January 17th 2014
Guest Author: Claudiu Popa, President & CEO, Informatica Corporation – Leading Canadian Authority on Privacy & Security
Road warriors, this one’s for you. As some of my readers have by now realized, I’ve been testing an NPC laptop for the past couple of months and come away impressed with the experience. I say ‘experience’ because the unit is fundamentally an HP computer with some fully licensed preinstalled software conveniently thrown into an affordable leasing equation. But for me, that’s where the similarities stop and the value starts.
Any perceived gushing is purely illustrative, but if you’re a moderately active mobile user like me, your experience predisposes you to appreciate three things (it’s okay to nod while reading):
- The peace of mind of a unit you can actually lose without catastropic impact
- The active support of a team of people who actually care about your experience, or fake it really well
- The protective envelope of a pre-secured system
How does NPC do this? I’m not a mouthpiece for the company, so feel free to call them! Briefly however, imagine a machine that comes manually pre-configured for you. That means you have to try really hard to breach its security and even then, you’ll probably fail. It means that all its data is encrypted and automatically backed up while you’re busy doing something else. And if it gets lost or stolen, it’s replaced within 48 hours with your data available anytime.
But never mind that. My favorite part of the experience involved NPC’s exceptional support staff. I had the opportunity to test their politeness and resolve when I placed a support call after midnight on a Sunday evening. I spoke with a friendly technician who immediately logged in remotely, configured the machine and indicated that I am free and encouraged to call anytime of the day or night if I needed anything. I was ready to get to work on Monday morning, unfortunately, the security on the machine was so tight that I needed further help. Without placing an actual call, I was able to contact support through the Chat icon on the desktop and allow the same support staff to connect into my machine while I was on the train downtown, doing something else! In fact, she was still at it when I arrived at my destination and with my laptop closed, I was amused and amazed at the thought that someone was actually using my machine while it was tucked away in its case. 10 minutes later, I sat at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, opened the machine and saw that it had been done, reconfigured and ready for me to take part in a time-sensitive presentation.
So as you budget for your next PC, try to budget for intangibles like peace of mind, security, privacy, and the support of a competent, articulate, friendly and unobtrusive professional who comes and goes at the click of a button. Priceless? No. Worth the equivalent of a few billable hours a month? You bet!
About the Author:
Claudiu Popa, CEO at Informatica Corporation
Follow him on Twitter or Subscribe A published author, lecturer and entrepreneur, Claudiu enjoys composing investigative pieces of great interest to ITBusiness readers.