Happy ending to this tale

By Edward Miller, Guest Columnist

I used to run a newspaper in Pennsylvania with a payroll of more than 650. Back then we were leaders in the transition to the digital age in publishing, so I was knee-deep in experts who could buy cool electronic gadgets, and better still, fix them. Technical solutions were a phone call away.

Now I live in Georgia and work as a writer and editor in Cindy Miller Communications, my wife’s company that delivers strategy and content for Fortune 500 businesses, one-person consulting shops and everything in-between.

Cindy and I are fond of saying that tools like iPhones, iPads, iMacs and lots of other stuff with cords are great … until they’re not. That uncertainty was a big adjustment for me. I never trembled in front of my Remington typewriter; I loaded it with paper, not software. My calendar was contained in a pocket-size notebook; its operating system was a No. 2 pencil.

You can guess what’s coming next. Upgrade my MacBook Pro with the latest software? Dreadful experience, as in filled with dread. Ensure that my phone, iPad and laptop are synced to make my calendar accurate and consistent? Not a pretty sight when I’m trying to make it happen.

The digital world has gone beyond my capacity to manage it. I have neither the time nor the knowledge to keep up with what I have now, much less what I’ll have six months from now. What I need is that “phone-call-away” help that I had in Pennsylvania without the payroll of hundreds of people.

Here’s the happy ending to this tale: She’s Wired. Sue Cleere and her techno-smart colleagues have whisked away my anxieties as they’ve solved our company’s technical challenges. How do they do it?

• They’re smart. They know their way around the equipment and software I depend on, but they don’t make me feel like an idiot for not being as savvy.
• They’re teachers. I had never heard of Evernote (a document storage and retrieval program) or Wunderlist (a clever list-maker) or a slew of other applications that make our work more efficient. They not only recommended those tools, they made sure I learned how to use them.
• They’re guides. They look over the horizon and suggest what you need to cope down the road.
• Best yet, they’re on call whenever you need them. If the situation isn’t urgent, they get to you when you need them to. If it’s code blue, they’ll ask to beam inside your computer to fix the problem.

Think of the one device in your life that was useful and dependable –– you never had to worry about it working. In my life, that was the Princess phone made by Western Electric.

She’s Wired has taken over the title. They’re not just contenders, they’re the champs.