As a CTO I get to look at a lot of tech but for me the @BlackBerry 10 OS on the #BlackBerryPassport is the most practical, useful and valuable piece of technology (non consumer focused) to come out in the mobile arena in the last 2 years, and that on its own can significantly contribute to both businesses productivity and security!

Why? Well the user interface is intuitive, it summarises my social ecosystem for me in one window, I need to only use my thumb to navigate, the keyboard means a 1000% reduction in typos and I can seamlessly view/comment on Excel and Powerpoint files on the go…to name but a few! #BlackBerryBrilliance!

So if I’m right in my statement above, why hasn’t BlackBerry penetrated deeper in the business world? Why isn’t it back on top of the corporate tree where it used to be? In fact, why is it certain software / applications (and this extends even to consultancies and suppliers) are trumped by less usable ones even when they’ve proven to be more capable, practical and cost effective? I’m sure there are hundreds of reasons, but I put it down to three key things:

1. Advice – Well, poor advice! This could be provided by a company or even a website. There are a lot of them out there that provide a lot of ‘expert’ advice on what to buy. However how many are truly un-biased? How many are involved in the delivery or are externally rated on the success of their advice? How many talk about their failures? In my 25 years of working in technology I’ve never seen a consulting entity of any size talk about the poor advice they’ve provided in the past and any lessons learned! Once provided it’s on to the next one!
2. Ignorance – How many times do we sense check the advice we’re being given? Do our own leg work and reach out to our peers or the wider community to sense check our approach? With so much going on and often in the larger budget businesses, there really is little time to focus on ensuring the research is properly conducted. In the same vein its easier to select one of the larger implementation partners than do the ground work to find the right cultural  fit for the company.
3. Ego – Usually akin to that age old tale of the Emperors new clothes. If a senior leader has selected or sponsored a software product, implemented it somewhere else, or knows of a competitor doing the same thing, who’s brave enough to tell them it’s not fit for us? The employee with 30 years of tenure? The newbie? The career driven go-getter? The vendor/implementor? In my experience everyone decide it’s not a battle worth fighting and watches with a degree of silent embarrassment good money being thrown on bad as the project devours the pennies and pounds, the careers and conscience.

If we can avoid the above, use our community more, leverage small niche consultancies, look at the practicality and not popularity of the solution and be humble and open to the input of our teams, maybe we will see the likes of Blackberry or if you prefer the most sensible software, applications and products take their rightful place.