Monday, February 23. 200940 Years On - Nothing Seems To Have ChangedJohn Linton I attended a 'breakfast' meeting today as the guest speaker to a group of medium sized business senior executives on how to use internet 'technology' to improve your survival chances in 2009. There were a little over 30 attendees and the 'meeting' was arranged by one of the large accounting firms and, very tastefully, hosted at one of Sydney's nicer harbour side restaurants - so it wasn't a major imposition to attend - for me at least. I spoke for a little under 40 minutes and my address was based on a questionnaire I had handed out as the attendees arrived and which they could either fill out, or not, as I made my points. I based my address, and therefore the questionnaire, on two aspects of using the internet: 1) VoIP 2) Automating customer/potential customer contacts On a show of hands less than one third of the attendees were using VoIP in their businesses and of the ones that were using it none were using VoIP beyond the simple outbound call reduction cost basis - half of whom were not totally satisfied with what they had achieved in either savings or quality. As I went through the most basic uses of internet to 'sell' services, take orders, provide order status feedback and then provide support and assistance, checking by show of hands how many companies attending used these elementary functions the number of companies who did fell from 100% that had a web site and then approximately halved as I talked about each successive function to zero for the last three 'layers' of web automation. My 'presentation' was based on using the Exetel web site and User Facilities and Forums to illustrate the web usage functions and a loud speaker phone to demonstrate the VoIP functions and, especially, the call quality. The reactions were quite extraordinary - by the end of the presentation I felt like David Copperfield in a Las Vegas theatre pulling off one amazing illusion after another - so new to almost everyone present (including the host accounting firm personnel) were the simple things I showed them over less than 40 minutes. I got a great deal of pleasure from, apparently, opening the eyes of so many 'senior executives' to what I would think most people in the communications industry would regard as quite prosaic and 'old hat' uses of web based process automation and the simpler aspects of Asterisx VoIP PABXs - but that was, apparently, not the case for the attendees or for, according to the accounting firm, the vast majority of medium to medium/large businesses who are their clients. My last question was what a company should pay for a fast company internet service and I gave some examples (on the screen) of Exetel's Ethernet pricing. The overwhelming response was that no-one attending the breakfast knew which provider they used or how much they paid for either their internet or, for those that used it, their VoIP. I closed the presentation by saying that what I had showed them of Exetel's web and VoIP automation currently saved Exetel around $A100,000 a month in opex but was only possible if the CEO was continually involved over a period of at least 2 - 3 years in the processes of deciding what should be done or at least gave his authority to allowing the changes that automation requires to be made. I also said that we were actually using more resources today to further automate our systems than we had ever used since we started the process some five years ago. As the event was running very late there was no time for meeting the attendees individually, even for a few moments - something for which I was grateful. As I drove away from the venue I thought about what this meant, if anything, in terms of how business is done in Australia (or at least Sydney) today. I didn't come to any conclusion other than to think that nothing seems to have changed in the use of technology in many Australian companies since I first sold a computer more than 40 years ago - the CEO isn't really interested and makes some generic/money based budget decisions and then leaves it to his "IT Department". I couldn't help thinking that maybe it's only some, from what I've seen certainly not all, communications companies that really effectively use the products and services we base our revenue plans on? Trackbacks
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Having been reading you blog for about 12 months now, I remember several people suggesting to you that you could "expand your business" into selling your automation expertise to other small companies; I even remember you mentioning a case where another ISP called you specifically about buying your software systems.
Today's experience shows that there is a market, and that you enjoyed doing it. If only there were more than 24 hours in a day......... Lawrie. Comment (1)
Perhaps you're right but there are only 24 hours in a day and really companies can only make these things work from within.
Before I left several people asked me for my business card (which fortunately I hadn't taken with me) as they wanted to 'have a chat'. I need a version of that T Shirt with something like: "Do I Look Like A 'Chatty" Sort Of Person?" on it. Comments (6)
Here you go !
http://www.pistolclothing.com.au/share/1235351784798.jpg Comment (1)
My brother had a similar experience to yours... (different industry, same response)
He is into smart power distribution systems.... which can save large energy consumers $100,000's per month on their overall power bills by "managing" the run times of air-conditioning, refrigeration and other systems (e.g. in a university campus or large industrial concern). He invariably found that no CEO was interested and usually left such decisions to the local electrician...... Harry. Comment (1)
Maybe things will change at present. I know we just did a major review on all our systems for a small-mid non-IT engineering consultancy. This included looking at getting lots of generic $500 workstations, rather than high-end $1500 boxes, and just assuming that every month or so one will die. Sort of like the google approach.
At the moment, any CEO that overlooks such obvious cost reductions should be quite concerned. Comments (2)
JL,
On a similar business note, most businesses are paying a fortune for expensive SHDSL connections, when they really only need an ADSL connection with a high SLA. If you diversified your connections (different carriers, for instance), would, say, 4 x ADSL2+ connections (Exetel B14 @ $100/month each), compare to a 4meg/4meg connection (BUS/M @ $750/month). Given the business is in a CBD somewhere, the speeds should be similar, and you can use a router to balance the loads. Does exetel make a better margin on the SHDSL than the ADSL2+? Cheers Mike Comments (2)
I think we considered such a concept some time ago but didn't proceed with it.
Our margins don't vary much if at all from service to service. Comments (6)
Our 4Mbps/4Mbps services are $600.00 per month, and in the CBD come on optical fibre - pretty good deal!
Comment (1)
Thanks for your refreshing post about a relatively positive business story. It is a welcome change from the reality of stupid politicians and such.
I think it would be really hard to 'sell' automated services, because it is really talored to the particular business, and as you said requires involvement at all levels and the choice to be an agile business without too much 'standard business process' guff. At least that's how I feel. Good for small companies, bad for traditional large ones. But I doubt all the things you said will have any impact on all those attendees. Like they'll go away thinking it was a great idea, be great to do, but then get back into their usual business practices because what you suggest is just too hard. And as you said it takes a number of years of dedication to the art of automation to really see the payback. How could you justify that to someone who isn't committed to the process? Thanks again. Clive Comment (1)
john, how much does exetel spend on electricity each month, what did you spend per month in 2006 and who is your supplier?
guess what, you can't run a multi-million dollar business and know exactly where you are spending every $ Comment (1)
I know exactly what we spend - and how much we pay extra for 'green' power.
I also know the cost of every other expense line in our P and L and look at them multiple times a week. I also look at every contract rate we have twice a month. I doubt I'm any different to most people responsible for their company's financial position. Comments (6)
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