A Look at Telecoms Through MENA

There is more to developing a successful global 4G network than the likes of WiMax or LTE fighting to be the predominate network provider. For 4G to be successful several other areas need to be synergized effectively. In fact, media and entertainment, IT, sustainability and electronics all have a profound effect on the development of a thriving 4G network.

The convergence of media and entertainment, IT, sustainability and electronics across 4G networks, as well as the outcome of a WiMAX and LTE showdown will be discussed this week at the NG Telecoms MENA Summit held in Dubai. With the IDC providing a unique insight to industry trends during the three days at the Jumeirah The Meydan, companies like Eltek Valere, Nokia Siemens Network, and PeerAp will be focusing on sustainability, service oriented and value added services, and benefits and characteristics of convergence.

Derek McManus, the CTO for O2 UK, explained that there is “[…] exponential demand on mobile data networks. […] watching a YouTube video on a Smartphone can use the same capacity on the network as sending 500,000 text messages simultaneously.”

The Middle East alone has seen a 137 percent increase in traffic during 2009. Video file sharing and Internet video consume 75 percent of all traffic and is expected to grow to 91 percent by 2013. This is even more important when considering the increase of mobile data traffic, which now accounts for 64 percent of streaming.

Having the appropriate services and app stores that work on shortcuts for mobile devices are the most effective way to provide the consumer with the needs they require and is a major talking point for PeerApp.

As the intricacies of a 4G network are ironed out, it is important for providers not to overlook the environmental impact. Telecom networks are a large part of the global usage with consumption of more than 160 billion kWh/year. This accounts for an additional 200-million tons of CO2 emissions at an annual cost of over $20 billion.

The global telecoms industry is using only one percent of the world’s energy, but with individual operators expecting increases in consumption of over 25 percent, the industry will see similar increasing needs. Eltek Valere believes there are two main ways to combat these issues, one with high efficiency power conversation for networks with reliable AC Mains Grid and Hybrid & Alternative energy solutions with no or unreliable AC Mains.

3.5G has proven a success, but with 4G networks boasting quicker download times and speedier online access, it was only a matter of time before networks made the switch. The key now, is to ensure the 4G network is ready for that switch. This is what was discussed at the NG Telecoms MENA Summit in Dubai.

Is Attitude over Aptitude a Viable Employment Practice

The HR landscape is always changing; the approach of hiring staff with the right attitude is quickly becoming a growing trend.
This is a theory that is endorsed by Jonathan Levy, Attorney and President of Fair Measures, a management training firm: "Why do we often hire the wrong people? We don´t get the right information in the interview. We find out about their abilities, their aptitude, but not about their attitude. As a result, they may be able to adequately go through the motions of their jobs. But that´s all they do - go through the motions. They don´t have their hearts in it."
And this theory of hiring for attitude over aptitude isn’t just a fad sweeping across the HR landscape. David Fairhurst, Chief People Officer of McDonald's Restaurants Northern Europe, was voted HR magazine's most influential practitioner for the third year in a row in 2010 and maintains that attitude, not aptitude is the best practice to improve a company’s bottom line.
In an exclusive interview with MeetTheBoss.tv in June, Fairhurst outlined how trends of hiring for intangibles like teamwork, dependability, flexibility, leadership and attitude are more important than hiring for aptitude alone.
"I think the best advice is to rip up job descriptions. I'll probably get struck off my profession for saying that, but the reality is people who have the [wrong] attitude will work against progress, so to me the first thing you do is no different to that that I do in a store level around the country at McDonald's, and that is to hire for attitude. Forget the qualifications, even forget some of the experience; look at the attitude.
"So for me it's about building a team for the attitude. Hire the people who want to progress," he told MeetTheBoss.tv.
The NG Human Resources Summit, at the Boulders Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, (hosted by GDS International) is designed specifically to enable Chief HR Officers to engage and interact as they meet demands of transformation and prepare for the impact their role will have on the overall success of an organization's sustainability and bottom line. CHROs, EVPs and SVPs of HR, and other top human resource executives will be present to explore critical issues essential to organizational effectiveness and relevant employment in order to compete on a global scale.
Those in attendance will be...

The NG HR Summit will bring together CHROs who are currently investing in innovative solutions, like employing for attitude over aptitude, and other pivotal HR issues that will positively impact their bottom line.
Like David Fairhurst, CHROs will only respond and commit to those solution providers who can link tangible cost benefits with the solutions they provide. The HR Summit will provide this vital means of communication and provide and ideal framework for new business relationships to flourish.

Cloud Committee Concludes

Leading names within the telecoms industry met last week in Latin America to discuss the future of the Cloud, and its effects for the continent.
Representatives from ¬¬¬¬Cable Vision – Federico Juarez Valdez, CIO, Telefonica Media Networks SA - Pedro Luis Planas, CTO LA, Grupo GTD - Cristian Eyzaguirre, CIO, Telefonica Media Networks Latin America - Javier Izquierdo, COO and COFETEL (Federal Telecommunications Commission) - Rodrigo Gutierrez Sandez, CIO – General Coordinator of Organisation and IT among others met in Mexico to discuss the advantages of moving to the cloud and how best to implement change at the NGT LA summit, an event hosted by GDS International.

The Information & Communications Technology (ICT) market will have a strong transformation over the next 10 years. Fixed and mobile network improvements, new infrastructure and application delivery models, along with more intelligent devices will change the way that consumers and businesses use technology, and ultimately the way they do business. It is still extremely important for service providers to set a roadmap for users to follow in order for them to be well prepared and to be successful in the current market transformation.
North America has already looked to the cloud to clean their data, reducing costs and implementing flexibility, but companies in Latin America are seemingly lagging behind; now these companies are seeing for themselves the opportunities for the taking.

Moving to the Cloud is a paradigm change, and much of the Telco and MSP market is fully aware of this. The issue is how to mature the approach to migrate from physical assets to virtualization, which stalls after a certain point, and then to an elastic infrastructure that can scale up and down on demand.

“To eLeading names within the telecoms industry met last week in Latin America to discuss the future of the Cloud, and its effects for the continent.
Representatives from ¬¬¬¬Cable Vision – Federico Juarez Valdez, CIO, Telefonica Media Networks SA - Pedro Luis Planas, CTO LA, Grupo GTD - Cristian Eyzaguirre, CIO, Telefonica Media Networks Latin America - Javier Izquierdo, COO and COFETEL (Federal Telecommunications Commission) - Rodrigo Gutierrez Sandez, CIO – General Coordinator of Organisation and IT among others met in Mexico to discuss the advantages of moving to the cloud and how best to implement change at the NGT LA summit, an event hosted by GDS International.
The Information & Communications Technology (ICT) market will have a strong transformation over the next 10 years. Fixed and mobile network improvements, new infrastructure and application delivery models, along with more intelligent devices will change the way that consumers and businesses use technology, and ultimately the way they do business. It is still extremely important for service providers to set a roadmap for users to follow in order for them to be well prepared and to be successful in the current market transformation.
North America has already looked to the cloud to clean their data, reducing costs and implementing flexibility, but companies in Latin America are seemingly lagging behind; now these companies are seeing for themselves the opportunities for the taking.

Moving to the Cloud is a paradigm change, and much of the Telco and MSP market is fully aware of this. The issue is how to mature the approach to migrate from physical assets to virtualization, which stalls after a certain point, and then to an elastic infrastructure that can scale up and down on demand.

“To effectively implement these solutions, it is necessary to understand the real-time network and applications performance, risk, and quality of business service that impact user satisfaction and productivity. This understanding must bridge across all physical, virtual, and cloud environments, from the mainframe to distributed platforms.” Kenneth Arredondo – SVP and GM Latin America, CA
The NGT LA Committee believe that by maximizing telecommunication companies' Cloud Computing services, capabilities and flexibility will be increased, time-to-market can be vastly reduced, and operational risks and costs can more easily be controlled. The committee hope that by implementing this they will see greater opportunities for offering new services and improving profit margins.

At this stage cloud computing is still relatively new. IT companies, for the most part, must implement their cloud solutions alone, but with meetings such as the NGT LA summit more and more cloud aggregators and integrators will begin to emerge.
ffectively implement these solutions, it is necessary to understand the real-time network and applications performance, risk, and quality of business service that impact user satisfaction and productivity. This understanding must bridge across all physical, virtual, and cloud environments, from the mainframe to distributed platforms.” Kenneth Arredondo – SVP and GM Latin America, CA
The NGT LA Committee believe that by maximizing telecommunication companies' Cloud Computing services, capabilities and flexibility will be increased, time-to-market can be vastly reduced, and operational risks and costs can more easily be controlled. The committee hope that by implementing this they will see greater opportunities for offering new services and improving profit margins.

At this stage cloud computing is still relatively new. IT companies, for the most part, must implement their cloud solutions alone, but with meetings such as the NGT LA summit more and more cloud aggregators and integrators will begin to emerge.

The Evolution of 4G

With Apple resisting the move to a 4G network until 2011 at least, other top service providers like Google Android have been able to fill the 4G-less void, yet Apple’s resistance raises several questions about the validity and future of 4G, and the relevant infrastructure that needs to be in place to utilize it fully.

With or without Apple, 4G is coming. And with it integrated users will be able to capitalize on faster speeds, which will mean rapid video and data-download connections, and a wide range of new pricing plans aimed at all segments of the rapidly expanding mobile-data market.

"We need to get people away from the alphabet soup they don't care about, and just provide a better experience," Chief commercial officer Mike Sievert of Clearwire said. "There really is a massive consumer demand [for 4G services]. The question is now, how do you stay ahead of that tidal wave of demand?"

But all this change won’t come lightly, and the future of rapid downloads and streaming needs to grow and improve to meet a heavier demand from the user. In fact, where ‘heavy-users’ were once the exception, they are now treated as the norm, as Smartphone use increases month-on-month.

"There's a new normal being created," said Matt Carter, president of Sprint's 4G operations, who noted in an interview that Sprint has seen data use "explode" on the company's 4G network. "Today we call that person a ‘heavy user,'" Carter said. "But that amount of network use is becoming the new normal."

To discuss these changes, and the future of ubiquitous broadband, experts from across the globe will be meeting at the NG Telecoms Summit (hosted by GDS International) in North America.

Those in attendance will be representatives from Windstream - Jack Norris, SVP Service Delivery and Operations, AT&T – Joe Weinman, SVP Business Developments & Strategy, Comcast - Victor Perez, VP Engineering & Operations, FiberNet - David Armentrout, President and COO and Integra Telecom - Rod Smith, SVP and CIO among others.
Other topics will be discussed from successful and profitable Metro Ethernet Access Networks which are rapidly becoming the transport of choice of new services and on the path to becoming the dominating transport protocol with the carrier/service provider network.

“It's going to be a 4G world – ubiquitous broadband everywhere (LTE/WiMax, FTTX, femtocells) plus ubiquitous cloud services providing service applications, computing horsepower and storage. This will make today's iPhone/ app stores look like clunky prototypes. What kind of business models might exist; how will money flow round? Who will pay for what? What kind of market and business transformation will this unleash? Who will play where in the value chain? What are the implications for today's communications service providers and how can they avoid being relegated to the sidelines as bit-pipe providers? Transformation to a low cost operating model isn't enough to ensure survival – it's merely an entry ticket to the new digital economy – the real value will be created by continuous innovation and becoming highly customer centric.”

It is clear however, that iPhone, along with all Smartphone providers will all make the jump to 4G, whether it is in 2011 or 2012, and companies will be more inclined to do so when there is better infrastructure in place to support and outstrip strong 3G networks.

A change of Culture for Healthcare

Today the management of culture within healthcare is becoming more and more important. It is now viewed as a necessary part of the health system reform. In the United Kingdom, the National Health Service (NHS) reforms are based on the premise that any major cultural transformation of an organization must be secured alongside structural and procedural change, this in turn will deliver improvements in both quality and performance.

Culture change can be seen as a lever for performance improvements. The industry is well aware of the limitations of a mangeralist perspective. A new Committee of healthcare specialists believe that culture change within the industry must be targeted in one of two ways. Their first objective is to ‘do what you do better’. The Next Generation Healthcare Committee will meet at the NGH Summit in Miami.

“Many commercial organizations maintain a competitive edge by pursuing a policy of cultural continuity’, they capitalize on the lessons, working practices and traditions that have worked for their company in the past, for this to work they focus on the growth or reproduction and repetition”

The second option is to look towards qualitative growth, this is a more appropriate option in a situation where the existing culture has become stale and a complete overhaul is required. This is also the position that the US healthcare system has found itself in.

“Second order change is often invoked in response to a growing crisis or deficiency in the existing culture, which cannot be addressed adequately by a change in culture but rather demands a fundamental change of culture. If politicians and management gurus are to be believed, health systems in many countries stand perennially on the threshold of such fundamental change.”

After seeing high profile reports in the US which have documented gross medical errors, policy thinking is embracing the notion of culture change as a key element of health system redesign. Jeff Rose – VP Clinical Excellence, Informatics, Ascension Health wishes to address the committee on the principles published as A Leadership Framework for Culture Change in Health Care. He believes it is key to outline the core elements, or ‘5 C's' of culture change needed to move the US towards the adoption of new tools and processes in healthcare that enhance care quality and provider adoption in the interest of high reliability environments. It gives a simple and readily recalled set of principles by which the traditions and resistance of many healthcare organizations can be both led and managed by caregivers and executives so that expenditures on technology, information and evidence availability, collaborative processes and principles of high reliability human factors can speed our mutual journey to highest quality lowest cost medical practices in our rapidly changing world of technology, incentives and regulations.

Jeff Rose will be joined by representatives from Cleveland Clinic - Martin Harris, Chairman of IT Division and CIO, Catholic Health East - Mike McCoy, CMIO, MedStar Health - Gerard Burns, CMIO, Sentara Healthcare - David Levin, CMIO and VP Medical Informatics and Ascension Health - Jeffrey Rose, VP Clinical Excellence, Informatics.

Appeals for culture change in health systems have been a long time coming it is now key to draw upon a belief that culture is related to organizational performance. Are organizational cultures capable of being shaped by external manipulation? If so, what strategies are available to managers wishing to encourage an appropriate organizational culture?

Avoiding Disaster for Energy Independence

Latin Americas’ goal for energy independence is tied to its offshore oil and gas reserves. Experts from the illustrious O&G LA 20 committee believe that the offshore sector will become even more important in the future as the industry shifts to deeper waters.

A spokesperson for the committee set to meet in Rio de Janeiro, early next year chaired by Juan Carlos Zepeda, President CNH, Tomas Vargas, Vice President BPZ and Guimar Vaca Coca, MD Americas Petrogas stated this week “There is an apparent need to expand on the offshore services available. Whether it’s deploying workers on and off rigs, improving offshore safety, or making sure subsea construction is done as efficient as possible, marine servicing has expanded thoroughly throughout the Americas.”

But rapid expansion in offshore developments comes with tremendous risk. The recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico highlighted how susceptible deep-water drilling has become, and how difficult a leak is to suppress at such depths. But oil extractors are left with no choice but to drill to such depths, as the global demand for crude increases, whilst shallow wells become exhausted.

Drilling deeper – to lengths greater than a mile – requires technically demanding drilling and complex equipment and seriously reduces the room for error. And as those who witnessed the spread of crude throughout the Gulf of Mexico, it also makes stemming the flow and repairing crippled riser pipes and underwater wells that much more challenging.

The catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico bares stark comparisons with the Lusi mud volcano in Indonesia, which many commentators have suggested was triggered by deep exploratory drilling in an environment with little-to-no room for error. In the Lusi case, those drilling failed to seal the well, which eventually led to the blow-out of catastrophic proportions. Like the Gulf of Mexico spill, both deep drilling adventures have caused a catastrophic impact on the environment.

With demand increasing, and supply dwindling, simple math dictates that more catastrophic spills and blow-outs are likely on the horizon. More drilling will take place in environmental hot-spots and difficult areas, where accidents like the Gulf of Mexico spill - major, hard to stem leaks - are likely to happen with more frequency. Safety regulations should be evolving to adjust to this new reality, resulting in better legislation for equipment like blow-out valves and shut-off triggers, and the necessary equipment in place to tackle a sprung leak.

And it is with this in mind, Latin America must tread carefully whilst securing energy independence. It will be imperative for those attending the O&G LA 20 in Rio de Janeiro to outline the safest practices whilst expanding its energy quotas.

Manufacturing Safety Raises Concern

Last week Pharmaceutical heads met as a result of a drugs recall after a pill mix up of breast cancer pills. The drug, Fresenius Kabi’s Anastrozole, was made by the German company’s subsidiary in India. The ingredient mix up led to the voluntary recall of 7,192 bottles, each containing 30 tablets.

The mishap raises the question: Is there enough regulation to protect patients? As a new generation of bio pharmaceuticals go under trial in India those in attendance at the NGP EU summit were concerned that as demand increases, manufacturing practices may suffer, therefore higher regulations might be necessary to keep track of the manufacturing processes.

Biopharmaceuticals are made using living systems such as micro-organisms, plants or animal cells and if any mistakes or alterations like contamination of ingredients occur during the manufacturing process they are likely to lead to serious side-effects. India’s Drugs and Cosmetic Rules (DCR) don’t differentiate between synthetic and biopharmaceutical drugs. These concerns have been raised in the past; two years ago the FDA blacklisted the import and sale of 31 synthetic medicines that were manufactured in India. The FDA found “multiple, serious deficiencies” in the manufacturing processes.

“With every passing year, the pressure is building within pharma companies to go leaner and leaner across the value chain, from streamlining drug discovery, to more time efficient drug development to smarter clinical trial design and execution to leaner and leaner manufacturing. As the cost and time outlays necessary to bring a drug to market are forced to shrink due to many different factors.”

Giles Snare - Head of Life Sciences, Bioquell & Richard Lucas - Biopharmaceutical Process Specialist, Bioquell faced public and industry concerns head on. Given recent global instances of process contamination and the resulting serious consequences both commercially and regarding product risk, there is increasing focus from pharma and increased pressure from regulators being brought to bear on the maintenance of product integrity.

Contamination control is the primary focus within the industry at the moment, it is a complex process and an analysis of the potential points of weakness in modern pharma and biopharmaceutical environments will be key.

Joining Giles Snare were representatives from Pfizer, Simon Orchard – VP Biotech Operating, Sanofi Pasteaur, Pierre Fournier – VP Global Manufacturing Technology, Astra Zeneca, Eva Iden – Head of UK operations and head of Global Projects, Genzyme, Maarten Bas – Director Quality Systems EU and Johnson & Johnson, Johan Van Den Bosch, Senior Director External Manufacturing.
Unfortunately, changes to international standards and legislation move cautiously but efforts to streamline global pharmaceutical regulations are stepping up. Mandated by the increasingly global nature of drug manufacturing, harmonization can only help the industry improve efficiency, but its ultimate goal is to ensure that every human on the planet has access to the medicines they need and the committee has made it their goal to accomplish this.