Loft in Progress

Contributed by Farzana Rasheed

Our new office which we have started referring to as The Loft is midway through completion. Below are some pictures. Compare the pictures to the first ones we put up in our August blog post. 

The loft will be divided into an executive office, conference room, executive waiting area, workshop and admin area. Our goods will be displayed in glass cabinets which will be placed all around the space instead of having a single denoted place. The floors will be wooden. We will have 2 bathrooms and the tiles and basin and commode will be black! 

We had initially hoped to have the grand opening in mid October but we estimate the opening to happen around the middle or end of November. 

The design and execution is being provided by Miata Jones Design Lab. 

Can't See Facebook

Contributed by Farzana Rasheed

Recently, whenever I try to go to Facebook, I get re-routed to this page:

It says 'this wiki does not exist.'

I googled Facebook Being Re-Routed to Wiki and I got 10,400,000 results! Apparently, being re-routed is pretty common. 

The same problem was posted on a discussion on Yahoo! Canada and someone suggested cleaning all the cookies through running a software which was available for free download. 

Another blogger had also posted about Facebook being re-routed to a a certain Samuel Garcia's Myspace profile and had been happening to several other users. He thought it was because of a "DNS exploit." His advice was to open up the Administrator window (on Windows) and issue a command to flush out the cache and to clear out the cookies too. 

Since I myself use a Mac and am on the Safari browser, here's what I did: I emptied the cache by clicking on Empty Cache in the Safari drop-down menu. Next, I deleted all the cookies (Safari -> Preferences -> Security -> Show Cookies -> Remove All). I typed Facebook again in the browser and it worked! I am glad I did not download any software and managed to resolve the problem simply. 

“Worldwide” Warranty from HP!

Contributed by Haresh  Karamchandani

A mining company client for whom we do regular repairs and maintenance work on their IT equipment sent me 2 (two) HP Pavilion 7900 Desktop computers for diagnostics.

They mentioned in one of the back and forth email correspondences that they have “Worldwide” warranty for the equipment from HP. The equipment was purchased in Australia and shipped to Liberia for use at their mines.

We opened up the machines and discovered that they had problems with the Power Supply Assy and the Motherboard. Then we contacted HP and this is where the real story begins:

I called up HP USA Hotline and got connected to someone in Bangalore, India. They kept me on hold for like 18 minutes and eventually began by asking me the details of the computers in question, viz: Serial Nos., Part Nos. of the defective parts etcetera. Then abruptly the line got disconnected!

I called back again and got connected to a person in Manila, Philippines. He kept addressing me as “Maám” even after I told him a million times that that’s not who I am. I just had to absorb the Maám tag and continue the discussion. He kept putting me on hold and finally told me that his HP department does not cover computers that are in Africa and I would have to call HP support in Nigeria. He gave me some HP numbers there.

I called up HP Nigeria. None of them were answered!

Then I decided to call up the HP Hotline in the US again. I got connected to someone in Bangalore, India. This guy was quite reasonable and well versed. He asked me to first take down the case file number just in case we get disconnected. That was a relieving advice and made me feel good. Once I had the case file number I felt that now we would be progressing to solve the problem.

The HP Support guy in India went on to confirm that yes since the computers are covered by a worldwide warranty, they could replace the parts. But first we would have to contact the local HP agent in Liberia for a diagnosis and confirmation that indeed these parts were bad! I told him that we DO NOT have any HP agent in Liberia and that I was an IT technician and expert and have already done the diagnostics. He kept me on hold and came back to confirm that yes I was right there is no HP agent in Liberia. Then he said that his supervisor has agreed to replace the parts provided we agree to take delivery in the USA. He said that they would not be able to ship the parts to Liberia. I gave him our US counterparts address in Houston and he said that the parts would be shipped within 5 days to Houston.

I thought that was the end of the story. I was wrong. A few days later I got a call from HP Support, South Africa. The guy was an Indian calling from Bangalore, India but represented HP Support South Africa!

He started by saying that even though they had earlier agreed to replace the parts and ship them to Houston, they are sorry to say that it would not be possible anymore. They said that we would have to first ship the defective parts back to HP USA then they will replace them. I asked them, who would pay for the shipment and courier costs from Monrovia to USA? They said that they would not be responsible for that. After a lot of arguments, threats and haggling we finally agreed to ship back the defective parts, but we told them that I would first want the replacement new parts. They agreed with great difficulty.

Now the parts are at my counterparts Houston address, and he will be shipping them to Monrovia today. After I get them and replace them I will have to ship back the defective parts back to Houston for onward delivery to HP, USA.

During the same time, I learnt that Panasonic has a policy of Worldwide Warranty and in case there is a problem in any of their equipment they would ship the replacement parts anywhere in the world free of cost and also provide a return prepaid DHL envelope.

All the telephone calls were worth the trouble in the end. One more satisfied NATC customer!

Elections Visibility Project

Contributed by Haresh Karamchandani

We recently responded to a newspaper advertisement soliciting suppliers for Election Visibility Materials for the upcoming National Elections on October 11, 2011.

Our Head of Operations (HOO) felt that it was a good opportunity for the company to experience since we have excellent contacts in the manufacture and printing industry in the USA.

There was a pre-bid meeting at the clients’ office which was attended by our HOO.

The client clarified that they needed us to quote for Printed T-shirts, Caps, Stickers, Folders and Banners. We were asked to present samples along with our respective quotes.

We got the samples manufactured by our US contact and air freighted them to Monrovia, which was presented to the client along with our bid.

As expected, our samples were the best in terms of quality and surprisingly our prices too were the cheapest on offer. The client selected NATC and then began the rigmarole of getting a suitable final design approved by them.

Below is the sequence of designs presented, amended, presented, and amended and amended until we arrived at the final approved design.

This was the first design presented:

Design no.2: They said the ballot box was too boring and wanted something in 3-D:

I got my guy in the US to get more creative and present something more colorful and exciting with a 3-D ballot box, here was the next design:

Then the client wanted us to add the words Trust Fund; we obliged herewith:

Then the client changed his mind again and asked us to add the words Basket Fund, here we went:

Then the client decided that the words were too lengthy and should be cut down as follows, we obliged again:

  

Then the client wanted to add Project Managed By, we did so:

Then the client asked for some more creativity and we came up with the below:

THIS WAS THE FINAL APPROVED DESIGN:

All these changes in design cost us a lot of time and money, but we finally had a satisfied client. The manufacturer in the USA was paid and they began mass production of the following:

• 2010 pcs of 4’x 6’ Flex PVC Banners
• 1000 pcs of T-shirts assorted sizes, both Polo and Round Neck
• 1000 pcs of Caps, Embroidered design!
• 5000 pcs of SAV stickers and
• 300 pcs of Folders

Front of the Cap

Back of the Cap

All the goods were shipped by Fedex and DHL and were received in time and supplied. We should be getting paid by the client in a few days.

Moral of the story: Even though it’s not your core line of business, if you are going to learn and experience something new and make some profit at the end then one must go for it.

Latest Update

Contributed by Patience Nyepanh (Admin/Finance) and Cecelia Cooper (Junior Tech)

Patience (Left) and Cecelia (Right): Best friends and colleagues

Hi everyone, we would like to take this time to update you on the latest jobs that New Africa Technology Company has been involved with for the past month (August) to present.

Recently, we have been engaged in so many works for some of our important clients. I will list the kind of jobs we have been dealing with, the challenges we faced in doing the jobs, and the result of each job. For the sake of the privacy of our clients, we are not mentioning the exact names but only the sectors. 

We have provided some details of the various jobs after the list below. 

• Monthly Hardware Maintenance of 125 Machines & Networking of 25 data & telephone points (UN Agency)
• Network Printer Malfunction and Breakdown (Mining Company)
• Laptop Diagnosis & Repair (International NGO)
• Monthly Maintenance (Insurance Company)
• Installation of Software (Government Agency - UN Partner)
• Replacement of Motherboard (International NGO)

Commencement of Hardware Maintenance Contract, Network Extension, and Drop Down Cables  (UN Agency)

We finally kicked off the maintenance contract which we were recently awarded by the UN Agency. The contract was won through a company presentation made by management. They also liked the forms we use and our attention to detail. 

The first day was a little tricky. The UN Agency is housed in a 4-floor building and has more than 200 staff. Apparently the staff was not aware of the scheduled maintenance. Below are the problems or challenges we dealt with on our first day:

a) Some staff asked us to confirm with the IT officer again whether it was the scheduled day or not!

b) Some asked us to wait for 10-15 minutes while they finished up their work. 

The rest we managed to convince the others by telling them the importance of the hardware maintenance in order to improve the performance of their computers. Eventually, the maintenance went  well. The maintenance was scheduled over a period of 7 working days during the morning hours. 

Despite previous experiences, our payment was received on time on completion of a brief report. 

We also completed a networking job at the same site. We started on the 15th and finished on the 18th of September. Some materials were provided by the client (0.5 boxes of Cat6e Cables, Equipment Rack) and the rest were supplied by us:

i) 72 pcs of cable channels size 25X40 and 7pcs of cable channels 50X80

ii)  3 packs of wall plugs and 3 packs of wall screws

iv) 19 Dual Port Wall Boxes

v) 2 x 24-port Patch Panel

Day one, the NATC technicians began removing of all the old channels, wall boxes, cables, did some drilling of the walls, and mounted few cable channels beginning at various points. 

Day two, the client's IT counterpart asked us to remove some channels and wall boxes from where it was mounted to mount it to another location. Drilling of walls, mounting of cable channels and wall boxes continued.

We ran the cables through the cable channels and wall boxes and terminated some cables on the wall boxes.

Day three, we terminated the remaining cables on the wall boxes and tested the various points for both telephone and data. We arranged the cables by labeling the dual port wall box using labeling machine to show Voice and Data.

We had some problem with the cable channels sizes (40X25); the client needed 19 telephone points and 19 data points. Hence we needed larger channels. The Junior Tech (Cecelia) was despatched to Beever Communications on Centre St for 50X80 cable channels. 

From the various offices to the open areas we used the 40X25 cable channels and from the open area to the rack we used the 80X50 channels because, all the cables came from different directions going in one direction to the rack. The 40X25 channel was very small for thirty-eight (38) cables to pass through it.

On the fourth day, we terminated the patch panel; labelled the dual-port wall boxes, showing the data points and voice; and did the final test using the cable tester.

The project was completed over the weekend and we managed to stick to our agreed completion date which was Monday morning so the client could expand their office. Result: happy customer! Let me correct that: happy paying customer!!

Furthermore, the client asked us to crimp 200 hundred cables: 100 drop down cables from the wall boxes to the system units and 100 patch cable from the patch panel to the switch. The job was completed over 3 working days. 

James crimping 200 cables - not an easy job oh!

Other Jobs

One of our most important client's (Mining Company) network printer (HP 5550dn) was brought to our office for repair. Diagnoses were made on the printer and we notice that the roller was damaged due to extensive use and improper insertion of paper. We received the part last week, inserted and tested it, printed out a test paper, and delivered the machine back to the client's site. Another network printer (same machine/model: HP 5550dn) from the same client is still awaiting another part (Paper Feeder) and apparently the part is in tonight's FEDEX shipment. We should have had the part more than a few weeks ago but the first part that was supplied to us was faulty and we had to order a new one. Hopefully, we will deliver that machine back to the client in the next day or two. 

Network Printer HP 5550dn

We are in discussion with the same client to enter into a printer specific maintenance contract. Hopefully, that will come through soon!

Faulty Laptop

We also received a faulty laptop from a client (international NGO). Both the keyboard and sound are faulty and, we are currently diagnosing it. We suspect we will have to replace the keyboard and as for the sound, we might have to re-install the Operation System (OS). In this case, we did charge the client fees for diagnosing the problem and, we will continue this trend. 

Head of IT,  Jonathan Barwon, diagnosing the faulty laptop.

Latest news in the administrative department!

NASSCORP Tax: We recently went to NASSCORP on 16th Street, Sinkor to file our social security taxes. Surprisingly, we were informed that the President of Liberia, Madame Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, said that no entity should pay NASSCORP Tax until after election, reason for this is not stated to me.

Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC): We have been noticing that our LEC bills have been decreasing. We are not sure why because our consumption has stayed the same: we have the same number of appliances and users! For instance, it has gone from $ 630.38 to $ 499.80 to $ 440.66. As they say, the LEC works in mysterious ways! 

NATC is also busy building our new offices at the loft on Randall Street. A month back we wrote a letter to LEC for a new connection in our LOFT, I took the letter to Mr. Othello, the head for new connections, at the LEC in Waterside.  He took a look at it and told me that they are not giving out new connections for the month of August so he asked me to check by first week in September.

September 9^th I made a stop back at the LEC office to make follow-up on my connection unfortunately for me he was not in his  office and he's the only person responsible for that area. So I decided to make another trip. 

On Wednesday luckily for me I met him and talk to him that very day he gave a LEC form fill in and, he also sent two field technicians along with me to come and do the survey of the new office. Now the survey is done we are awaiting the registration bill.

Ecobank Blues - Ecobank is the main bank we operate from however we are thinking of making some other bank our main one. Ecobank is certainly the largest bank in Liberia with many branches in Monrovia giving one more than one option. However, it is always extremely busy and slow. One can stand in lines for hours just to cash a cheque or make a bank transfer. And these days, it is worse as they have been migrating account numbers to a new system. NATC staff are having trouble accessing their salaries which are paid directly into Ecobank individual accounts but because of the long lines and, a busy office routine, we are unable to withdraw salaries. The company has decided to investigate better options and pay salaries into a different bank. 

Staff Needed! Please apply if you have got what it takes – NATC is getting extremely busy every day with bigger jobs and now we are short of professional IT Technicians. We need more good IT Technicians to join hands with us so we can make NATC the best IT company in Liberia. Skilled technicians may apply as soon as possible. 

We leave you with some photos taken on the terrace of the building we are currently working out of. A new roof has just been built and we can go upstairs to get a nice breezy view of the city and take a break from our hectic routines. 

Until next time!

Pictures of the New Office site

Contributed by Farzana Rasheed

NATC is soon going to relocate from above Master Trading on Randall Street to a loft-style office space also on Randall Street (Exact location is being kept under wraps until the grand opening). We have acquired the services of Miata Jones Design Lab to provide a modern and creative design for the new space and oversee its complete implementation. 

Below are some pictures of the new space. As you can see, we just have a basic structure which needs everything from flooring to ceiling and electricals to plumbing. It is a significant challenge however it also gives us the opportunity to create a space that matches the ambitions of our company. 

Together with Miata Jones Design Lab we have come up with a sophisticated concept for the new office space which will be a first for Monrovia. 

This space is going to give us more space to house our IT services office, hardware repairs workshop, and a show-room for the products we will be selling. However, these sales will be institutional for our existing and future clients. Hence, these will not be over-the-counter sales. We will also have an executive office, a conference room, and a seating area for guests and visitors. 

The space will be decorated with a very modern outlook that will reflect a high-tech IT company but also try to incorporate images and motifs from Liberia. The office and flow of the space will be functional as well as aesthetically pleasing. 

We are extremely excited about moving out of our cozy but small office and expanding into a bigger and more sophisticated space that we are working hard to bring to life.

The new NATC office will not only be the symbol of our company's growth and success but also of our future aspirations as Liberia's premier IT company and later into the rest of Africa. 

So dear friends, please stand by for about 6 weeks to experience a brand new IT showroom which could never be possible without your support and patronage. A formal invitation will go out to all of you for the grand opening sometime in October 2011. We look forward to seeing you there!

Paper Feeder Assembly And Cassette Paper Pick Roller

Contributed by Haresh Karamchandani

A client recently called and complained that their HP5550dn Multi Function Printer was not functioning well. We visited the site and found that the Printer was giving error message 13:01:00 Paper Jam in tray 1. We went online to check what this error message meant and learnt that the problem could be with the Cassette Paper Pickup Rollers or Paper Feeder Assembly.

We opened up the Printer and discovered that the client had inserted a Cyan Toner Cartridge WITHOUT removing the seal!! This caused the ink in the cartridge to overflow all over the mechanism of the printer. The whole printer was polluted with the Cyan ink and it took us 2 hours to carefully open the printer and blow out the ink and clean wherever possible.

Some ink had entered inside the Paper Feeder Assembly and jammed the gears. We cleaned the gears and sensors and tried to take a printout. The printer worked, but only for one printout! The machine has been brought to our workshop and we have opened up the Paper Feeder Assembly to check what the problem may be. We discovered that due to the ink jamming the gears and sensor the PFA has started to malfunction and cannot be repaired.

We have ordered a new PFA from HP USA along with a complete maintenance kit to replace some Cassette Paper Pickup Rollers that have worn out.

The parts will be shipped via Fedex and should be arriving in about 10 days time. Once we replace them the Printer will be up and running.

What amazes and amuses me is that clients are so naïve that they make such errors which end up costing them so much money and trouble. If they would have carefully removed the seal from the Cyan Cartridge this problem would not have risen! Also the client has been using a Fake cartridge which was pointed out to them. They have ordered a set of genuine cartridges which will be installed in the printer before delivery.