The intern “station” at gap intelligence is more or less a mobile unit. In fact, it has already moved twice in the three months that I’ve been here. Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy the change of scenery. The new locale even boasts a window view. On the desk to my right is a slightly less visually appealing pile of out-of-commission monitors, keyboards, PC towers, and the like (although it certainly could be worse). We have affectionately dubbed it “The Computer Graveyard.”
One day, while working a “Graveyard” shift, I started thinking about our little collection. All jokes aside, think about how quickly we find electronic equipment obsolete and how much stuff we accumulate because of that. For instance, if you had to count how many electronic devices you own, how many do you think it would be? Of course we all instantly think of the essentials – our cell phones, computers, and televisions. But what about everything else? Not counting household appliances, I can list around twenty separate pieces of electronic equipment in my home (that’s not even counting the miscellaneous cord drawer). And at least six of those are either broken or outdated and not being used – or in other words, they’re electronic waste (e-waste). Home gaming systems, landline phones, printers, fax and copy machines, laptops, keyboards, speakers, VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray players… the list goes on. Once these items are junk, they are considered e-waste.
Electronics probably have the highest turnover rates out of any consumer products, yet they’re some of the most difficult to recycle properly. These days, most of us are aware that the electronics we use in our homes every day are filled with toxins like lead and mercury. You may have even seen disheartening images of poor children overseas rummaging through e-waste landfills for salvageable materials to sell. What you might not know is that many of the companies in the United States that call themselves “recyclers” are still just shipping that waste to poorer countries with less regulation on hazardous waste disposal.
Recycling is becoming an everyday practice for more and more of us all the time. Most of us have public recycling available for curbside pickup, although electronics are generally prohibited. If you work in an office, your company probably participates in some sort of e-waste recycling program. It’s pretty much standard procedure (and in most cases, mandatory) for businesses to do so. But how much do you really know about what happens to those electronics? And consumers are still responsible for generating the greatest amount of e-waste, but they don’t exactly make it easy for us “little people” to recycle old electronics. But, there are places that will accept many of your household electronics for free, or even pay you for them! You just have to know what’s out there. Thankfully, if you’re able to read this blog, then you’re also able to access the websites that can hook you up with programs in your area. Check out some of these links to get started. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, search, baby, search!
In California alone, more than 21,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, and about 192,000 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in the U.S. last year.
Since this is an issue that hits close to home, this Mothers Day Weekend my family and I participated in our first “Race for the Cure” in Sacramento, California. Our team of roughly 30 people walked and ran 5km and raised more than $5,000 to help fund innovative outreach and awareness programs for medically underserved communities and for national breast cancer research. We joined about 22,000 others and together we raised an estimated $2 million! Wow!
The best part is, this is just one of hundreds of races. The event in Sacramento is but a blip on the radar – there’s a race in nearly every major city in the U.S. plus at least 11 other countries, including of all places, Tanzania! For sure the Gap Intelligence team will out in force at the San Diego Race on Sunday November 7. Right guys??
To find an event in your home town, check out the Susan G. Komen For The Cure web site to learn more. Chances are, this is a cause that will affect all of us one way or another throughout our lives. So do it for all the beloved moms, grandmothers, daughters, sisters, wives, and girlfriends that make all our lives special and worth living!
About a month and a half ago a friend turned me onto a music site that I had heard of before, but never visited called Lala.com. The site offered a sort of music rental service where you paid money to have songs made available to you via the Lala website. While I am not really interested in purchasing digital copies of music online, Lala offered another service that was completely fantastic. Using an application that you downloaded from the site, Lala would scan the music files on your computer, match up the song files with songs in its database, and make those songs available to you via Lala.com! Awesome! Now it didn’t matter if I forgot to bring my iPod to work. I could just login to Lala.com and bam! Music like magic. I spread the word about Lala to friends of mine who I thought would appreciate having access to their home music libraries elsewhere. The response was resoundingly positive and we were all so pleased until I checked my email May 1, 2010 and found this:
WHY???!??!?!?!? Weren’t we happy? Didn’t we still laugh? All this time you had been seeing Apple behind my back . . . treacherous snake of a Lala.com!
Well, no one was really sneaking around I suppose. In December 2009 Apple purchased Lala.com, though it didn’t really give a solid reason why. Apple did say that it was interested in Lala.com’s engineering talent and technology, though no further comments were made by either company regarding plans for the future. Rumors circulated claiming that Apple was ready to pursue alternative methods of music delivery (a method other than downloading) or that it was looking to join the cloud-based services effort. Both of those reasons seem . . . reasonable.
Truth be told, it was only a matter of time before Lala got the axe. Other music streaming sites like Rhapsody and Napster offer less complicated, but essentially the same services, for a price. Both Rhapsody and Napster offer monthly fee-based plans that provide the subscriber with unlimited access to a specific number of songs (in the millions) and also the opportunity to purchase authorized copies of songs they want for keepsies. Users on Lala enjoyed access to their matched music collections without paying anything, which is a pretty good deal. Lala also lets you listen to any album once. I am listening to Casino Twilight Dogs by Youth Group for the first time right now, as I type this to you. What a wonderful way to decide if an album is worth some dollars. Let’s face it though, if I am going to put any money toward this record it’s either going to be through Amazon or at one of the few remaining record stores in my neighborhood, not renting it on Lala. I guess that makes me part of the problem :-/
With or without Lala.com there still seems to be interest in streaming music. In the AppStore there are several streaming music applications to choose from. The Pandora app works just like Pandora.com, but there are other apps that stream directly from your computer to your iPhone or iPod Touch like StreamToMe (OSX only!) and Dot.Tunes which offers additional features like remote-control abilities. While these applications focus primarily on mobile devices, they still have a personal-collection focus, which is what was initially attractive to me about Lala.com.
Regardless of what is available now, I am still interested in what the future holds for streaming music and media. I think it’s fair to guess that Apple might adopt a similar plan to those of Rhapsody and Napster, except Apple has the iTunes element which could really make things interesting. Would I pay $10 a month to have 9 million songs available to me online on Rhapsody? Mostly likely not. But how much would I pay each month to have Apple stream my iTunes library into the internets?
On April 22, 2010, the world celebrated the 40th edition of Earth Day. According to earthday.org, it is the largest secular event in the world with over 1 billion people participating in over 190 countries. This number was surprising to me because I barely remember reading anything about the event that allegedly included 1/7 of the population. Other than the Google homepage spelling out Google in very “earthy” letters, Earth Day would have passed me by unnoticed. By contrast, events like the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (75,000 people), the Kentucky Derby (140,000 people), and even the NFL draft (held in Radio City Music Hall) had around the clock coverage, but were much smaller in scale. Even a BP oil spill that happened off the Gulf Coast on April 20th was receiving around the clock coverage during Earth Day. This made me believe that Earth Day would be more effective if people focused more on what they were trying to accomplish rather than how many people participated. Thus, the question was raised: how many companies are serious about its environmental goals and how many are focused on convincing the public that they are serious?
I can not speak for every company nor can I provide a complete analysis on the positive and negative effects of any company’s environmental policy. However, I can point out a few examples of environmental hypocrisy that will remind everyone that the only difference you can be sure of is the one you make yourself.
Let us begin with BP. Oil companies already have a bad reputation regarding the environment and we have heard everyone blasting BP for spilling oil into the Gulf. What people are not talking about is that BP has been recognized as one of the most environmentally conscience companies in the world. Granted, operating an oil company generates a certain amount of pollution, but so do dozens of other industries. So where is the hypocrisy? It lies in the federal government. Just listen to how they scold BP and its offshore drilling efforts. Even though, on April 1st, President Obama lifted a decades-long moratorium on offshore drilling. This effectively allows new drilling to take place in Alaska, the Gulf, and the entire Atlantic coast. New drilling has been banned for the last 20 years.
During the government’s tongue lashing of BP, you will also not hear them mention that BP was one of three finalists for the US Department of Interior’s Pollution Prevention Award. The winner was chosen before April 20th, but the ceremony has been postponed. If BP was not the original winner, then why postpone the ceremony? You also will not hear them mention BP as a finalist for the U.S. Government’s SAFETY Award For Excellence (SAFE) for High Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Activity. In other words, BP is a finalist for having the safest off-shore drilling operation. The winner of this award was also chosen before April 20th, and the ceremony has been postponed. I wonder who won. It appears to me that BP is serious about the environment and the government is more concerned with making you think it cares.
Another great example is FedEx. They announced on March 29th that they are launching the first electric delivery vehicle. Awesome FedEx, we appreciate your efforts. Here is the press release about the vehicle, which is not up and running yet. Shocking.
The only problem with announcing that you are the first at something is that people might not believe you. As it turns out, UPS has been operating 4 electric delivery trucks in New York since 2004, and dozens more in Europe. The difference is that FedEx felt the need to run ads, commercials, and hold a press conference to tell the world about the one electric vehicle that they have and do not use. UPS did the same thing without running around telling the world how wonderful they are. They wanted to make a difference and did. FedEx wants you to think that it is considering making a difference, but has not yet.
The point is, before you allow a company’s environmental policies effect where you spend your money, remember that they will overstate the positives, understate the negatives, and say whatever you want to hear to get your business, fatten their wallets, and make you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. Like the old saying goes, “The loudest person in the room has the least to say.” If a company was really making a difference it would not have to consistently tell you that it was. You would notice, and if you really care about doing your part for the environment, remember, the only part that matters is the part you do yourself. Don’t let a company fool you into thinking you are helping if you purchase its products. The only difference it will truly make is on their balance sheet.
Here in the office printing analyst community, few forecast drum beats can be heard as loudly as claims of the imminent consolidation of copier vendors and the looming obsolescence of the A3 format. These forecasts have gained increasing clout during the last year as the floundering economy expedited Oce’s path to acquisition and the emergence of new A4 MFPs, such as Sharp’s Frontier series, prompted analysts to proclaim that A3s were finally on their way out. Although there is very justifiable evidence behind each of these forecasts, one of the most compelling arguments that both have come to fruition occurred in February when Panasonic announced that it was finally exiting the A3 MFP-Copier market to capitalize on the growth opportunities that lie in the A4 space.
From a 10,000-foot view it seemed pretty clear. With one announcement, Panasonic encapsulated two of the most common theories surrounding the office printing space and became the first milestone in a pair of major transitions that are set to change the office printing market forever. However, as with many apparently clear harbingers of change, the closer you look at Panasonic’s announced transition, the less straightforward the motivations behind it are.
Although Panasonic was never a copier market powerhouse, the manufacturer’s investment into the A3 space was clearly waning for the last five years before reaching its official nadir earlier this year.
On the product side, Panasonic’s actions did not reflect those of a company with intentions of growing within the copier market. Panasonic launched just 12 new A3 MFPs between 2007 and 2010, all of which were closely based on their predecessors and provided no notable specification or feature improvements. To put that into context, since December 2009 Xerox, Canon, and Ricoh have launched 13, 12, and 6 new A3 systems, respectively, and Ricoh is expected to launch another four MFPs in the coming months. Additionally, Panasonic resisted expansion into departmental segments, sat as a spectator as vendors migrated to the light production arena, and never launched a true third party development platform.
Panasonic’s Old A3s
Panasonic appears to have invested even less into the marketing and distribution of its copiers and actually adopted almost the exact opposite channel strategy of the current market leaders. In 2005, Panasonic bucked the growing trend of direct sales expansion by selling-off its 13 direct branches, in a cost cutting move that was positioned as an attempt to reduce competition with its channel partners. During the following years, Panasonic’s limited emphasis behind its A3 business resulted in the manufacturer losing a large number of its authorized dealers, almost all mid-market and major enterprise clients, and its entire government sales presence beyond the municipal level. Perhaps the most telling sign of Panasonic’s lack of commitment to the copier market came in February 2009 when the vendor announced that it would transition its 60 remaining authorized dealers to reseller status.
One year before making it official, Panasonic had essentially ended development of new A3 MFPs and was the only copier manufacturer without a direct sales or an authorized dealer presence. To put it plainly, Panasonic’s exit two months ago came as no surprise to those that were paying attention.
One thing that may surprise folks in the A3 obsolescence crowed is that Panasonic is not shifting its focus to the type of A4s that will theoretically replace copiers. Instead the vendor is planning to expand its current SOHO lineup, launching a variety of new desktop models that will sell through IT resellers, its Panafax channel, and will even reportedly include a substantial retail channel push (and they thought direct sales were expensive!).
Panasonic’s New A4s
Given the market share race and manufacturing scale pressures that face current A3 MFP manufacturers and the hardware cost advantages of A4 MFPs, it is almost certain that vendor consolidation and an engine format shift will continue. However, Panasonic’s exit from the copier space and increased commitment to A4 printers should in no way be viewed as a move from a company that really had a choice. Going forward there are certainly a handful of A3 vendors with low enough market shares and limited enough manufacturing scale that their future may be in doubt, but none are anywhere close to where Panasonic was in 2005 (nevermind 2010), so its safe to expect a substantial slowdown in vendor consolidation until the next recession. Meanwhile, the expected transition to A4 MFPs is already occurring, but it will likely take the form of more balanced A3 and A4 product and fleet lineups as manufacturers look to provide the right hardware solutions for their clients’ needs. It will not be in any way as abrupt as Panasonic’s recent transition – especially not until A4s can rival A3 systems’ usage costs, speeds, and high volume capabilities.
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My new “All Time Favorite Picture” was just recently posted on NASA’s Goddard Photo and Video Flikr account. Captured by the Mars Exploration Rover Unit Spirit One from the surface of that distant planet, it is the first recorded image of Earth from a planet beyond the moon. I doubt that Buzz Aldrin could have held a camera so steady, even if he placed it on the lunar module.
I love this picture because it shows just how small we truly are and triggers curiosity on what really may be out there. Make no mistake, I am certainly not suggesting that space aliens are booking Star Destroyer tickets to visit us any time soon, but I have to admit that if I were sitting next to Spirit One and gazed at that teeny little light up there – I would bet the farm that nothing could possibly live on it.
For me, if anything, this picture puts us all into proper perspective.I don’t’ think that I am going to get too upset when my tomatoes don’t grow this year or if my favorite hockey team falls short of the Stanley Cup (again…).
Almost one year ago today I wrote a blog piece about gap intelligence’s new experiment on health insurance. gap intelligence, like millions of other small companies across the country, kept a very close eye on expenses as the global economy came to a grinding halt. Health insurance was one of our biggest expenses and we were challenged to find a way to reduce our overall health care costs while maintaining the same level of coverage for the team.
After deliberating for several months, most insurance brokers suggested that we adopt a new approach to health care that was growing exponentially in popularity – a Health Savings Account (or HSA for short). In its most simplistic form, a HSA is a bank account that is really no different than a personal checking account – you receive a debit card to withdraw funds to pay medical bills and you get a monthly statement showing your balance. The HSA account is then supported by a very high deductible health insurance plan, which is in our case provided by Blue Shield of California. Through the plan, 100% of the deductible (several thousand dollars) is paid by the employee, who uses the pre-tax funds collected in their HSA accounts. After the deductible had been reached, 100% of every dollar thereafter would be covered by Blue Shield of California. Given that gap intelligence is a relatively young company and whose employees would presumably need minimal medical attention, the HSA plan seemed then (and to an extent is today) an ideal solution to ease our budget. Our health insurance premiums would decrease substantially, our employees could save on taxes and keep a medical fund for life, and everyone would be covered in case of a dire emergency.
This May is our annual renewal of our health insurance policy and to celebrate or first anniversary, Blue Shield of California raised our premiums by 58%. You read that right – 58%.A premium that cost us $100 a month in April will cost $158 in May (underline that). Blue Shield’s reasoning behind the massive rate increase was that diabetics, who require expensive insulin medication to stay alive, quickly gobbled up their high deductibles and then enjoyed 100% coverage of every dollar thereafter.*** In other words, people were actually using their health insurance.
Though “it’s the diabetics” was the reason given for our rate increase, the underlying reasons may be do to health care reform, the astronomical costs of medicine in the US, a national shortage of doctors (and medical schools), malpractice insurance, malpractice fraud, and so on…..
With few viable options presented to us, gap intelligence is going to stick out the HSA program one more year. Blue Shield was forthright enough to warn us that its policy to cover 100% of costs after the deductible was reached will end in 2011, when it will then fall to 80%. Between now and then, we’ll look at other health care options, either through Blue Shield or other providers (Blue Shield may cut us after this blog), but I did want to share some of the challenges of being a small business and perhaps show an example of how health care impacts us all (without getting on either side of the political fence).
If you’d like to make plans with me it will have to wait till September. My jet-setting began in February and will continue all the way through August.I have planned nine trips over seven months!My travels include the following cities in this order: San Francisco, Napa, Las Vegas, Palm Springs, Lake Tahoe, Sacramento, San Jose, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz.
Why so many trips?Well, I traveled to San Francisco to visit my best friend from college.My trip to Napa was a family vacation that brought lots of wine and yummy food.My adventures in Las Vegas and Palm Springs were both tied to the wedding of a dear friend.Lake Tahoe was a special birthday party for my darling niece who turned one year old.
In the next four months I head to Sacramento to host a bridal shower for my best friend from high school. Following that trip, I will be traveling to my home town, San Jose, to host a wild 30th Birthday party for my big brother.In July, I will be heading to Santa Barbara for a bachelorette party followed by a wedding in August in Santa Cruz.
Traveling can be slightly overwhelming at times and I must admit that a weekend at home seems like a luxury these days.I joke that my dent in Tyrone (yes, I named my couch Tyrone) is losing its shape.Though all this traveling may be starting to wear on me a bit it is worth it.I love spending time with my friends and family more than anything else in this world.Being around those you love is such a treat.
A constant on all of my trips is a discussion about my exciting new job here at Gap.I have found that explaining what we do here at Gap seems to only invite more questions.Everyone is happy for me despite not quite understanding what exactly I do all day as a Sys Ops team member.
Here at Gap I am the data gate keeper for digital cameras.As a sort of newbie this is an on going learning process of course.I am slowly but surely becoming an expert when it comes to cameras and I couldn’t be more excited about this.It’s rather fitting that in my inner circle I am known as the paparazzi.I bring my Canon PowerShot everywhere I go.Friends of mine joke that they can leave their camera at home if I am coming to an event because they know I will have the picture taking duties covered.
Lately I have found that I notice cameras everywhere I go.I was at a wedding recently and I couldn’t help but take second looks at the cameras that were snapping away as the happy couple said their “I Do’s”.I found myself noting model numbers to myself.As pictures began to circulate after the wedding it was quite apparent that certain cameras took a better picture than others, but I won’t disclose which!
So, if you need any travel advice, I’m your gal. For instance, large round earrings look like ninja stars to security x-ray technicians so it’s better to pack those on top of your bag (not packed away deep in your suitcase). I learned the hard way to avoid sitting near small children on flights. Children aren’t much fun on planes.Also, if you own an iPhone, the Southwest Airlines travel App is a must.Not only does this app alert me when cheap tickets are available but it allows me to check into my flight on my iPhone!Oh technology!
I hope all of your future travels go smoothly.If you need any recommendations on where you should travel next I have a large list of suggestions.Traveling is a privilege and I am so blessed to have so many reasons to grab a suitcase and go.No matter where my travels take me though I always feel lucky to come home to San Diego.Happy traveling everyone!
The first half of our birthday started with a company kick-off meeting. We discussed who Gap Intelligence is, how we can get stronger, and some of the exciting stuff in the pipeline (DCV3, the Gap iPhone App for retail collectors, and new categories). We move fast as a company and it’s always cool to reflect on how much we’ve grown, even within the last several months.
When I was a kid, turning 7 meant that I got my first pair of roller blades and a new ninja turtles VHS. But most importantly, it meant I was allowed to invite friends over for all-you-can-eat pizza, fruit snacks, juice boxes, and a trip to the arcade! As it turns out, there is an arcade for “grown-ups” today and we got to celebrate Gap’s birthday in style. After the company meeting, we went to Dave and Busters, which has awesome food and all the arcade staples: Mrs. Pac-Man, Skee-Ball, mini basketball, and air hockey.
There were only two things that reminded me that I wasn’t a kid: I had a beer instead of a juice box and the air hockey puck kept flying off the table. I guess it’s a good sign that I’m now slightly stronger than I was in first grade. Overall, it was a good time and a fun way to welcome the new Gapsters to the team.
It’s no secret that the most successful retailers have the best knowledge of their products, their supply chain, and their customers. The faster and more consistently a chain can process and respond to changes in these areas, the more competitive they are likely to be. Conventional inventory management relies on line-of-sight tracking; an employee must visually identify a product in order to account for it. It is both costly and time-consuming to have employees routinely do this, so this is where RFID technology can provide a solution.
RFID or radio frequency identification works by using radio waves to transmit information between a small label and a reader. The technology is applied through a variety of mediums, including credit cards, passports, loyalty cards, and even the pass cards for buses running by Gap’s office in San Diego. In retail, putting RFID tags on products and packaging can have huge benefits for the manufacturer down to the end-user.
RFID tags can store information and can be read from up to a several feet away, without line-of-sight, so they are especially helpful for inventory management and security. Manufacturers who put RFID tags on their products can add information about individual items, such as when it was made, how, and by whom. Pallets of goods can be equipped with RFID tags to improve shipping accuracy and cut costs. Once a product reaches a retailer’s shelf it can be accounted for faster and more effectively using the same RFID technology, reducing labor costs and inventory issues. Retailers and manufacturers can even use RFID to track promotions more effectively. RFID technology is already a proven solution for limiting retail shrinkage-it can reduce human error in the supply chain and double as a theft deterrent. Additionally, tags programmed with a manufacturer’s identification can assure consumers that they have purchased a genuine product.
Standard size for retail, some are even smaller
Despite all the benefits of RFID, there are plenty of security and privacy concerns. A retailer can track a shopper throughout a store utilizing loyalty cards that the person is carrying or an RFID tag implanted in clothing. And who’s to say a person can’t steal your credit card information using an RFID reader a few yards away. From a retailer’s perspective, there are risks associated with using RFID. There have already been a few incidents where individuals have compromised RFID-enabled inventories using their own RFID reader. These concerns have to be addressed before retailers or customers will feel totally comfortable with implementing RFID.
For now RFID tag costs are still pretty high, ranging between 5 and 50 cents depending on order volume, so you’ll probably only see them on higher-priced products right now. However, as usage increases and costs continue to drop, RFID technology is expected to migrate toward lower cost products. In-house RFID printers are becoming less expensive as well, making it possible for businesses to create their own RFID solutions. I think there’s a huge opportunity for these little tags to improve identification and tracking for businesses, who in turn can use it to enhance the shopper experience and create value for customers. Next time you’re opening a DVD case or tearing into your new electronic goody take a peek inside the package and look for an RFID label; they’re in more places than you may realize!
