NATC's Workshop Just Got a New Hardware Expert from Pakistan!

My Name is Tauseef Ahmad Malik. I am Computer Hardware Technician since 1995. I started my expertise on XT computers. I have worked with  reputable companies as a hardware lab technician. 

I have worked with brands such as IBM, Dell and HP. I have experience in diagnosing and repairing desktops, laptops, laser and dot matrix printers. I have also have experience in maintenance and trouble shooting. 

I have worked with companies such as ICI, Creative Technologies, Lever brothers Pakistan, Mediquips, Fazle-e-Omar Hospital, Tehrik-e-Jadeed, NDS Technologies and DWP.

This is my first experience out of country and I would love to explore the world outside of Pakistan via NATC.

New Head of IT Services

Hi, I am Khayam Ali, NATC’s new Head of IT Services.

I have professional experience of over 10 years of which 6 years is with reputed multinational banks such as Standard Chartered and Samba Bank Ltd. I have been involved in various projects: banking systems, infrastructure implementation, installation, design, support and services.

With an MS.c degree in telecommunications, 6 years of banking experience and 10 year in overall experience in technology, I have a full understanding of IT infrastructure support, installation, design and implementation. 

I have never worked outside my home country Pakistan and am excited at this opportunity with NATC in Liberia, West Africa. 

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!