When Microsoft wanted to show off mid-market affinity, the software giant would do a promotional video with lifetime products, a manufacturer of polyethylene folding tables, chairs and sports equipment. Until about two years ago, Lifetime was Microsoft’s mid-market darling. Then what’s changed?
The lifetime CIO John Bowden has began adopting iPhones and iPads recently and made a bottom line that Apple makes great products and also says that “We love Apple”. To truly understand how monumental his decision was – “Wow, John is really doing this!” said employees. A little background is in order. When it comes to technology enabling people, Lifetime is one of the most conservative companies out there.
Bowdon has a stranglehold on corporate data via a virtual desktop infrastructure or VDI. He has disabled USB ports on laptops and deployed digital rights management software. He continues to force employees to check out web sessions and monitors just about every digital transaction with Lifetime’s servers.
During Lifetime’s early interactions with Chinese manufacturers, the company has been burned by intellectual property theft.
Such a Fort Knox approach practically demands the use of only a handful of venders whose products work together like bricks in a wall. That’s why Lifetime chose to build its fortress with Microsoft products. Lifetime works closely with Microsoft in product development and in testing for the midmarket. Bowden visits the Redmond campus regularly. He says “Then came Apple’s disruptive technology.” His decision to adopt consumer aimed iPhones and iPads is simply stunning. The thinking goes, if Apple can break Microsoft’s grip on a place like Lifetime. Then no company is safe from Apple in the enterprise.
Apple inspiration....Redmond?
Bowden began his Apple adventure with the iPhone 3 more than two years ago and the iPad 2 recently. The iPhones replaced Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.X phones even though Lifetime still participates in Microsoft’s Windows Phone rapid adoption program. iPad’s Airplay Mirroring allows sales and marketing people to wirelessly hook up to an HD TV and give presentations on the fly. Today Lifetime has a couple hundred iPhones and iPads each.
It has also adopted Apple product in other ways. The company has an app on the Appstore called Lifetime products that basically replaces all of its catalog sheets that sales people use. Moreover, Lifetime is installing Apple TV’s in its conference rooms.
So what does Microsoft thinks about such a Traitorous tech move? Here in lies the irony: the inspiration for Apple devices at Lifetime came from Microsoft itself.
Bowden says that “I remember sitting in a Microsoft office up in Redmond working on the exchange 2010 rapid adoption program”. He also says that the exchange product group was willing to make exchange compatible with more than just windows devices and you would be surprised how many of the exchange group deep inside Microsoft had iPhones.
Despite Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer making it clear he doesn’t want Microsoft employees carrying iPhones, thousands are concealing iPhones in their pockets. Some 10 percent of Microsoft’s global workforce have iPhones, according to March 2010 article in the Wall street journal. Given iPhone’s phenomenal growth in the market since, chances are even more Microsoft employees are packing iPhones.
Bowden returned to Lifetime’s headquarters in an industrial district near Salt Lake City with an urgent message. Borden says “We can’t ignore the iPhone any longer” he says. Moreover, Microsoft was willing to work with Lifetime to test ActiveSync support for iPhone 3, the iPhone platform at the time. T-mobile also became deeply involved despite that fact that the wireless carrier doesn’t officially carry iPhones.”
Consumer gadgets test a CIO’s courage.
There is no question that implementing consumer gadgets like the iPhone and iPad will test a CIO’s mettle.
The soft-spoken Bowden projects a measured demeanor not typical of a man willing to push boundaries. Yet Bowden has made more than 30 trips to china checking up on Lifetime’s operations there. He has come face to face with China’s underbelly of deadly copycat manufacturers. For stress relief, Bowden flies a helicopter in Utah’s formidable Wasatch mountain range.
The danger of adopting iPhone and iPads, of course, pastel in comparison. Nevertheless, Bowden faced his share of internal challenges. Borden says “there were areas of IT that were resistant to the change.”
To motivate his IT staff to embrace consumer gadgets, he tapped in to the techie mindset and said “leading geeks is a little bit different in that they really want to see their technical side grow”.
6 months ago, Bowden encouraged and rewarded each of his 31 state-side IT staff to get a consumer gadget for personal use, become familiar with it and share what they learned with the rest of the team.
Every IT staffer participated, buying mostly Apple iPads and iPhones, some Android phones and tablets and a few laptops. Techies seemed to gravitate toward the Samsung Galaxy Tab because of its openness they could have at it. Not a single Blackberry phone or playbook made the list.
“We really admire their choice and knowledge around their gadgets, and so it was pretty magical,” Bowden says. “There was a lot of positive feedback.”
.”Meanwhile, Lifetime executives and sales people love their iPhones and iPads (although Bowden is quick to point out that the company still uses a lot of Microsoft gear). The shift to Apple products represented a culture shock for IT that challenged the CIO to come up with ideas like the consumer gadget learning project to grease the wheels of consumer IT.But that’s all part of the job.“You have to keep your eyes open out there,” Bowden says. “What use is it for the CIO to put their head in the sand?”
