Unrestricted Internet Access?

In the July 2008 issue 086 of Baseline magazine, David Strom, Technical Editor for the magazine, writing in his column STROMINATOR, addressed the myth of unrestricted access to the internet. The article pushed my button because earlier this year I experienced the frustration of being isolated from a daily routine heavily invested in internet dependence.

For 20+ years I’ve been associated with a faith based refugee relief organization, Project Mercy (www.projectmercy.org). While Project Mercy is based in Fort Wayne, IN, its focus is refugee relief in Africa. In the last 15 years, its energies turned to community development in Ethiopia. Project Mercy was founded by an Ethiopian couple, Marta Gabre-Tsadick and Demeke Teckle-Wold. In the mid-1970’s, Marta and Demke fled Ethiopia in the wake of a communist takeover. Marta was a cabinet minister in the government and Demke an industrialist. Since Ethiopia returned to a democratic state in the early 1990’s Project Mercy has been active within the country.

Because I served on the board for several years, in June 2007, I was invited to a meeting to discuss future plans for continued community development and organization structure. Over the last 15 years in Yetebon, Ethiopia (about 60 miles south west of the capital Addis Ababa) Project Mercy has grown (from scratch) a K-12 school program with an enrollment of 2,400, a vocational skills development center, an agricultural diversity program serving hundreds of farmers within the community, a 50 bed state of the art hospital, a cattle breeding program, and a worship center seating over 500. From my standpoint, the upshot of the meeting was that these programs had reached a state of development that was now being stifled due to lack of telecommunications infrastructure. So, in January 2008, I found my self in Ethiopia to do requirements planning for satellite based high-speed internet to enable interactive distance learning and telemedicine.

I came armed with my laptop loaded with Skype and prepared my wife’s laptop so we could keep in touch. Well, back to David Strom’s article, here’s what I found. First, Skype is illegal in Ethiopia. It can’t be used there because Skype bypasses one of the government’s primary sources of revenue, the telephone network. The government owned Ethiopian Telecommunication Commission has outlawed Skype. So I’m out of luck trying to communicate with several people I’d lined up to help me on the project. Second, there was no wireless access that I could find. So, I lined up a ride to the Sheraton Hotel to look for internet access through a business office. This place was one palatial oasis in the middle of the capital city. I entered a nicely laid out office area with 8 workstations side by side. None of the workstations was in use, so I thought this was going to be smooth surfing. I got my log on ID from the administrator, sat down and got ready to cruise. Alright! I’m back in the hunt. Surf’s up! The adrenaline was flowing. I logged on and got the familiar and unwelcome sound of a dial-up modem. There is no high-speed internet in Ethiopia! Not only that, but I tried and retried for over 20 minutes, to access my email account and was never able to get through. Since I was being charged by the minute, I went to the administrative assistant with some degree of objection at being charged while in fact not being connected. She was non-plused by the situation and offered that this time of day wasn’t the best to use the telephone system; maybe come back later. Ouch; stiffarmed to the world outside. The suggestion was made to try the Hilton Hotel. Off to the Hilton. Same set-up, but because of the time of day-I guess, I was able to get through and cleanup my email box. Well, the upshot of the visit was that I was able to get dial-up connections via an internet café within 6 miles of where I spent the next three weeks (by the way, don’t bother trying to download technical documentation over dial-up connections in Ethiopia). Our objective was to document applications and come away from the country with the government’s permission to utilize satellite communications. I thought it was a miracle when two weeks later I received a call from Washington DC, announcing the Ethiopian Minister of Highways and Telecommunications Infrastructure had granted us permission to be the first application of high speed internet in the country. Here’s the rest of the story. In June, after we arranged for a subscription to the Hughes Network Systems satellite (readily available and affordable) and locating a contractor in Kenya (ready and able) to install the dish and receiver in Ethiopia, we were told we needed visas for the installers and government approval of the hardware prior to installation! Now, here it is October 2008! But, I thought we had approval?

Because Context Matters

Recently, Corporate Off-Lease Computers launched a newsletter under the title “Emerging Technologies Bulletin”. You might ask, “Why would an organization selling used computers launch a newsletter focusing on emerging technologies”? Isn’t there some incongruity here? It’s really pretty simple. Our passion is for helping small businesses maximize the value of money spent on computing (in our case through the use of Certified, Pre-Owned computers) and promoting the use of information technology to create competitive advantage. Both practically and strategically, we need to know where technology is headed and how to continue offering value to our customers. Monitoring IT’s direction and initiatives like cloud computing, SaaS, SOA, Web 2.0, blogs, Wikis, social-networking, network virtualization, client virtualization and more, allows us to put our product in context. Well why? Because! We need to offer Certified, Pre-Owned hardware to participate in these environments. While many of these applications seem to apply to large organizations, unless we keep abreast of these developments, we could be blind-sided in our mission if we didn’t keep abreast of their potential impact on smaller organizations. As an example, according to Forrester Research analyst James Staten, cloud computing is showing the classical signs of disruptive innovation, which he describes as “the use of technology that does not meet the needs of the current market but directly meets the requirements of a tangential market, and then rides the growth of the tangential market to the point where it either topples the current market or topples all the players that are currently meeting the needs of the current market”. Consequently, these developments are just as important to monitor, as changes in QuickBooks and web browsers a la Firefox 3.0 and Microsoft operating systems.

Recently, we shipped orders to customers purchasing equipment to enable VoIP, help centers, mobile applications using cellular air cards and more. And, cost effective entry into these applications has strategic and competitive value to these organizations. The cost savings associated with purchasing Certified-Pre-Owned computers enabled these organizations to implement initiatives to 1) change processes to become more cost effective, 2) deliver more value to customers and most importantly, 3) differentiate themselves from their competitors sooner, rather than later!

So to our newsletter and its editor Sharon Eastman, we say Bon Voyage!

If you’re interested in monitoring the impact of emerging technology on your organization and would like to receive a copy of our “Emerging Technologies Bulletin”, please email Sharon@CorporateOff-LeaseComputers.com and ask Sharon to add you to our distribution list.

Kick-off

We're pleased to say at this point in the evolution of our company, we've seen about 200 small businesses, schools and non-profit organizations embrace the use of Certified, Pre-Owned hardware in fulfilling their computing needs. These organizations realize the savings potential in utilizing the unused life of assets no longer sufficient for larger corporations; dependent on leading edge technology to maintain their competitive edge. Yet, for the small business, using basic office and internet applications, this equipment has more than sufficient processing capability to fulfill application requirements. These small organizations have also found it cost effective to refresh computers on a more frequent cycle, emulating the refresh cycle of larger corporations yet just a tier below in product stage.

To re-inforce the validity of using quality, name brand, pre-owned computers, we've continually increased the duration of our basic repair or replacement warranty coverage. When we began marketing pre-owned hardware, we initiated the program with a 30 day warranty. Today, we provide a 6 month Gold Seal Repair or Replacement Warranty. And because, as you'd expect with computers, we experience hardware failures, we've backed up the warranty with an organizational pre-disposition to provide outstanding responsiveness and service. This orientation is geared toward customer retention. We know computer technology evolves and becomes obsolete. We want our customers to be so satisfied with the performance of their equipment, they'll not only refresh their technology with our products but they'll also refer us to their friends. Here's an example of what I mean:

Ken,

I wanted to thank you for the handling of the desktop that went down on us last week. I am sorry I missed you but it was a pleasant surprise to see that computer back in the office today.
I have had nothing but good experiences with you guys and I want to commend you on your service. The computers are great and offered at a very fair price. It is your service that really stands out however. I made a call on Thursday, the computer was gone on Friday and back on Monday. Not only that, but with an extended warranty. Replacing the power supply may have been simple (or not, I am not sure), but the point is, you guys took care of this, no questions asked, and got it back fast.

Anyway, I appreciate the service you have provided and will always keep you guys in mind for any computer needs that we or any others might have.

Thanks for the good work.

Christopher S. Jolley

www.buckleyjolley.com
www.livingstonliving.com

This is the kind of customer satisfaction we covet and the reason we put the energy and priority into serving the customers that have trusted us. We're launching this blog inviting clients to rate our performance with the hope that potential clients can also realize the cost savings associated with using Certified, Pre-Owned hardware. Happy computing,