Arthur
07-02-2005, 02:54 PM
After reading all the rants about service and problems, problems, problems ... here's a modest plea for patience.
Dear Ranters:
Guys - WBS is setting up this operation from scratch. Yes, they've had a wireless network service for some years, but it's a closed group, and very different from a public consumer broadband business.
Apart from the technical network implementation, there is obviously a timeline for establishing and ramping up business operations like customer databases, billing systems, call centres, support, management, new hires -- not to speak of classic GLAPPR and BICARSA apps (for business acronym n00bs: General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Payroll; Billing, Inventory Control, Accounts Receivable, and Sales Analysis). These are not trivial exercises, and cannot be done overnight.
Now, as I see it, any new venture can take broadly two routes to market:
1. Get everything done before signing up anyone at all.
2. Do things in parallel
Route 1 is very very expensive and means the system cannot be stress tested with anything other than a handful of internal users. Upfront costs are very high (network charges, equipment capital and installation costs, staff hiring and training, etc, etc) and this profoundly affects the charging model once you roll out. The risk-response-ramp-return ratios are usually intolerable for start-up commercial operations.
Route 2 generally means you (a) start a small pilot as technical proof of concept, then (b) in an ante-marketing phase you ramp up (in hi-tech world, as rapidly as possible) on a clear business & technical plan, ironing out issues as they arise; (c) when ready, launch and market, with sound plans to manage quality and growth.
Right now iBurst is in 2(b). This is one of the hardest phases of a business to manage. Pre-launch customers are tech-savvy, their demands dramatically exceed capacity of support staff to respond. Mgmt and staff, existing on 3 hours sleep a night, are trying to resolve more urgent issues. Note the difference between urgent and important - I'm sure WBS know customers are very very very important (they're a commercial private business, remember, not a police-protected monopoly) ... but they also know they won't have cusomers for very long if their basic business processes and technical infrastructure don't operate smoothly - and they are in a critical start-up phase, remember.
So, my plea to current iBursters: it's premature to start bad-mouthing and denigrating and generally venting spleen. Surely SA's only private commercial non-state broadband supplier needs every bit of encouragement and support we can give them during this ciritical part of their pre-launch business.
Frankly, any person past the age of 12 should know enough about the real-world business start-ups to expect issues, problems, delays, hassles, intermittent degradations, confusion, internal and external comms issues, etc. Our presence on their network is helping them resolve issues, train staff, and get the hundreds of other internal systems, processes and procedures going. Hopefully our early participation will be accomplished as productively as possible, helping them to the point where they can confidently say "we're ready" and launch the service publicly. Generally, I believe they're aware of the problems and issues before we pre-commercial users are - and of dozens that we are not (just look at your own business). What they need now is encouragement. Problems can be reported in a way that is encouraging and positive, rather than a negative denigration and put-down.
And because we're getting pipe (which is costing them dearly, via UUnet, from Telkom's robber-baroning of infrapipe) it's only right that we should be paying something. I'm shocked to see some of the loudest shouters on these forums bragging about sucking a gig a day, and then complaining!
And before the flames-throwers spew: No, I'm not excusing bad service from established businesses. I constantly demand and insist on quality service - and regularly compain when I don't receive what I pay for - usually straight to the top. I've made aggressive submission to ICASA and government about Telkom's gouging, and have been even been arrested by another state monopoly for refusing to cease my insistence on decent service. However, I've also been in the real world long enough to know that constant negativity at the wrong time can kill a start-up's enthusiam for the business.
By all means throw your toys out the cot once the whole service is up and running and it's still not working right. But it's too early now.
For anyone who's every worked in a start-up operation, you know it takes a while for new hires to get up to speed, especially when basic business tools are also a work in process. Yes, we are paying users and it's fair to expect equivalent value for our hard-earned cash ... but please remember, we're using a system that has not been publicly launched yet. How many times must it be said that even WBS does not believe they're ready for prime time. That's says to me they know there are issues. And judging by what they've accomplished from scratch in 4 or 5 months, this company knows how to do incredible things in an incredibly short time. They know they're not quite ready for launch, and we know that, otherwise they would have launched already. So ranting does nothing but spread more s**t in an ever crappy world. Bad-mouthed hollering is always rude and unproductive. Rather more helpful is to take a positive attitide of wanting to help resolve issues, calmly reporting faults and performance problems, suggesting improvements, etc.
I for one am glad to be part of this massive install-and-ramp-up exercise at this early stage (was a pilot user last year). Yes, it's not perfect yet, but considering where they were just 4 months ago, they're well on their way to accomplishing the impossible. For that reason, I'm holding off complaints until WBS says "we're ready". Once they're established, we and the market will (and should) judge them as we would any other business. Yet even then, I'm personally more biased to private commercial businesses than to state-owned monopolies (or pseudo ex-monopolies) ...
Laissez faire! And a little pazienza. For now.
PS. I have nothing whatsoever to do with WBS.
Dear Ranters:
Guys - WBS is setting up this operation from scratch. Yes, they've had a wireless network service for some years, but it's a closed group, and very different from a public consumer broadband business.
Apart from the technical network implementation, there is obviously a timeline for establishing and ramping up business operations like customer databases, billing systems, call centres, support, management, new hires -- not to speak of classic GLAPPR and BICARSA apps (for business acronym n00bs: General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Payroll; Billing, Inventory Control, Accounts Receivable, and Sales Analysis). These are not trivial exercises, and cannot be done overnight.
Now, as I see it, any new venture can take broadly two routes to market:
1. Get everything done before signing up anyone at all.
2. Do things in parallel
Route 1 is very very expensive and means the system cannot be stress tested with anything other than a handful of internal users. Upfront costs are very high (network charges, equipment capital and installation costs, staff hiring and training, etc, etc) and this profoundly affects the charging model once you roll out. The risk-response-ramp-return ratios are usually intolerable for start-up commercial operations.
Route 2 generally means you (a) start a small pilot as technical proof of concept, then (b) in an ante-marketing phase you ramp up (in hi-tech world, as rapidly as possible) on a clear business & technical plan, ironing out issues as they arise; (c) when ready, launch and market, with sound plans to manage quality and growth.
Right now iBurst is in 2(b). This is one of the hardest phases of a business to manage. Pre-launch customers are tech-savvy, their demands dramatically exceed capacity of support staff to respond. Mgmt and staff, existing on 3 hours sleep a night, are trying to resolve more urgent issues. Note the difference between urgent and important - I'm sure WBS know customers are very very very important (they're a commercial private business, remember, not a police-protected monopoly) ... but they also know they won't have cusomers for very long if their basic business processes and technical infrastructure don't operate smoothly - and they are in a critical start-up phase, remember.
So, my plea to current iBursters: it's premature to start bad-mouthing and denigrating and generally venting spleen. Surely SA's only private commercial non-state broadband supplier needs every bit of encouragement and support we can give them during this ciritical part of their pre-launch business.
Frankly, any person past the age of 12 should know enough about the real-world business start-ups to expect issues, problems, delays, hassles, intermittent degradations, confusion, internal and external comms issues, etc. Our presence on their network is helping them resolve issues, train staff, and get the hundreds of other internal systems, processes and procedures going. Hopefully our early participation will be accomplished as productively as possible, helping them to the point where they can confidently say "we're ready" and launch the service publicly. Generally, I believe they're aware of the problems and issues before we pre-commercial users are - and of dozens that we are not (just look at your own business). What they need now is encouragement. Problems can be reported in a way that is encouraging and positive, rather than a negative denigration and put-down.
And because we're getting pipe (which is costing them dearly, via UUnet, from Telkom's robber-baroning of infrapipe) it's only right that we should be paying something. I'm shocked to see some of the loudest shouters on these forums bragging about sucking a gig a day, and then complaining!
And before the flames-throwers spew: No, I'm not excusing bad service from established businesses. I constantly demand and insist on quality service - and regularly compain when I don't receive what I pay for - usually straight to the top. I've made aggressive submission to ICASA and government about Telkom's gouging, and have been even been arrested by another state monopoly for refusing to cease my insistence on decent service. However, I've also been in the real world long enough to know that constant negativity at the wrong time can kill a start-up's enthusiam for the business.
By all means throw your toys out the cot once the whole service is up and running and it's still not working right. But it's too early now.
For anyone who's every worked in a start-up operation, you know it takes a while for new hires to get up to speed, especially when basic business tools are also a work in process. Yes, we are paying users and it's fair to expect equivalent value for our hard-earned cash ... but please remember, we're using a system that has not been publicly launched yet. How many times must it be said that even WBS does not believe they're ready for prime time. That's says to me they know there are issues. And judging by what they've accomplished from scratch in 4 or 5 months, this company knows how to do incredible things in an incredibly short time. They know they're not quite ready for launch, and we know that, otherwise they would have launched already. So ranting does nothing but spread more s**t in an ever crappy world. Bad-mouthed hollering is always rude and unproductive. Rather more helpful is to take a positive attitide of wanting to help resolve issues, calmly reporting faults and performance problems, suggesting improvements, etc.
I for one am glad to be part of this massive install-and-ramp-up exercise at this early stage (was a pilot user last year). Yes, it's not perfect yet, but considering where they were just 4 months ago, they're well on their way to accomplishing the impossible. For that reason, I'm holding off complaints until WBS says "we're ready". Once they're established, we and the market will (and should) judge them as we would any other business. Yet even then, I'm personally more biased to private commercial businesses than to state-owned monopolies (or pseudo ex-monopolies) ...
Laissez faire! And a little pazienza. For now.
PS. I have nothing whatsoever to do with WBS.