03.28.08
Posted in General Management, Industry News at 04:43 by lnxwalt
AT&T CEO says hard to find skilled U.S. workers – Yahoo! News
This is pretty rich. I’m sure you, like I, have dealt with telephone support before. Normally, company policies are so strict that they have to follow a script, even if you’ve already eliminated the causes on their list.
I was in a hotel, calling the support line for their ISP. I knew what the problem was–they were doing some construction and one of the building’s access points was no longer working–but they had me step through the whole process. The thing was, I was doing support myself, so naturally, I had already done all that they listed. Finally, after going through the whole process multiple times, the rep agreed to have someone physically check the access point after he had logged into the local system and found that he could not “see” the access point.
“We’re having trouble finding the numbers that we need with
the skills that are required to do these jobs,” AT&T Chief
Executive Randall Stephenson told a business group in San
Antonio, where the company’s headquarters is located.
So, Mr. CEO, do you really want to tell me that you cannot find people who can follow a script? If so, I suggest you run right down to the Golden Arches and hire the whole counter crew. Those employees, like yours, are given a script that must be followed, sometimes even down to specific wording. They can read and they can operate often-antiquated computer terminals. They speak English or any of a variety of other languages. They already work for low wages and few benefits, with widely varying schedules that depend primarily on the needs of the company.
Stephenson said neither he nor most Americans liked the situation, and the solution was a stronger U.S. focus on education and keeping jobs. Business needed to help, such as
AT&T’s repatriation of service positions and education grants,
he added.
You see, this is part of the problem with large corporations. That man behind the desk did not get his job because he already knew how to do the job. They had to train him, even if he already had education and experience, because every business and every industry is a little different and no skills are fully transferable from one to another. And even though he knows this to be true, he will swear to the day he dies that he got his position because of merit, that he was effective from day one. In other words, neither the corporation nor the people running the corporation practice reciprocity.
Corporations will take all you can do for them, while giving you the absolute minimum they can get away with, until they find someone who will accept less. At that point, they will unceremoniously dump you like yesterday’s garbage.
This is what is wrong with the American economy. Domination by self-centered corporations and by officers and investors in those corporations means that every town and city and their workforces are merely tools to be used up and then discarded to help big companies fill their essentially unlimited appetites for money, power, fame, and reputation. Through pervasive advertising, they continue to drive consumers to buy the big name product from the big name store, when the best interests of individuals and their communities is served from purchases of locally-produced goods and services through locally-owned outlets.
When I buy tools at Big Blue, the world’s largest retail chain, I am depriving my community of the money that flies out of California and over to the chain’s headquarters city in Arkansas. If those tools are made outside of my area, then funds which could have gone to support locally-owned tool producers now goes somewhere else to support their companies and residents.
And when I support politicians that allowed SBC to buy AT&T (keeping the AT&T name) and Southern Bell, I am by extension supporting self-absorbed CEOs that cannot see a skilled worker even if they bumped into one.
Do not misunderstand me. Our schools are in desperate need of improvement, and our colleges as well. But the jobs people actually get do not even use the skills of a normal high school graduate. A superabundance of managers decrees every detail of what to do and how to do it, so that a worker of average intelligence is stymied in his attempts to do a better job.
Who knows more about customer service? Some guy in corporate who never even deals with customers or the people on the front lines dealing with customers every day? I’d say it is the professionals that actually do the work, not someone who talks to a consultant or reads a book and decides that he knows how to serve customers better. Which one do you think wrote this script?
Hi, welcome to <company name>. My name is <employee first name>. May I take your order?
Or how about this one:
Hi, welcome to <company name>. Would you like to try our new <product name>? It's my favorite!
That garbage was certainly not written by anyone who actually works with customers. Yes, those were actual scripts that were used at one company I worked for years ago.
So, Mr. CEO, if you want quality customer service, hire people who actually deal with customers, and then let them hire their co-workers. Get your legions of managers and send them to a desert island without a way back. Or even better, contract the job out to small, locally-owned businesses (SLOBs) with fewer than one hundred people apiece and give them the freedom to experiment with ways to improve your service (this means you absolutely CANNOT try to squeeze them on pricing).
Maybe that outlook was the reason that AT&T consistently had the worst mobile service in every state where I’ve worked except New Jersey. You cannot find quality people? Maybe you aren’t paying enough or offering enough benefits in order to attract quality people. Maybe a lot of quality people are those who’ve seen their jobs slashed over the past decade at one of the AT&T predecessor companies (such as Pacific Telesis in California and Nevada). Or maybe your hiring process drives away anyone that has a choice about what job to accept. All I can say is that anyone who feels that there are no quality employees in the U.S. is seriously incompetent.
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03.21.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 09:12 by lnxwalt
A government leader in South Africa speaks of the threat to open standards and indigenous open source projects caused by patents and ersatz standards like Not-so-open XML. In the process, she really shows the extent to which big corporate software companies have blinded our state and federal governments to their procurement responsibilities.
Vulindlela – Open the Path – Idlelo – Opening Address
With regard to Open Standards …
The adoption of open standards by governments is a critical factor in building interoperable information systems which are open, accessible, fair and which reinforce democratic culture and good governance practices. In South Africa we have a guiding document produced by my department called the Minimum Interoperability Standards for Information Systems in Government (MIOS). The MIOS prescribes the use of open standards for all areas of information interoperability, including, notably, the use of the Open Document Format (ODF) for exchange of office documents. ODF is an open standard developed by a technical committee within the OASIS consortium. The committee represents multiple vendors and Free Software community groups. OASIS submitted the standard to the International Standards Organisation in 2005 and it was adopted as an ISO standard in 2006. South Africa is amongst a growing number of National Governments who have adopted ODF over the past year.
It is unfortunate that the leading vendor of office software, which enjoys considerable dominance in the market, chose not to participate and support ODF in its products, but rather to develop its own competing document standard which is now also awaiting judgement in the ISO process. If it is successful, it is difficult to see how consumers will benefit from these two overlapping ISO standards. I would like to appeal to vendors to listen to the demands of consumers as well as Free Software developers. Please work together to produce interoperable document standards. The proliferation of multiple standards in this space is confusing and costly.
Remember, this isn’t someone from a competing software company. This is a government minister, contending for the survival of an indigenous software industry, both free / open source and closed source.
It is worth reading the text or watching the video. Once again I urge that ISO national bodies send OOXML (DIS29500) back to Ecma for repair and processing under the normal standards submission process.
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03.17.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 06:46 by lnxwalt
I was talking with a friend about some of the problems in the local community. We talked about the job situation, about the transportation situation, and about the cost of living here, versus somewhere closer to Los Angeles.
Afterwards, I was thinking that one reason that communities like ours are in the condition they are is because we are not willing to get involved in doing things to make the place better. I want people who live here to be fully able to live and work in the same general area, without long commutes into Los Angeles and Orange counties. I want this area to have loads of affordable owner-occupied housing.
Even more, I want people who live here to feel that they count, that they are part of a community and commonality of purpose with others who live here. I want big retail companies from outside the area to see our residents continuing to support SLOBs, and big manufacturing companies to bring their plants back from overseas outsourcing centers for the quality workforce.
So how do I propose to make all that happen? I can’t make it happen, but I can help it happen by getting involved. Do you know that a few interested locals can cause the city council to do the right thing for their citizens? Did you know that a few local volunteers can help the city keep the streets free from trash, serve as extra eyes for the police department, or even help local non-profits keep youth out of trouble? Why wait for “meals on wheels” to bring food to your elderly neighbors? Make a practice of going by daily to check on them and to make sure they have what they need—perhaps even calling their children to come and check on any questionable financial deals they may get involved in.
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03.11.08
Posted in FLOSS, Small Business at 03:13 by lnxwalt
Alfresco VP Matt Asay responds to an article in eCommerce Times.
He points out that SMBs should be using open source software, when it meets their needs, and that hosted software (SaaS) eliminates the need for the business’ owner and staffers to act as an IT department:
What could possibly be better for an SMB than not having to install software?
…
Fair enough. But what this doesn’t note (perhaps because the author doesn’t understand) is that just because you can access source code in open source doesn’t mean that you must. Most people don’t.
Even if an SMB elects not to modify source code, however, they still benefit by all those that do. Better code. More accountability from one’s vendor. Lower prices. These are just some of the benefits that are attendant on those that buy into open source, whether they’re a hacker or a surrogate of the hacker.
Which brings up the point: when you buy proprietary software, someone has to install it, configure it, customize it for your needs, and perform other administrative tasks from time to time. If the software has a failure, you are still on the phone, paying for support. You still have to search out online fora to find out how to fix your problem. So what is the advantage? It isn’t even always more polished than open source.
With FLOSS, someone has to install, configure, customize, and administer your software. Most of your support is free, from online fora, and many applications have a company where paid support can be obtained.
If you are approached by someone who wants to help you set up your business’ software, make sure that the person knows, uses, and supports FLOSS. Your setup doesn’t have to be only open software, but a significant part of what you use should be.
One other thing: Unlike what eCommerce Times wrote, No business should be installing or using Windows Vista. It is years away from being ready to use. Check out Mac OSX systems as well as Linux and BSD-based systems. If you are looking to buy computers, make sure that your vendors offer Mac and/or Linux systems.
From someone who supports Windows systems as his day job, trust me: you do not need the headache that is Windows Vista. If you must have Windows, buy only XP Professional.
Tags: SmallBusiness
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03.08.08
Posted in Local News, Political at 06:16 by lnxwalt
I was in another one of our local communities today. It was a bright, sunny day, and I was walking down the street. I saw someone putting up some signage for the city, telling pedestrians not to cross the street at that intersection.
I was not going that way, but if I had been coming from across that street and heading back the way I had come from, I would not cross the street three times to get to a place that was one crossing away. In other words, either they are making it harder and slower for pedestrians to get where they are going, or they are creating more lawbreakers.
In my own town, we have a whole corner shopping center that is now a ghost town, primarily because the town decided to put up median to prevent vehicles from turning into or out of the center and then put up signs telling pedestrians to walk a block out of their way in order to cross the street. This was previously high-traffic location, with a supermarket, fast food restaurant, clothing and shoe stores, an auto parts store, doughnut shop, a discount store and a drug store / pharmacy. In fact, it was the local high school Friday and Saturday night hangout.
What is the problem? If we want our local shopping areas to thrive, we have to make it easy and convenient to pull vehicles into and out of a central parking area, and we have to make it convenient for pedestrians to get to various stores, restaurants, and shops in the local area. We have to make that a priority, even to the extent of slowing the flow of traffic in the area. We then need to make sure that there is also adequate housing nearby, because many of the customers for local businesses will then walk.
In the quest to make things better for SLOBs, we have to make it easier for nearby residents to choose and support those businesses. We have to stop taxing SLOBs in order to give “incentives” to big corporations from outside the area. We have to give locally-owned businesses priority in zoning changes, setting taxes and fees, and even in deciding how to route traffic. We need to make sure that we continue to support and promote the locally-owned businesses that are going to hire many of our local high school graduates and support our local youth sports teams. Our civic leaders need to buy most of our city’s (or town’s) products and services from locally-owned businesses, too.
I hope that someone in our local community is reading this. We are about small, locally-owned businesses, about family-owned businesses (FOBs), and about owner-managed businesses (OMBs). All of these are suffering due to neglect by our local governments, who are busy pursuing the big companies that send their profits outside the community. What is it going to take to wake someone up and get us started with building up our local economy?
Local business: profits stay here, recycled within community. Often smaller, but existing in large numbers.
Out-of-area business: profits exported to another area, resulting in a net export of funds from the community to wherever the company is headquartered.
Let us join together and build our communities.
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03.07.08
Posted in Industry News at 06:26 by lnxwalt
Some advice on our tech blog about computer buying.
Blogged with Flock
Tags: computerbuying
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Posted in Industry News at 02:28 by lnxwalt
The ballot resolution meeting for DIS 29500 (Ecma 376/OOXML) has ended. You can search Technorati or IceRocket for the discussion of the event and the edited text that resulted.
Some issues that could not be resolved at the meeting are still threats to your business in the long term. The legal (“IP”) issue, for example, of OOXML is still hazy, pending a thorough review by legal eagles with OASIS, OpenOffice.org, Sun, IBM, KDE/KOffice, and GNOME/AbiWord/Gnumeric. For that reason, it is best to avoid newer versions of Microsoft file types for now.
The stakes are still high. Apparently, Microsoft’s business plan requires ISO approval (why, I do not know, since they never did before) for their file formats, even though the formats were designed to be an exact fit for their product and no one else’s. Exactly what you want in a so-called open format, right? For many of the corrections proposed by Ecma were: make it optional to do things right because MS Office 2007 is shipping with the flawed version already. Sorry, but some of these are deal-breakers. Seriously.
Smaller businesses tend to be more conservative—you don’t hear of them being adventurous in their IT spending—so I expect that many of them are not even considering some of the alternatives instead of buying MS Office 2007. And yet, MSO2K7 faces a rocky road, in part because of issues related to its file formats. In some European countries, for example, all government documents must be in OpenDocument Format (ODF) a competing set of XML-based office document formats. A number of states in the US are similarly considering this choice. If your software cannot work with ODF files, I suggest that you need to start looking around.
Sun has a plugin which can extend MS Office to enable it to work with ODF files, but you still have warning messages every time you save the file. Can you see the consternation when you deploy the plugin to your users’ machines? And yet, if you are using MS Office, that is your best option right now for preparing for the future.
The future. Yes, that’s the issue. Is the future MS-centric and tightly-controlled, or is it a decentralized architecture with a broad mixture of different systems that speak common standardized formats and protocols? I believe the second is the future, and I am working hard to make it happen even faster. As for your business, get ready for the day when your operating system will no longer matter, and neither will what office suite or browser you use.
The future is not OOXML. The future is open and accessible. I encourage you to open your eyes and look around.
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