Tuesday, October 18. 2011We've Come A Very Long Way....John Linton ....in developing a Sri Lankan operation since we first hired two work from home support engineers in February 2006. I spent much of yesterday talking with our Sri Lankan operation General Manager who will turn 25 in a few weeks time. This was our first face to face conversation since I asked her if she would consider taking on much more responsibility in April this year (at the time she was managing the billing query resolution process of five people). So almost four months in to her 'tenure' as the manager of our 80 or so Sri Lankan based personnel - what did I find? Firstly a quite obviously slightly happier group of people and secondly a group of people now embracing the freedom to make the changes they see as necessary to improve aspects of the business across a wide range of areas. So the initial impression is that I waited far too long to replace the original Sri lankan appointee to the position who was more and more obviously doing a poorer and poorer job - at least from Exetel's point of view. I guess even an old fool eventually can eventually come to admit his more obvious mistakes. Why do I get the impression that I have made less of a mistake this time? Well, there is one very, very obvious difference. Rukshani argued, politely but firmly, on two occasions that what I wanted to do was wrong and even when I persisted in pushing my point of view she continued to attempt to persuade me that it would be wrong to pursue my requested actions and she persisted in holding to her views until I relented. It was very impressive. The first view I put forward was genuinely believed by me and I did 'argue the point strongly' until eventually conceding I was wrong. The second point I didn't believe in at all but wanted to verify that she would persist in attempting to persuade me of the error in my thinking and I was left in no doubt that was the case and was likely to continue to be the case in any such future circumstances. It was a starkly contrasting situation to the grovelling and always immediate unconsidered agreement of her predecessor. The rest of the day was spent adjusting the concepts for the '100% of all support calls solved within the first contact time" and fixing up the final processes to allow an additional 13 Sri Lankan based sales people to begin business/corporate sales activities today. Clare and Clarissa have done an excellent job over the past 12 months to make this concept a reality and I will be very eager to see how the next few months turn out. As with all longer term planning you initially have time in which you don't have to produce too many real sales but as time goes on actual target measurement becomes the only indication of real progress. So far all the, pretty easy, targets have been met and now we will begin to see whether the real targets can be achieved on a regular basis. One thing is very obvious - especially to someone who has never contemplated setting up a seriously complex operation in a not so developed country some 10,000 kilometers away with a completely different culture. It's a very difficult thing to do and you need a great deal of mental toughness and clear thinking to make it happen. PS: I read this article with increasing disgust and feel dirty by giving such dross the mistaken 'exposure' I have played an unintentional part in doing for which I sincerely apologise: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/playing-dirty-20111017-1ltam.html Copyright © Exetel Pty Ltd 2011 Trackbacks
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My, how things have changed...
https://johnl.blogs.exetel.com.au/index.php?/archives/711-HSPA-On-The-Road-and-sexism.html https://johnl.blogs.exetel.com.au/index.php?/archives/685-Only-Four-Sleeps-To-Go........html#comments Comment (1)
Regarding the anti-piracy group asking for IP logs of users going back months or years what are the laws on this?
Unless needed by law wouldn't it be in everyones interest for those logs to be kept to a minimum? Even if only for privacy reasons? Comments (2)
We've never thought about it before.
We retain key data for all sorts of reasons based on the likely requirements to have it available for future disputes. Given the scum involved in the Movie Rights Group we will need to pay some attention to what policies we need to now have. Comments (7)
I didn't think too much about it when I first saw your post on a company requesting information on customers illegally downloading torrents.
Now that I see who is doing the asking I'd really rather not have my information go to them even if someone in my house / off my wifi was guilty of downloading this junk. At the very least a copy of the exact information given to this third party should be CC'd to the account holder at the same time it is provided to them so they know what information has been provided. The email should also state who the information was provided to, under what logic / policy, maybe even a link to a FAQ on the customer's legal rights (legalaid website perhaps) etc, etc. Comments (4)
Australian law will determine what any Australian company does.
If an Australian judge issues a subpoena for an Australian company to produce information, and if the Australian company gets binding legal advice from competent advisers that it must, if it is physically able to, produce that information then - end of story - the information is produced. Whether any information at all can be given to the Exetel customer will entirely depend on the contents of the subpoena. In any event Exetel, nor any other ISP, will have no option but to conform to the law. Comments (7)
May I suggest that, unless required by law, all logs of usage, IP changes and other user identifiable be deleted after three or four months?
This should be enough to resolve billing disputes which are a on a monthly cycle. Already on Whirlpool there is a bit of anger that this information is even available to be exploited by corporates after an easy buck. Seems to me it can be easily solved. Genuine copyright concerns can still be addressed by owners but just have to be done promptly. Comments (2)
Exetel is a totally ethical company and will always act totally ethically....and totally according to Australian law.
Comments (7)
Fair enough if you legally can't inform the end user, but if it's not specifically forbidden in the subpoena please provide your customer, the internet user as much information as possible of any disclosure of info.
What does Australia law require in terms of logs? It sounds like deleting (or at least anonymising) any logs that are not currently legally required to be kept to protect your customers from these types of people would would be a good policy for Exetel to adopt. Comments (4)
I concur with Michael.
So do most of the posters in the 23 pages of dross on Whirlpool. Looking forward to updates on this. T. Comment (1)
Thomas,
Disclosing/discussing internal operational issues will never be done by any commercial organisation - try asking Telstra for that information. This is the reply I sent to the Age journalist who requested additional information: "The issue, now that you have exposed the owners of the Movie Rights Group to be the scum they are becomes even more difficult. Of course it ‘turns’ on the ability of an ISP to be able to provide the end user of a specific IP address on a certain date – possibly quite some time in the past. I would have no idea about the sort of data retention policies any ISP might have in place either now or at any future time that may or may not allow that to be done. What I would think is that not all ISPs would have such retention abilities and even those that did would need to incur not inconsiderable costs to retrieve such data if indeed they had the data retained in some format that could be retrieved. Seeing that you, and some others, have raised the issue of how such data could be used in the future it seems essential that any ISP must now consider not only the legal issues of retaining such data for any length of time but the, much, much more tricky and dangerous, ethical issue of what usage such data could be used for by any third party and whether in keeping such data is the right and proper thing to do – beyond any period where it is essential for the ISP’s own purposes – in other words it might simply be easier and less costly for an ISP to retain certain records than trying to define when such usefulness ceases in the absence of any legal ruling on data retention length….of which I am, certainly currently, unaware. So the operations of scum like the latest Kiwi ‘dodgy brothers’ would become impossible if there was no data retention in any easily retrievable form of IP usage….this is the key point on which the actions of IP blackmailers appear to turn. I have no idea of what the situations are with the different ISPS today – or what the situation may be in the future." Comments (7)
I doubt whether there any sort of generic laws that deal with the sort of detail that is involved in running a service business like internet.
Records that are necessary for an internet business to operate and deal with the sort of future 'disputes' that some of the more ridiculous clients attempt to involve ISPs in might surprise you. I am not going to begin to attempt to guess at what current and future laws and legal disputes may or my not require and I am certainly not going to use my own blog to discuss such things - it is so far away from what this blog is about there is no point of contact. I can only reiterate that Exetel will always act ethically and completely within Australian laws.....just as it always has done in the past. Comments (7)
One final question. If a customer cancels a service with Exetel at what point are logs / records for that customer anonymised or deleted from your system? Once a Customer leaves can you still be compelled to handover info for that customer by the court now that there is no longer a current contract between the ISP and former customer?
Maybe regular churning between ISPs will become an approach to limit possible future litigation for the paranoid. My one experience with a court and all anecdotal hearsay suggests I'd hate to end up there, especially paying expensive lawyers which seems the only way to get "justice". Comments (4)
This is a blog.
I simply haven't got the time to subvert this blog into being 'interrogated' on subjects and operational procedures of Exetel of which I have no/very little knowledge. Comments (7)
Then maybe you should stop trying to pontificate on things you have "no/very little knowledge"
Comment (1)
Ron
JL has always been honest and frank in his views. Most of us prize that highly even when data are incomplete. If that is a problem for you the solution is simple. Cheers Comment (1)
I've read every blog post for at least the last 2 years and consider them a valuable insight into the company and it's management.
John, could you provide an email address for someone better positioned to answer these questions? No new blog for 2 days... I hope everything is okay with you and your family. Comments (4)
Sorry about yesterday's blog - I didn't realise it was in 'draft'.
It is 'up' now. I haven't written todays blog yet as the time displacement here means it is still only 7 am and I had other things to deal with for the last hour or so. On you question - it is not something we would enter into discussion about - it is something that has never been any issue for any customer in the past. Given that circumstances may have changed we will look at our current processes to determine whether they are suitable for possibly changed circumstances. Comments (7)
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