Can Technology Make The Money For You?

Crais writes: "Using JetBlue, the Mens' Wearhouse, and others as examples, this article out of Newsweek shows how tossing money into new technology, and giving employees nice benefits/perks can actually make your business profitable, and pleasurable to work for. Sheesh, I just want my company to buy some real networking equipment..."

Comments

It's not rocket science.

[interstellar_donkey]

I'm pretty dang lucky. I work from home. If I ask for technology, I typically get it.

It makes financial sense. My boss does'nt need to provide office space for me, his overhead is lowered, and I'm happier.

I asked for a wireless network in my home. Out of all the reasons I wanted it, the reality was 'So I can sit at the bar down the street and work while having a beer'. The response: 'Well, don't get too drunk'.

Using technology to accomidate workers, to provide for them a better work envrionment is a no-brainer. I remember one place I worked at.. the boss would see me sitting outside smoking a cigarette. "What are you doing?" 'I'm waiting for a download to finish. Theres really nothing I can do until it's done'. He would'nt buy broadband for the office, and as a result, not only annoyed me, but waisted far more paid man hours then the cost of putting a decent connection and network into the office.

Re:Where do you work?

[Anonymous Coward]

One little perk of technological progress is that the price of technology relative to the cost of human labour goes down over time. So it will only become easier to satiate your employees with the latest and greatest toys. On the other hand, a bloated management structure will become more and more costly. Hooray for progress!

*smirks* Not only can Technology make $

[RalphTWaP]

But, if you read the account, a bit of intellectual property made freely available by its creator is partly responsible for one success (the creator's own).

The "Big Foot" mentioned in the snip from the article below is the technology:

His solution: Big Foot, a 1,000-pound, pneumatically controlled, microprocessor-driven grape stomper. Big Foot and its three stainless feet move on a rail system above a dozen tanks, stomping each tank for about 20 minutes, two to three times a day, for about two weeks. "It's so perfect because these plunges are gentle and replicable, whether it's 7 in the morning or 10 at night," says Laurent Montalieu, the head wine maker. Lacroute won't patent Big Foot, preferring to give the specs away. The device is used in wineries in Washington, California and New Zealand.

Now that, that I like, who says you can't make money if you give away your IP. And :) Since I vote with my checkbook (especially if it involves alcohol), I'm off to buy a bottle.

Re:Security Concerns.

[rsatter]

Jeez its called passwords to a mini/mainframe or agast a web based application. That can minimized unauthorized use by

• requiring a login
• user training to lock the computer or app when they step away
• low time out on the app to lock it.
• requiring an additional password for committing certain kinds of transactions.

Most corps still require a password when starting an application because

• You should never assume that the user at the other end is the user logged in.
• Others with more or less access may need to use your computer for a variety of reasons
• Because some bad person might just look for that open computer with no one at and pull up applications

As a side note David Neeleman is responsible for ticketless travel and checkin kiosks. And who dragged Southwest screamming and kicking into ticketless. He is a very smart guy and so are the IT guys. I was in a meeting with him back in the mid 90's when he first proposed this exact setup. So I just would like to say way to go Dave.

Virtual Queing at Theme Parks

[malibucreek]

Lo-Q is neat stuff. (I first heard about it here.) The whole virtual queing thing is a hot IT topic in theme parks right now. Lo-Q is the most sophisticated system I've seen (Disney's FastPass is the system the public's seen the most, but it's pretty low-tech. Just stick your ticket in a slot and get a reservation time later in the day.)

Yes, it sucks that they are trying to charge for it. But that's Six Flags for you. Always doing stuff on the cheap. I'd love to see a better company, like Universal, Disney or Busch, incorporate this technology. Still, I'd pay a few bucks for the child-locating feature.

One pet peeve: It's always frustrating to see reporters blow simple facts in a story. The is no "Little Mermaid" ride at Universal, since "The Little Mermaid" is a Disney property. Makes you wonder what other "facts" the reporter got wrong. Grrrr.