iBurst starting to reduce costs

[Lightscribe]

As Jannie said a few days back...Watch this space...

Wireless broadband operator iBurst is reducing its headcount by about 20% to cut costs as part of a restructuring meant to drive up efficiencies.

As part of the restructuring spearheaded by Van Zyl, who took the reins in July from former MD Alan Knott-Craig, iBurst plans to focus more aggressively on offering its products through third-party service providers.

It will also position itself as a partner to other service providers, where it will provide them with access to back-end services like white-labelled billing.

In addition, iBurst plans to provide telecoms infrastructure services, like backhaul transit facilities, to companies that want to build their own wireless access networks.

The company announced in August that it would focus more heavily on the small and medium enterprise market. But Van Zyl denies market talk that iBurst is planning to exit the consumer market to focus on business customers.

“We value the consumer market very highly and want to double the number of these subscribers we have in the next 18 months,” he says. http://www.techcentral.co.za/iburst-to-cut-headcount-by-20-to-reduce-costs/10753/

All the best to iBurst!

 

[guest2013-1]

Okay.

Think back.

Sentech.

No see what they did with Nowire... okay... your memory has now been refreshed...

Now... iBurst doing the same.

I suspect iBurst will, in the next 4 years, close their doors entirely. Hey, if you want to follow Sentech's model, go for it, but just note they had to close shop because they lacked any kind of skill in business...

 

[czc]

Looks like the news that iburst was going bust was half true?

 

[jannievanzyl]

As Jannie said a few days back...Watch this space...

All the best to iBurst!

Think I was actually going on about new products & pricing, but thanks anyway.

As discussed at length over in the iBurst sub-forum, a lot of "housekeeping" was started in the Jul/Aug timeframe. (Many on direct suggestion / insistence of you bunch ).

Fortunately we're pretty much closing this off now.

 

[jannievanzyl]

Okay.

Think back.

Sentech.

No see what they did with Nowire... okay... your memory has now been refreshed...

Now... iBurst doing the same.

I suspect iBurst will, in the next 4 years, close their doors entirely. Hey, if you want to follow Sentech's model, go for it, but just note they had to close shop because they lacked any kind of skill in business...

Any company that does not re-invent itself continuously is doomed to fail.

Many years ago, I was fortunate to have lunch with Bill and he made a statement: "At any given point in time Microsoft is 3 years away from total failure."

Probably one of the most 'forming' statements anyone ever made to me and, just like Gates, I now live in perpetual paranoia.

Which is a good thing.

 

[Lightscribe]

Think I was actually going on about new products & pricing, but thanks anyway.

As discussed at length over in the iBurst sub-forum, a lot of "housekeeping" was started in the Jul/Aug timeframe. (Many on direct suggestion / insistence of you bunch ).

Fortunately we're pretty much closing this off now.

When I read that article, I knew that the new products & pricing is on it's way. Well done.

Any company that does not re-invent itself continuously is doomed to fail.

Many years ago, I was fortunate to have lunch with Bill and he made a statement: "At any given point in time Microsoft is 3 years away from total failure."

Probably one of the most 'forming' statements anyone ever made to me and, just like Gates, I now live in perpetual paranoia.

Which is a good thing.

Well said. I see great things happening for the consumer

 

[Playoff]

So an already abysmal admin dept is going to get better by reducing the staff by 20% and doubling its residential client base???!?

You can quote as many retructuring feel good mantras as you want but if it doesn't make sense the consumer will quickly let you know.

 

[Lightscribe]

If your company decided to do a restructuring and retrenchment, then put in time and effort to do things better, what else could you do, to show that things will get better?

Yes, the consumer is king. The customer is always right.

Let's give iBurst a chance to surprise us, with their new business model.

 

[LazyLion]

Think I was actually going on about new products & pricing, but thanks anyway.

As discussed at length over in the iBurst sub-forum, a lot of "housekeeping" was started in the Jul/Aug timeframe. (Many on direct suggestion / insistence of you bunch ).

Fortunately we're pretty much closing this off now.

I remember you saying you were going to do this / planning on doing this before you left V3G. It was something you said around the time you made the switch long before any rumours started.

 

[jannievanzyl]

So an already abysmal admin dept is going to get better by reducing the staff by 20% and doubling its residential client base???!?

You can quote as many retructuring feel good mantras as you want but if it doesn't make sense the consumer will quickly let you know.

Yup, can't agree more.

 

[ponder]

Sounds like Telkom when they reduced their call center staff. You are now going to wait for ages and then speak to a AVR

 

[marine1]

I see they are going aggressively into Africa they do know the rest of Africa has broadband?

 

[guest2013-1]

Any company that does not re-invent itself continuously is doomed to fail.

Many years ago, I was fortunate to have lunch with Bill and he made a statement: "At any given point in time Microsoft is 3 years away from total failure."

Probably one of the most 'forming' statements anyone ever made to me and, just like Gates, I now live in perpetual paranoia.

Which is a good thing.

As long as you realize that what you're doing is what Sentech has done. I agree Sentech made a much bigger ballsup than you guys, I'm not a fan of wireless technologies at all because 99% of the wireless technologies out there forces you through their own upstream/downstream providers. Unlike Telkom Wimax... BUT... it's true you need to re-invent yourself, even if it's just getting your billing department and support lines to be a bit less daft when it comes to simple queries.

As an example, I struggled for over 3 years to get you guys to stop sending me Invoices after I canceled your service and returned the equipment. Invoices was for R0.00, but still... things might have changed, but like I said. Burnt my fingers with Sentech, iBurst and 3G (and a couple of independent wireless/internet providers)

If you're aiming to target the SME market you need to ensure you can offer a stable network first. And IMO it's not stable enough to be marketed to the SME's (where you probably realize all the money is @)