Discussion on:

Sanity check: The 10 most important business technology products of 2007

Here's my list:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=569

What do you think?

This should absolutely be included in the top 10. Has huge global potential and impact on our future.

Admittedly more educational than business technology; still worthy of mention due to its potential impact.

I think it's all based on whatever landed in your hand, not so much on what's available out there. Seriously, before shortlisting the above, what other products have you considered but eventually decided not to pick? I mean, c'mon, Outlook?

- Steelhead Mobile (WAN caching)
- Motorola Q
- Vidoop (visual authentication)
- 3Tera (datacenter config with GUI diagrams)
- BlackBerry 8830 World Edition
- About a dozen others ...

You may scoff at Outlook 2007 (I probably would have, too, if I hadn't used it), but it is a great upgrade. I never realized how much I actually liked it until I had to go back to Outlook 2003 for a couple weeks.

I think this list is really informative but I do think that putting the iphone at the top of the list is slightly too hasty. The problems that the ipod has had, battery life, breaking down etc should really be thought about. Maybe swap the imate with the iphone. The iphone is a glorified ipod. The imate is a small laptop. I am away from the office alot and rely heavily on the imate jamin; Tomtom installed, great internet, outlook compatibility, presentation, work and excel to name but a few. Why should I buy the iphone? Oh I have an 8Gb SD Card that plays music and if I want films, (The screen is very small). One more thing the imate is free on ??30 monthly contracts in the UK, the iphone is ??200~ on ??30 contracts!

I would happen to agree with the mentions of Goggle, and
Zoho Office. These applications should of been available online long ago. I'm one of the older members, meaning as which I've used an actual typewriter, paper-based spreadsheet to do my work on before Word Perfect came out on a PC and started to make life for us cubical workers better. (Note: Yes Word Perfect/Word Office has been here long BEFORE Microsoft Office.)Now with these applications available to us using our Internet connection life should get easier. NOW I think the next big Technology should be is a cyber-worker, an avatar that I create to do my work would be great!

(yawn) Please clarify what did you mean by "most important business technology product" for, may be, the first GSM-phone which has an awful SMS-support (which, after all, means the ignorance for the ETSI recommendations)?
"Web-phone" with EDGE-only support for a full-version content? Please, do not make me laugh.

the ones that have had, are having, and will have the biggest impact on the business technology market and IT departments.

Your criticisms of the iPhone are exactly right. I wouldn't buy the first edition, either, and neither would many IT folks. Nevertheless, it's impact on business technology has been huge. It has helped catalyze and popularize a major move toward smartphones.

My comments are:
1. Apple iPhone - Extremely good tool except that at the moment it's using EDGE technology, which is slower than 3G, which in my mind is going backwards.
2. OQO - Phenomenal
3. Microsoft Outlook 2007 - Excellent
4. Cisco TelePresence - Excellent
5. Zoho Office - In my case N/A since I haven't used it. I have everything on my laptop.
6. LinkedIn - Excellent networking tool
7. (tie) Windows Vista and Mac OS X Leopard - Vista is Excellent!!
8. Salesforce.com - NO WAY!! Siebel CRM On Demand is way better.
9. Sprint Xohm - I'm in the UK so N/A
10. i-Mate smartphones - Extremely useful

Outlook 2007 in number 3??? Just because you can paste unformatted text and ability to search properly (fixes more than new features IMO, you could paste unformatted text in Outlook 2003 in most cases anyway).

any productivity improvements that it can accomplish will have a major impact on millions of users.

The search improvements save me at least 30 minutes a day and help me find messages that I previously would have been unable to find and would have had to ask people to re-send.

...I have to agree in terms of its impact. But still... it is just a fix to previous problems specific to Outlook itself, rather than any real technological advances, and it is a bit awkward to classify something as important for that reason.

it may be the fastest and most accurate e-mail search out there now. It's even better than Gmail (the previous best) in my experience. That is significant.

And, yes, I agree that the previous Outlook search was abysmal and was badly in need of a fix. I just didn't expect the fix to be this good. That's why Outlook 2007 is on this list.

While your review of Outlook 2007 is right on (as well as the rest of this article), I hardly think that the "Paste Special" feature is missing from Outlook 2003. In fact, it's been a part of Outlook for quite a few previous versions from what I can recall using.

You really sound like an exec that doesnt have any clue what works and what happens in the world
Comparing ?? X to vista
what the hell is outlook doing in this list
what ... you been smokin crack

The rest of Microsoft Office 2007 doesn't offer much to get excited about, but Outlook 2007 provides a major step forward in searching for e-mail. For that reason alone, it belongs on this list because being able to quickly find messages can improve the productivity of millions of users that rely on Outlook every day. Outlook's new search is even better than Gmail (the previous best), in my experience.

As I wrote, the Outlook search is actually two pieces: 1.) Individual folder search, and 2.) Integration with Windows Desktop Search (WDS) for all-folder-search (including PST files).

you have to remember this crowd is tough

To convince that microsoft has had an original idea is ludicrous... is believing in santa

look into all the swares they have stolen from
Firefox Lotus linux and all the other smaller co. that they have stolen from
I could go on but out of time... laters

I see this as a list of what products may have the greatest impact (good or bad) to the IT world, not necessarily the 10 best. With that view, I can accept the iphone being on the list

It said "10 most important BUSINESS technology product". I just wonder how iPhone is on the top list and better than other PDA phones which has better fuctions/connections for business purpose. If topic says for fashion, I have no doubt.

Because it will improve over time but provides a consumer smartphone with an interface that is more intuitive than we have seen in the past. The fact that it has a fully enabled web browser is probably part of it too. I think that we will see emerging capability for it in the next year.

For me personally though, I want my phone to be a phone, my PDA to be a PDA and my laptop to be a laptop. But I don't really have a need for an integrated tool so my desires are going to be different from someone that needs that level of connectivity.

I personally thought that the list was a good one.

I'm surprised the author is really impressed by Outlook 2007. Of the products in the Office 2007 Professional suite, Outlook is decidedly different from the triumvirate Word-Excel-PowerPoint. (Publisher is the only other application in the set that doesn't use the new "ribbon" interface.) I personally would have named Word 2007 over Outlook, myself.

News about Salesforce - http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;381050231

whilst Blackberry finds itself facing stiff competition, and many are now predicting a decline, it is still THE name in business PDAs. In terms of business importance, i would still rate it in the top 10. As you correctly wrote, 2007 is the first year of the smartphone.

I would have to agree with Mr. Hiner's selections for top 10 tools for 2007--I have used Zoho's resources extensively. They are definitely worth a mention. Cisco TelePresence is another entry that is of tremendous importance to global collaboration and communication. If you are not aware, Cisco's TP and others will be demonstrated at Telepresence World 2008 London, March 18 - 19, 2008. For more info, see: http://www.telepresenceworld.com. Great opportunity to see current vendor offerings all in one place at the same time.

Technology is the usage and knowledge of tools, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization. The word technology comes from the Greek technolog?a ? t?chn?, an "art", "skill" or "craft" and -log?a , the study of something, or the branch of knowledge of a discipline.[1] The term can either be applied generally or to specific areas: examples include construction technology, medical technology, or state-of-the-art technology or high technology. Technologies can also be exemplified in a material product, for example an object can be termed state of the art.

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Technology is the usage and knowledge of tools, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization. The word technology comes from the Greek technolog?a ? t?chn?, an "art", "skill" or "craft" and -log?a , the study of something, or the branch of knowledge of a discipline.[1] The term can either be applied generally or to specific areas: examples include construction technology, medical technology, or state-of-the-art technology or high technology. Technologies can also be exemplified in a material product, for example an object can be termed state of the art.

Business Template