Monday, December 20, 2010
Indian Companies Outsourcing to Pakistan? Lessons from Israel and Palestine
Idea looks non starter.
If a news story tells you that few Israelis companies are outsourcing to Palestine then idea of an Indian company outsourcing to Pakistan doesnt look that weird
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_israel_palestinians_high_tech
Quoting from above news item, " Israeli CEOs say it's their way of bringing a little bit of peace to their troubled corner of the world. But the real reason they're hiring Palestinians, they acknowledge, is because it simply makes good business sense."
Same remain true for Indian and Pakistan. Apart from similarities in country name initials ( Israel and India starts from I , Palestine and Pakistan starts from P), the painful history and current border dispute is also comparable.
If outsourcing can establish little peace in Israel and Palestine, it can establish little peace in India and Pakistan as well.
And it makes business sense as well . Here's why?
Firstly, Indian IT companies are seeing employee cost escalation in big cities. Companies counter move is to relocate some of their operations in Tier II cities in India where cost and employee attrition is low. Utilizing Pakistan can also be one such counter move to reduce cost and attrition.
Secondly, Indian companies are desperately looking for new growth avenues. Initial business dependence was on US and later focus shifted to Europe. Now when US and European markets are saturating growth will be from new geographies. Utilizing Pakistan even symbolically will help Indian companies geting business from MENA ( Middle East and North Asia ) Region.
Well there are hundred reasons from security to economics for not to consider this route. Still there are few resons to consider it as well. Thoughts to ponder !
Thursday, December 2, 2010
30 Marketing Ideas for Consulting Firms
- Blogging
- White Papers
- Free Research Reports
- Customer Case Studies
- Book Publishing
- Articles in Magazines/ Journals
- Quote, News in News Papers
- Firm Advertisement in Magazines/ Journals
- Conference Participation
- Exhibition Participation
- User Group/ Client Intranet
- Academics Award / Fellowship sponsorship
- Sports/ Golf Events
- Customer Events, User Meets
- Employment Branding
- Youtube Videos
- Sponsoring Third Party Research
- Wining Relevant Award
- SEO
- Google Adwords
- Industry Blog Sponsorship
- CSR Activities
- Listing in industry forums/ directories
- Probono advice to Government Institutions
- Analyst Relationships
- Academia Relationships
- Social Media - Twitter, FB, Linkedin
- Customer Quotes
- Employee Quotes
- Customer News Letter

A Business Fiction book - "Who is that lady?"
Website/ Where to buy - http://www.whoisthatlady.com
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
50 Energy Opex Saving Strategies for Telecom Operators - Green Telecom
Planning1. Reduce Number of BTS ( Decrease Cell Sites , Increase subscribers per site)
2. Reduce Energy Consumption per Site
3. More spectrum .Less BTS
4. Electricity Low Tariff Usage
5. Claim – Carbon Credits
Sharing
6. Passive Infrastructure Sharing - Tower Sharing, Power Sharing, Genset Sharing
7. Active Sharing - RAN Sharing, RNC Physically Shared but logically separated
8. Backhaul Sharing – Infra Sharing
9. Agreement to Switch one network off in low load scenario
Shelters10. Replacing Shelters with Cabinets
11. Green Shelters – PUF Panels
Cooling12. Replacing Air Con with Free Cooling, HEX , TEC
13. Intelligent Remote Air Con Control (Temperature, Humidity, Clock Time)
14. No AirCon Requirement on Base Station
15. Compressor Less Air Cooling – AirCon
16. Precision Air Con (PAC)
17. HFC Free Cooling System
18. Inverter based Air Con
19. Passive Cooling Method- Phase Change Material for Storing Thermal Energy
Rectifiers20. High Efficiency Rectifier
21. Sleeping Functionality in Rectifier for Low Loads
Batteries22. Increase Battery Life - High Temperature Battery , High Cyclic Battery
23. Battery – Remote Discharge Test
24. New Battery Technologies, - Flow Battery, Ni Cd Batteries, Tubular Gel Batteries
Fuel Management and Gensets25. Diesel Genset – Remote Fuel Measurement and Management
26. DC Power Genset
27. Genset Remote Management - DG Delay Start Feature
Monitoring and Control28. Remote Passive Infrastructure and Environment Monitoring
29. Remote Theft Control
30. Measuring Power
Renewable Energy
31. Solar Power with Remote Panel Cleaning, Solar Cooling for Data Centres
32. Wind Power – Vertical Axis, Horizontal Axis
33. Bio Mass, Bio Fuel
34. Fuel Cell – Hydrogen, Methane
35. Genset Battery Hybrid Solution
36. Geo Thermal Cabinets
37. Pico Hydro
Base Station38. Base Station – Increase in Power Efficiency of RF Power Amplifiers, Base Band Processing Circuits
39. Auto TRX Shutdown
40. Sleeping functionality Base Station – Low Load, User mobility scenarios
41. Use of Micro Sites Along with Macro Sites
42. Strategic Use of Repeaters and Relays
43. FemtoCell – Home Base Station
44. Use Low Powered Micro BTS, Micro GSM
45. Use Human Sensors – Body to Body Network
Core Networks46. Core Network – Sleep Mode Technologies, Proxy Server Techniques
47. IP Based Core Network
48. Energy Efficient Routers – IP/ MPLS
Backhaul49. Adaptive Ethernet Transmission rate switching depending on traffic load
50. Mobile Backhaul – Ethernet interfaces- optimized hub/switch site solution
51. PMP Microwave Outdoor
Network Architecture52. Energy Efficient Deployment Architecture ( MIMO, HARQ, Beam Forming, Wireless Mesh Network, Distributed DSLAM)
53. Voice Compression Technologies – More MON
54. Local Call Intracell – Mobile Media Gateway
Infrastructure Optimization55. Infra Optimization Solutions ( Separate Battery Cooling, Telecom Towers as Wind Towers, Shelter Roofs as Solar Panels)
56. Remote Radio Units closer to antenna. Lower losses thru feeder cables
57. Tower Mounted Antennas
GO GREEN TELECOM

A Business Fiction book - "Who is that lady?"
Website/ Where to buy - http://www.whoisthatlady.com
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Renewable Energy Outsourcing – What Next in Outsourcing and Renewable Energy?
Increasing Use of Renewable Energy is a Global Trend. Focus is on improvement in technology and availability of options – Solar, Wind, Fuel Cells etc
But there is no business case of Renewable Energy without government subsidies or incentives – grants, feed in tariffs, capex subsidy, tax breaks etc
Only off grid areas where there is no electricity supply have business case for implementing Renewable Energy provided there is strong business need for electricity
Off grid Telecom Sites have strong business need for electricity and have business case for implementing Renewable Energy
Current business model is prohibiting wide scale use of Renewable Energy in Telecom Sites . Why?
1. Capex intensive projects - Benefits are long term but investment is short term.
2. Renewable Energy needs specialized resources to plan and implement projects
• Which source to choose? – Solar, Wind, Fuel Cell etc or optimum combination of each
• Which Technology to choose? – Myriad of Technology to choose from – PV, Thin film, Poly Crystalline, Solar Thermal, Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine, Vertical Axis Wind turbine, Methane Fuel Cell, Hydrogen Fuel Cell, Flow Batteries etc
• How to get reliable data on performance of different technologies? – Technologies are untested for long term benefit claims by vendors
3. Difficulty in running Operations and Maintenance of Renewable Energy Operations?
• All renewable energy resources are intermittent and nature dependent. How best to optimize their usage and prepare for redundancy?
• Decision on Capex vs Opex
• Maintain specialized workforce for trouble free operations.
• Scale might not be enough to recruit specialized human resources and deploy new technologies for proper operations
In short Renewable Energy needs specialization and scale that is not core to Telecom Operators. This is a familiar problem with widely accepted solution in other industries – Outsourcing

What drives Outsourcing ? Focus on core business processes and outsource other businesses processes. Here other processes are also specialized processes that need specialization and scale. Third party specialized service provider can provide these services with agreed Service Levels (SLA)
Outsourcing started with Manufacturing and later got extended to IT and Business Processes. Advances in Technologies and rise in expertise in developing countries led to offshoring as an extension of outsourcing concept
Applying Outsourcing to Renewable Energy Problem
Solution – Renewable Energy Outsourcing
Outsourcing services provided by Third Party (Outsourcing Company) to Telecom Operators. Outsourcing company will
• Sell Power at unit or Kwh Basis
• Utilize Economics of Specialization and Economics of Scale
• Decide among combination of one or more different renewable energy options
• Decide Capex
• Own Renewable Energy Assets
• Responsible for all Opex and Maintenance
• Responsible for Service Levels as per Agreement (SLA)
This is different from equipment financing or Leasing Model since apart from financing, outsourcer has additional responsibilities of dimensioning and deciding on optimum Capex and Opex , to meet SLA's.
This model can be further extended. Outsourcing Company can
• Centralize and provide renewable energy services to multiple telecom clients from single site.
• Provide Renewable Energy to other needy customers such as schools, hospitals, offices, community centres and agriculture farms from single renewable energy site.
Possibilities are endless and Model is scalable.
The demand from Telecom Operators is strong, but supply is not catching up ( some local companies are experimenting on this though). Here also, outsourcing industry can show the way. Earlier Outsourcing was provided by shared service or captive operations, later outsourcing moved to third party as this industry evolved.
In Renewable Energy Outsourcing, Telecom Operators can come together and invest in Renewable Energy Outsourcing Company as they did in Tower Infrastructure Companies. Later supply will increase to fill up the demand.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
With friends like Vodafone, Blackberry doesn’t need enemies
Analysts are of further opinion that only miracle can lift this company and this is going the path of Palm.
I had the different opinion. I loved my blackberry and so did I saw my other corporate colleagues and friends love for the blackberry.
I was bullish on RIM other than my personal preference , analysing RIM from Warren Buffetology. A similar analogy: Buffet mentioned that when American Express was going down he went around and saw People using American Express cards. Thus, he was convinced that American express will never go down and he made huge dividends on this bet.
I was thinking on the above lines that similarly Blackberry will never go down. Corporate guys love this and other guys aspire this. Blackberry is like a status symbol or an aspirational value: a corporate honcho using blackberry like he drives Mercedes or stays in a six star hotel or drinks johny walker or wears Armani…
As long as the status symbol is maintained and users love using blackberry, RIM is safe. But that is changing now….
Watch this ad of Vodafone aired on television in India that is ridiculing office guys and attracting a larger crowd to blackberry with tag line “Not just for office guys”
I sincerely hope Blackberry protects its core corporate office guys rather than bending it self to teenage crowd who may any day ditch blackberry for stylus Apple.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Telecom M&A Buzz Q3 Jul - Sep 2010
DoCoMo, Pakistan
NTT DoCoMo is reported to be interested in making investment in Pakistan (Jul 2010) – Economics of Globalization
Millicom Tigo, Honduras
Millicom has got operating control of its Celtel Operations in Honduras (Jul 2010)- Economics of Control
Telefonica, Vivo Brazil
Telefonica got control of its Brazilian operations Vivo in a deal with Portugal Telecom $9.8 Billion (Jul 2010) – Economics of Control
Vodafone, China, US, France, Poland
Vodafone selling minority stakes in China Mobile, SFR ,Verizon Wireless and Polkomtel (Jul 2010) – Operation Excellence
Clearwire, Imagine Ireland
Clearwire is buying 7% stake in Irish WiMax Operator Imagine (Jul 2010) – Economics of Technology & Investment
Etisalat , Suntel Sri Lanka
Etisalat is considering acquisition of CDMA operator Suntel in Sri Lanka (Jul 2010) – Economics of Subscribers
Essar, Vodafone India
Essar group is planning to sale its 33% stake in Vodafone Essar (Jul 2010) – Profit Booking
EVN Telecom, Vietnam
EVN Telecom wants to sell its 30% stake to Strategic Investor (Jul 2010) – Funds Requirement
Orascom Poland, Serbia
Orascom is considering investment in Poland and Serbia ( Jul 2010) – Economics of Globalization
Zain Tanzania
Tanzania government keen to buy 60% stake in Zain Tanzania now held by Bharti Airtel (Jul 2010) – Government Control
Copaco, Hola Paraguay
Paraguay’s Landline operator Copaco has purchased Mobile operator Hola (Jul 2010) – Economics of Subscribers
TeliaSonera, Stofa Denmark
TeliaSonera has sold its Denmark subsidiary Stofa to Ratos , a Private Equity Firm ( Jul 2010) – Operations Excellence
Batelco, Bahrain, North Africa, Asia Pacific
Bahrain’s Batelco plans to invest $1.5 Billion on Acquisition in North Africa and Asia Pacific. It looks to buy smaller independent operators. ( Aug 2010) – Economics of Globalization
France Telecom, Medi Morocco
France Telecom is in talks to buy Morroco’s second largest mobile operator Medi Telecom (Aug 2010) – Economics of Globalization. Transaction completed in Sep 2010.
France Telecom, Deustche Telecom, Tusmobil Slovenia
Tusmobil is being sold to an European operator. It can be either France Telecom or Deustche Telecom (Aug 2010) – Economics of Globalization
Orascom, Vimpelcom
Orascom is under talks with Vimpelcom to sell its operations in few countries ( Aug 2010) – Economics of Globalization . Transaction completed in October 2010
Telecom Italia, Telecom Argentina
Telecom Italia is planning to increase its stake in Telecom Argentina (Aug 2010) – Economics of Globalization
DoCoMo, Tata India
DoCoMo is planning to increase its stake in Tata DoCoMo, though denied by Tatas. (Ag 2010) – Economics of Control
Djezzy, Algeria
Algerian government wants to purchase Djezzy from Orascom. ( Sep 2010) – Government Control
Sotel TChad, Chad
Government has sold majority stake in Sotel TChad to UK firm MidCost (Sep 2010) - Privatization
T Mobile , Clearwire , USA
Clearwire is in talks with T Mobile for stake sale to raise funds for network expansion (Sep 2010) – Fund raising
Etisalat , DB Telecom India
Etisalat is planning to raise its stake in Indian Venture DB Telecom (Sep 2010) – Economics of Control
Etisalat, Idea Telecom India
Etisalat is looking for investment in one the incumbent operator and not ruling out Idea Telecom (Sep 2010) – Economics of Globalization
Etisalat , Zain Middle East
Etisialat has submitted bid for $10.5 billion for majority stake in Zains remaining assets in Middle East and Africa (Sep 2010) – Economics of Globalization
Deustche Telecom, Kosovo Telecom (PTK) Kosovo
Five bidders have submitted bids for 75% stake in Kosovo Telecom – Deustche Telecom, Orascom, Turk Telecom, Telekom Austria, SabaFon (Sep 2010) – Privatization, Economics of Globalization
Polkomtel, Poland
75% stake is on sale and it might go to PE players if none of the telecom groups bid. Vodafone has 24% stake and first right of refusal. (Sep 2010) – Profit Booking
SK Telecom, Lighsquared USA
SK Telecom is considering investment in Greenfield LTE Operator Lightsquared. (Sep 2010) -Economics of Globalization and License
TDC Sunrise , Switzerland
Denmakr’s TDC is selling its Swiss subsidiary Sunrise to PE Player CVC. (Sep 2010) – Operation Excellence
Telefonica, Telenor
Is Telefonica , Telenor Merger or strategic alliance possible? – Economics of Globalization
France Telecom, Deutsche Telecom
Is France Telecom , Deustche Telecom merger possible ? France Telecom is denying it but possibility is there. – Economics of Globalization
Telenor, Vimpelcom
Telenor already has significant investment in Vimpelcom. Could these two companies merge? – Economics of Globalization
Friday, September 24, 2010
50 Telecom Procurement Best Practices
2. Supply Options– Vendor Landscape (Local, Regional, Global)
3. Risk Analysis- Vendor, Country, Component, Material
4. Tax and Duty Analysis – Savings in Bundling, Country of Origin, Local Content, Green
Procurement Strategy, Models and Options5. Global, Regional, Local, Strategy
6. Category Plans – Strategy, Terms and Conditions
7. Global Category Consolidation – Country by Country Analysis – Standardize on Low Cost
8. Breaking up Categories– Cut vendor markups and direct purchase of third party items
9. Multivendor Strategy – Dual Vendor Strategy
10. Benchmarking Internal vs. External, Make vs. Buy Analysis
11. Business Model – Outsourcing, Leasing, Capex vs. Opex, Vendor Financing
12. Risk and Reward- Outcome Based , Revenue Sharing with Vendors
Vendor Selection Process and Vendor Relationship Management13. Vendor Prequalification Process – Relevant Criteria, No Criteria Biasness
14. Tiered Vendor Rankings – Preferred Vendor Status
15. Vendor Rationalization – Few Strategic Vendors
16. Vendor Awards, Certifications
17. Investment in Vendor, Acquiring Vendors, Backward Integration
18. Collaborating with Competitors for Vendor Development
19. Forecast Sharing with Delivery Commitments
20. Vendor Innovation Day
21. Vendor Factory/ Facility Visits
22. Details of Vendors Key Subcontractors and Quality Audit
Pricing and Discounts
23. Reverse Auction – Indicative Volume and Result Commitment
24. Target Pricing
25. Volume Commitment with discounts
26. RFP Process
27. Quarterly updated price list
28. Discount Coupons for future purchases
Contracts and Terms and Conditions
29. Long term contracts with flexibility of renegotiation
30. Legal Inputs Taken – Showstoppers
31. Contract Compliance Management – Trackable
32. Amendments – Approval, Uploaded, Trackable
33. MSA , Statement of Work (SOW)
34. Vendor SLAs or KPIs
35. Customer Exclusivity
36. Late Delivery Penalty- Delivery Commitment
37. Inventory Commitment
38. Extended Warranty with specific warranty conditions
39. Local Content
40. Quality Certificates
Processes41. Specs Analysis – Check for Biasness and Neutralization
42. Sample Testing Process
43. Equipment Monitoring - Life cycle Measurements for Warrant Conditions and Analysis
44. Standard Procurement Guide (used and updated regularly)
45. Standard Templates utilized across company
46. Procurement Policy and Exception Handling
47. Dispute Resolution Process
48. Transparency and Visibility
49. Web based or Automated Procurement system and processes – Invoices, Budget Management, Payment Log – Searchable, Reporting, Monitoring
50. Project Closure Analysis, Procurement Best Practices, Lessons Learnt
51. Continuous improvement process – Lessons Learned and Best Practices implementation
Personnel and Intra Department Collaboration
52. Specialized Personnel – Analytics, Research, Category Specialist, Business Unit Procurement Managers
53. Rotation – Procurement and Business Users
54. Project Management and Procurement Linked – Project Closure Analysis
55. Design Cost Savings – Collaboration between Procurement and Business Units
56. Procurement KPIs aligned with Business Unit KPIs

A Business Fiction book - "Who is that lady?"
Website/ Where to buy - http://www.whoisthatlady.com
