Published on the 11/04/2014 | Written by Warwick Grey

Technology industry and Microsoft veteran Warwick Grey has been helping business owners leverage technology for business success for almost 25 years. Here he shares his personal technology journey of the last year…

The last 25 years have gone incredibly quickly but as a career choice it has been hugely rewarding to see business owners take the technology steps they need to be productive and competitive. Technology adoption will always have its early adopters and laggards, but it’s worrying that so many businesses are still running dated operating systems and have not yet found any reason to upgrade. Conversely I have found incredible advantages in the new technology that has become available in the last year. My personal belief is that there are significant benefits for employers who want to get new technology into the hands of their staff and reap the rewards on offer with the intersection of cloud, mobility, big data and social media trends. This is the impact it has had on my life in the past year.

1. CLOUD
2014 will be the year of the shift to web services and I started using the free Microsoft Skydrive (soon to be renamed OneDrive) cloud storage service to get all our family’s digital data safely stored in the cloud and that’s a big relief as the device proliferation in my house increases. My family can now send access links to anybody that we want to share files or folders with. SkyDrive Pro, based on Sharepoint, is where I backup all my work files, which means that I can now access them from any device I use anywhere in the world from the file explorer in Windows. I can also use Office 365 on my notebook, tablet, phone or from any other browser, anywhere.

2. SOCIAL
I have been experimenting over the summer with how to manage and leverage my contacts in Outlook, LinkedIn and Facebook, plus a new app called Path which lets you create a digital store of your life without needing to share it all on Facebook. I feel like I have learned so much about how to merge my personal and professional lives online. Social health monitoring is the next big thing so I’ve been tracking my health with a variety of social fitness devices and MapmyFitness.com to track and share my physical activity.

In 2013 we also started using Yammer at work (like an in company Facebook) and I think team ‘YamJams’ will be my new word of the year for FY 14. Getting internal workgroups meeting, communicating and sharing instantly has helped vastly improve productivity all round and made our work more fun too.

3. MOBILITY
The proliferation of new devices in all sizes and price points has been exciting to see. By having the right devices that connect me to the things that are important to me wherever I am I can honestly say that I haven’t had a bored moment for over 12 months; with my phone, touch notebook or Nokia Windows 8 Phablet I can do email, watch videos, play music, Skype, browse my favourite sites, create documents, access network locations, collaboration sites and, using Microsoft Lync, to communicate either one on one or in a group anywhere I want.

4. BIG DATA
Excel has always allowed easy data analysis via pivot tables but the new Windows Azure cloud service is enabling customers to harness processing power just when they need it. The guys at Green Button, in Wellington, are using it to provide in-cloud data crunching services to some of the biggest companies in the world.

When I think that 20 percent of New Zealand’s largest customers are still using Windows XP, which Microsoft will cease to support in April, I can only wonder at how they are able to keep staff and be competitive in such a dynamic and rewarding technology environment where the personal and professional can effortless blend and be managed.

ABOUT WARWICK GREY//

Warwick Grey has 25 years’ experience in IT developments and is widely known as a subject matter expert on technology for the SME sector. He founded Renaissance Corporation and has held influential roles at HP and Microsoft. He is regularly invited to speak at events and has judged numerous business awards.