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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Get What You Want, Not Just What You Need - Telecom Customer ...

There is a famous Rolling Stones song that contains the line ?You can?t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.? When looking at that line in the context of telecom customer service delivery, it seems to be the credo of most carriers these days ? especially when you add the word ?barely?. Yes, budgets are tight and staffing levels are low. Business customers can understand that, but that does not mean they have to accept poor customer service.

In today?s marketplace, there are more choices and options than ever before. Unfortunately, that does not seem to have fully registered with all the telecom providers. Many still operate in the mindset of ?this is how it is? when it comes to servicing the customer. Rigid and tangled processes, some still driven from painful regulatory chokeholds, are used as an excuse to not change how they support their customers. The question is ? what can we do about it?

Get What You Want From Telecom Customer Service: Avoid Sticker Shopping ?

Stop buying like we always have. Stop buying on up front price alone. What do we mean by ?up front price?? Simply stated, it is the price listed at the bottom of your bill. We need to start looking at a bigger picture and applying that to our buying decisions, much like we do when we buy consumer goods. If you buy an automobile on sticker value alone, not taking into consideration things like consumer ratings, needed amenities, and use purpose, you will not be happy with your overall purchase and experience. If you buy taking all of these things into account, the ?up front price? becomes a less determining factor. Don?t get me wrong, price is important. Negotiating a good deal is paramount to the end result, but should not be the single most validating bullet point when making your decision.

Get What You Want From Telecom Customer Service: Understand Your Top 3 Business Requirements

Business decision makers need to determine, and take into consideration, the top 3 things that are bottom line important to their business needs. To some, it may be reliability, security and diversity. Others may look at scalability of their overall network plan, service location availability, and disaster recovery options. Whatever those top 3 things are, they should be the determining factor in the direction you take when choosing a telecommunication provider. The top 3 should always be addressed first and foremost when discussing contract options, service and support levels, and yes, price. A decision framework?will help evaluation from a?quantitative?and qualitative approach.

Get What You Want From Telecom Customer Service: Require On-going Sales and Service Delivery Accountability

Once you have shopped a couple of carriers/ providers based on needs vs. wants, and communicated clearly what your business requirements are, sit down with the potential teams and outline an expected service delivery plan. Detail out, in writing, what the expected response times will be for the following:

Price quotes
Contract review
Move, Add, Change, Disconnect Orders (MACD)
Repair
SLA monitoring
Billing issues

Clarify which parts of the support arrangement are proactive vs. reactive. What specifically will they do for you? What won?t they do for you? Request deliverables. If anyone will not commit to this type of activity, it is pretty telling that they will most likely not commit to supporting you in the manner discussed before the contract was signed.

Get What You Want From Telecom Customer Service: The Results

As I said, there is enough competition out there for businesses to demand what they want, not just let carriers tell them they need. The key to making that happen is engaging in experienced, knowledgeable, up-front negotiation based on the factors above, not just the ?up front price?. Signing (or re-signing) on the dotted line should always be the reward of a providers commitment to an on-going partnership of mutually agreed upon?deliverables.? That gets the results that are wanted, needed, and deserved.

How can you achieve total happiness with your entire telecom environment? Here?s how!?The Pursuit of Telecom Happiness ? and Effectiveness

Melanie Mortensen is a recognized expert in telecommunications thought leadership and Service Delivery Manager for?Renodis Telecom Management.
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Source: http://www.renodis.com/telecom-outsourcing-blog/get-what-you-want-not-just-what-you-barely-need-from-telecom-customer-service/

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Syrian militant group unites with al-Qaida in Iraq

BEIRUT (AP) ? Al-Qaida's branch in Iraq and the most powerful rebel extremist group in Syria have officially joined ranks against President Bashar Assad to forge a potentially formidable militant force in the Middle East.

The merger of the Islamic State in Iraq and Jabhat al-Nusra forms a new entity that could be an even stronger opponent in the fight to topple Assad and become a dominant player in what eventually replaces his regime.

The new group, called the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, underscores the growing confidence and muscle of Islamist radicals fighting on the rebel side in Syria's civil war. It also bolsters the Syrian government's assertions that the regime is battling terrorists and that the uprising is a foreign-backed plot.

While the U.S. and its European and Gulf allies are concerned about the rising prominence of Islamists among the rebels, the merger is unlikely to prompt a shift in the international support. Late last year, Washington declared that Jabhat al-Nusra had ties to al-Qaida and designated it a terrorist organization.

To try to counter the rising influence of Jabhat al-Nusra and other Islamic extremists in the civil war, the U.S. and its allies have boosted their support for rebel factions deemed to be more moderate.

On the political front, they helped created the opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Coalition, in the hope that it will serve as the united face of those trying to unseat Assad and administer much of the territory in northern Syria that rebels have managed to pry away from regime forces in the past year.

The U.S. and other countries also have stepped up covert support for rebels on the ground by helping to coordinate shipments of new weapons and training rebels in Jordan, officials say. Those receiving training are mainly secular Sunni Muslim tribesmen from central and southern Syria who once served in the army and police.

The force is seen as a counterbalance to the Islamic militant groups ? chief among them Jabhat al-Nusra ? that have proven to be among the most effective of the myriad rebel factions fighting Assad's forces, officials say.

The merger was announced by the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in a 21-minute audio message posted on militant websites late Monday. A website linked to Jabhat al-Nusra known as al-Muhajir al-Islami ? the Islamic emigrant ? confirmed the merger.

Together, the groups will now be known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, al-Baghdadi said. The Levant is the traditional name referring to the region from southern Turkey to Egypt on the eastern Mediterranean.

"It is time to announce to the Levantine people and the whole world that Jabhat al-Nusra is merely an extension and part of the Islamic State of Iraq," he said.

He said the Iraqi group was providing half of its budget to the conflict in Syria, and that Jabhat al-Nusra would not have a separate leader but instead be led by the "people of Syria themselves" ? implying that he would be in charge in both countries.

The announcement comes two days after the leader of al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahiri, urged Islamic fighters in Syria to unite in their efforts to oust Assad.

Jabhat al-Nusra, which has welcomed militants from across the Muslim world into its ranks, has made little secret of its links across the Iraqi border, but until now it has not officially declared itself to be part of al-Qaida.

The Syrian group, which wants to oust Assad and replace his regime with an Islamic state, first emerged in a video posted online in January 2012. Since then, it has demonstrated its prowess ? and ruthlessness ? on the battlefield.

It has claimed responsibility for many of the deadliest suicide bombings against Syrian government institutions and military facilities. The group's success helped fuel a surge in its popularity among rebel fighters, although it has also emerged as a source of friction with more moderate and secular brigades in Syria.

The group also has tried to provide basic services in the parts of northern Syria under rebel control, including security and food to civilians struggling to survive.

Bilal Saab, director of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, North America, said the merger will make Jabhat al-Nusra an even more formidable force in Syria.

"I think you're going to have a pooling of resources, a more massive influx of fighters coming from Iraq into Syria. It will help them better position themselves in the period after Assad. It will certainly better help them defeat the Syrian regime more quickly," Saab said.

"It does matter for them that they're getting more materiel and more people and more expertise, especially Iraqi veterans who have really been vetted on the battlefield and who have fought coalition forces since 2003," he added.

Al-Qaida in Iraq arose after the 2003 U.S. led-invasion of Iraq, and fought a bloody insurgency against American troops and Iraqi government forces. Generally, the group has not operated beyond Iraq's borders.

The union with al-Qaida also poses risks for Jabhat al-Nusra.

Coming under the banner of a non-Syrian group could tarnish the group's image in the eyes of some rebels and Syrian civilians, particularly if the group tries to impose its strict Islamic beliefs.

"It has the potential to backfire, and help marginalize the group from other fighting factions and from the civilian population," said Elizabeth O'Bagy of the Institute for the Study of War.

She said by email that the merger could prompt a growing number of Syrians to view Jabhat al-Nusra's actions "as an outside imposition that is detrimental to Syria's future."

For now, it is unlikely to undermine Jabhat al-Nusra's standing in the eyes of the broader rebel movement, which desperately needs the group's unmatched skills on the battlefield to defeat a government war machine that enjoys far superior firepower with its tanks, helicopter gunships, fighter jets and artillery.

Still, for rebels who favor a civil state in post-Assad Syria, the presence of jihadi fighters presents a dilemma: It helps their immediate goal of getting rid of Assad, but it hurts them politically to have a group designated as a terrorist organization on their side.

"Their thinking is ... 'let's deal with the problem right now of deposing the regime, and then take care of these rogue, radical elements later when we have international support,'" Saab said. "For now, they need them. When everything is over, there's going to be a huge fight over basically all of Syria."

Among those most concerned by the merger is Iraq, whose Shiite-led government has been trying for years to snuff out an al-Qaida-led Sunni insurgency.

In a column published Tuesday in the Washington Post, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned that a Syria controlled by al-Qaida and its affiliates "would be more dangerous to both our countries than anything we've seen up to now." He added that such a scenario "grows more likely by the day."

A top Iraqi intelligence official told The Associated Press in Baghdad that his organization has always known that "al-Qaida in Iraq is directing Jabhat al-Nusra." He said the groups announced their union because of "political, logistical and geographical circumstance." The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, said Iraqi authorities will take "strict security measures to strike them."

Iraqi officials say the groups are sharing three military training compounds, logistics, intelligence and weapons, and are growing in strength around the Syria-Iraq border.

One of the most dramatic attacks by the group ? and at the time the clearest indication of cross-border cooperation with al-Qaida in Iraq ? came on March 4, when 51 Syrian soldiers were killed in a well-coordinated ambush. The Syrians had crossed into Iraq to seek refuge following clashes with rebels on the Syrian side of the border.

___

Associated Press writers Zeina Karam and Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Maamoun Youssef in Cairo, and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-militant-group-unites-al-qaida-iraq-204348795.html

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Unusual anal fin offers new insight into evolution

Apr. 10, 2013 ? An unusual fossil fish that has fins behind its anus could have implications for human evolution according to a scientist at The University of Manchester.

Dr Robert Sansom from the Faculty of Life Sciences identified the paired fins of Euphanerops, a fossil jawless fish that swam in the seas around 370 million years ago. The find makes the fish one of the first vertebrate to develop paired appendages such as fins, legs or arms.

However, their positioning is incredibly unusual, as Dr Sansom explains: "Euphanerops is unique because its anal fin is paired meaning there is one fin on each side of the fish. Up until now anal fins have only been seen on jawed fish where they are unpaired and this is true of both extinct and modern fish. The age of Euphanerops is important as it dates from the time of a deep evolutionary split between jawed and jawless fish, the two main divisions of vertebrates alive today. As such, it represents an important stage in the evolution of paired appendages."

He continues: "It's not clear why the fins are positioned so far back on the fish, or what advantage they might have provided. However, they do show that our early vertebrate ancestors tried out lots of different body plans before settling on two arms and two legs. If they hadn't then our bodies would have looked very different!"

Dr Sansom came across the paired fins as part of a study of Euphanerops fossils in Quebec, Canada. 3D surface scans of fossils and comparison of specimens preserved in different conditions revealed that there were two fan-shaped fins, a left and a right.

Dr Sansom's research on the paired fins followed on from a 2009 study of early vertebrate evolution and fossil preservation with colleagues from The University of Leicester. Their findings have been published in the Royal Society's journal Biology Letters.

Dr Sansom says it was an exciting find: "The unusual paired anal fin of Euphanerops lends support to the idea that there was some degree of developmental and evolutionary experimentation in some fish. After the Devonian period and the extinction of a lot of species, the jawed vertebrate body exhibits fewer deviations from the formula of paired pectoral, paired pelvic, unpaired dorsal and unpaired anal appendages. The discovery of new anatomical conditions will hopefully shed more light on the timing and sequence of the events underlying the origin and diversification of vertebrate appendages."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Manchester University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

R. S. Sansom, S. E. Gabbott, M. A. Purnell. Unusual anal fin in a Devonian jawless vertebrate reveals complex origins of paired appendages. Biology Letters, 2013; 9 (3): 20130002 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2013.0002

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/7JABhh8Lhq4/130410082201.htm

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One Reason Small Business Owners Are Bummed Out

By Dave Gonigam | 04/09/13

After three months of dim optimism, small-business owners are turning gloomier again. So says the monthly Optimism Index from the National Federation of Independent Business.

The March number clocked in this morning at 89.5. That?s below average even for the period since the ?official? end of the recession in June 2009.

?Virtually no owners think the current period is a good time to expand,? says NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg, ?because they simply don?t know what the future holds.?

Case in point: ?The Obama administration now says a special system of exchanges designed to make it easier for small businesses to provide insurance will be delayed an entire year,? reports Jim Angle at Fox News.

The idea was that come next year, workers would have a variety of insurance choices, backed by their employers? dollars. Now that won?t happen till 2015. Next year, there will be one choice only? and it might not even be their current provider.

?Let me try to understand this,? spits Joe Klein at Time: ?The key incentive for small businesses to support Obamacare was that they would be able to shop for the best deals in health care superstores ? called exchanges. The administration has had three years to set up these exchanges. It has failed to do so.?

For businesses small enough that they?re not required to provide coverage, the simplest option might be to drop coverage and let workers go onto the state-run exchanges ? which the White House swears up and down will be operating by October. Heh?

?Even if it?s just a small change of people who are leaving the employment-based insurance and coming into the individual insurance market,? says Sara Teppema from the Society of Actuaries, ?their costs and their numbers will overwhelm those who are currently uninsured.?

So much for the ?affordable care? promised by the law.

Regards,
Dave?Gonigam

Dave Gonigam

Treading a fine line between contrarian thinking and conspiracy theory, Dave Gonigam explores the nexus of finance, politics, and the media for Agora Financial's 5 Minute Forecast. He joined kindred spirits at Agora Financial in 2007 after a 20-year career as an Emmy award-winning writer, producer, and manager in local TV newsrooms nationwide.

View articles by Dave Gonigam

Source: http://dailyreckoning.com/one-reason-small-business-owners-are-bummed-out/

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Poop in paradise: The smell of (environmental) success?

A swanky beach enclave seeks relief from the stench of bird poop, but environmentalists say the guano shows local birds have been brought back from the brink of extinction.

By Julie Watson,?Associated Press / April 9, 2013

Pelicans and cormorants gather on the cliffs above the cove in the affluent La Jolla section of San Diego, April 2. The birds have turned the cliffs white with their droppings and caused a stench in an area full of affluent tourists.

Lenny Ignelzi / AP

Enlarge

La Jolla's jagged coastline is strictly protected by environmental laws to ensure the San Diego community remains the kind of seaside jewel that has attracted swanky restaurants, top-flight hotels and some of the nation's rich and famous, including billionaire businessman Irwin Jacobs and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

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Tourists flock to the place. So do birds. Lots of birds. And with those birds comes lots of poop.

So rather than gasping in amazement at the beautiful views, some are holding their noses from the stench coming from the droppings that cake coastal rocks and outcroppings near its business district.

"We've had to relocate tables inside because when people go out to the patio, some are like 'Oh my God. I can't handle the smell,'" said Christina Collignon, a hostess at Eddie V's, a steak and seafood restaurant perched on a cliff straight up from the guano-coated rocks.

On a recent afternoon, tourists on spring break walked along the sea wall. Some scrunched up their faces in disgust.

"It smells like something dead," said Meghan Brummett as she looked at the birds with her husband and children. The family was visiting from Brawley, a farming town two hours east of San Diego.

Biologists say the odor is the smell of success: Environmental protections put in place over the past few decades have brought back endangered species.

Cormorants and brown pelicans nearly became extinct in the 1970s because of the pesticide DDT. The brown pelican was taken off the federal endangered species list in 2010, and its population, including the Caribbean and Latin America, is estimated at more than 650,000. The total U.S. cormorant population is about 2 million.

La Jolla is a state-designated area of "special biological significance." That means California strictly regulates its waters to protect its abundant marine life, which also attracts birds.

"We're kind of a victim of our own success," said Robert Pitman, a marine biologist at the National Marine Fisheries Service in La Jolla. "We've provided a lot of bird protections so now we're getting a lot of birds. I think we're going to be seeing more of these conflicts come about, and I think we'll have to deal with them on a case-by-case basis. I think there'll have to be compromises all around."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/lzeeFgXntYM/Poop-in-paradise-The-smell-of-environmental-success

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'Pain & Gain' Pumps Up Sneak Peek Week: Tune In Tonight!

Mark Wahlberg and Michael Bay will present an exclusive clip from the action comedy, only on MTV at 11 p.m. ET.
By Brett White

Mark Wahlberg in "Pain and Gain"
Photo: Paramount Pictures

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1705218/pain-gain-mark-wahlberg-sneak-peek-week.jhtml

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Tuesday, April 2, 2013

NZN Labs launches Lit, a social-enhanced fitness tracker for adventurous types

No, your existing fitness tracker probably isn't good enough -- not if you frequently participate in "extreme sports" and wish to log every possible measurement as you cycle, snowboard, surf or just go about your day. At least, that's what the folks at NZN Labs hope you believe -- their new Lit wrist-mounted tracking device being the answer to all your prayers. You can slap Lit on your wrist, or mount it in other ways, and the battery is said to keep the logs churning for up to a week. Metrics vary depending on the activity -- surfers, for example, will track the number of paddles, waves attempted and ridden, max g-force and the longest wave.

Fortunately, it's waterproof to 30 feet, and all the gathered info gets booted to the cloud through your smartphone and Bluetooth 4.0. You earn "points" for certain athletic achievements, letting you pit yourself against friends and other folks, in the off chance that you feel the need to up the ante when it comes to competition. Lit hits Indiegogo for $99 pre-orders beginning today, or you can wait for the device to ship to retailers, at which point you'll be able to pick one up for $149.

Filed under: Wearables