Around the Office is a weekly group blog that shows what the Kobayashi Online team has found interesting, funny, poignant, or otherwise notable over the past week.
Brent thinks Toronto businesses can benefit from diversity. That’s why he’s encouraging business leaders to attend the “DiverseCity Counts Procurement” event on November 28. Event organizers, Maytree Canada, will also be releasing the next DiverseCity Counts report that night, which will explore the extent to which diversity in procurement has taken hold in the GTA, and how it compares to other regions.
Setting up appointments based on customer convenience and recommending solutions based on customer needs (and not higher margins) are just some of the ways companies exemplify the “Customer Advocacy” approach to customer service. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, Andy recommends reading the Wikipedia article on Customer Advocacy, which, as a matter of fact, nicely sums up his thoughts on good sales practices.
A fan of seeing computing available everywhere, Daveed was excited to see Raspberry Pi roll out a new version of its operating system, RISC OS. The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card-sized computer created by the a UK organization to help teach computer science in schools. While the launch of Windows 8 made garnered more attention, we certainly hope the new RISC OS will be a great step forward in helping make cheap, accessible, programmable computers available everywhere.
Caroline found that holiday shopping has gotten more technological this year when she saw a virtual toy store in Toronto’s PATH. Wall displays let those passing by scan a QR Code with their mobile device and purchase toys, and have them delivered to their home. A reindeer-pull sleigh sounds downright archaic in comparison!
Seeing rows of beige file folders and hearing a crackly PA page doctors are typical in Ontario hospitals. But David looks forward to the day when hospitals embrace a new communications paradigm. Unlike other hospital technologies (like Fantastic Voyage’s hypodermic submarine), the tools to create a smart hospital with ever-present communication is available today, according to a new eWeek article.