I’ve told this story in person to a few people today, and every time I have done so, I have had to explain what SlyDial is, so let me start there. SlyDial is a service that is provided by MobileSphere in Boston, and it works like this: First, you call their number. They play an advertisement to you to pay for the service you are about to receive. Next, they prompt you for the phone number of a mobile phone. You punch this in, and they will then take you right to that person’s voicemail box, all without ringing that person’s telephone. It’s a pretty cool service, actually, and a great way to deliver low-priority messages without disturbing the recipient.

I’ve been finding, as time goes on, places where multiple technologies have been deployed together, with some sort of common function, but without the level of integration to make the all play together nicely.

I’ve written before about the fun I’ve had dealing with the Very Big Banking Corporation (VBBC, not their real name) and their “interactive” voice response system.

In this day and age, we have become really accustomed to the idea that we can take the things that we are buying to the front of the store, and a quick scan of a barcode or punching in of a code will bring up the price of the item. We don’t really think about it much.