What I hate hardware

The very essence of CGI Group is about service - not products - and this is why we fight every day to push back hardware vendors who want to get in bed with us. Unless it’s for buying the company, in which case we’re ready to talk.

Case in point, I went to the men’s room this morning and I used the most pathetic hand dryer ever manufactured on this planet. Am I the only human being who thinks these hand dryers are total crap, yet they manage to be sold in shopping centers, offices, rest areas and countless places? It takes an eternity to dry your hands, it is so weak most people get annoyed after 10 seconds and rub their hands on their jacket on their way out. I’m so frustrated when I encounter a Nova hand dryer that if I had a hand gun I would shoot the miserable device, watch it go in flame and hear its tiny cheap motor die from systemic failure.

Of course there’s better, much better technology out there but you rarely see it . Tried it once, I was blown away. So simple, so elegant.

Now why is that? Why is Nova still alive when they keep manufacturing the worst hand dryer ever made? Why customers keep buying this shit? Because it must be dirt cheap, and my friends people like cheap products that perform badly. Nova knows this, and this is why they keep building their shitty hand dryers.

Humans have this weird relation with hardware. One can fork three grand for a set of 19” alloyed wheels that basically does the same function than standard steel wheel. Yet the same person will compromise on everything when buying a $400 netbook for work. Then this person will buy a $75 wine bottle when dining out with friends when he cannot taste the difference with a $9 bottle. And when this person has to choose hand dryers for a public restroom, he will pick the most inefficient device ever built.

You’ll be quick to point me to the fact that in the cases of alloyed wheels and wine the person’s decision was purely based on social enhancement factors, meaning looking good, attract the opposite sex and hopefully get laid. And I have to agree with you.

CGI doesn’t sell hardware because IT hardware doesn’t generally act as a social enhancement device. You rarely gloat about your firewall when dining out. When was the last time you picked a girl in a bar by talking about your choice of hardware vendor?