Improvement of life at sea with Maritime Mobile

In the past months I had been very busy, too busy that I ignored writing anything on this blog. Now I'm back! Still very very busy but have more exciting things to share.

The past months I have been helping Seanet (www.seanet.se), a maritime mobile operator, double its fleet sea-going vessels where its services are provided. And I learned a few important lessons along the way. Most especially in the improvement of the quality of life for those who works at sea.

I grew up in a country with 7107 distinct and unique islands, so sailing from one island to another is as natural to me as speaking multiple languages. In the old days (if anyone can remember) most people who work in the shipping industry had to endure long days away from their friends and love ones. It is still true today since no one has yet managed to design and build ships that can travel at the speed of sound. However with the advancement of technology this has changed dramatically.

Now on almost every ships (both passenger and merchant) has access to satellite phones, and recently in most passenger ships both passengers and crew can use their mobile phones while at sea. I have been in the mobile communications industry long enough to appreciate the changes that mobile telephony has brought to society. Today we can reach almost anyone at anytime and anywhere. Be it in the middle of the ocean or in the sky (yes your mobile phone also works in some airlines while flying).

For a ship's crew this is a wonderful advancement since they can now have almost the same working experience and as it is on land. The factor of homesickness is reduced and they can get in touch with friends and family everyday. Such improvement in the quality of life while working at sea solves the fundamental problems most sailors experience. Furthermore with the growing trends in m-commerce they would no longer need to be on land to make financial transactions, making it convenient to manage their finances while enjoying the life on board.

Now then the next step is how we bring a reliable and fast mobile video application to hose who works and leaves on board sea-going vessels.

OPEX reduction in Mobile Networks

In today's economic environment most if not all companies search for ways to increase revenue and decrease cost. In these times where spending is not at its highest decrease in cost is the most desirable.

In mobile networks reduction in OPEX is the main aim of every financial controller. Achieving this would mean that the company can have better profit margins and return of investment. There are several ways of reducing OPEX ranging from the easy excuse of reducing staff to the most complex solution of consolidating operations and maintenance. Every strategy to reduce OPEX has its pros and cons, however there a few that are very effective with no downside as follows:
- Site lease pre-payments
- Effective asset monitoring
- Multi-dimensional planning

Site Lease pre-payments
Site leases are the second highest cost for any network operator next to payroll. Most companies approach OPEX reduction by reducing payroll cost thus reducing the number of staff but this also reduces the company’s capabilities. Reducing site leases is the way forward especially if the reduction is substantial. However it is a fact that site leases don't reduce over time, they actually increase based on factors such as inflation, raising value of property, etc. The challenge is how do you reduce this cost?

The answer is simpler than you think it’s pre-payment of site leases. This new strategy is being pursued by equity firms such as RFS Capital of which received the only carrier sponsored site lease pre-payment today with 2 of the world's largest mobile operator. Site lease pre-payment can reduce the cost of leasing sites from 20% to 40% considering industry standard site lease escalators. OPEX reduction is achieved by paying the future lease today which is basically paying the net present value of a future rent. In doing so the rent escalators are removed thus instant savings and the monthly rent are lowered as well.

Considering an average savings of 25% over all sites, take into account an operator with 10,000 sites of enters a lease pre-payment term. As an example the average site lease is 10,000€ per year. Now with 25% savings that amount to an OPEX savings of 25M€ year in and year out. Taking into account 25 year lifecycle of a cell site, the total savings is 625M€. That's a lot of money and with no cost to the operator; site lease pre-payment is the future of OPEX reduction.


Effective asset monitoring
Cell site is one of the most expensive physical assets of a mobile operator considering the CAPEX that goes in every site. In an average case 1 cell site have a CAPEX of around 50,000€. Effective asset monitoring actually starts during the building and installation phase. In a lot of cases around 5% of sites needs re-work and another 5% would need special maintenance due to poor implementation. If an operator have an effective asset monitoring platform such as ADaM (Amanzi Data Management) then it is possible to achieve around 10% savings in OPEX.

Considering a yearly roll-out of 1000 sites, the OPEX savings achieved is around 5M€ at the cost of the asset monitoring platform used. There are good open source platforms that can deliver this kind of savings which cost almost nothing. An example of such application can be found in http://adam.amanzitel.com this application shows what can be monitored.

Multi-dimensional planning
Good planning is always essential to the success of any operations. In a well planned mobile network the capacity is properly dimensioned to meet the needs of its users. Additionally the changing dynamics of a mobile network is kept in check by optimisation, this in some way makes network planning an easier task. Optimisation is of course a high OPEX cost but with good returns in terms of providing a very high quality of service thus lowering churn rate. It is more a strategy for revenue assurance than OPEX reduction, how big is its effect to the overall picture? Consider a network with 5 million subscribers having a monthly ARPU 50€ of which has a churn rate of 5%, now with an optimised network the churn rate can be reduced to 2.5%thus ensuring an annual revenue of 75 million Euros.

Furthermore an effective network planning can save 10% of sites in a roll-out. Although this savings is always offset by the actual requirements in capacity and rate of how the network grows. Consider that on a 1000 site roll-out the savings is 100 sites of which an average cost for a site is 100,000€ then that's a savings of 10million Euros.

The best multi-dimensional planning application should be able to consider both revenue assurance and roll-out savings, thus increasing its effectiveness.

Believe to Achieve - Learning a Child's Way

I have always thought that as adults there are good things we learn from children. Indeed there a lot of them some applies to our daily life some applies to the corporate environment, this week I observed something that applies to both.

My 6 year old daughter Kaja until this weekend was unable to go on a bicycle without the side wheels. Last Friday she said that she can do anything she believes that she can achieve. To prove her point she asked for the side wheels of her bike to be removed and she wanted to bike on two wheels. The request seems muted since she never has done it before and nobody did manage to get her to do it before.

After a few minutes of trying she actually succeeded in using he bike without the side wheels. Amazingly enough se claims she taught herself to bike because she believed that she can. Saturday morning she was awake very early demanding to be outside and cycling. She demonstrated how well she can bike after just learning to bike on her own yesterday. Another child from the neighbourhood came by to play with her and she convinced the other child that Kaja can teach her how to bike.

I heard the same phrase of believing to achieve what you wanted. So she went and starts teaching the other girl how to bike without side wheels but after a few minutes the other girl stopped and said it’s too difficult. Kaja simply went cycling around until the other girl was convinced to give it another try. Kaja showed her how to do bike correctly and gave strict instructions. After a few minutes of trying she was off cycling on her own. The other girl was so proud that she went showing her parents and grandparents what she just learned and said "Kaja taught me how to bike and only Kaja".

Considering that small children believes they can achieve something they want as long as they believe they can, it applies to everyone of us no matter how difficult or impossible something is we can achieve it if we believe that we can.

Releasing ADaM

Starting one of the first companies developing open source system and platforms intended for telecoms network is indeed exciting. The challenge of deploying open source solutions is reflected in the amount of time for Linux to take off in the market.

The past weeks have been truly remarkable in terms of corporate development in AmanziTel where we received multiple interests in both AWE and ADaM platforms. Due to high customer demand for a Demo of ADaM, we decided to release a demo version of ADaM using a small part of a due diligence module. The demo version of the ADaM platform is now available online. Everyone is welcome to sign up and try it out.

ADaM (amanzi data management) is a rapid route to fully featured web applications for mobile network data, for example: roll-out management, configuration and parameter management or infrastructure audits. ADaM is a family of web applications for shared network data management and reporting. These applications are tailor made to suite the operators’ specific needs. The demonstration version is provided for the purpose of allowing users to try out the capabilities of one possible end-user application. Features and capabilities of the 'ADaM Demo' are not a guarantee or limitation of the kinds of features that might be available in any real deployment of 'ADaM'.

Currently a site audit application of ADaM is deployed and being used by Vodafone, LCC and Deka Group. That deployment will benefit from the improved reporting engine developed while working on the demo version. The beauty of open source is that updates can be provided to users without additional cost, same as distributing the software platforms free of charge.

Your IDEA, Your MONEY, Your FUTURE

A few days back I posted a question in LinkedIn whether an entrepreneur should use his or her own money or secure outside financing to fund his own brilliant idea and turn it into reality. Most answers came from individuals who have successfully built their own company based on their own brilliant ideas using their own money. They have offered several sound advices. Some answer came from those who are already in the financial services world. My most sincere appreciation and thanks to all those who have answered my question.

The common answer is that any entrepreneur should try to use his or her own money/financial resources first before getting outside financing. This Q&A can be found at http://www.linkedin.com/answers/startups-small-businesses/starting-up/STR_STP/213498-4071074. Several good reference and readings were also provided by those who posted their answers. Links below:

http://www.changethis.com/8.BootstrappersBible http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/the_truth_about.html http://blog.guykawasaki.com/venture_capital/index.html
http://tomthemoneyman.wordpress.com/
http://www.guykawasaki.com/
http://www.askthevc.com/blog/
http://www.gruntmedia.com/venturecast.html

In my point of view, anyone who has a brilliant idea should try to nourish it and build a future on it. It could be that the idea turns to a person’s own company or a project in his or her existing corporate environment, one thing is certain that is: successful nurturing and implementation of the idea is highly rewarding.

In the even that such idea turns an ordinary person to an entrepreneur and follow his or her dreams and successfully launch and operate his or her own company it would start in that person using his own money and financial resources to start-up his own company. Financial resources for common people are finite so there is a certain moment in time when additional funding is needed. This funding can be provided by friends and family or angel investors and later once the operation requires higher level of funding bigger organisations like venture capitals and investment firms step in.

Each of us who have taken that step knows well the decisions made to use your own finances in starting up a company. It takes a lot of hard work, long days, sleepless nights, dedication, courage, perseverance, sheer brilliance and faith in your capabilities to start-up and sustains a new company based on a new concept. Sometime the gratification is so delayed but for a true entrepreneur persistence and consistency equates to success.

Business On-Demand: Seeing Through the Eyes of a Child

The proverb or old adage "See through the eyes of a child" is commonly used to emphasize love, compassion, equality, friendship, happiness and satisfaction. Most people use to it to remind us to look back to where we came from and use that to go where we will become. However such a proverb also applies to business. You might wonder how, if you have not realised it yet.

Let me put forward an example very common and can be easily related to any of us who have children. Do you ever notice that kids seem to demand too much of everything? They demand time and attention, they demand things be done the way they want it. Did you ever think of why they make such difficult demands? The answer is actually quite simple they observe what we can do and expect us to do more for less and get what they want when they want it. This comes about because children see what we are capable of doing but for us we don't realise what we really are capable of, since our attention is focused somewhere else. Children at an early age have figured-out the real meaning of efficiency, effectives, multi-tasking and performance on-demand. What can we learn from a child?

Now going back to business, we receive similar demands all the time. The pressure is there to always make and get the most for less. Is there a good answer to this challenge? I believe there is and it is simple, it is called Business On-Demand. Business On-Demand could very well the best things in business we can learn from children. This means operating your business to:
- make and get more for less (cost effectiveness)
- produce more for less cost (efficiency)
- pay only for what you really need (sensibility)
- shorten response time (agility and responsiveness)
- implement changes easier (flexibility)
- create new and exciting products/services (innovativeness)

So what is Business On-Demand? Is it another fad or a valid solution? Business On-Demand is making the most out of your business, getting the most for less cost. This is done by paying only for the things you really need, when you need it, where you need and how you need it. This also means the elimination of costly infrastructure such as service delivery platform (SDP). In SDPs this can be achieved through multi-tenant operations wherein more companies benefit from a single infrastructure instead of each single company having their own infrastructure.

Let's consider a simple analogy. Take into example houses in a small island where we designate (and correlate to real business that)
- the island is the money/funding
- houses are companies
- roads are SDP infrastructures
To go from one house to another the house owners would need to build a road to the other houses. Now if they work independently without collaboration they will be building a mesh network of roads while turning a big chunk of the island into roads that can not be used for other purposes. Now if they work in collaboration with each other they can build the most optimal road infrastructure that connects all houses with the least use of land. Which approach do you think is better?

Does this make sense to your business? If it does and I believe it will, then we have learned a very important lesson in business by seeing through the eyes of a child.

Why Start Your Own Company?

Have you ever wondered how famous business names got into where they are today? Think Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Ingvar Kamprad, Warren Buffet, Roman Abramovich, Liliane Bettencourt, David Thomson, Li Ka-shing, Paul Allen, etc. You can find out about them at http://www.forbes.com. You would notice that some of them inherited their fortune; however most of them are self-made billionaires and philanthropist. Have you ever dream about being one of them? Have you ever though of sharing your fortunes to help humanity and for a good cause?

Let's look closely on these self made billionaires and focus on their humble beginnings. A lot dropped out of school and had almost no money when they started their business. The one thing each all have in common is a vision and a dream.

Do you have a vision towards your successful future? A vision is all it takes, an idea powers it. If you think you have a brilliant idea that have a potential to grow to a good business then by all means nurture that idea, nourish it, and make it a great idea.

In most cases we keep the ideas to ourselves or share it to friends and family but there are the brave few who are entrepreneurial enough to showcase that idea for all to see by making it a reality. The most successful ones start-up their own company and keeps on growing, the least successful ones gains from giving their ideas to their current employers. The question is where do you want to be? Do you want to craft your own destiny or do you sit back and watch?

One good reason to start up your own company with your brilliant idea... just look up the richest person's list at Forbes.

Corporate Bullying

How many times have we heard about big companies intimidating upcoming small innovative companies? In most cases big companies are afraid that new players enter the market and take a significant piece of their market share. It doesn't happen all the time since bigger players usually brush-off start-up, but there are instances that it does happen. When it does happen the bigger player ends up purchasing the small start-up for its business potential. However there are instances where upcoming innovative companies grow so fast and influential that it ends up purchasing the bigger player. This is true in the case of companies like Smart Communications or J.P. Morgan.

But before any of this acquisition or merger happens there a few things happening in the background which I call "Corporate Bullying". In the workplace corporate bullying is a term use when a company's management force its employees to submit to its rule. However outside the workplace this means something else. What does this exactly mean? The definition is simple really, Corporate Bullying is a tactic bigger companies apply to intimidate and pressure smaller companies. Such tactics are put into effect to pressure small innovative companies to abandon its plans and strategies.

Let's take into consideration a small company, for this example one that I co-founded, AmanziTel. AmanziTel while starting receives a few nasty calls from bigger established players who feared that once AmanziTel gains ground it will eat-up their business. These bigger companies are afraid that a new, small and innovative company developing open source platforms and application will put them out of business. Such intimidation tactics results to issuing threats and bad publicity. However such tactics never worked and is only detrimental to the company who employs it.

Corporate bullying is a useless and expensive exercise since small innovative companies are founded to withstand the initial storm and geared for fast sustainable growth (Facebook, Google, and Red Hat). The publicity generated by Corporate Bullying gives the new player bigger exposure and fuels its growth (You Tube).

In retrospect Corporate Bullying is a move welcomed by small innovative players while bigger and more established entities keeps resorting to it. Like an old saying goes "You can't teach old dogs new tricks".

Men's Dress Code at Work

Have you ever entered an office building where everyone seem to be wearing the same clothes? It seems we only see those occurence in movies but they do happen in real life. I attended schools with strict dress codes where everybody wears the same color and style of clothes every day. I can tell you it was boring and dull, although it gives the appearance that everyone is equal.

In children, however, they seem to be fascinated in wearing the same clothes at the same time. My 6 year old daughter, Kaja wants to buy clothes at H&M, apparently its where the other girls in her class buy their clothes. So gone are the flashy individual designer clothes and comes the mass produce more common clothing. I observe this phenomenon so widespread in children and that they are the true catalyst for brand and image building. I have to say peer-to-peer brand marketing thus work better compared to any other medium.

The question that lingers in my mind is should there be a dress code for men at work? I admire people who puts in the right dress for the right occassion, but how do you categorise working clothes?

I once work with a guy in a management team who is a big advocate of dressing right, and for him dressing should be of formal type. So for him a correctly dressed employee should wear suit and tie and fashionable shoes. In several instances the same person skipped very important high level meetings since he was not wearing proper clothing. Although I have know several ocassion that the same person does not necessarily practice what he preaches.

It is a fact that there is actually an unwritten dress code for men in the work place. Such dress code is a product of national culture and peer influence. One good general example is that Western Europeans normally wears formal set of clothings to work while North Americans are more of the casual type. In a lot of instances corporate culture plays a huge role on what employees wear in the office. More traditional companies tend to advocate formal tyoe of attire while creative and dynamic work places favor street-casual clothing.

I am a believer of individual preferences, I think each person should dress as they want at work based on the image they wanted to project. Although I believe in the unwritten code that anyone who is customer facing should be dress in a manner that is presentable and credible. Sometimes looking your best does have its advantages.

Making a Difference

We live in a world with more than 6 billion people, each one of us are different from each other but similar in a way that we are but a small dot in a bigger universe. The question is how do we make a difference in the world? Some of us have left their legacy to history, some are more influential than others, a few are on the path of giving something wonderful to mankind.

Let me compare the world to a sandy beach, where people are the sand and stones across the entire beach. Most are small grain similar to each other unnoticed, some are stones which are visible and a few like rocks that are conspicuous. Common people are like the small grain of sand going about their own business almost completely ignored. More famous people are like stones, which leaves their mark in history and are more prominent. The rocks are the prominent ones, well known to many and are influential to society.

The rocks can be seen from afar, followed by many and can change the way the beach looks when they move. To each an every grain of sand, the challenge is how to make a difference on the beach. Although rocks are popular and prominent they are outshined by grains of sands working in coordination with each other to build beautiful structures that are admired by all.

Organisations such as the ones focused on open source software and educational foundations were created to make a dent in history, give sands a facility to outshine the rocks on the beach. This is achieved by pioneering disruptive but supportive concepts and technologies that will forever change the way telecoms business is operated. Furthermore, it gives the opportunity for the common staff to become a part of something beautiful, like a gorgeous sand castle.