High cost, low service

If I indulge in a simple distillation of the business I serve, the foundations are skilled people, computers, software and data communications. Each one of these plays a vital part in the operation of our geographically dispersed professional services business. All of the elements have their challenges, but the tension between the demand for high-quality data communications at reasonable cost and the availability of the same, is constantly on my agenda – like it or not.The Beca Group celebrated 90 years of continuous business in 2008 and it is fair to say that the founders would find the modern incarnation of the business a far cry from the engineering consultancy they established. From a New Zealand base, we have grown into a multi-disciplinary professional services company with permanent offices in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, China and England. Project offices which come and go, add to the diaspora – and the challenges.If we experience poor data communications performance, we do not require complicated instrumentation or analysis to expose the weakness – anyone in the organisation who is using the IP-based video conferencing facilities can observe the pixellation and audio degradation. You can guess who they call. Video conferencing has become a cornerstone of how we work collaboratively and it has important spin-offs in terms of responsiveness, time saving, travel cost saving and making a contribution to sustainability in the business. Having said that, the lack of international data communications inter-connection standards means that it is currently impossible to have end-to-end control of the network for all of the locations in which we operate. If only a global MPLS network were achievable and available at reasonable cost. I dream…I dream of a telco which can aggregate services into a tailored international offering and take all responsibility for the operational management and meeting SLAs. A single-stop shop, on whom I can rely to be proactive in daily operations, and whose knowledge of our business enables them to make a strategic contribution that will enhance services at competitive prices. I don’t want to run a communications business. I dream…Turning to the New Zealand scene, much has been written about the importance of broadband, so I to will join the choir with some of my own verses of need which lie behind our interest in the broadband debate.The reality I face daily is one of constantly changing network topography. Mobility, agility and changing social demographics drive this. If a client has the misfortune to suffer a serious malfunction or damage, or suffer a setback on a project, they may require a team of engineers now. There is no telling where the team needs to be located and some industrial sites are not conveniently located in relation to solid broadband connectivity. So how can we serve a client well when the broadband required for the tools we use is either not available, or only available six weeks from now? 3G wireless can be an option, but at a cost. Even carefully programmed projects can produce serious connectivity challenges as a consequence of their location.Social demographics are changing and with those changes come changing work practices. I am pleased to observe that our business is increasingly providing attractive vocations for women. Younger women, in their pursuit of work/life balance, increasingly want to operate remotely, serving both their family and business interests – and it can work well, provided that adequate broadband services are available.Similarly, the baby boomers in the business are now looking to scale back the hours that they work. It is no longer so attractive or important to maintain a physical presence in a central city office, though from the business perspective there is significant value in their accumulated life experience. We simply don’t want to lose access to that.The golden years can mean shifting house to a rural setting or the beach – so what about the prospect of working remotely from there for three days a week? Ah, the broadband bogey strikes again. Dial-up won’t cut it with the modern tools we use.These are but three practical examples of the need to provide better broadband facilities as an important component of our national infrastructure. As a nation, our productivity is a cause for concern – we need to do much better. From my perspective the examples above would contribute to improved productivity whilst at the same time providing socially desirable outcomes.