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Every industry has different technology needs and the floral industry is no different. To more effectively address where a floral business needs to be with their technology, the Society of American Florists’ (SAF) Technology Committee updates a Technology Whitepaper every meeting using the “on the bus” analogy to represent various states of technology adoption.
So technology such as faxing, using a PC, automated billing, etc., would be “off the bus” tech or technology they should have already implemented long ago or they are indeed “off the technology bus,” tech such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), VoIP, GPS, etc., would be “on the bus” tech and “the bus is coming” tech would include RFID, advertising using video consoles (Xbox, Wii) and mobile payment.
The method the Technology Committee uses to place technology in these categories is asking whether a certain technology is so vital that you’d be losing money if you’re not using it – off the bus; using the technology would make you more money immediately, save time or improve efficiency – on the bus; or potentially cost you time and money because the technology may be expensive to implement because it’s so cutting edge and/or cost you time trying to figure it out since you’re the only person messing with the stuff – the bus is coming.
Using the Whitepaper as a guide, I write at least one feature a year in SAF’s magazine, Floral Management usually about a hot “the bus is here” topic or collection of complementary topics or an overview of where a modern floral business should be with their technology and how to get there. A recent article would be the “Where are you on the Web” I posted to this blog a couple of months back. For many of the other technologies, we address them in Floral Management’s monthly “PluggedIn” column which I also pen.
You can download the current SAF Technology Committee Whitepaper with definitions "borrowed" from Wikipedia here. Below is the quick list of our three “bus” categories.
The Bus Has Left List
Web site with e-commerce and SSL
E-mail
E-mail marketing
Malware protection (antivirus/spam/phishing)
Data Backup
Uninterruptible Power Supply
Point-of-Sale System (POS)
Broadband Internet Access
Mobile phone
Database marketing
Zon machine
PCs
Accounting software
Digital photography
USB flash drives
External hard drive
Headset (telephone/computer)
Electronic timecard
The Bus is Here List
GPS/Delivery routing and reporting
Floral gift delivery confirmation
Barcode
Telephony/call centers/active phone routing and monitoring
Redundancy Technologies (RAID5, Dual Power Supplies, backup broadband)
Search Engine Optimization
Recruiting Tech-Savvy Generation Y/Millennials
Blog
Social networks
Podcasting
Open Source software
Smartphones (iPhone/Blackberry)
Mobile wireless broadband
Telecommuting
Paypal
Paperless office
Credit cards processing over the Internet (eliminate traditional POTS lines)
Virtualization
Phone text advertising
HDTVs
Online collaboration via Web sites
Virtual credit cards
Business analytics
Viral marketing
Video game console (Wii, Playstation, Xbox)
The Bus is Coming List
Remote backup service
VoIP
RFID
Mobile checkout
Mobile payment (with cell or smartphones)
Biometrics
Application Service Providers
GS10 – Extended barcoding
Streamline Sales Tax project
Text advertising campaigns
Video game console advertising (Wii, Playstation, Xbox)
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