The art of Synchronising
Many people these days keep their agenda in someway electronically: on the Internet or on their phone / PDA. But there are a few who have different agendas on different platforms. How do they manage all these agendas? Some want to keep it simple and want just one system synchronizing with just one PDA. But what if your employer uses Lotus for instance and you want to have all the benefits of an iPhone? Not to mention if you’re equipped (by the company you work for) with a Windows Mobile device. And finally there are also good willing secretaries that try to keep your appointments in line with the planning. Let me tell you about my situation.
If you and your secretary are going to make changes in your company system, your PDA, your Google and your iPhone at the same time, thenĀ – after a while – you really don’t know where to go and you probably have an overworked assistant. OK, I must admit it happened more than once that due to a system failure in one the other systems my secretary found the appointments of the coming weeks as double entries, but most of the times I myself was so kind to un-double the system, as I was in most cases also the cause of the problems. The problem solver for me is Google. Google not only has mail, but also has Google agenda. Timing is the key word. I had to decide which system was ‘leading’; all the rest are followers.
So how do I work? The central and also leading system is Lotus Notes. This directly synchronises to my business PDA (the Windows Mobile PDA HTC TyTN II). This means that my secretary and I can simultaneously put in the agenda everything we want and all the stuff will be synchronised over the air, resulting a one-on-one same agenda on my HTC and in Lotus (with the help of OneBridge software package). Just after a synchronisation I will start up GooSync on my HTC to send all the changes to Google agenda, but asking Google just to listen and not to send. The iMac at home is always switched on, always connected to the internet and always listening (using the software Spanning Sync) to Google (so are my MacBook Pro and my MacBook Air by the way). In this way the Apple iCal programme will be aware of the latest data. Every night (mostly for recharging the battery of the iPhone), the iPhone is connected to the iMac. The iMac not only gives power, but (as you would expect) also the current state of affairs of my agenda to the iPhone. Is the iPhone therefore only a listener? No not at all! I have a strictly private agenda that only exists on the iPhone and on Google and no one but me knows the content and I can use both systems to enter new data.
And now for the superlative! I am changing jobs. And my new assistant is already filling my (new) agenda. My future employer uses a Microsoft Exchange Server and has a Palm Treo as the standard for PDA with Palm OS. Two new platforms, oh my God! I do not have any new strategy yet, but there will be a solution, I am sure. Probably I’ll have to spend again some amounts of money to bring in new programs to let them speak to each other. Maybe in the future there will be one platform that suits all. Microsoft and Google are both seeking for supremacy. I don’t care who will win, but please let one win, so we will have one system. The telecom companies probably would not like that, as I have more than 3 data subscriptions.
Beam me up Scotty……