We are starting to work with an exciting entrepreneur, Andrew Mazer, helping to set up ModernCoupon.com, a web-based coupon site. We have helped him review the market and we think he clearly understands that the key to the success of the site is serving web users real value - only coupons that offer substantial savings - at least 10% off. Coupons are to be free to the normal web visitor but there is an upgrade option. For $5.00 per month a member can upgrade and be entitled to additional coupons. Each of the coupons available to upgraded members is worth at least $5.00 so using even one coupon is worth the upgrade price. The site is just getting under development but it has a reasonable chance of success with a well thought out business and marketing plan.

I found that on my home machine certain web applications were not running properly and they seemed to slow my browser down to a crawl. Since I have several other nearly identical machines that were running fine, the OS seemded to be the only answer. Uninstalling and then reinstalling networking had not cleared the problem.

The Windows 7 (release candidate - the try it but don’t blame us if it doesn’t work version of the operating system) install directions of course warned me to back up my system and then do a fresh install (not upgrade) of the operating system. Because I wanted a clean install the lack of an upgrade option was not too troubling. Note that a clean install will require that you reinstall your desired programs, although your data will be left intact. I needed to download the software and create an install DVD which meant I also needed to download the latest version of a burner. The directions were all straightforward and easy to follow. The process took 4 to 6 hours from start to finish. I was somewhat confused as the install of the OS did seem to offer an upgrade option.

Windows 7 looks more like Windows Server 2008 than it does like Vista. I found the Vista interface to be confusing and too cute. We only installed Vista on some of our machines to have the environment available for testing. We did in fact do more Vista uninstalls for customers than we did installs!

Windows 7 required no real learning - everything is quite intuitive. I did find that there is a machine tuning utility that lets you determine the machine componenets that might be slowing down overall perormance of your system. There is even a way to turn off several graphics features if your graphics card is the weak link in your system - it was in mine.

Task switching seems to be a little faster. I also found that squences that previously hung my browser were now able to be automatically worked around by the OS. That was a real plus. The additional features that let you see or preview more of what you are doing are not yet something I hae come to appreciate. I assume I will find more use for them over time.

I did find that the install set my monitor to the highest resolution available which I needed to dial back as my eyes no longer acoomodate that resolution well.

But all in all I would recommend and suggest that an upgrade to Windows 7 should be painless.

I did remember to save my Outlook data to a pst file so I could recover it easily. I forgot to save my browser favorites but they were still accessible after the Windows 7 install.

BTW - the install did clear my web browser application issues.

Business managers can suffer from similar omissions. Not having meaningful measurements and accurately noting the conditions that gave rise to those results can make business navigation more difficult. And not reviewing, from time to time, the procedures being used by those responsible for daily tasks can result in ineffective habits that can impede the organization.

But here is the downside of that approach:

1. You are locked into a system that is destined to become outdated. Technology changes over time. Systems that have no growth path must eventually die.

2. Properly designed systems will, by their nature, provide you the capability of asking ever more complex questions and getting important answers. Systems that can be, and are, modified to answer new questions will be of the most business value.

3. The key driving force in the adoption of new technology is improved productivity. Technology that does not improve productivity is not long embraced. To the extent that you avoid new technology you lose out on likely productivity gains.

4. Personnel know when technology is antiquated. Lack of progress in technology is a symptom of lack of progress in the business. The best and the brightest don’t want to work in that environment.

5. Stagnating systems attract, and are the comfortable home of, stagnating people.

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