sites. He then challenged me to tell him about all 
of the other apps I didn’t mention, and all of the other features that I probably 
didn’t even know existed let alone how to use! I must admit, I was a bit 
embarrassed because he was right. It’s true; I didn’t know how to use all of the 
features. Then one of the other guys at the table said to me “the phone has all of 
these great features that will make your life so easy, why haven’t you learned 
how to use them?” I couldn’t answer. I tried to push the conversation back to the 
fact that the flip phone was ancient and at least I was up on technology. 
 
But was I, really? What’s the point of having smart technology if you are not 
going to be smart about using it? I went home that night determined to learn 
about all that I was missing, even if I didn’t really have a need to use some of 
those features. If I learned about them all, then I would probably find a use for at 
least one of them at some point. Having the knowledge of what the phone could 
actually do would (I know this is going to make your eyes roll) actually make me 
smart!!! 
 
As I sat down to figure out some of the settings, a light bulb went off. As some of 
you know, I work in software technology. Web to print software to be more 
specific. 
 
RedTie’s products are feature rich, with so much to offer. We do a major upgrade 
2 to 3 times a year adding many more features, based on our customer’s 
requests. And there’s a lot to learn, just like my phone!
 
I do find, however, that some customers purchase the software with some ideas 
on how they are going to use it, and that’s great, but may not necessarily be the 
only way to use it. I think it is always best to learn about all of the features, not 
just those presently used. Like my phone and me, they may find a use, just by 
learning about what else the software can do. 
 
When RedTie does an upgrade, we put all of the new features into a change log 
that can be found on our online training academy: how2web2print.com. We also 
do webinars highlighting the new web to print options and additionally create 
videos of these upgrades for our customers to review at their own convenience.
 
But that’s not all. Our account managers are here to help you learn the new steps 
to be taken, to also give you ideas on how you may use features that you didn’t 
realize were there, which can help to make your life easier.
 
On the other hand, there are many in the print industry that like my flip phone 
friend, are happy with what they have, and feeling no need to get involved with 
new technology. I feel like saying to them: “wake up! This is 2016!” 
 
I’d love to continue on this topic, but I have to go now. My phone has just beeped 
to let me know that it’s time to meet my friends again. I think I’m going to ask 
them if they know all about the things their cars can do!