Saturday, November 14. 2009"Smaller" Suppliers Actually Have Some Very Real AdvantagesJohn Linton I took some time 'off' yesterday afternoon to consider what options we may have to increase the appeal of our HSPA services which we regard as an important future contributor to Exetel's viability in the future and that future that is closer than it was two years ago - if you'll excuse a Sybil Fawlty type expression. As with everything we have tried to do with HSPA since we embarked on the program more than three years ago everything we have tried to accomplish has taken much too long to put in place and much of what we originally set out to do is still in limbo. Perhaps I should take that as a sign that it's all too hard for a company of Exetel's size (so Mike, is that a better way of phrasing it?) to do and we should go back to simply re-selling some other entity's HSPA service - it would save a lot of time and constant disappointment? But, being the incredibly stubborn/stupid person that I am, I really don't see any point in doing that at all which, in turn, would mean that we really must find a sensible solution in the immediate future and stop 'messing about' round the edges. Recently we made our 'largest' sale to date with a new business customer buying almost 100 of our most popular HSPA plans (and modems) for their reps to reduce the delays in placing orders while on the road - doing it 'on the spot' instead of when they next found a wifi service. It is an obvious application and one that my eldest daughter has been using for almost two years for her sales force and I am aware of several other sales forces using HSPA for their 'on the road' reps so it is likely to be widespread application type for all the 'bleedingly obvious' reasons. Why they didn't buy from someone else (bigger/more reliable/well known/etc) came down to the simple provision in the Exetel service of a static IP which apparently saved a lot of 'security' requirements without the need to write additional security into the application. That and our very low, 'real', prices. So I took the time away from the office to go and see a company we had bid our HSPA services to almost a year ago for the same sort of application and lost the business to another provider because of "coverage/speed/big company support/etc" - all the things I would have actually agreed with at the time....and actually wrote to him saying I did. He was kind enough to contact me earlier in the week wanting to have a chat because, in his exact words - "well, in a nutshell, it hasn't turned out as we were hoping and we have abandoned the project". When we had a cup of coffee yesterday afternoon (his PA makes the very best coffee I have had in a very long time) he had a sad story to tell that basically was the exercise had ended up costing "ten times" (his exact words) what was budgeted for data and "twenty times" what had been budgeted for voice calls and the VPN problems were endless and weren't solved at the time they called a halt. He also said that the application implementation costs were now out somewhere past Alpha Centauri and his final comment was - "and then there's the billing nightmares and disputes we estimate we may eventually solve sometime next century". So, in a useful and thoroughly good natured way, we went back over his original decision to ensure we were clear on why his very sensible decision criteria had proved to have delivered such a poor result. Our low key analysis decided that: 1) Any of the three mobile carrier's network would have been fine - he doesn't have any business outside the East Coast capital cities and major towns. 2) Buying through a carrier's re-seller was the major error as they had zero expertise in anything beyond taking his initial payments and shipping the sims and modems and could make no further contribution to anything including fixing the wrong plans they signed him up or resolving the billing issues that commenced from his first bill. 3) Turning to a third party systems integrator to take over the project once the error of dealing with a reseller had been determined provided no better result other than paying out a negotiated figure on the 300 sims/modems/plans he had originally paid for and then starting all over again with plans that weren't much better in terms of his needs. 4) The application really needed a static IP which while promised by the reseller and then again by the systems integrator was never going to be provided by the carrier. The conclusion was that he needed to buy from a Layer 2 provider with both the ability and a lot of experience in 'tailoring' plans to meet the needs of specific requirements and who had all the back end abilities to actually deliver exactly what was required. Something he said he would do but it would take some time to get his CEO to listen to such a proposition as they had wasted so much money (over $300,000) and more importantly so much time getting nowhere for twelve months. So it seems like an opportunity for a "company of Exetel's size" (and more importantly for a "company of Exetel's direct expertise and knowledge") to address a completely different segment of the HSPA marketplaces. "Smaller" can be "Better" in some instances....in our case we have a huge amount of expertise in automation and VoIP and HSPA which goes way beyond what the carriers themselves can bring to bear in providing solutions to individual end business users and also more than larger companies than Exetel can provide.
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My sisters son-in-law rang me the other day.
He(and his wife) had decided to ditch their ADSL service (they use less than 1 GB/month) and was looking at HSPA. Before I even mentioned Exetel, he did. He'd been researching HSPA and reckoned Exetel was "one of the best".... I asked how he found Exetel - "word of mouth". So now Exetel has another HSPA account. He was going to use his mobile as the modem. ... but since then he has realized that shuffling sim cards is a bit of a pain... and they are now looking to buy a usb modem. So its happening with HSPA. Glad to see another business user has got the message of the benefits of mobile broadband. Sometimes it takes a while... and then you get swamped! H. Comments (2)
Hi John,
is there a problem with the exetel network at present?....I can't even get the home page! or network service status page.....DNS server partially working?.....Cheers from Bungendore Bruce Stewart Comment (1)
Hi again John,
I was impressed with the business story above - reminded me of setting up integrated "enterprise" software in the early 1980s - particularly the cost blowout side of the story .... and some other sad results. I have always found that well told stories (of successes and failures) is a strong selling method. It helps people answer the question - why do business with this guy? More stories is good! H. Comments (2)
Hi John,
After reading an article re - the tpg / pipe takeover, it appears that David Teoh maybe in a wholesaling mindset. http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/326191/tpg_pipe_will_work_well_together_teoh With words like these below, would Exetel consider buying connectivity from SP Telemedia. "SP Telemedia (SPT) chairman David Teoh has brushed aside concerns TPG and PIPE Networks cultures will clash saying the two have a lot in common Teoh also pointed to Optus, which operates both wholesale and retail arms, as an example of how the tie up might work. cheers Bill Comment (1)
Personally I wouldn't on behalf of Exetel but I wouldn't rush to move the small amount of bandwidth we have with Pipe away until the contracts are up.
I cn see no reason to assist a 'competitor' and would move the bandwidth to a neutral carrier. I would never consider buying IP transit from TPG. Comments (4)
G'day John
I get a few customers by letting them try before they buy with Wireless. (I have 13 HSPA sticks that wander around Australia.) Perhaps you can get some success by approaching customers like these and saying 'here's 10 HSPA sticks' which you can have for a month.' Going that extra mile sometimes pays dividends despite the risks of said sticks not coming back. Comment (1)
I guess an expansion on that is the HSPA loan service you've offered previously to some of the ADSL2 customers that were going to experience downtime during the changeover, did any of those customers take up a HSPA offer afterwards?
In the corporate environment when you're connecting the XDSL and similar plans maybe there's the opportunity there to give out some loan modems with a gig of data or so for them to play out some testing scenarios with any applicable applications within their businesses, some of the remote office, VPN type stuff gets a lot easier when dealing with static IP's which is a major advantage over other offers out in the market Comments (2)
I would imagine that there are quite a few opportunities for your corporate sales people with HSPA products that haven't even been realised yet
I know of a few applications where the static IP and low charges of the service would be a good fit, GPS tracking systems, remote access alarm systems, corporate digital signage with remote access for updating, these products are out there and in some cases haven't got traction yet as the data side of things hasn't been sorted Comments (2)
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