More ‘Back to Front’ Than ‘Back to Roots’

Video game review of "Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness" for Sony Playstation 2 (PS2).
Published on ciao.co.uk, October 2003.

Well, after months and months of anticipation and innumerable postponements by publisher, Eidos, it's here. Overall it's not bad, but I think that if this is all that can be done with Lara on the PS2 vs. PSone format, then it might be time to retire the poor girl.

For forty quid you expect to at least be able to control Lara. Unfortunately she responds with all the urgency of a three-toed sloth in a coma. Ironically this means you're less likely to fall off a high ledge, but more likely to end up shouting at the screen when involved in a close-quarters combat situation. "MOVE!", "RUN!", "DO SOMETHING!" and far, far ruder cries rang around my flat the first time Lara came up against a boss. You do get used to it, but compared to other third-person games e.g. Syphon Filter, and previous Tomb Raiders, Lara behaves as if she's heavily sedated. The other annoying fact is that you can't sprint until almost the end of the game, and it isn't terribly obvious when she learns this ability. Make sure you note that she can belly-crawl too, as you'll need it to get under tripwires and laser-activated bombs (press and hold 'triangle', then tap L2).

My other initial impression of disappointment was of the level domains. This is a far cry from the stunning Sphinx room, Great Wall of China, or legendary "Cistern" level in the first couple of Tomb Raiders. Early on in the game the levels are cramped and linear - even Lara ironically complains, "Another cold, dark city..." as you arrive in Prague. It's not until you reach the Tomb of the Ancients or maybe the Bio-Dome that you start to see the jaw-dropping visuals and rendering the PS2 is capable of, but this is an original differentiator for Tomb Raider that Eidos really hasn't exploited much.

Tomb Raiders also used to be known for their puzzles. Maybe I'm getting cleverer, or just used to the format, but I breezed through this game and was only really stuck once, trying to figure out that the subtle change in The Keeper's behaviour meant the painting was up for grabs. There were scant few occasions when I entered a level, saw a high balcony or ledge and thought, "Wonder how I get up there", and then ended up getting to it an hour later having been round the houses. Shame.

Playing as a bloke (Kurtis) for a while is new, as are some of the weapons, belly-crawling, and climbing of drainpipes etc. Unfortunately Kurtis walks like a chimpanzee, complete with knuckles scraping the floor, and frustration is added to amusement when you realise that he wields what looks like a ninja throwing star equipped with AI only in the cut-scenes, not in the game.

All in all, Tomb Raider is still a good game by today's standards. If you haven't played the originals then it's up there with Timesplitters 2, Tenchu 3, and Syphon Filter. Unfortunately, Eidos set a high standard with the first game that's difficult to live up to, so TR fans might be a bit disappointed.

Final verdict - buy it if you're new to the series, wait for it on Platinum or promo-price if you're a fan.

Not what the doctor, or customer, ordered

Consumer review of Sony Ericsson T68i mobile phone.
Published on ciao.co.uk, October 2003.

I didn't actually want this phone.

I'd had my last mobile nicked, and when I rang Orange to get it replaced I specifically asked for something that didn't look flashy, and thus wouldn't be attractive to other, light-fingered people.

Oops. Enter the flashiest looking phone ever, complete with bullseye target for pickpockets.

The phone has character too - I'm just not sure which one, maybe Harry Hill. It seems to be stuck in a mode of permanent lateral thinking, though much of this could be put down to the fact that since buying my first mobile in 1997, I've always had Nokias until the last two.

For example, the phone was the first I'd had with a colour screen - wooo. You could tell the hearts and diamonds from the spades and clubs when playing Patience...except it's not called "Patience". In fact, Snake isn't called Snake, it's called "Erix". Reversi/Othello is called, "Contrary" (which better describes the phone than a game on it), and - according to Sony Ericsson at least - Battleships is called "Naval Fleet". All games come with a list of which keys to press but no actual objective or instructions, which is fine for all the above, but not for a game that SE calls "Q". The real game was trying to figure out what the hell it was, something that kept me preoccupied on long tube journeys until only two months ago.

The meagre ringer and SMS volume mean you can't actually hear the phone if it's in your bag or jacket pocket, which has been the cause of umpteen missed calls and texts, from potential job interviews to my girlfriend arranging plans for the evening. This is bad enough when - according to the experts - men are from Mars and women from Venus, but the T68i is from a different planet again.

Menus are overly long and complicated, but at the same time, simple things are difficult to find in it. After every call, a time summary is displayed on the phone's screen. Look back a few seconds later and the thing's still there! Try as I might, I can't get rid of it, so making two phone calls in quick succession is almost faster if you switch the phone off and on again....which is unfortunately something the phone does best on its own, despite the keylock.

In the last few days the phone has become gravely ill, taking to displaying just one of a possible five bars for network signal. Needless to say, everyone else's phone nearby has a full stack of bars, and so has this one - once you've removed the battery and replaced it again.

The basic requirements of a phone are the ability to make and receive calls, wherever you are. This mobile fails on both accounts, and I just can't recommend it. Time for an upgrade to Nokia again methinks...

...and don't get me started on the fiddly joystick thing.

Retail Banking: Mile Long Queues or Mile High Club?

Ghost-written article for Cisco Systems EMEA.
Published in Retail Banking magazine, UK, October 2003.

There were several set backs along the way – 9/11 most notably – but it is now almost safe to conclude that the travel industry is well on the way to embracing internet protocol (IP) as a quasi-industry standard for IT operations. Major global airlines are migrating their internal networks to IP, the major airline alliances are using IP as a commonality to enable inter-organisational communications, and the internet itself has rewritten the rankings of organisations within the travel industry, as well as creating whole new industry sub-sections.

What can this possibly have to do with retail banking? Well, the impact of the internet on the air transport part of the travel industry in particular has quickly demonstrated those areas where IP can be harnessed to reduce costs, improve operational efficiency, and enhance customer service. By default, it has also determined where IP is not suited. The main issue that determines this in the travel industry also determines it in the retail banking industry.

That issue is simply that there is still only a relatively small proportion of the travel market that will purchase a package holiday or flight online. Despite everything you’ve read or heard, high street travel agents are not going out of business, and they never will. The reason for this is two fold. Firstly, certain types of customer will always prefer face-to-face contact with the seller when making a purchasing decision. It feels more tangible, more ‘proper’, and with a particular person and location associated with the transaction, the customer feels more comfortable because a method or recourse, should something go wrong, is much more obvious. In this case, the quantity of people booking online will not change until the demographics of the target market age with time. The fact is, the younger you are, the greater the proportion of your life has been spent in the presence of the internet, and therefore the more comfortable you are with it.

Secondly, certain types of transaction are inherently complicated. A round-the-world trip using different airlines from different alliances, an expedition that – literally - required planes, trains and automobiles, or a solitary journey where the customer cannot specify either the departure or return date would be examples. This would give even a seasoned IP expert or systems integrator a run for their money, and where the customer is concerned, the human need for reassurance that everything has been booked correctly may require something more tangible than an e-ticket or a pop-up window stating, “Complete. Return to homepage?”.

Humans do not and, in fact, cannot cease this pattern of behaviour when they leave the travel agent having booked their holiday, and head for the bank to get their foreign currency. It’s of little surprise then that according to Datamonitor, in spite of online banking, telephone banking, and mobile payments, 79 per cent of European consumers prefer physically visiting their humble local bank branch over any other channel. Retail banking and travel are very similar in this respect, and it is likely that the more expensive the transaction being made, the more likely the customer will require face-to-face contact. Think about it at a personal level – if you wanted to arrange an overdraft or a loan, wouldn’t your first instinct be to meet the bank manager in person? To a lesser extent, the last time you had a cheque for a sizeable sum to pay into your bank account, did you trust the express pay-in envelope? Or, like me, did you queue in the bank, despite it taking a large proportion of your precious lunch hour, because you felt more comfortable seeing it passed over the counter than sitting at the bottom of a perspex box fixed to a pillar somewhere? Face-to-face contact is still essential where a large or complex transaction is concerned. For some people, such contact is essential for all transactions.

This is a headache for the retail banking industry. Despite investing in online banking, neither the cost of staffing a branch can be reduced nor the efficiency of it increased while customers still prefer to use the branch to any other channel. The most pessimistic banker might decide that IP had nothing to offer the retail banking industry because of this issue, but that is not necessarily the case.

One just needs to turn the problem on its head. Rather than just trying to harness the internet as a method to get customers to complete transactions themselves, IP can be used to improve the efficiency of not only one branch, but all branches in a banking empire. Once one has the opportunity to think about it, the fact that bank branches all over Europe are crammed with impatient customers in their lunch hour is actually a blessing in disguise. After all, how many organisations would love to be able to predict where their customers will be and when, so that promotional offers could be targeted at them? The fact that in retail banking the target customer is most likely to be inside a branch, presents an opportunity to communicate with them. The personnel each customer is exposed to within the branch offers another opportunity for that bank to differentiate itself through provision of superior service. Even the kiosks within the branch could offer revenue opportunities for the bank from third parties, a means to promote complimentary services, or the beginnings of CRM with a personalised experience for each individual.

From the customer’s point of view, imagine approaching the till merely to pay that same cheque in, but then being informed by the cashier that your mortgage quotation was ready to be collected. At the same time, you’re reminded with the gleeful news that there are now only two monthly payments left on the loan you took out 18 months ago (meaning you might be able to afford that skiing holiday after all), and that if you were to open a joint account with your fiancé rather than just having separate accounts, you’d both get a better rate of interest anyway. Before you leave, you’re also given the opportunity to have a quick chat to the manager about that long-term savings plan you’d telephoned a bank branch 50 miles away about earlier in the week, which you’d completely forgotten about.

Conversely, imagine operating a bank where particular products or services could be offered just once to a customer most likely to need it, with a greatly increased possibility of the service suiting that customer and therefore a successful sale. Imagine also that no selling time was wasted – ever. Your marketing department or their local branch targeted customers individually, rather than in a slapdash group of people of the same age, disposable income, or postcode. Also, particular products or services were discussed once and once only with each customer, and at the right time – no, “Didn’t you call me about this last week?” or, “You were supposed to get back to me about this a fortnight ago!” responses. All this is entirely feasible through IP.

So, how would IP let the cashier know about all the banking needs of an individual customer rather than just the one need they have at that moment in time? If your organisation is going to embrace IP, then the return on investment will be greater if the quantity of places where IP reaches can be maximised. Put simply, if your bank’s call centres and branches are both running on IP, then there is no reason why the information used by either party cannot be shared. All in all, this means the customer’s local branch will know when the head office has contacted someone regarding a new promotional offer, or in response to a request for information from that customer. Similarly head office will know how quickly the customer responded by visiting their local branch, what questions they asked, and how the eventual service was tailored when the sale was closed. This is just one possibility though. With the same technology, it is also possible to do this in reverse.

For example, if the customer should contact the head office from outside the branch, then an IP-based telephony system can direct that individual’s call immediately to the personnel with appropriate expertise in the head office. However, the same call could also be redirected to someone working within the customer’s local branch, to the extent that the IP system will intuitively page the particular member of staff needed, wherever they are. This benefits the customer experience by ensuring that query calls are not endlessly transferred to various members of staff not equipped to answer the customer’s questions. It also means that the customer’s local branch will be able to develop a more comprehensive understanding of each customers’ lifestyle and needs, and therefore be able to tailor their overall retail banking experience to suit. In short, IP isn’t just a way to improve your telephony; it’s the start of an enterprise-wide CRM system, and the beginning of the end for missed opportunities to up-sell or cross-sell.

IP does not have to be restricted to its native ground of networked PCs and telephones. In-branch security surveillance could also run on IP, deliver real-time camera footage to the bank’s head office or, if needs be, the police. However, the same footage could be used by the bank’s marketing department to assess the impact of an in-store point of sale or other promotional campaign. Staffing levels could also be monitored, even customer behaviour in relation to new branch layouts and signage. Peak traffic times could be ascertained and staffing guidelines adapted accordingly. There is no limit to what can be done if the appropriate information is shared with those personnel that most need it.

As far as the customer is concerned, a trip to the local bank will never be like going on holiday – there is only so much that IP can do! However, once you accept that until the entire population of Europe becomes so comfortable with the internet that they never need to visit their branch, then the same issue that affects the travel industry will continue to affect the retail banking industry. Even if you ignore the issue, then one still has to accept that there are many opportunities for high street banks. Sales can be increased, customer satisfaction levels can be improved, and generally the bank stands to gain from literally wringing the most productivity out of the information its already has. John Paul Getty once said, “Money is like manure. You have to spread it around or it smells”. Metaphorically, information is the same. Once you realise that the best way to use it is to spread it around your organisation, then the only thing left to do is to decide how - and IP is the answer.

SAS Veteran Defeated by Cardboard Box

Video game review of "Conflict" Desert Storm II" for Sony Playstation 2 (PS2).
Published on ciao.co.uk, October 2003.

Yes, it’s true. No sooner had Bradley, the leader of my SAS team-of-four, escaped from his cell in an Iraqi POW camp after it was hit by a laser-guided bomb dropped from an allied stealth bomber, he managed to get stuck in a dimly lit pile of cardboard boxes behind a secluded shed. Well, I guess all that time abroad away from his girlfriend, and the lack of privacy available in the army, all that stress…

Mind you, while the standard issue for said team of four includes primary and secondary weapons (machine gun or telescopic rifle, plus handgun or shotgun for close-quarters-battle), a handful of claymore mines, a couple of grenades (fragmentation and phosphorus), and half-a-dozen medipacks amongst others, there’s no mention of a box of Kleenex or girlie mags. Anyway, when needed, you’ll also be let loose with a laser designator to call in air strikes from gunships, LAW anti-tank hand-held missile launchers, or C4 with a remote control detonator. I’m hoping the latter might be in the shops soon, what with Guy Fawkes’ Night just around the corner. However, before I ramble into any more detail, let’s talk about why I’ve got this game in the first place.

When I got wind of the game publishers SCI doing a second game in the “Conflict: Desert Storm” series, but with a different designer (in this case, Pivotal Games) I was worried that a brilliant game would end up dismantled. Far from it, “II” is basically ‘more of the same’. If the first Desert Storm had needed much improvement then more of the same would be a disaster. As it is, this is basically a levels add-on pack the same size, if not bigger, than the original…and it’s great. Cross-fertilise “Medal of Honour: Frontline” with the famed “Command & Conquer: Red Alert” series on the PC, multiply good graphics by pi and add on your date of birth for good measure and you’ve got the gist. It looks good, it plays better, and is more addictive than skittles (the sweets, not the game).

This is basic one-mission-at-a-time, control a team of four, action game. There is no plot (this is war) and no sub-plots (this is the SAS, or US Delta Force as you prefer) – you follow orders, dammit. Note that you only get the same set of missions regardless of which of the two forces you choose, it just depends whether you’d prefer to be controlling four paranoid, trigger happy ex-colonials called Chad, Biff, Chip and Brad, or the SAS. The whole concept is based on the shenanigans of the special forces behind enemy lines before, during, and shortly after the Gulf War, and comprises typical ‘removal’ of key generals, key installations, and rescue of critical POWs. The only bonuses are those for stealth kills or going berserk in battle against overwhelming odds and managing to come out alive. The former involves using a silenced weapon, often from a long way away, or a knife, and the latter usually involves a lot of re-loading your last saved game.

However, don’t go mad with those ‘saves’. At least one ‘official’ Playstation 2 magazine claims you can save each level as many times as you like, but I’ve played the game version you buy on the street, and only ever been able to save any one level three times maximum. Beware! You need to be careful where you save. The first game was the same, which adds partially to the frustration but ultimately Pivotal’s attempt to make it realistic. Here’s a couple of tips so you don’t get too discouraged – on the “Chemical Warfare” level, save your game before you go through the door. On the “Air Cover” level, save your game before you press the button. You’ll be glad you did.

Anyway, if you’re anything like me you’ll kick off with the Full Metal Jacket-stylee training camp first. I know it seems dull, but do it – you’ll need to get to grips with ordering your team around because the quickest way to fail a mission is to have all your team bunched together when a T-72 tank or Iraqi with an RPG meanders round the corner. Once you’re in-country (oh yes, I know all the lingo) you’ll have a team comprising an expert in anti-tank/machine guns, a stealth and demolitions expert, a sharpshooter, and an all-rounder who’s also the leader. You’ll also need to pick a level to play the game at i.e. easy, medium, or hard, but remember dammit, this is war y’know, so there are no re-charge points, checkpoints, or anything else. The menu screens are fairly slick once you get the hang of them, and loading times bearable, even after you’ve just snuffed it….and then you’re off.

Game controls are intuitive and can be reprogrammed if you disagree. Sending your soldiers every which way is pretty easy, though knowing the best way to do it doesn’t come until you start to get into it more. When you first start, the temptation is to career into the Iraqi camp with all four of you in the jeep, so you can let loose with the mounted machine gun and rocket launcher. The most expeditious way to complete this part of the level, however, is to send Foley in first to do a bit of sneaky sniping.

You’ll soon realise that reconnaissance is an essential part of every mission. There are only four of you, and starting a pitch invasion isn’t a good idea if half the Iraqi army is waiting on the subs bench. Thus you’ll find yourself mercilessly strategising over each level, testing different routes, and using each team member’s own devious expertise against the opposition as you tiptoe through the streets of Baghdad or the sand of Iraq. Being able to call up a map of the locality helps with this, but while you’re doing it, you’ll realise it’s now one o’clock in the morning and you’ve eaten nothing, washed up nothing, and done nothing except play “Conflict: Desert Storm II” on the Playstation 2 since you got in from work. It’ll probably be dark, cold (because you haven’t switched on the central heating), and you’ll just have realised you’re still wearing the same coat and shoes you put on when you left the flat this morning when the sound of your girlfriend’s key turning in the door lock to your flat stirs you into action. Cue panic, yanking of plugs from power sockets, followed by an unusually generous offer to take your girlfriend out to dinner as you collide whilst trying to intercept her on the stairs. This gives you time to figure out how you’re going to do the washing-up before she see the flat, but then there’s the problem that you’ll have to do it while eating in the restaurant at the same time…

Suffice to say this game is very, very addictive. There’s the fact that different methods can be employed to achieve the same goals. There’s the fact that straying off the path slightly will often lead to an armoury where you’ll discover extra medikits, grenades, or Iraqi weapons to use…and you can’t beat spraying the bad guys with an AK-47. All the time you’ll be trying to do it a different way in order to receive more medals and promotions when you complete the mission and, in fact, while the missions are probably fairly repetitive in retrospect, I could quite easily pay for a whole lot more of the same.

Y’see, there’s always something new to learn. Once you’ve mastered the basic arts of covert operations then the Desert Storm version of cow-tipping i.e. ‘tank-tipping’ will keep you amused for hours. Tanks are a big problem, quite literally. You can hear ‘em coming from miles off but all it takes is a quick peek round the wrong corner and it’s all over (thus you’ll need to learn this method as well). You’ll need to get to grips with smoke grenades, which seem pointless until you realise they’re the only way you can complete some missions, and find yourself scouring outhouses for more of them. You’ll need to know the difference between LAWs and RPGs, because one of them won’t take a tank out unless you can figure out a way to shoot the tank right up the flue with it (the “Besieged” level will teach you this, one way or the other). Then there’s the anti-tank mine to figure out, and the best use of the rest of your demolitions portfolio. Another tip here – if you’ve planted C4 to blow up an installation, then move to a location that can be easily defended, or better still your next objective before you set it off. Achieving objectives like this often triggers the arrival of enemy soldiers en masse.

With Foley you’ll need to master the ability to roll from side-to-side whilst zoomed-in with the telescopic site, or you’ll be instant hamburger the minute someone realises the SAS are in town. By the time you get to the “Air Cover” level, you’ll need to know absolutely everything, including where best to leave a Claymore mine lying around. This is an excellent, excellent mission, and for the first time you’ll literally be in a running battle, having to position your men so that you’re covered from attack from behind as well as in front of you. Play this mission on the hard level and the game will last you a whole lot longer.

The game ain’t perfect though. I got caught out by the ‘game saving’ limitations and ended up having to do a couple of difficult levels from scratch. However, far more annoying was the problem of inventory items disappearing into thin air when trying to pass them from one soldier to another. Spreading your medikits, grenades, and (especially) RPGs between you is crucial, but when you receive an “UNABLE TO TRANSFER” message on the screen as you’re sharing out the last things that can possibly defeat a tank, it’ll infuriate you. I managed to lose about eight clips of ammo and an RPG, when I really needed it, for absolutely no reason whatsoever, and I never did manage to find out why it happened so I can’t even tell you how to avoid the same problem yourself. Then there’s the fact that while a soldier can bring down a helicopter gunship with a machine gun – eventually – it’s still possible to get him stuck behind or between parts of the scenery. This happened to me a couple of times, leading to a so-called battle hardened soldier floundering like a kipper as an Iraqi soldier slowly but surely killed him with little more than a potato gun. Hence the title of my review, which describes a situation where a humble cardboard box led to me having to switch my PS2 off and on again.

The other recurrent problem is the inability to identify a weapon you’ve found before you actually pick it up. You might have no ammo left, and be totally reliant on scavenging a weapon from somewhere to avoid trying to beat an Iraqi soldier with a combat knife when he’s got a bazooka. In this situation it doesn’t help that if the same soldier picks up two versions of the same weapon, then you’re stuffed. Why? Because ALL the ammo he has automatically falls into one of the two weapons, and you can’t share ammo once it’s allocated to a weapon. You’ll end up in the situation where Connors has an AKSU with 1,000 rounds in it, and Jones has the same weapon with a measly 30 rounds. This is enough of a pain in the arse on its own, but having two very similar looking weapons in the game (the AK-47, and the AK-74) means that you’ll probably make this mistake more than once. Fighting a gun battle in an aircraft hangar when all one of your soldiers has left is a pistol isn’t easy, not when it’s about a mile from one end of the hangar to the other.

However, spread over ten or so levels and at least a month of avid gameplay, these problems soon disappear. Overall, this is an absolutely stonking game, and well worth the 30 or 40 quid. By now you’ll be able to buy pre-owned copies, which will save you a bundle and further increase the value. Like me, you’ll probably be wishing there was more of it, but hey, with US troops all over Iraq at the moment, and Bush’s tendency to invade other countries combined with Blair’s tendency to follow him blindly, then it won’t be long be long before there’s more content matter to use as the basis for a C:DS III. Let’s hope so (about the game, not the real life stuff).

BT SETS BULLDOG ON SMEs

BT Wholesale today announces two extensions to its June 2002 strategic agreement on Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line (SDSL) with Bulldog Communications. The updated agreements will benefit both parties and are designed to pass on key advantages for small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK.

In the first extension, BT Wholesale has agreed to distribute Bulldog’s SDSL product, “Office Connect IP” to its existing customer base of service providers. In the second, BT Wholesale has embarked on a trial to integrate Bulldog’s access product from Bulldog’s enabled exchanges in to its own mainstream SDSL service. The new agreements will offer Bulldog a faster route to a larger customer base, and BT Wholesale an alternative delivery capability within the crucial London market.

“It makes good commercial sense for both companies to work together in providing SDSL services,” explains Stuart Horwood, managing director, BT Wholesale Markets. “Through this alliance, more SMEs will get what they need, and both Bulldog and BT Wholesale will be able to make the most of any opportunities. This is a great example of how BT is increasingly working in co-operation with other operators on the UK to utilise their products and services and build them into its own product range.”

The extensions enable both parties to cater to SMEs’ demand for simultaneous ‘upstream’ and ‘downstream’ broadband-calibre communications. While SDSL will have a shorter ‘last mile’ range than low bandwidth ADSL, it is a complimentary service depending on the individual SME needs. For example, it is apt for SMEs in the field of computer aided design, or for any SME needing to: send and receive large amounts of data at the same time; link local area networks using virtual private network technology; or allow internet application hosting services e.g. web or email servers on the SME premises. As the service can fulfil the needs of up to 200 users, it potentially can see an SME through all its communications and online marketing needs during the critical early years of trading.

It will also be a cost effective option for the SME, suitable for a range of applications such as VoIP, and will be offered at 500k, 1 meg and 2 meg speeds.

Richard Greco, CEO of Bulldog, commented, “We’re delighted to be able to augment BT Wholesale’s SDSL portfolio through adding both a wider product range and greater geographical reach. We’re also particularly pleased that the 10:1 SDSL product is being so fully integrated into BT’s own product portfolio. It really is a powerful combination.”

- ends –

Notes to Editors

About BT Wholesale
BT Wholesale is the part of BT Group, which provides comprehensive network services and solutions within the UK. Its customers number more than 500 communication companies, fixed and mobile network operators and service providers, including the two other principal BT businesses: BT Retail and BT Global Services.

It offers connectivity to every corner of the UK and its strategy is to continue upgrading its network for next generation services, including broadband, and the converging multi-media future. Its assets in the UK include BT's fibre and copper networks, the core telecommunications network and local exchanges.

The BT Wholesale portfolio includes a comprehensive range of wholesale and service provider products. These include ADSL, convergence, transit, bulk delivery of private circuits, frame relay and ISDN connections, as well as added value services."

About Bulldog
Bulldog has a leading-edge DSL network specifically designed to deliver the highest quality broadband experience to direct residential customers, and value-added broadband solutions for wholesale and reseller partners. Bulldog is a DSL specialist; the company provides specialist technology expertise to its partners and customers.

Deploying the latest and most advanced DSL technology, Bulldog offers the broadest selection of DSL products and services commercially available in the market today and is continually expanding its state-of-the art network.

Customers can visit Bulldog’s website www.bulldogdsl.com to order products and services online that are available today, and pre-register for others coming soon. For enquiries by phone, please call 0845 452 0052 (local rate).

For further media information...

BT WHOLESALE THWARTS SILO MANAGEMENT TO CREATE MORE LOTTERY MILLIONAIRES

- ISDN2 contract with Camelot, Global Crossing underpins new national lottery network –

BT Wholesale today completes a nationwide upgrade of Camelot’s network of 25,000 lottery machines to ISDN2. The £70 million, seven-year contract won in March 2002, enables Camelot to offer a wider range of lottery games nationally. The project, completed with Global Crossing as the intermediary, required BT Wholesale to completely revamp its internal processes to suit the brief, including product classification, lead times, day-to-day planning and implementation, and full logistical back-up to hardware, technical support and customer service. The success of the project has given senior BT Wholesale management cause to reconsider how new business is approached, and is likely to pave the way for similarly ambitious deals in the future.

“As soon as Global Crossing approached us early last year we turned our entire method of project implementation on its head”, explains Greg Forde, client director, International Fixed Sector, BT Wholesale. “Part of our business strategy is to break down barriers between BT Wholesale and the rest of the organisation so that more value can be offered via our collective infrastructure and intellectual property. This deal did just that – every single detail of the entire project was planned on storyboards, with everyone involved in the project attending the first planning meetings. The 25,000 installations were treated as a brand new product classification, and our lead times for it were altered to ensure we could complete the paperwork and keep our promises to retailers hosting the machines. It’s the first time we’ve done anything like this but, given the success, it won’t be the last”.

Legal guidelines in the UK meant that BT Wholesale can only correspond with network operators or telecoms organisations. Global Crossing therefore offered the contract on Camelot’s behalf, with Global Crossing retaining a separate contract. BT Wholesale had to establish ‘Chinese walls’ within its own organisation, as well as non-disclosure agreements between BT Wholesale and parts of BT Retail (in addition to Global Crossing and Camelot) in order to fulfil the contract. It is the first time BT as a whole has worked in this way, and also the first time that BT Wholesale engineers have used third-party hardware to complete a project. BT Wholesale devised a tailored training programme – covering both customer service and technical issues - for all 1,100 engineers working on the project, which had to be passed and certified before each was allowed to visit one of the 25,000 sites. Engineers were supported in the field firstly by a BT Wholesale help desk, and secondly by further technical support from Camelot and Global Crossing. From arranging an appointment to have an engineer visit a site to switching the machine to ISDN2 took no more than 20 days.

Following BT Wholesale’s contract win, a pilot began in April 2002 and the project in full during August 2002. Communication from each lottery machine in branches of Tesco’s, W.H. Smith and other retailers throughout the country is now carried via internal cabling to a BT ISDN2 line, through the BT network, and back to the TV studio at Camelot that holds the lottery draw machines. ISDN2 has proved to be the most cost-effective network option in terms of repair, maintenance and management, and the network contract was originally offered as part of the Lottery Commission’s directive to maintain fair competition for bidding network operators.

- ends –

Notes to Editors

BT Wholesale:
BT Wholesale is the part of BT Group which provides comprehensive network services and solutions within the UK. Its customers number more than 500 communication companies, fixed and mobile network operators and service providers, including the two other principal BT businesses: BT Retail and BT Global Services.

It offers connectivity to every corner of the UK and its strategy is to continue upgrading its network for next generation services, including broadband, and the converging multi-media future. Its assets in the UK include BT's fibre and copper networks, the core telecommunications network and local exchanges.

The BT Wholesale portfolio includes a comprehensive range of wholesale and service provider products. These include ADSL, convergence, transit, bulk delivery of private circuits, frame relay and ISDN connections, as well as added value services.

Clean Bill of Financial Health for Telecoms May Cause Serious Illness

Ghost-written article for Cisco Systems EMEA.
Published in TM Forum magazine, UK, October 2003.

Why - because profits without effort will encourage the average network operator to expand the organisation instead of improving it. If the last few years have taught us anything about network operators, it’s that they are not best prepared to cope with adversity. Yes, a global economic downturn has obviously affected all vertical sectors including telecoms, but the temptation is to use this externally as the cause when there are more inherent problems at play. Internally, IT is often the scapegoat. It’s not surprising that management remain reticent when substantial investments in technology fail to deliver the return or savings expected. At the core of all this IT is the organisation’s operational support system, or OSS – it’s heart, lungs and central nervous system combined. Improving the OSS – the way an organisation lives, breathes and does business day-to-day rather than tinkering with peripheral things is the way to reduce costs and improve overall health. However, not all network providers realise this, or are more concerned with the technology they provide than how they provide it. Furthermore, even those that do recognise this fact have yet to learn that organisation-wide ‘surgery’ of this nature should not be taken lightly.

Cure the Cause, Not the Symptom
Two key things are needed – firstly a thoughtful yet practical approach to OSS that deals with the organisation as a whole. A surgeon cannot help a patient by mending a broken leg and a dislocated shoulder, without also considering the circulation that keeps both functioning. The same applies to management trying to improve the organisation by taking each division, management layer or IT ‘limb’ in turn – neither humans nor organisations work that way. Where internal problems are concerned, examining the OSS rather than one part of the business may well reveal that the information all other IT or business systems are reliant on is flawed. Perhaps the way in which information is recorded should be reviewed, the way departments work together, or the way information moves from department to department – maybe all three.

Whatever the case, seeking the quick fix is easier to stomach when the unwelcome prognosis is that there is no such thing, no ‘silver bullet’, or single detail escaping everyone that can be tweaked as a panacea. The quest for the quick fix leads to constant fire fighting, with budget being splintered to attend to many problems occurring one after the other.

Those problems may not be internal flaws but external factors. Difficulties encountered by organisations we advise include: changes in regulatory environment; consolidating, converging or going global; maintaining margins during downturn; and protecting market position against new entrants and new business models. However, the more robust an organisation’s OSS, the better it will cope with unforeseen circumstances. One cannot predict the next bout of flu, but can be physically fit to cope with it when it arrives.

Regardless of the nature of the problem, the second consideration is that tinkering with an organisation’s OSS should not be underestimated. It is the business equivalent of neurosurgery, potentially a fundamental change to the way that every individual in the organisation uses their working time. Samuel Johnson was neither a surgeon nor a telecoms businessman, but he still recognised that, “Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better”. More than a century later, Dr. Bernard Burnes, researcher, lecturer, and head of the Operations Management Group at the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology, said of organisational change, “In cases where staff are required to keep up the same level of output during the transition phase, it may require additional resources to achieve this...Nothing is guaranteed to be more demoralising than having to make changes without the necessary resources or support”. When you accept that improving an organisations OSS will deliver improvements throughout the business and decide to do it, then adequate preparation is needed.

Prepare the Surgeon, and the Patient
Before any plans are made let alone implemented, consider that fundamental organisational change needs a budget of its own – not for OSS software, for kit, or anything else – for the change itself. Overtime will be incurred, mistakes or teething problems will be unavoidable, and as a result, resources will be used. The twin necessity to a financial budget is the need to allocate time for the change. You are changing something that has an impact on every employee in the organisation, and doing your best to prevent people outside the organisation feeling any adverse affects, or even noticing. That takes time, and the people implementing the change or being affected by it cannot be expected to cope in addition to fulfilling their usual responsibilities. The other consideration where time is concerned is to plan the change over weeks or months, with realistic deadlines and a way to measure progress. These may need to be adjusted as the organisation encounters problems, but a sure-fire way to ensure something never gets done is to label it ‘ASAP’.

Communicating the importance of the change internally can increase likelihood of success. Appoint an internal change management team, whose sole responsibility for the duration of the project is to ensure that things go smoothly and on time. Use representatives from all parts of the organisation involved and from mixed hierarchical levels, and foster an environment of respect but without bureaucracy, as in Edward de Bono’s theory on brainstorming. Everyone’s experience will be needed, and if concerns or ideas are not aired or overruled then the change will not be embraced.

Anyone attempting to fly British Airways on 18th June 2003 will have borne witness to the result of failure to consider, prepare and provide time to employees for significant OSS changes. Unfortunately there is a tendency for management to veer from one extreme to another – either the ‘fluffy’, people-oriented style, or intense, task-oriented style where the product or service is all, no matter what your staff turnover rate is. There is no simple way to decide what approach to take except to say that it will be closer to the middle than at either end. Accurate consideration of the participants of OSS change will help diagnose where the organisation is now, and where it needs to be. However, this is not the only reason for preparation before embarking on change. Changes to an organisation’s OSS are both time-critical and fraught with danger. To use the metaphor again, a surgeon will progress both methodically and quickly – and a lack of the necessary care or speed will end the same way. If the organisation were still based on paper, pens and copper wire, change might be approached more carefully. The fact that these have been replaced by IT and fibre optic cable does not necessarily make OSS change easier, only different.

The Recovery Room
‘Perpetual change’ seems to be where everyone is headed – a style of work where nothing is permanent and a dynamic organisation can respond quickly to any external factor. As an organisational state, perpetual change in consulting lingo has its roots almost a decade ago, triggered at the time by academic study of managerial steps taken by Nissan and Volvo in the automotive sector. That is not to say that network providers will be able to learn from their experience without suffering some of the same difficulties. Only this year, AT Kearney surveyed almost 300 European organisations in various sectors that had completed a business change programme. Only 20 per cent of those 300 were found to be successful. Regardless of the outcome and whether or not perpetual change is where you want to be, it is essential that both management and employees be given some time to recover from organisational change where OSS is concerned.

It is human nature to hoard information for coercive power, to build empires, and play politics. No amount of IT spend will change that. However, successful change is possible if it is considered and planned appropriately, and where else can network operators make an operational and cultural change more effectively than with the organisation’s OSS, the system on which the rest of the business depends? Let us hope that a temporary improvement of finances in the telecoms sector does not mean essential surgery is postponed any longer.