|
I used to come to work all the time in shorts and Nikes. Nowadays I
find myself getting "dressed up" for work almost every day. It seems like
there's always a meeting to be had with someone who may be shocked if I
show up in clothes which allow for noon basketball without a change.
I've gone more business and now Dockers and a button up are the typical
uniform. Lindows.com is also going more business. For sure, LindowsOS
is already popular with many small to medium size businesses who have
realized there's no more affordable way to outfit an office
with PCs that can do Internet activities as well as seamlessly work
with Microsoft Office documents. Recently I heard from many businesses
about our new $169 WebStation product. They praised the zero
maintenance and affordability, but they needed administrative tools to
customize this product for their specific business applications.
Today we're launching our BusinessStation
services that give any business the power to transform a WebStation into
a customized work terminal, public-access kiosk, in-store information
hub or computer for any number of functions that businesses may need to
enable web-based communications with customers, employees or back-end
systems. Using an easy to use online form, any computer maintainer can
configure WebStations to launch a specific Java program or Flash
presentation, they can navigate to any corporate Intranet or other
HTML-based location upon startup. Clusters of similar purposed machines
can be assigned to a group, allowing a simple online selection to
control a large network of machines.
To transform a WebStation into a custom BusinessStation costs
just $10 a year per machine and can be managed from any web browser.
Unlike many other zero maintenance initiatives, which just move the
cost and complexity from the end-user to the network and system
administrators and require expensive hardware, training and consultants to
make everything work, we kept the simplicity of the original WebStation
which is simply Plug & Play and doesn't require any other equipment to
fully function.
Businesses
very often use expensive computers to do simple web-based tasks, but
now they can cut their IT costs, and increase the number of computers
they buy at the same time...freeing up part of the budget for other
uses. BusinessStations are designed to take advantage of web
technologies and can be used for Flash-based training presentations,
corporate Intranet portals, computer lab or library portals, online
form processing, public information kiosks, and more!
We expect millions of BusinessStations to be deployed over the next few
years. Here's just a few great examples that are already happening:
Enterprise
Wireless telematics
is a good example of the BusinessStation being deployed with an
enterprise Java application. They deployed BusinessStations for
tracking terminals with their Fleet Alert system, which allows them to
track the truck locations, distance from destination, and trailer
temperature (for trucks hauling perishable goods).
Government
CAP, The Community Access Program for the province of Nova Scotia, Canada, is
designed to assist communities to establish public Internet access
sites. Using Lindows BusinessStations, they are able to afford more
Internet-ready computers to maximize Internet availability to the
public.
Corporate/Retail
Large corporations very often use Java/web-based software in call
centers and for workstations. Retail outlets can place BusinessStations
in stores to gather customers' addresses for mailers.
We've worked with several corporations to make sure the BusinessStation
meets their needs. If you're a business with custom needs, please keep
letting us know what you need from your PCs to be more successful.
We're committed to delivering great business solutions - even if that
means we have to start wearing a suit and tie to work every day.
-- Michael The Michael's Minute Meter
View the Michael's Minute Meter Report
|
