HR news

by Farzana Rasheed

Finding and retaining talented people is one of the most critical challenges of running a successful business in Liberia. 

There are some noteworthy HR news at our company. 

1. Hardware Expert from Pakistan NATC has hired a hardware expert from Pakistan. He arrives this weekend and, will begin work on Monday, 1 April. No joking around that day! More on his duties and responsibilities to come. 
2. Looking for a new Marketing Consultant Corinna Bordewieck's time at NATC has concluded. We thank her for managing our office while the owners/managers were in the US for maternity/paternity. We will miss her enthusiasm and meticulous attention to detail. We wish her the best in her future endeavours. This means, NATC is looking for a new Marketing Consultant. 
3. Local Printer Expert Our local printer expert committed gross misconduct by trying to privately apply for the same hardware maintenance contract that NATC had applied for. We caught him filling up the bid document in our office along with the IT officer of one of our clients! Imagine the cheek. We confronted him and, he admitted that he was trying to chase that business. Since then, he has not shown up for work and apparently, has telephoned the Janitor to ask him whether he can pick up his salary. 
4. Episodes like these are extremely disappointing since we support and nurture our staff. Experiences like these also make one realise that character is as important as competence and attitude. 
5. Trainee from Sierra Leone It looks like we have hired a trainee from next door Sierra Leone through a bluff. I received a job application in my Inbox and acknowledged it with a standard courteous reply: "Thank you for your interest in NATC and we'll get back to you." That one generic reply prompted countless telephone calls until I finally suggested to him that if he came to Monrovia by road for an interview, I'd pay for half of his transportation costs. And guess, what? The fellow gives me a call a couple of evenings later and tells me he's in town! I was pleasantly gobsmacked and, excited to see such determination. In fact, he was so excited that he forgot to tell his wife he'd safely arrived since she called me up to ask whether her husband had made it. He  was so organised that he left my number with her. He showed up the next morning bright eyed and bushy tailed and, even looked a bit like a nerd. I had the interview, asked him to do a written test, discussed his availability and, was pleased to offer him a trainee job which he gratefully accepted. His enthusiasm really won me over and, I hope he will flourish under the right supervision and, prove to be a worthy member of our team. 
6. Job Listing at Escape the City And, finally, our job listing at Escape the City has not yielded a single application. So, we are still looking for an overall IT Manager with a range of skills and expertise. I guess we have to keep looking. I might give it another shot at this website by upgrading my listing and, get our job post featured on their newsletter.

An HR Update

Finding and retaining talented people is one of the most critical challenges of running a successful business in Liberia. 

There are some noteworthy HR news at our company. 

1. NATC has hired a hardware expert from Pakistan. He arrives this weekend and, will begin work on Monday, 1 April. No joking around that day! More on his duties and responsibilities to come. 
2. Corinna Bordewieck's time at NATC has concluded. We thank her for managing our office while the owners/managers were in the US for maternity/paternity. We will miss her enthusiasm and meticulous attention to detail. We wish her the best in her future endeavours. This means, NATC is looking for a new Marketing Consultant. 
3. Our local printer expert committed gross misconduct by trying to privately apply for the same hardware maintenance contract that NATC had applied for. We caught him filling up the bid document in our office along with the IT officer of one of our clients! Imagine the cheek. We confronted him and, he admitted that he was trying to chase that business. Since then, he has not shown up for work and apparently, has telephoned the Janitor to ask him whether he can pick up his salary. 
4. Episodes like these are extremely disappointing since we support and nurture our staff. Experiences like these also make one realise that character is as important as competence and attitude. 
5. It looks like we have hired a trainee from next door Sierra Leone through a bluff. I received a job application in my Inbox and acknowledged it with a standard courteous reply: "Thank you for your interest in NATC and we'll get back to you." That one generic reply prompted countless telephone calls until I finally suggested to him that if he came to Monrovia by road for an interview, I'd pay for half of his transportation costs. And guess, what? The fellow gives me a call a couple of evenings later and tells me he's in town! I was pleasantly gobsmacked and, excited to see such determination. In fact, he was so excited that he forgot to tell his wife he'd safely arrived since she called me up to ask whether her husband had made it. he was so organised that he left my number with her. he showed up the next morning bright eyed and bushy tailed and, even looked a bit like a nerd. I had the interview, asked him to do a written test, discussed his availability and, was pleased to offer him a trainee job which he gratefully accepted. his enthusiasm really won me over and, I hope he will flourish under the right supervision and, prove to be a worthy member of our team. 
6. And, finally, our job listing at Escape the City has not yielded a single application. So, we are still looking for an overall IT Manager with a range of skills and expertise. I guess we have to keep looking. I might give it another shot at this website by upgrading my listing and, get our job post featured on their newsletter. 

Good news on a Good Friday

By Farzana Rasheed

We started the day with some good news:

Our Janitor made it to the client's site with the modem in tact! We did not receive the confirmation until 9 AM this morning. Apparently, even after leaving at midday yesterday, they were only 1 hour away from camp at midnight. But because of rain and the time of the night, they took cover and only reached the camp (about 2 hours away from Zwedru) by mid morning. Phew!

Our technician was able to get the client back online in the next couple of hours. Phew!

We also received news that our newly-recruited hardware expert from Pakistan finally boarded his flight to Liberia. Phew! He could not board his previous flight since he was being harassed by the immigration officials which made him miss his flight. Arriving via Dubai, he will be in Monrovia on Saturday, 30 March. We are really looking forward to his arrival and, being able to offer much more professional hardware repair services. 

The good news equals at least two dozen sighs of relief. 

We wish everyone a good weekend. 

Motorbike to Grand Gedeh

By Farzana Rasheed

Jerome goes off to Grand Gedeh deliver a modem 

I came in this morning to see that the Head of Operations was about to despatch our Office Janitor to Grand Gedeh on a motor bike. I started to reel in shock and sputtered "Not Jerome! Not Jerome, the big-word user. Not Jerome, who claims to be an engineer because he can draw floor plans. Not Jerome, he just broke our front door handle." But I calmed myself down and, realised that was the only option we had. 

One of our most important clients, if not the most, had their Internet service go down. In fact, they have been down for at least 2 days. After burning the midnight oil and countless hours of trouble shooting in coordination with the satellite service provider, it appears we needed to change the modem. 

This new development in the diagnostics reached us minutes after packing off some other items needed for the client site on their shuttle helicopter service from Monrovia to Grand Gedeh. 

Given the bad state of roads in the country, a motorbike would be fast and efficient. 

In a calm state of mind, I learned that my Head of Operations had:

1. found a brand motorbike taxi walla with an almost brand new bike to make sure it would not break down
2. negotiated the rate the fellow would charge to take and bring back our staff
3. swapped phones with our staff because his was 'broke'
4. arranged enough road money
5. talked our staff through the plan (drive carefully, stop every now and then for a break, and keep us updated)
6. and, equipped Jerome with a hard helmet

All I could do was hope our staff arrives safely and not goof up. I hoped he was not going to irritate the motorbike driver with his big words by something like "Mr Driver, I reiterate, you are under my jurisdiction, proceed more slowly." 

Meanwhile, our client has been experiencing serious issues in their service since last weekend. It started with everyone on camp not being able to send e-mails. They could only receive them. We finally figured out that it was again an ISP issue. So, our client has not been happy for at least a week now. In fact, they threatened to send back our technician in a coffin. Gulp! 

The problem is not solved yet but, all we can do is and, we are trying our best to be as professional and patient despite the pressure. 

Electricity Blues

By Farzana Rasheed

There are at least 4 ways to start this blog post: 

1. Stable and reasonably priced electricity is truly a luxury. 
2. How many times a day do you think it is appropriate to curse the LEC?
3. Is there fuel in the generator?
4. Hope springs eternal. Do you think we will experience normal electricity in Liberia in the next 10 years? Your guess as good as mine. 
5. What does LEC really stand for?

I did my calculations. We are spending at least US $ 1,000 per month on electricity, in direct and and indirect ways. 

LEC or Liberia Electricity Corporation has been quite inconsistent and, we are experiencing frequent outages, sometimes more than 6 hours at a stretch. In that case, the back-up generator has to be fired and fueled up. A generator also needs to be serviced frequently and, just like any other machine, can break down and needs to be repaired. This entails regular expenses. 

As far as pricing is concerned, it seems the LEC is even more expensive than relying on a generator with US $ 100 yielding 176 LEC units versus US $ 4.61 per gallon of diesel . For instance, we consume about 5 gallons of diesel for 10 hours of generator use, which is worth US$25.00 versus we use up 60 KW units per 10 hours of LEC which is worth US$ 40.00! In both cases we use our 2 x 24,000 BTU air-conditioners in the office, without which, we would boil and sweat in the Liberian  heat.

Besides these costs, you never know when the LEC will be on or off. There aren't any scheduled hours or days for maintenance. Moreover, there are not even any recognisable patterns to predict except that you will definitely be disappointed, angered and infuriated over and over again. There is a hotline you can call but sometimes no one answers it or the person does not have any useful information to provide.

Is that the LEC?? Where are you guys these days?

If any of your equipment has been damaged due to a power fluctuation, you will not get reimbursed. In case someone is tapping on your line, the LEC has no means to protect your cables. 

Service is truly non existent. 

In fact, service is provided unofficially by LEC field technicians who will come and solve your problem for a fee! So, often times, you'll be the only one in your building or in the neighbourhood with no electricity. Just when you thought you can enjoy a nice stretch of 5 minutes of calm and cool. You might even pass the whole day without knowing you're the only schmuck without LEC and, it will probably be too late to call your usual LEC guy(s). (It is useful to save more than 1 number and have worked with more than 1 LEC technician) And when the LEC fellow finally comes over, it could be something along the lines of: Faulty Breaker, Need to Change the Cable, Faulty Meter, and so on. You will probably end up buying new kit and materials! This could take a couple of days. 

When the LEC is not on, you'll be on generator and unless it is not housed at a distance, you'll be subject to noise pollution and, not realise that half of your stress is being caused by that hum. 

Things are not improving at all. The only change, rather, was the shift to pre-paid meters last year. One can at least monitor one's usage and, try to cut corners but with electricity being as expensive as it is, and, the need to have running air conditioners in a hot tropical country, one will continue to consume considerable power. 

How has NATC managed? We recently purchased a 15 KVA generator that can run 2 of our 24,000 BTU air conditioners if the LEC goes off so that we don't suffer in the heat. And, when the LEC is on, we can also enjoy our air conditioners and all our other equipment. Initially when we would switch on both AC's at the same time the breaker on the LEC pole would switch off, or trip. We would have to call LEC (unofficially) to come, put it on and spend $30.00 per visit! We later on realised that this problem was being caused due to substandard cables running from the pole to our office. We are enjoying stable LEC since we decided to replace the cables at a cost of $500.00.

As you can see, to be able to enjoy electricity in Liberia, one needs to really be resourceful, patient, and have a great sense of humour! 

Goals for 2013!

By Haresh Karamchandani

We are already in late March 2013 and I have not yet keyed in my “Goals” for 2013!

Not that I do not have goals, as the Head of Operations of New Africa Technology Company, I always set goals and ensure that they are achieved. Keying in this blog post has been delayed due to a variety of reasons. But, better late than never, so here goes:

Here are my goals for 2013: (I agree with the goals of our CEO and will not duplicate them here)

• Goal No 1: Import goods by the container load, by sea and not by air. This will ensure that we save a lot of money on freight costs and also lower our ultimate cost of goods and supplies to our clients. We have achieved this goal already and as I key in this blog our first 20’ FCL is in the Monrovia Freeport awaiting customs clearance. We need to import at least 1x20’ container every 2 months in 2013. We must ensure that we always have stock of regular goods like genuine toners, laptops, desktops, printers, software, routers, switches, and network cables.
• Goal No 2: Expand our scope of inventory and sales items - We need to make NATC a one stop shop for IT supplies in Liberia. We need to be different from the stores and vendors in and around Monrovia. We need to stock up on regular office supplies and ensure that they are of highest quality, most competitively priced, up to date and original. My goal is to build and expand our storage space in our loft style office and increase display capacity. We need to cater to daily office needs of our regular clients and also try and attract new clientele.
• Goal No 3: Get a new 15-20 KVA generator for the office to ensure that the 2 x 24,000 BTU air-conditioners work even if we do not have LEC (Liberia Electricity Corporation).
• Goal No 4: Purchase a motor vehicle for day to day transport and deliveries.
• Goal No 5: Appoint a new Hardware Engineer.
• Goal No 6: Travel to South Sudan and set up a NATC branch in the newest country on the planet.
• Goal No 7: Continue to provide most competitive goods and excellent services to our existing clients and future clients

Goals: 2013

Contributed by Farzana Rasheed

After being away for almost 5 months on maternity leave, it is really good to be back. I enjoy being back at work along with my new baby who joins me at the office every day.

Having been away for so long, I am eager to work hard towards certain goals and, get NATC to the next level this year. There is certainly an urgency and enthusiasm to my thought process. 

So, here are my goals for 2013 in my capacity as CEO:

1. Hire an international IT professional to manage and improve our IT services and, to head and guide our local team of IT technicians. Aim to have an IT Department of 2 senior technicians and 5 junior technicians. 
2. Improve our in-house diagnosis and repairs. 
3. Reach a target of 10 maintenance and service contracts. 
4. Explore ways to improve our maintenance and service contracts and, ensure clients are thoroughly satisfied.
5. Improve internal processes in order to achieve efficiency!
6. Do a better job at communicating with clients and acquiring their feedback.
7. Bag at least 5 more V-SAT contracts.
8. Open a fully operational NATC branch in Buchanan.
9. Encourage a dynamic company culture at NATC. 
10. Continue to record and capture our progress, memorable moments and challenges through social media including this blog. 

These goals will help us to achieve NATC's vision of delivering world-class IT services to Liberia. For that to truly become a reality, we need to build NATC as a solid company that has the talent and competence in terms of our technical team. We need to continue to emphasise rules and processes and, always follow them to the letter even at the risk of becoming a little bureaucratic! At the same time, we need to enjoy what we do and, build a company culture that is very sure of it's purpose and identity. And, lastly we need to get more business!

Liberia is not the easiest place to live and work, much less trying to own and run a successful business. But I love the challenge and look forward to achieving my dream. 

NATC installs DATUM DVB/SCPC V-SAT connection

Contributed by Corinna Bordewieck

On February 16, 2013, NATC successfully transferred one of its premium clients, with an office in Liberia’s southeast, over from an iDirect modem to a DATUM modem. While both systems use DVB/SCPC technology, switching to the DATUM modem in this case was preferential because it allowed us to more than double the client’s internet speed, from 1.5 MB/month to over 3 MB/month, at half the cost – clearly an optimal solution!

As many NATC blog readers may already know, DVB (digital video broadcasting) technology was developed to deliver digital television service using data packets of compressed audio, video and control data. DVB bundles data packets together from numerous, smaller data streams and transmits them over a multiplex, or multi-channel, system. On the receiving end, these packets are parsed out to individual users who have requested them. The multiplex system can also deliver IP (internet protocol) data at the same high speeds, and in fact, on the same system at the same time.

The broad bandwidth, coupled with the manner in which the information is transmitted, makes it preferable to use of DVB technology for the downstream channel of an internet connection: since this is the channel used to pull up websites and download information, it is for the vast majority of users the channel that sees higher traffic.

However, the connection we set up still uses SCPC, or a single channel per carrier, technology for the upstream channel. This is almost always the lower-traffic channel, and is used for tasks such as uploading data. Therefore, a DVB/SCPC system provides the greater bandwidth needed for the high traffic stream, but a narrower, single channel for the lower traffic stream. In this case, the downstream channel is 2.5 MB/month and the upstream is 512 KB/month, for a total of over 3 MB.

For some nice diagrams on Digital Video Broadcasting/Single Channel per Carrier Internet Protocol transmission, courtesy of atrexx, click here.

So, our client had their hardware on site and ready to go, but in order to get the connection up and running, our Head Technician had to configure the system itself. NATC works with a partner which has technicians placed in the UK and in Israel – since flying someone in from one of these locations to a remote area of Liberia would not be a very cost-effective plan, our Head Technician set up a configuration platform over the phone, using the Teamviewer program installed on his laptop to allow the overseas technician access to the system.

Once this was done, our Head Technician had to test the DATUM modem and DVB receiver, and then change the system over from the iDirect Modem to the DVB receiver and DATUM modem. The internet connection itself required several days more of monitoring in order to determine and fine-tune the frequency for the DATUM modem’s SCPC return channel. As mentioned above, the upstream SCPC channel has a much narrower bandwidth than the downstream DVB channel, and therefore it takes some time to home in on the frequency that will optimize the signal strength from the satellite.

All in all, the process of installation, configuration and troubleshooting took seven days – more than worth it when we successfully got our client up and running with their new, cheaper, faster connection.

Coming soon: connecting a client’s offices in the interior with their Monrovia headquarters, via CISCO VPN!

NATC is looking for a Head of IT Services

Contributed by Farzana Rasheed

This blog post discusses how NATC is using an exciting forum, Escape the City, to attract an international IT professional. It also discusses the wider challenges of finding skills and talent in a post-conflict society which has limits in producing a skilled work force. 

In our efforts to recruit an international IT Engineer, we posted the opportunity at Escape the City. Take a look here. We hope to attract the attention of an IT wizard looking to escape corporate boredom in a more advanced economy and, come to Liberia to deliver and manage NATC's clients' IT needs. 

NATC's current team of technicians is comprised of local technicians, who despite being hardworking and innovative, still need the supervision and guidance of a more qualified and experienced IT Professional. 

Moreover, most of our clientele is comprised of international multinationals who want to deal with more qualified and experienced IT professionals. 

Because of Liberia's educational and professional vacuum, being a post-conflict society, the country's technicians have limited exposure to either rigorous educational grounding or consistent practical training. 

We discussed these challenges in an earlier post: "How important is Spelling to Your Business?"

Hence, our technicians have reached their limits in being able to deal with more sophisticated technology. Also, since our technicians are not exposed to the IT developments elsewhere, we are not able to introduce and recommend newer products.

We have a trainee programme at our company but our over - loaded senior technician is not able to devote enough attention to training the juniors. It also seems that youngsters we come across just do not seem to want to invest the time into training in the basics and, work their way up. In fact, we have tripled our trainee monthly allowance since the last 1 year but even then, it seems the young people do not have the discipline nor patience to learn, take advantage of an opportunity and carve a career.  

We had had a high turn over of trainees. In fact, the young chap who blogged about joining NATC last October, is gone! The young fellow did not show up for work for at least 1 week. We later found out that he was asked by his father in Ghana to "come back to school." A bright and enthusiastic young man, I was looking forward to his growth and contribution to NATC. 

Given these challenges in hiring, training, nurturing and growing a technical team in Liberia, our next step in meeting them is to hire an international IT Engineer looking to escape to West Africa for an exciting challenge. We believe it will change the dynamics within our company. This candidate will be able to put all his/her energies in nurturing and growing our team as well as meet our clients' needs!