Monthly Archive for October, 2011

SafaricomCLOUD: Safaricom’s third act to dominate Kenya’s telecoms sector?

Published on October 29, 2011 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , .

There is no denying that Safaricom is easily one of Kenya’s most innovative companies, even if its DNA is ultimately rooted in technology. It seems just like the other day when mobile telephony became widely available to the masses in Kenya at the cusp of the Millennium when Safaricom and Kencell launched their services. In fact, Kencell’s network was actually operational before Safaricom’s and everyone expected them to do well as  a result of the head start they had. However, the folly in Kencell’s launch is that they focused on the post-paid customer rather than the pre-paid customer. This proved to be their undoing as Safaricom hit the market with pre-paid services as the sharp-end of their strategy. Everyone could sign-up for Safaricom without needing to place financial deposits or showing their bank statements. All they needed was a mobile phone and pre-paid scratch cards to get started. In addition, Safaricom focussed on per second billing whilst Kencell focussed on per minute billing. The rest you could say is history and we all know what happened – Safaricom won that battle quite convincingly and it’s probably the platform that they needed to consolidate the market leadership they hold to this very day. However, that battle was largely about voice and SMS services. You could say that was Safaricom’s the first act in dominating Kenya’s telecoms sector.

The next phase of Safaricom’s market domination came with the arrival of M-Pesa and data services. More specifically, in launching M-Pesa, Safaricom reinvented Kenya’s financial services sector and almost all of its millions of subscribers are now more or less subscribed to it. This all happened around the time that Kencell had already changed its name to Celtel and thereafter to Zain. M-Pesa in many ways has locked in subscribers to Safaricom as its immensely useful as we know for moving money around. At more or less the same time, Safaricom paid a handsome fee to secure a 3G data license from the Communications Commission of Kenya and that led them to launching the first 3G data network in Kenya. The amount that Safaricom paid for this privilege was very high and we all saw the other networks balk at paying anything close to what Safaricom paid. Ultimately, two things happened in the process – one is that Safaricom had a monopoly on 3G data in Kenya which led to individuals and businesses opting to use their speedy network for data services. At the same time, the other mobile networks had to watch as Safaricom’s 3G revenues took off rapidly whilst voice and SMS revenues plunged. In fact, it was only just two months ago that the second 3G data network went live in Kenya in the form of Orange Kenya and we know Airtel Kenya has (partly) launched 3G services recently. So, you could say, Safaricom’s second market dominance act was the potent combination of launching M-Pesa and 3G data.

This past week, we saw what is essentially the arrival of Safaricom’s third act – the launch of their cloud services, also known as SafaricomCLOUD. According to Wikipedia, The Cloud or Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility (like the electricity grid) over a network (typically the Internet). SafaricomCLOUD offers the following 3 cloud service pillars:

  • Data Centre As A Service.
  • Storage As A Service.
  • Back-up As A Service.

I happened to attend the launch of SafaricomCLOUD and the total investment that they have put in shocked me – Safaricom has already invested Kes. 2 Billion and plans to invest another Kes. 1.5 Billion over the next year or so. Going by the recent exchange rates, this represents an investment of US$ 20 Million thus far for a service they have yet to start selling in the market. They are clearly taking the next wave of cloud services very seriously and are easily way ahead of other telcos in this space. So, what has happened is that the goal posts have shifted once again for Safaricom’s competitors – whilst they are trying to get subscribers onto 3G, Safaricom are already moving up the value chain to offer world-class cloud services right here in Kenya. As data becomes the next frontier for competition, Safaricom once again seem prescient and are moving forward relentlessly in their third act for market domination.

It seems hard to imagine that just last year I wrote a blog post here as to why we urgently needed to build out the local cloud after some outages on the high speed undersea data cables connecting East Africa to rest of the world reminded us as to how dependent we are on the International cloud already. At the time, getting to Gmail or Google Apps or any other form of cloud service was nearly impossible. Therefore, it seems that through Safaricom we now indeed have the local cloud that we have always needed that could make data services far better for organizations and people in the region. I am eagerly looking forward to the prospect of more companies setting up local cloud services by following Safaricom’s lead in this respect. This will ultimately lower the cost of accessing cloud services and reduce the latency of using cloud based services. It will also enable capacity building in terms of deploying and managing cloud services for local consumption, across the board, as well as  encourage innovation. In the final analysis, it’s a good thing and Safaricom once again is setting the tone in Kenya’s telecoms sector.

Digital Animator Gatumia Gatumia wins the Chase Bank Enablis ILO Business Launchpad Competition.

Published on October 29, 2011 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

The Chase Bank Enablis ILO business plan competition came to a close on Friday the 28th at a colorful ceremony attended by 100 finalists selected from over 400 entries submitted from all over the country.

The winners were selected after a four day boot camp held at Inoorero University where the entrepreneurs were trained on Presentation skills, Financial Management, Marketing, Business Systems, Legal issues of setting up a business, Integrating ICT in Business and aligning businesses to Vision 2030. The emerging entrepreneurs also had an opportunity to interact with seasoned entrepreneurs as well as the winners of last year’s competition. Each finalist was given a chance to refine their plans and present to a panel of judges showcasing their ability to apply the knowledge acquired at the boot camp in to their presentation.

Assistant Minister for Industrialization congratulated Gatumia Gatumia, the overall winner of this year's Chase Bank Enablis, ILO Business Launchpad.

33 year old Gatumia Gatumia, who runs a digital animation company called Recon Digital emerged the overall winner in the 2011 business plan competition. He walked away with Kshs. 500,000 being the cash award for the information communication and technology category. The category was sponsored by International Labour Organization’s Youth Entrepreneurship Facility. Gatumia is a certified Autodesk Maya Animator who trained at an animation college in Toronto Canada and has 10 years of experience in producing Digital Content Animation for local and international clients. He aims to tell many untold stories through his products.

“At Recon Digital we believe that many people all over the world would really enjoy seeing well-made animation products that tell African stories featuring African characters. There is still far too little African animation out there and though it is an uphill task, we are working hard to build a profitable business that will play a part in bringing African Animation to the world,” said Gatumia.

Gatumia also said that he was honored to be selected as the winner of this year’s competition, amongst distinguished competitors saying he plans to leverage the credibility that comes with winning this competition and the funding to rapidly get his product to market.

Samsung Africa launches Solar Powered Internet Schools for Africa

Published on October 26, 2011 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Press Release

Samsung Africa has today unveiled a continental project to boost computer literacy and expand internet access at the basic education level with a Solar Powered Internet School model. The model unveiled on a pilot project in South Africa features a fully equipped containerised computer school kitted with Samsung Personal Computers and remote access internet connectivity.

The pioneering project at the Samsung Engineering Academy in Boksburg, South Africa is also set to be replicated in other parts of Africa including Kenya. Speaking in Nairobi, Samsung Electronics East Africa Business Leader Mr Robert Ngeru confirmed that plans for a similar Kenyan launch are in high gear as Samsung races to support initiatives geared at raising computer literacy in East Africa.

While describing the project as a world-first, Ngeru explained that the new model features an exclusively solar-powered, mobile and completely independent classroom designed for use in remote rural areas with limited or no access to electricity. The School’s model addresses one of Africa’s largest economic challenges – electrification. On average, less than 25% of rural areas on the continent benefit from electricity, resulting in isolated communities with limited access to education and connectivity – both of which are key to fast-tracking a nation’s development.

“We have set an ambitious goal for ourselves in Africa: to positively impact 5 million lives by 2015,” affirmed Ngeru. And added: “We believe that this can most effectively be achieved if we connect our CSR initiatives with our history and core business. With the goal to grow our business on the continent, we also know that we have to sustain our level of innovation. This can only be achieved if we invest in education to facilitate African thought-leadership and to ensure we have access to a large workforce of skilled engineers in the future. The Solar Powered Internet School is a great example of this strategy at play”.

The initiative is exemplary of Samsung’s investment in CSR on the continent: a keen focus on education and harnessing the company’s legacy of innovation to respond to the felt needs of people on the continent. The launch follows the rollout of Samsung Africa’s ‘Built for Africa’ product range and the Samsung Electronics Engineering Academy earlier this year.

Each Solar Powered Internet School is built in a 40 foot (12 metre) long shipping container, making them easily transportable via truck to remote areas. The schools are built for energy scarce environments, harsh weather conditions, and for transportation over long distances. Fold-away solar panels provide enough energy to power the unit for up to nine hours a day, and for one and a half days without any sunlight at all. The solar-panels themselves are made from rubber instead of glass to ensure they are hardy and durable enough to survive long journeys across the continent.

The classroom can comfortably accommodate 21 learners, and includes several layers of insulation and a ventilation system, to ensure a temperate environment is maintained. Each classroom is fitted with a 50 inch electronic E-board and different Samsung Notebooks and Netbooks, including the world-first solar powered netbooks and Galaxy Tablets for student and teacher interface

“The amount of power generated by the schools each day means they can be used beyond the traditional school day as an adult education centre in the afternoons or a community centre over weekends,” adds Tessa Calleb, Samsung’s East Africa CSR Manager. “Our goal was to create an environment that would facilitate learning for whole communities in remote areas that otherwise don’t have access to education tools or internet connectivity.”

The School is also equipped with an energy efficient refrigerator, a file server, router, Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS), video camera and world first Wi-Fi camera, all of which are designed to communicate via 3G. This allows a central location (such as the Ministry of Education) to monitor classes and deliver curriculum-based content directly to both the learners’ and educators’ notebooks.

The server currently contains the complete South African school curriculum spanning from grade 0 to grade 12, allowing the school to teach any school going subject or grade. In Kenya, the servers will be customised to hold local curriculums from standard one to eight. In the unlikely event of a complete power outage, teachers can continue their lessons using a regular built-in whiteboard and chalkboard. Samsung LED lighting ensures reduced power consumption, while remote solar power diagnostics are in power supply complication.

With 21 students and one teacher, as well as other members of the community making use of the classroom daily, Samsung has installed its environmentally-friendly Virus Doctor air-purification system to ward off the spread of germs within the classroom. The Samsung Super Plasma ion (SPi) technology emits active hydrogen and oxygen ions into the air inhibiting infection by airborne viruses and destroying airborne bacteria, fungi and allergens.

The Solar Powered Internet School prototype is currently being piloted at the Samsung Electronics Engineering Academy in Boksburg. It will then be sent to Qunu in the Eastern Cape to undergo further testing as a functioning learning and teaching environment, with the aim to e Schools thereafter.

[Press Release] The official MIH position on the closure of Kalahari in Kenya and Nigeria

Published on October 25, 2011 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

Press Release

On 24 October 2011 MIH Internet (Sub-Saharan Africa) advised that, following a strategic review of its investment priorities, it will be closing down the Kalahari Kenya and Kalahari Nigeria operations with immediate effect.

MIH launched online retail services in Kenya and Nigeria under the Kalahari brand in October 2009 and January 2010, respectively. This was pioneering work which carried considerable risk. As the performance of the service has been below expectation since launch and reaching profitability was not a reasonable near-term prospect, a decision was made to refocus efforts on other group businesses within the region. Specifically, our Dealfish and Mocality sites will continue to operate.

Contact details:

Stefan Magdalinski
, GM, E-Commerce, Sub-Saharan Africa MIH Internet

Email: Stefan@mihinternet.com

[Review] The N9 proves that rumours of Nokia’s death are greatly exaggerated.

Published on October 23, 2011 in Uncategorized. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , .

It’s hard to imagine how hard the last couple of years have been for Nokia, once the world’s dominant mobile handset manufacturer. It was only a few years ago that everyone coveted that next Nokia mobile handset and their market share seemed unassailable. In many ways, this status quo changed with the arrival of Apple’s revolutionary iPhone back in 2007. You could say that the iPhone redefined everything that we expected from what we knew until then from a mobile phone – the rest you could say, is history.

Nokia today has far less market dominance – this is a fact. Yes, they still dominate for low-end handsets in markets like Asia and Africa but in a world that is increasingly shifting to smartphones, Nokia has clearly been slipping quite badly. This trend has no doubt started happening in markets like Kenya where US$ 100.00 Android handsets are readily available to the masses. It’s expected that in the next few years, Nokia’s Symbian OS will lose its iron grip in emerging markets as Android comes to the fore and gains widespread adoption. However, there is good news on the horizon for Nokia.

Just this past week, Nokia announced better than expected third quarter financial results. Yes, it was a still a loss but not nearly as bad as financial analysts had predicted. This comes after Nokia has slashed thousands of jobs and closed down many production facilities globally, which is still on-going. At the same time, Nokia is to launch its first range of Windows Phone 7 powered mobile handsets next week at their annual Nokia World Conference in London, UK. This is what probably has me most excited. Just last week, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer made a remark the just concluded Web 2.0 Summit that the new Nokia Windows Phone 7 smartphones will be “very beautiful”. Nokia and Microsoft have been working overtime to make sure that they having winning products that can take on Apple and Google’s Android.

Ultimately, all the above leads me to the point of this blog post – the just launched Nokia N9. I got one from Nokia East Africa this past week and I have used it for the past 5 days or so. It is a gem of a phone and although it will be the last mobile handset produced by Nokia to run the MeeGo OS, it really does go to show that Nokia still does have its legendary creative mojo when it comes to making beautiful mobile phones! I am really surprised at how good this phone is from a hardware and software perspective. To be honest, after having test units of the Nokia N8 and E7 phones over the past year, it was very clear that the shortcomings of the aging Symbian OS were starting to show – in-spite of the Anna and recent Bella updates which did go a long way to improve the overall user experience and underlying technology. The N9 however shows what the future holds for Nokia, and it’s a bright future indeed! So, here we go, lets dive into the N9:

  • Packaging – the overall packaging of the N9 is very slick! I got a black unit in a matte finish to test and it feels really good to hold. It has a very minimalist feel with no buttons or keys on the face of the phone. It’s all “touch” from this standpoint. You have the on and off button as well as the volume adjustment keys on the right side. The N9 comes in at 135g making it quite light. It looks and feels like its made of metal but it’s actually a polycarbonate material. There are hardly any protrusions on its smooth surface as details such as the camera and flash are recessed. You will look at the N9 from a design perspective and honestly find it more beautiful than anything else out there – including the Apple iPhone! However, I was not especially thrilled that the N9 came with a micro SIM tray instead of a standard SIM tray. This means you have to get your SIM “chopped” to fit to use the phone.
  • Screen -  The N9 comes with a Gorilla Glass screen which makes it very hard to crack or break. Gorilla Glass is a common feature on high-end smartphones these days so nothing unusual here. The screen is AMOLED meaning is bright, clear and sharp to look. Because of the curved surface of the screen everything you view seems to literally float to the top! The screen itself measures 3.9 inches which means its smaller than a good number of the newer smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S2 that sports a screen of more than 4 inches. The screen was great for viewing photos, playing games and watching videos on YouTube. It was also easy to use productivity applications.
  • Processor and Memory – The N9 comes with a single core 1GHz processor. This in itself is NOT bad and it works fast enough. However, compared to the newer crop of Android phones coming it today with dual core processors running at 1.2 GHz, this is not ideal. Its good enough and the MeeGo OS was zippy powering through multiple applications. The unit I received came with 16GB of internal memory but there are no expansion slots to expand memory.
  • Networking – The N9 comes with all the usual suspects when it comes to networking including 3G at up to 14.4Mbps, EDGE, WIFI and Bluetooth. However, the N9 goes a step further in supporting Near Field Communication or NFC. NFC is a form of networking that has recently caught on with the latest smartphones globally and is expected to be used for making mobile payments and also for transferring data between mobile devices and terminals. My experience using the N9 on 3G, WIFI and Bluetooth was that its quick and works when it comes to connecting to other networks and devices.
  • Battery Life – I found the N9 to be surprisingly good when it came to battery life when it comes to using the phone on a full day basis. I did not ever need to recharge the phone even when I would browse from time and access online videos as well as applications. Seeing that I have only used the N9 for around 5 days before doing this review, I would say it probably has better battery life than I found on the Samsung Galaxy S2 as well as the Apple iPhone 4.
  • Applications – Probably the biggest Achilles heel when it comes to the N9 is applications. When you turn on the N9, there are a good number of applications pre-installed including those for social media like Twitter and Facebook, Email, Contacts, Games such as Angry Birds, etc. However, when you go to the Nokia Store for the N9 which is MeeGo applications, the choice is rather thin. It’s quite obvious that very few developers will spend any amount of time building apps for the N9 or MeeGo in general since its now considered a “dead” mobile OS with limited prospects. This aspect will limit how many people will ultimately but the N9 since applications have become a key deciding factor when buying a mobile phone these days. Another thing that really ticked me off about the N9 is that it was practically impossible to import my contacts from an Android phone or from my online contacts on Google Mail. Why is this when I was able to get my calendar synchronized and even Facebook contacts could come in? I have no idea but the ability to get your contacts easily onto the N9 is something that Nokia need to fix. One last issue I had with the N9 is that the browser does not support Flash.
  • Camera(s) – The N9 comes with a Carl Zeiss lens camera that can take photos at 8Mp and record video 720p HD. This resolution is less than the Nokia N8 which had a 12Mp camera. Also, newer smartphones like the Apple iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy S2 tale videos at 1080 HD. The camera also has auto focus and a dual LED flash that works well in even very low light conditions. I took both video and photos with the N9 and I have to say its pretty good even if it’s not necessarily in the league of the Apple iPhone 4 or Samsung Galaxy S2 from what I can tell. There is also a front facing camera on the N9 but I never quite got round to using the same, or rather figured out how to use the same.
  • Usability – The overall usability or the user experience of the N9 was easy. Everything starts by “swiping” from the right hand of the touch screen to the left side the screen. When you do this on any screen, you can access more screens and applications. This is quite different from the way that Android and Apple’s iOS work but it really is a nice different take that does not leave you feeling the after taste of Nokia’s dated Symbian OS. It’s quite responsive when opening apps but sometimes you seem to have to wait for things to happen. All in all, its a decent user experience that “works” and at no point does it feel clunky. It’s a shame that MeeGo will die with the N9, or so it seems when Nokia launches its Windows Phone 7 handsets later in the year.

Conclusion.

I am a little puzzled with the N9. On one hand, Nokia has clearly demonstrated that it can still make great phones that can effectively compete with the Apple iPhone and Android phones in the N9. The hardware and software integration using MeeGo is top-notch and this phone shows that Nokia still has mojo. However, its pretty much a dead-end phone in that in a few weeks it will be superseded by the Nokia Windows Phone 7 handsets. If anything, the N9 was more a proof of concept for Nokia and it really did hit the mark. It will retail in Kenya for around Kes. 60,000.00 to 70,000.00 in a few weeks time when it launches and I wonder if I would spend that kind of money when I know it’s a one hit wonder. That being said, it really looks and works good meaning that a good number of people out there WILL buy it in Kenya. Whatever the case, the N9 is “sweet” by any measure and barring a few kinks it will go down as a truly distinctive and well executed smartphone from Nokia

Why digital marketing IS rocket science, even in Kenya.

Published on October 22, 2011 in Uncategorized. 3 Comments Tags: , .

I’ve meant to write about what I see as a major misunderstanding of how difficult digital marketing is for sometime now. More specifically, it seems to be a recurrent theme in Kenya that many people underestimate just how difficult it is to execute a successful and well thought out digital marketing initiative – many think its actually easy to pull-off and that it should cost no more than a few thousand shillings. This is an area where I have close to 15 years experience and even today I still feel like a novice when it comes to digital marketing since its so dynamic and ever evolving.

If anything, digital marketing as we know it is becoming far more complicated than it was even 5 years ago when the focus for most organizations was just launching a decent web site in Kenya. Nowadays, building a web site is probably the easiest part when you can buy inexpensive designs online and latch these on to readily available and open source content management systems like WordPress or Joomla. Indeed, the devil really is in the detail when it comes to digital marketing since the mode of execution can make or break your digital marketing efforts.

I have a well-etched memory going back to the early days of Dotsavvy which I co-founded back in 2002 as one of the first web design shops in Kenya. At the time, we had secured business from a reasonably large medical services business in Nairobi. We had gone for a kick-off meeting with the senior management team and were presenting creative concepts and the information architecture for the web site. If you are familiar with the professional web design process these are essential aspects of the whole process to succeed. However, at the meeting, the CEO of the said organization started insulting our project team, for “over-complicating” the whole business of building a web site which even her 15 year old son could for her. Naturally, we were not happy by these remarks and the meeting quickly deteriorated as we tried to make a case for how we get web sites done. At the end of the day, this client proved to be one of the most challenging to work with and to this very day the same organization has never launched a web site.

I have shared the above anecdote to illustrate a simple point – even close to 10 years later since the same happened, there are many in Kenya who still underestimate just how hard it is to execute digital marketing in the most effective and efficient manner. It’s the simple fact that building a web site is more than design or a content management system. There are issues such as building out content in the form of text, images, branding, etc. There is the matter of things such as search engine optimization (SEO) and determining how to ensure a web site can be viewed effectively in a myriad of web browsers such as Internet Explorer, FireFox, Chrome, etc…How about the use of Flash and CSS, as well as producing elegant HTML code that works everywhere? Which databases are preferred? Which coding languages will do? How about securing back-end systems from penetration, etc etc…The list simply goes on and on.

Since the advent of social media, there is a whole new area of how you can achieve brand visibility and community engagement through Blogs, Twitter and Facebook. In a more recent area, the rise of the mobile Internet means that a web site and internet marketing associated with same means dealing with an entirely new audience and technologies to make sure your digital marketing is “mobile enabled”. Being mobile enabled itself when it comes to digital marketing is a whole new beast in itself in that many are grappling with. Lastly, how does one design their digital marketing campaigns? Where do you buy the most ideal media at the right price? How about the creative messages that will drive users to “click” and interact with the same and how will Return on Investment (RoI) be measured using analytic tools for campaigns? Do you see what I mean? When you put it all together, digital marketing is, and has always been, rocket science. Even in Kenya.

5 business tips from my favourite barbershop.

Published on October 22, 2011 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

There is a barbershop I have frequented in the Hurlingham area of Nairobi for the better part of a year. I only started going to this particular barbershop by coincidence on a day that I badly needed a trim and it was the nearest place to where I was having some work done on my car. At the time, I had a regular barbershop that I had visited for a few years and as far as I was concerned, it met all my needs, that is until I first visited my current barbershop. In this rather unusual blog post for me, and since I had a trim this morning, I wanted to expound on 5 reasons why this particular barbershop does so well and has my loyalty for life – for as long as they keep doing what do they do so well, unlike other barber shops I have used in the past. In fact, you could say, any business could be far more successful if they follow these 5 tips from my barbershop:

Consistency of service.

One of the things I love about my barbershop is that they are very consistent in service delivery. What this means specifically is that each time I go there, irrespective of which barber cuts my hair, or which lady washes my hair, it’s almost always the same experience. There is hardly any deviation in terms of the service delivery from start to finish each time you go there. This is quite unlike other barber shops I have been to in the past where service can vary wildly from being very good to very scrappy. As a customer, I love the fact that service is consistently of the same high standards. For me, this is priceless. Any business that hopes to win and retain customers needs to have service that is predictable and that customers can expect, each and every time.

Exceed customer expectations. 

One thing I love about my barbershop is that they always seem to exceed my expectations. I sometimes go in for a quick trim and expect to leave quickly and more or less “serviced” based on my typically simple needs. However, the attention to detail and the amount of effort they put into ensuring I get a good trim, wash and massage is ridiculous. It’s so good that I always tip the barbers and the women who help out for the great service. They never ask me for more money in addition to the standard charges are but I honestly feel that they are under charging for a really great and world-class service to the extent that I’m compelled to pay more. Isn’t that great? That customers pay more when the service is better than what they are used to or what they expect? Any business could benefit from this tip and generate more income by just exceeding what customers expect.

A delightful service experience.

One of the other things I love about my barbershop is the experience of their service. No, it’s not just about the service but the WHOLE experience of what they do. This goes down to the fact that all the barbers are dressed in clean white coats, as are the women who work there. They use expensive cologne, shampoos and other supplies for a truly five-star experience. The ambiance of the barbershop is clean and well-lit – they have proper reclining and adjustable barber chairs for you to get your trim. The towels are always warm and soft. You can catch the ongoing live football games as you wait to get trimmed or are when having yourself groomed in other ways. The room is always clean and someone is constantly sweeping the floor, etc. Do you get the picture? Its a delightful experience all round. Any business should aspire to make sure that they deliver a “complete” experience to the customer that is simply “delightful” from the moment the come in to the time they leave.

Up-selling and cross-selling.

Another really cool thing about my barbershop is that they are constantly cross-selling and up-selling you services and products. However, the way they do it is much more like the way a highly paid financial consultant would do it, and not a run-of-the-mill insurance salesman. They will explain to you the way you need to buy a certain type of cream to deal with your razor bump problem, or that your nails look a little ragged and could use a manicure right away. Yes yes, I know, many men in Kenya would balk at the idea of having a manicure but it goes a long way to show that they care how you look out there. In this way, you do spend more money on additional services but in the process you also ending up looking better groomed, and feeling better about yourself :) They up-sell and cross-sell you for all the right reasons – it’s not just about turning in an extra shilling. Many businesses could learn a thing or two from my barbershop in terms of generating more revenue by recommending to customers more services that they actually need.

Professional customer services.

The last thing about my barbershop that I really like is that the people who work there are always professional. From the moment you walk in, they make sure you do not have to wait. You are ushered to a chair and immediately they are ready to serve you. The do not even talk to you, unless you talk to them. They ask you what would you like to have that day. They offer you coffee or tea. They are dressed like barbers who came to work and behave as they would be expected to. You know you are in good hands when you just plonk yourself into a seat and know that you will get exactly the kind of service you expect. I have never had to complain or feel ripped off at the end of the service delivery process. Until I moved to this barbershop, let me just say I am something of a perfectionist when it comes to my trim and I would often complain. Its great dealing with the Pros at my barbershop! In many ways, by them being so professional, customers just keep coming back, time and again. Any business out there could use repeat business by being professional.

Safaricom 3G vs Orange 3G – Who is faster?

Published on October 15, 2011 in Uncategorized. 19 Comments Tags: , , , .

It was going to come to this at some point. It was inevitable. Who is faster in Kenya? Orange 3G or Safaricom 3G? Orange Kenya launched its 3G services in August 2011, almost 2 months ago. Meanwhile. Safaricom have had 3G services for close to 3 years. However, Orange launched their 3G service with speeds of up to 21mb. Safaricom also shortly thereabouts launched their faster 3G service which is also capable of speeds of 21mb. In the case of Safaricom, one had/has to buy the newer dongles that support the faster speeds.

Initially, it seemed, the Orange 3G service was spotty and did not live up to expectations as many on the network were unable to sustain 3G speeds with the network dropping off erratically to EDGE speeds. As of this writing, the Orange 3G service seems to be much better. At the same time, I have been on Safaricom 3G on the newer dongle recently and initially the speed bump was good but lately its not that impressive. I’m not sure what is going wrong but the Safaricom 3G speeds have generally become significantly slower over the last few weeks.

So, using the new Safaricom 3G dongle and the Orange 3G dongle, both of which are supposed to go as fast as 21mb, I did a speed test as below and these were the results:

Safaricom Speed Test

 

Orange Speed Test

 

 

It would appear that Orange 3G is significantly faster than the Safaricom 3G. These tests were done at around the same time so they are more or less accurate. It could be that Orange having much fewer subscribers than Safaricom has excess capacity that means it’s a lot faster. At the same time, Safaricom could have over sold its capacity meaning everyone is competing for limited bandwidth. Whatever the case, as of this writing, Orange 3G clearly has the edge on Safaricom 3G.

 

 

 

[Review] The wicked fast, super light and wafer thin Samsung Galaxy S2.

Published on October 15, 2011 in Uncategorized. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

This was always going to be a bittersweet phone review for me, under the circumstances. The Samsung Galaxy S2 is without a doubt the best Android phone I have had a chance to use to-date for any period of time. It is a slick and wafer thin mobile device that in many ways seems to defy the very laws of physics. It is wicked fast and has an enormous screen and yet it is also super light to the point where you often forget its in your pocket. On many levels, Samsung have pulled off what I would call a major coup with the Galaxy s2 – it is a fine phone by any standard and for this reason its “sweet”. There is a good reason why global sales for the Galaxy S2 have exceeded 10 million units, thus far.

The flip side to this review is the “bitter” aspect of having the Galaxy s2 for only 3 weeks or so. My good friends over at Samsung gave me the Galaxy S2 to review and keep. However, during a recent trip out of the country, under fairly bizarre circumstances, my Galaxy s2 was stolen from me. To say that I am still gutted a few weeks later would be understatement – I lost the best Android phone I have ever owned. This, coming from me who is a die-hard Apple iPhone fan is telling. I am still truly bitter!

Anyway, without wasting anymore of your time whining I want to go into some the key highlights that make the Samsung S2 such a great buy, even if its pricey in Kenya at around Kes 60,000.00 to Kes. 65,000.00 depending on where you pick it up:

  • The Screen – the first thing that grabs you about the Galaxy S2 is the screen which is HUGE. It measures 4.3 inches making it almost “tablet-like” in how much real estate you have. However, it goes one step further in having a super AMOLED plus screen. This is the latest in screen technology which means its super sharp and vivid. Images and video seem to literally jump at you on the Galaxy S2 – its a marvel to look at! It also has Gorilla Glass meaning its a very durable screen that will not easily shatter should you happen to drop the phone accidentally.
  • Packaging – I am pleased to say that the overall finish and feel of the Galaxy S2 is an improvement over the original Galaxy S. It has a “squarer” finish and is not only lighter but it is also easily one of the thinnest high-end smartphones in the Kenyan market today. It terms of buttons on the front, it has a “minimalist” look. Unfortunately, once again, one still has a “plasticky” feel with Galaxy S2 which was the case with the Galaxy S although this is something I got over in no time. I still wish Samsung would pursue a more hefty and metallic finish for its high-end smartphones like HTC and Apple do.
  • The Processor – The Galaxy S2 comes with a 1.2 Ghz dual core processor meaning it is not just fast but really fast. What this means is that you can zip through applications and multimedia functions with no fuss. Everything really moves a lot faster on the Galaxy S2 compared to any other Android phone I have used in the past. In addition the Galaxy S2 runs Android 2.3 which is one of the newer and better flavors available in the market today.
  • Camera – The camera on the Galaxy S2 is a gem. It’s an 8mp camera which is an improvement on the original Galaxy S that had a 5mp camera. In addition, the Galaxy S2 comes with a camera which is super handy for those low light conditions. However, the icing on the cake with the Galaxy s2 camera is the video capabilities where one can shoot video in full 1080 HD which puts it in a whole new category of quality.
  • Memory – The Galaxy S2 comes with 16GB of memory on-board which can be expanded to 32GB of memory via Micro SD card. This means that you can store full length movie and lots of apps with ease.
  • Battery Life – I was pleasantly surprised with the Galaxy S2 in terms of battery life. Unlike the Galaxy S which drains batter life in no time, the Galaxy S2 seems to manage power consumption better and I was surprised to see how much 3G time I would get on it. It worked for hours on end with no need to recharge intermittently during the day.
  • Music – music on the Galaxy S2 was good, but not great. The controls for sound and all worked for me but I still found that I preferred listing to music on my iPhone when in the gym. There is nothing really wrong with the Galaxy S2 when it comes to music but I still think Android needs improvement in this area from a software perspective.
  • Social Networking – when it came to social networking, I found using the standard Android Apps for the likes of Facebook and Twitter to work best for me. I have never been a fan of Samsung’s proprietary SocialHub and I think they should drop it altogether in favour of the Android Market Apps. My 2 cents that is.
  • Work – I used the Galaxy S2 for all my business and work related tasks such as email, calendaring, etc. It worked well for me and now that I have synced all my accounts online with Google, I really was able to work on the move. The applications available meant I could easily open work documents and also edit them too. A big factor here was the large screen on the Galaxy S2 which really makes it easy to work on documents on the move. Microsoft Exchange Sync worked well and I was able to get all I needed that I would normally get on my Macbook to work.
  • Networking – The Galaxy S2 supports full HSPA+ 21 Mbps data connectivity on your mobile network. I did not get a chance to test this speed so regular 3G worked just fine for me. In addition, I was able to use it on WIFI and EDGE quite well as well as Bluetooth for connecting to devices was a synch. I also managed to use the Galaxy S2 a couple of times a WIFI hotspot and the only caveat in this case was that battery life was heavily compromised when connecting multiple devices.

Conclusion

There are many better and more detailed reviews of the Samsung Galaxy S2 that you can find online. In this case, I wanted to share my “brief” experience on the Galaxy S2 from a “highlights” perspective and from what I can tell its the best high-end Android smartphone available in Kenya today. It will be a few months before the Apple iPhone 4S makes its way to Kenya and by then I would expect there should be additional Android alternatives to the Samsung Galaxy S2. However, for the time being, price being no object, go out there and pick up the Samsung Galaxy S2 for a really slick high-end Android phone – you will not regret it!

 

PesaPi, the open source M-Pesa API upgraded.

Published on October 15, 2011 in Uncategorized. 9 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

It was back in May 2011 that I did a blog post here about the launch of PesaPi which is an open source API for Safaricom’s M-Pesa that integrates to the web. Since then, PesaPi has become increasingly popular and my favorite geek Mike Pedersen who is behind PesaPi has been busy coding away to come up with all sorts of new enhancements. Earlier today at BarCamp Nairobi, Mike unveiled the latest edition of PesaPi which now has the following key upgrades:

  • Multiple Payment Systems – when launched in May 2011, PesaPi only supported Safaricom’s M-Pesa mobile money service. Now, PesaPi supports integration with other mobile money services such as Airtel Money, Orange Money and YU Cash, in and beyond Kenya.
  • Personal M-Pesa Accounts – when initially launched, PesaPi only supported payments going to M-Pesa business accounts where one had to register for a Paybill number with Safaricom. In the latest iteration of PesaPi, one can now use personal M-Pesa accounts to receive payments and not just business accounts. This is key since securing an M-Pesa business account can take many months and is NOT a straightforward process. In order to use a personal M-Pesa account with PesaPi, one must have a phone that runs Google’s Android with M-Pesa. At the same time, the phone needs to have SMSSync installed which is a utility that “forwards” incoming SMS messages to a computer using a data connection. This way, you can then carry around your Android phone as you normally would and whenever an M-Pesa payment notification from Safaricom comes in it can then be passed onto your website.
  • Faster Deployment – As illustrated in the YouTube video below, Mike has managed to streamline the process of integrating PesaPi into an existing web site in not more than 16 minutes from scratch!

The latest version of PesaPi can be downloaded here:

https://github.com/pluspeople/pesaPi

The video as below shows just how easy it is to deploy PesaPi version in roughly 16 minutes: