In pieces he posted during the recent 2021 Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2021), my friend and IT Chronicles colleague William Goddard mentioned the “corporate consumer.” The term describes any business technology user who uses consumer apps and services to shop, learn, and play at home, and who increasingly demands business technology as engaging and usable as those non-work apps.
I like the term. And I have discovered and begun using a piece of software that not only meets and exceeds corporate consumer needs and desires, but can help any connected worker. Or student. Or shopper or gamer, if work and/or learning and/or getting your kids educated leaves you with any time for such things.
Hello? Is This Thing On?
As many have discovered during the pandemic, and many others have known for years, there are a lot of great things about being able to work from home or almost anywhere else. But there’s one thing every remote worker, learner, and gamer prays to avoid and hates to encounter: having a problem with their internet connection.
Connection problems are enough of a problem for workers in an office or students in a school where there are support-providing humans within reach. However, most of us can’t travel with a full-time, dedicated tech support person. And while it can be fun watching drivers pretend to know what they’re looking at under the hood of their mysteriously incapacitated vehicle, no one enjoys unexpected episodes of connectus interruptus.
Enter HubbleIQ. The company’s primary focus is what it calls “Intelligent Remote Connectivity Management.” What this means in real life is helping enterprises that support remote users, from schools to companies, quickly identify the causes of and resolve connectivity problems. The HubbleIQ platform assesses and monitors connectivity, security, and access to online tools and services. When it flags issues, it also makes resolution recommendations, based on real-life specifics, in plain, actionable language.
Connection Help as Near as Your Browser
But what’s most interesting and useful to remote users is the free HubbleIQ extension for Google’s Chrome browser. That extension installs in seconds from the Play Store. Once it’s activated, it runs a speed test on your computer’s Wi-Fi connection. It then tells you whether your connection is fine or compromised. If it’s slow, the HubbleIQ extension quickly connects you with specific, simple recommendations and clear explanations from the company’s online Help Center. And if you decide your only alternative is (shudder!) to get your provider on the phone, the extension makes it easy to share current and historical speed test results.
And yes, it’s totally free. It’s more useful and usable than any other free online speed test I’ve used. It can help any remote user test the Wi-Fi at home or wherever they might be, and begin to address rudimentary connectivity challenges independently.
And that’s just the beginning. If you run a school, business, or other enterprise that supports remote users, that HubbleIQ platform enables management of connected groups, and consolidated information about user experiences. It can also deliver clear information about incidents and mitigation efforts directly to remediators. The HubbleIQ web site offers free trials and demos, case studies, and more information.
Hubble IQ: Designed for the Corporate Consumer
The HubbleIQ Chrome extension is a prime example of what all business software should look and act like. Easy to install. Easy to use. Stays out of the way. Communicates clearly. Does what it says. Plays well with others. In other words, it’s as accessible, engaging, and immediately useful as the best consumer software, but does real work.
Join the 10,000-plus users (including me) who have downloaded the HubbleIQ Chrome extension from Google’s Play Store. Use and explore it. Then, compare it to the tools you use to do your work every day. Even if all of your Wi-Fi connections are uniformly excellent, you’ll get a glimpse of what engaging, accessible business software can look like. A glimpse you can perhaps share with those who buy, build, and deploy the software your business uses.
Just saying…
