(For those new to the column, Forward Migration is our term for companies moving from Wintel machines to Macs — or at least adding or increasing the number of Macs they use. A Forward Migration Kit is an overview of Mac OS products for a particular occupation, such as photography, optometry, etc.)
A MacCentral reader from Iowa said his wife teaches at a large junior high school with a mix of Macs and PCs. Earlier this year, the IT people sent a note to the principal encouraging the system to move to a single platform. Naturally, they wanted Wintel.
The faculty’s Tech Committee set up a PC and a Mac side-by-side in the library and encouraged the teachers to try them out, and then vote for their favorite machine. The vote ended in a near-tie (Macs won by 1 vote), so the decision was left to the principal. He explained to the Tech Committee that the administrative offices used PCs, as did the “rest of the world,” so he was inclined to go that route.
Before he made his final decision, though, the school’s PCs came to a halt due to viruses. Note after note went out to faculty, highlighting warnings and describing workarounds. In each note was the phrase: “Mac users are unaffected.” Finally, this communication from the principal was sent to all the teachers earlier this week: “I have decided that we will go with the Tech Committee’s recommendation to go with the Macintosh platform. In coming to that decision, I took a number of things into account but the final straw that moved me in favor of the Macs was the viruses that have been attacking the Windows machines recently. After getting the committee’s recommendation, seeing the results of the survey, and observing the two platforms in action I think the Mac is best for our needs at this time.”
Also, according to the May 2002, Presentations magazine, the Australian Army used course design software to modernize the more than 750 courses they use to train 27,000 soldiers annually. The software needed to be compatible with Windows and Macintosh platforms at an affordable price, and in a final output format that works in various media, including on the Web and from a CD-ROM. The new courses were designed using a combination of Macromedia’s Director 8.5 and Flash 5 software and Apple QuickTime VR technology. (Thanks to MacCentral reader, Dan Wong, for alerting us to this news item.)
Have a Forward Migration story? Send it our way.
Requests for help
Now it’s time for our weekly requests for help from folks who need your advice and/or assistance in forward migrating — or at least being able to keep the Mac platform alive and thriving in their businesses. Contact the requesters directly at their e-mail addresses.
Ken Schwab: “I am a police chief who has developed a character for a children’s show, which airs on local cable TV on a daily basis. The response has been great. Adults and children watch the exploits of ‘Officer Bear’ and his second cousin, ‘Bully Bear.’ I would like to take it from video to a cartoon format. I work with Macs and would like ideas on an animation software program that would work for this.”