Posts Tagged ‘Communications’
Australia – One independent MP has strongly praised ALP for its NBN infrastructure project, noting it did not buy votes
September 7th, 2010 | 
Author: Speaking on ABC television overnight, Katter said he had to pay the former Rudd Government a “very great tribute” for its pursual of the NBN as example of a government not buying votes.
“I have watched for 20 years the corruption of government in the sense that all they spend money on is buying votes. There is no infrastructure, there is no development, there is nothing.
“I have to pay a very great tribute to the Rudd Government as for the first time in 20 years I saw a government – the broadband rollout, the national energy grid—there is no votes in either of those things.
“They are a good thing for this country, a great thing for this country and they undertook both those things knowing there were no votes in it for them.”
The comments follow similar remarks from Independent MP, Tony Windsor, at the weekend that he had been convinced of the veracity of Labor’s $43 billion NBN plan, following briefings from Peter Harris, the secretary Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, as well as Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy.
In an interview on Sky News, available as a podcast through the Australian Agenda link, Conroy said Windsor and the other independents understood that the NBN would drive better healthcare, education and small business benefits in regional Australia, as well as enabling other technologies such as smart electricity grids.
In late August, the third ‘gang of three’ Independent MP, Rob Oakeshott also expressed support for better telecommunications in regional areas along with suggesting an Emissions Trading Scheme would be an important goal; indicating closer alignment with the Labor party.
Posted in Communications | 
Tags: business, Communications, Computer, Electric, electricity, emissions, Health, money, Network, small business, world | 
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McKinsey: heaviest users of Web 2.0 applications are also enjoying benefits such as increased knowledge sharing and more effective marketing
Nearly 1,700 executives from around the world, across a range of industries and functional areas, responded to this year’s survey.1 We asked them about the value they have realized from their Web 2.0 deployments in three main areas: within their organizations; externally, in their relations with customers; and in their dealings with suppliers, partners, and outside experts.
Web 2.0 technologies improve interactions with employees, customers, and suppliers at some companies more than at others. An outside study titled “Power Law of Enterprise 2.0” analyzed data from earlier McKinsey Web 2.0 surveys to gain a better understanding of the factors that contribute most significantly to the successful use of these technologies.
The findings demonstrate that success follows a “power curve distribution”—in other words, a small group of users accounts for the largest portion of the gains. According to our research, the 20 percent of users reporting the greatest satisfaction received 80 percent of the benefits. Drilling a bit deeper, we found that this 20 percent included 68 percent of the companies reporting the highest adoption rates for a range of Web 2.0 tools, 58 percent of the companies where use by employees was most widespread, and 82 percent of the respondents who claimed the highest levels of satisfaction from Web 2.0 use at their companies.
To improve our understanding of some underlying factors leading to these companies’ success, we first created an index of Web 2.0 performance, combining the previously mentioned variables: adoption, breadth of employee use, and satisfaction. A score of 100 percent represents the highest performance level possible across the three components. We then analyzed how these scores correlated with three company characteristics: the competitive environment (using industry type as a proxy), company features (the size and location of operations), and the extent to which the company actively managed Web 2.0. These three factors explained two-thirds of the companies’ scores.
Furthermore, while all of the factors are slightly correlated with one another—for example, there are more high-tech companies in the United States than in South America—each factor by itself explains much of why companies achieved their performance scores. Management capabilities ranked highest at 54 percent, meaning that good management is more than half of the battle in ensuring satisfaction with Web 2.0, a high rate of adoption, and widespread use of the tools. The competitive environment explained 28 percent, size and location 17 percent. Parsing these results even further, we found that three aspects of management were particularly critical to superior performance: a lack of internal barriers to Web 2.0, a culture favoring open collaboration (a factor confirmed in the 2009 survey), and early adoption of Web 2.0 technologies. The high-tech and telecom industries had higher scores than manufacturing, while companies with sales of less than $1 billion or those located in the United States were more likely to have relatively high performance scores than larger companies located elsewhere.
While the evidence suggests that focused management improves Web 2.0 performance, there’s still a way to go before users become as satisfied with these technologies as they are with others. The top 20 percent of companies reached a performance score of only 35 percent (the score increased to 44 percent in the 2009 survey). When the same score methodology is applied to technologies that corporations had previously adopted, Web 2.0’s score is below the 57 percent for traditional corporate IT services, such as e-mail, and the 80 percent for mobile-communications services.
Their responses suggest why Web 2.0 remains of high interest: 69 percent of respondents report that their companies have gained measurable business benefits, including more innovative products and services, more effective marketing, better access to knowledge, lower cost of doing business, and higher revenues. Companies that made greater use of the technologies, the results show, report even greater benefits. We also looked closely at the factors driving these improvements—for example, the types of technologies companies are using, management practices that produce benefits, and any organizational and cultural characteristics that may contribute to the gains. We found that successful companies not only tightly integrate Web 2.0 technologies with the work flows of their employees but also create a “networked company,” linking themselves with customers and suppliers through the use of Web 2.0 tools. Despite the current recession, respondents overwhelmingly say that they will continue to invest in Web 2.0.
How companies are benefiting from Web 2.0: McKinsey Global Survey Results
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Tags: amp, application, blog, blogs, business, Communications, Culture, Environment, google, Management, Marketing, Mobile, Network, reporting, research, survey results, Technology, world |
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Greater Mekong Sub-region: optic fibre network now links the six countries at 620 Mbps
According to the Phnom Penh Post, the completion of the connection with Laos completes the first phase of an infrastructure project designed to provide a transmission speed of 620 Mbps. Known as the GMS information superhighway, the project is managed by TC and Huawei Technologies from China.
Posted in Communications |
Tags: blog, blogs, Communications, Design, information, Network, transmission |
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Laos: Lao Star Telecom is preparing to launch a 3G service with Viettel of Vietnam
Viettel set up the partnership in Laos late last year with local firm, Laos-Asia Telecommunications. Star Telecom has set itself a target of 1.5 million customers by 2010.
Star Telecom is studying the market before deciding when to introduce the 3G service to local customers, Saeng Alounboulana, head of the Lao Star Telecom Administration told the newspaper. He added that the network operator had completed installation of 700 base transceivers in Laos and planned to complete 1,200 phone signal stations around the country at the end of this year.
According to estimates from the Mobile World analysts, Star Telecom ended Q1 ’09 with around 63,000 subscribers.
Posted in Communications |
Tags: 3g, blog, blogs, Communications, Mobile, mobile network, mobile world, Network, news agency, world |
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USA: AT&T is forecasting global economic recovery from next year
The 2009 AT&T Road to Growth Study is based on more than six dozen one-on-one interviews with IT executives employed with multinational companies in the U.S. and Europe. The U.S. portion of the study included CIOs and senior information technology executives from approximately four dozen multinational companies averaging $4.75 billion dollars revenue and operations in 28 countries. All U.S. executives interviewed for this study work for a U.S company or a U.S. subsidiary of a foreign company, and they have responsibility for making decisions about IT strategy and budget allocations.
2009 Road to Growth Study Key Findings:
Time horizon to achieve ROI narrowed by 50%: In today’s economic climate, U.S. companies have significantly shortened the time frame over which return on investment (ROI) is delivered.
More than half of U.S. IT executives interviewed stated they are under pressure to deliver a return on investment in half or less than half the time. As a result, two-thirds cited that the
change has affected their IT budgets, strategies and priorities. The study found that companies are less willing to invest in longer-term projects or projects where the return does not come quickly. One CIO stated that the added pressure has forced the company to focus on IT projects that give at least 100% ROI in 12 months; otherwise, the project(s) get dropped.
Cost cutting and improving productivity are top priorities: Cost cutting and increasing revenue remain the two primary business goals cited by U.S. companies. To achieve the goals, survive the recession and move towards growth, IT strategies are focused on:
Reducing operating costs: 87 percent cited “reducing operating costs” as “extremely or very important”;
Improve collaboration with customer and partners: 85 percent cited “improved collaboration with customers and partners” as “extremely or very important”;
Enhancing workforce performance and productivity: 83 percent cited “enhancing workforce performance” as “extremely or very important”.
“U.S. companies are under added pressure to deliver, and IT investments are more critical than ever before,” said Bill Archer, chief marketing officer, AT&T Business Solutions. “From the study, we expect U.S. companies to come out of the recession leaner and more agile. Technologies that cut cost, reduce redundancies and loss, and improve efficiencies top the priorities list.”
Short and long term strategies are similar: The Road to Growth study found that U.S. companies employ multiple strategies to address business goals, and do not distinguish between short-term and long-term strategies. It appears that U.S. companies are reducing the time period for their long-term forecasting until after the recession is over. The role IT plays in helping U.S. companies achieve long-term strategies is very similar to the role IT plays in supporting the companies’ short-term business strategies.
Business continuity & security solutions have the highest positive impact: IT investments and priorities will go towards lowering cost, reducing risks and improving productivity and efficiency. The study found that “business continuity and security solutions” will have the biggest positive impact on business growth as U.S. companies prepare for an economic turnaround. This is closely followed by “enterprise mobility solutions” and “Web delivery solutions”. Areas of IT investment that are expected to have a high to moderate impact on businesses are “unified communications services” and “hosted solutions.”
These findings are in line with AT&T’s annual study on business continuity and disaster recovery preparedness for U.S. businesses in the private sector, conducted in June this year. The dramatic rise in social networking and mobility trends is presenting new challenges to companies’ network security, disaster planning and business continuity programs. Businesses are stepping up their technology investment and efforts to meet these challenges, despite the economy. IT executives indicated in the Road to Growth study that they expect to make the biggest financial investments in business continuity and security solutions and hosted solutions in the next 9 months.
Disparate views in Europe: The European portion of the Road to Growth study found that in contrast to the U.S., European executives have a consensus view that the global economy will rebound between Q1 and Q4 2010. The majority of executives expect a recovery towards mid to the end of 2010. Additionally, 50% of the European executives stated that there is no change in the time period with which they achieve ROI.
The consensus between European and U.S. IT executives is that the two largest global economies – the United States and China – will emerge first from the current recession.
For more information on the AT&T Road to Growth Study including the complete research results, please visit www.att.com/roadtogrowth.
AT&T Study: U.S. Companies Preparing for Economic Recovery in First Half of 2010
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Tags: amp, blog, blogs, budget, business, Communications, information, information technology, Marketing, Network, Network Security, Networking, research, rim, social networking, Technology |
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