By Paula Gulak,
President
The Gulak Group
Gulak@comcast.net
21st Century Technology: Top Picks of the Decade
2010 – 10 years into the 21st Century. Wow! It is hard to believe the changes that have taken place in just this decade! Ten years ago, there was no iPod, or MP3s, the GPS was not yet released for public use and the Blackberry as we know it was only a two-way pager! Digital cameras were big, cumbersome and only professionals could afford them. The USB flash drive didn’t exist, SaaS, cloud computing and virtualization meant nothing to us. The toys were different – there was no Wii or Playstation 3 or HDTV. Books were made up of paper pages. And, the iPhone – how did we live until 2007 without that baby? BlueTooth, Wireless and Broadband—what were they all about? Did we realize they would change the world? And now we have Social Media! Wow, it has been a pretty impressive 10 years!
It is interesting to watch how people react to technologies or technology fads. The love hate relationships that are built truly rival courtships. My husband absolutely loves his iPod. He hates his Dell laptop because he hates Windows Vista – In all our years of marriage, I’ve never seen him consistently at battle with anything. Yet, he is at battle with that laptop – and it is definitely a love/hate relationship. He loves the convenience of the Internet and email, yet also yells when suddenly up pops an unsolicited message. Given this exposure, I decided to ask some tech friends what technologies they liked best and why.
John Casey, Director of Sales at Ironworks, loves the Wii because it let’s him beat his wife in tennis. He also finds the most helpful technology to be wireless at home and his Treo which keeps him connected anytime, anywhere.
Chris Guiffre at Dominion Digital thinks Eyeclops Bionic Eye Multi-Zoom is the neatest toy. He actually called it “disgustingly fun because you can explore every micro nook n’ cranny in your house with your family.” Under the heading of most helpful technology, he found NanBazTag Rabbit (www.nabaztag.com/en/index.html) “perfect for the developer geek in all of us – hook it up to your build process and watch it dance when things go well and glow red when they go south…”
Jerry Hodges, CIO at Hamilton Beach, gave three votes to a Squeezebox. Favorite toy, most helpful technology and what he really wanted for Christmas. He said he had 500GB of recorded music locked up in a PC. “With the squeezebox, my music (Pandora service) can be streamed to any location in and outside of my home – plus, the kids can listen to their music upstairs and the adults can listen to theirs downstairs.” Cool.
Jim Bacon, Boomer Nation, loves his iPhone, his computer and wanted a Kindle for Christmas. He and Jack Jaeger can’t wait until 2010 when Starcraft2 will be available. Lori Jennings at CRT ProSearch and Mary Lynne Staib at VACO both confessed to being happy “CrackBerry” addicts. Phil Conein at TecHead admitted his favorite toy was bubble wrap but the most helpful technology is Google Map/Yelp.
I didn’t explore today’s buzz which is mostly about Twitter, Facebook and all forms of social media. Maybe next time. Devices may be taking a temporary backseat but then again, we are entering a whole new world of smart devices. Enjoy and Happy New Year, everyone!
Late breaking news!
 Hot Technologies Holdings, led by Karen Adams, adds Fahrenheit Finance to its portfolio of companies.
Rich Reinecke and Keith Middleton recently announced that they have teamed up with serial Innsbrook entrepreneur Karen Adams and Hot Technologies Holdings to form Fahrenheit Finance. The new firm will provide consulting, project support, staffing and permanent placement recruiting services to emerging growth, middle market and Fortune 500 companies. Rich Reinecke, founder of Richmond based Career Quest, a successful staffing and recruiting firm will lead the recruiting and personnel efforts. Co-founder and partner Keith Middleton is a certified public accountant with over 20 years of public and private accounting expertise. He was most recently the corporate controller and a division CFO at Performance Food Group. Keith will lead the firm’s consulting services.
“Our blend of expertise allows us to bring a fuller and more practical perspective to the table when offering solutions to our clients,” says Rich Reinecke. The firm takes a holistic approach to meeting clients’ needs and creates an alternative option to a company’s traditional outside accounting and consulting relationships by combining consulting and project services with the ability to provide temporary and permanent staffing solutions.
“Teaming up with Rich, who has built a solid reputation in the marketplace, is a win-win solution for clients. I have been a buyer of consulting and staffing services for over 10 years. I provided consulting services for the 10 years before that. Being able to leverage my experiences to help clients, coupled with Rich’s expertise in finding the right person for the right job, will give our clients a better solution at a better value. Our goal is to deliver measurable ROI every time we deploy a resource to work on a project,” says Keith Middleton.
The firm’s consulting services will cover process improvement, S-Ox 404 implementation, SEC and GAAP support, acquisition due diligence and integration, internal audit outsourcing and other finance and accounting projects. Services will be delivered utilizing the high level of talent available for contract opportunities, particularly in today’s employment market. The company will continue to provide clients with traditional temporary staffing and full time direct hire services for roles from the CFO to a staff accountant to a payables clerk.
“Being affiliated with Karen and such a successful family of companies made this partnership an easy choice,” stated Keith and Rich. Companies that make up Hot Technologies Holdings’ portfolio include Ironworks Consulting, Genesis Consulting, Fahrenheit Technology and PartnerJD. Check out www.fahrenheitfinance.com.
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