Innovation of the Week: China Mobile, Softbank, and Vodafone to Set Up an Innovation Lab
Posted by: meikah | 2 May 2008 | 2:22 am
ChinaTechNews reports that China Mobile will set up an innovation lab. The project is a joint endeavor with Softbank and Vodafone.
The joint innovation lab will serve as a platform for the parties to develop mobile services and drive innovation and synergy in the industry to the benefit of their combined global customer base, and it will also launch projects based on emerging technologies and market demand.
The Lab reportedly will focus on pushing the development of new mobile technology, application and services such as mobile widgets. In the initial stage, it plans to develop a platform for mobile widgets to encourage the development of innovative new services that can leverage mobile operators’ unique capabilities.
The mobile telecom is really on a roll these days, and I’m guessing that there’ll be more innovation efforts in this industry in the future.
Filed under: Telecommunications, Innovation Update, Technology, Innovation
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Batelco Continues with Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 17 February 2008 | 8:54 pm
Year 2006 was a banner year for Bahrain Telecommunications Company or Batelco. That was the year when the company invested more than BD50 million ($132.6 million) in the broadband infrastructure, new world class data centers, additional access to the web via a landing station (a first in Bahrain) and investment in Falcon cable systems and additional base stations for improved mobile coverage.
More importantly, that year, too, Batelco went into Six Sigma to improve customer service, product development, billing, and various IT processes aimed at more responsive customer care and a ‘single view’ of the customer.
A couple of years later, Batelco is still at it, and even pursuing vigorously its Six Sigma journey. AME Info reports that Batelco is investing in Six Sigma to achieve business excellence. Specifically, the company will invest in Six Sigma training to achieve its goal. So far, it has completed implemented 17 projects, the result of which has pleased the customers.
In that same article, too, CEO Peter Kaliaropoulos congratulated and rewarded 10 employees who have been certified as Six Sigma Black Belts, following their successful completion of the required professional training, through Juran Institute, USA.
Batelco is definitely on the right track!
Filed under: Six Sigma Organizations, Team Dynamics, Deployment, Telecommunications, Technology, Six Sigma, BATELCO
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The Industries Implementing Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 11 February 2008 | 7:49 pm
In the latest sBWire release, it talks about Six Sigma and the industries that are implementing the methodology. Here’s the list:
Manufacturing - All type of manufacturing companies have benefited be it process manufacturing or discrete manufacturing. Examples include TISCO, Samsung, LG, Motorola, GE Plastics.
Banking - All leading banks including BoA, American Express, , HDFC, HSBC are utilizing Six Sigma.
Financial Services - Insurance, Stock Broking, transaction processing of various kinds.
Call Centers, BPO - Voice (In-bound as well as out bound) and Non Voice outsourced processing industry has benefited immensely. ICICI OneSource, Accenture, Satyam BPO, IBM Daksh, HSBC BPO are Six Sigma implementers.
KPO - Knowledge Process outsourcing industry is using Six Sigma tools to design and improve processes regularly.
Hospitality sector - Hotels along with Airlines and Hospitals are implementing Six Sigma. ITC Hotel, GRT Hotels, Apollo Hospitals have generated benefits.
Retail Sector - Retail has huge opportunity of benefiting from Six Sigma. The Shoppers Stop group has taken an initiative towards implementation. We have had participants from Reliance Retail.
Telecom - Bharti Cellular, France Telecom, Vodafone, Siemens have been doing wonderful Six Sigma projects.
EPC (Engineering, Procurement & Construction) and Logistics - Global leaders like Bechtel have benefited a lot by Six Sigma implementation.
Software Development - IT Industry leaders like Wipro, Satyam and Accenture and Infosys have been implementing Six Sigma.
According to the press release, Six Sigma is able to penetrate these varied industries because it can be integrated well with accepted management approaches, such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001, TS 16949, HACCP, OHSAS, SEI – CMM level 5, TL 9000, AS 9000, or any other standard. Before, I had also written about interweaving Six Sigma with complementary technologies.
Have you implemented Six Sigma with other management approaches as well? Do share your experience here.
Also check out Six Sigma Links Library for more companies implementing Six Sigma.
*Photo from Punchstock
Filed under: Manufacturing, Finance, Software/Technology, Telecommunications, Retail, Call Center/BPO, Hotels, Six Sigma, ISO, Airlines
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Innovation of the Week: Wiki City Rome
Posted by: meikah | 28 September 2007 | 12:13 am
Mobile phones find another use in Rome aside from making calls and sending text messages.
These phones are being used in the map project, known as Wiki City Rome.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reports:
A futuristic urban map, featuring the dynamics of the Italian capital in real time, made its debut at the weekend.
The map project is continuously fed data through wireless technology such as mobile phones and global positioning systems on city buses and taxis.
Developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the project was launched during Rome’s Notte Bianca (White Night), an all-night festival of 400 events, which drew about 2.5 million people onto Rome’s streets.
This is a good way to check on traffic and perhaps untoward incidents, which can be tracked real time.
Filed under: Telecommunications, Innovation Update
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Innovation of the Week: Nokia’s Global Design Sense
Posted by: meikah | 17 August 2007 | 4:01 am
Nokia’s global design sense has undoubtedly put the company in the lead.
In a nutshell, the global design is making cellular phones that customers can really use wherever or whoever they are.
BusinessWeek Online reports:
Nokia (NOK) is looking to add 2 billion new users by the end of the decade by reaching out to emerging markets, including China, Brazil, Indonesia, Africa, and India (see BusinessWeek.com, 8/6/07, “Nokia Wins with Wide-Angle Vision”).
Nokia operates nine satellite design studios located within targeted nations where researchers and designers work to customize its approach to each market, blending macro trends with micro insights. A new studio was just announced in Bangalore, India; others already operate within China and Brazil.
Filed under: Six Sigma Organizations, Software/Technology, Telecommunications, Innovation Update, Nokia, Innovation
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Innovation of the Week: The Office in Your Pocket
Posted by: meikah | 27 April 2007 | 12:30 am
Interesting, isnt’ it? Although wi-fi has made us do business with our laptops anywhere and anytime, this concept of having your office in your pocket is something else.
BT has introduced this innovation called Office Anywhere, a new service that gives users the functions of a Windows PC, but in a smartphone small enough to fit in the pocket.
What’s different about BT’s Office Anywhere smartphone, the HTC’s S620, is that it comes with VoIP. This enables users to make substantial savings on calls including capped calls made from from BT Openzone Wi-Fi hotspots in the UK and Ireland, from home and office networks, or from around the globe wherever users have access to a compatible wireless network. The smartphone has has a QWERTY keyboard to make inputting text easy and a large 2.4-inch screen colour display. It is quad-band with wi-fi and Bluetooth and has a 1.3 megapixel camera for taking photos and video clips.
Filed under: Telecommunications, Innovation Update, Technology, BT
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Six Sigma in Your MotoRazr
Posted by: meikah | 4 December 2006 | 1:36 am
I’m sure you’ve seen, and are probably dying to get your hands on the latest Motorola cool mobile phones. If I’m not mistaken, they’re the ones who are first to come up with the super-slim mobile phones, which now come in cool colors, too. Now, what do you say, these cool phones are Six Sigma inspired.
You know that more than these cool mobile phones, perhaps Motorola’s value to the manufacturing world is its Six Sigma legacy. Bill Smith, one of its engineers, came up and later passed on to chief exec Robert Galvin the idea of error-free products 99.9997% of the time.
Well, 20 years later, Six Sigma is still alive at Motorola. Executives of the company still claim that Six Sigma helps them deal with issues on continuous innovation, that is allowing the left-brain, analytical discipline of Six Sigma to coexist alongside the right-brain creative process without disrupting it. Six Sigma, in other words, helped them bounce back when their market share was overtaken by Nokia.
On BusinessWeek Magazine, Michael S. Potosky, Motorola’s corporate director of Six Sigma, says, “Six Sigma’s stamp is all over the Razr. Engineers , for instance, applied the process to the phone’s antenna, helping keep it hidden while maintaining call clarity.”
The article ends with some very interesting facts:
About 35% of U.S. companies have a Six Sigma program in place, according to a January, 2006, Bain & Co. study. “The past 20 years are evidence of how many companies have picked up that [it] works,” says Potosky. But even a disciple like him stresses that in this era of the Big Idea, Six Sigma’s success will only come in a culture that not only welcomes creative types and the metrics-obsessed, but one that makes them both better. Read more…
Judging from Motorola’s performance through the years, I’m more than convinced that Six Sigma and innovation can work well together.
*Photo credit: Mobile Gazette
Filed under: Manufacturing, Six Sigma Organizations, Software/Technology, Telecommunications
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Six Sigma at Batelco
Posted by: meikah | 4 January 2006 | 6:04 am
As wont during start of the year, companies or organizations announce their plans of improving processes to satisfy customers more and usher in more growth for the company. One of the many companies that are turning to Six Sigma to achieve that is Bahrain Telecommunications Company (BATELCO), the largest company by market capitalization in the Bahrain Stock Exchange.
TradeArabia News Service as posted at isixsigma reports that 2006 will be a banner year for Batelco as the company invests more than BD50 million ($132.6 million) in the broadband infrastructure, new world class data centers, additional access to the web via a landing station (a first in Bahrain) and investment in Falcon cable systems and additional base stations for improved mobile coverage.
Batelco will be introducing Six Sigma process improvement methodologies to streamline customer service, product development, billing, and various IT processes aimed at more responsive customer care and a ‘single view’ of the customer.
According to Peter Kaliaropoulos, the company’s chief executive, people will witness Batelco’s best performance yet as the most competitive, best performing, and customer driven communications companies in the Middle East.
Now it is my new year wish that other telecommunications company would follow suit. I’ve written about Bechtel Telecommunications and its honored innovative Six Sigma project.
Isn’t it annoying not to be able to reach persons, or receive calls during this high-tech times. Even I had the misfortune of calling hotlines that are not exactly hot–you wait forever for it to be picked up. I know of some people, too, who complain of choppy connections in their wireless facilities. I am confident though that with Six Sigma services will greatly improve.
Filed under: Services, Six Sigma Organizations, Telecommunications
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Telecommunicating with Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 5 October 2005 | 3:39 am
Six Sigma started with manufacturing and showed success in that industry first. When other industries such as the financial industry adopted the strategy, many others began to understand the core benefit of Six Sigma, that is to improve customer service processes to retain wireless customers, analyze customer problem resolution.
The next Six Sigma revolution is expected to happen in telecommunications. Many reasons have been cited for this expectation.
According to reports, total spending on equipment fell by about 15% in 2001 and fell another 20% in 2002. Long-haul optical networks now operate at below half of their capacity. Until sales of core wireline equipment pick up, manufacturers in the US and Europe also face the challenge of developing new products to deliver data and voice traffic from long distance networks to broadband customers in urban areas. The mobile communications segment is also changing as exhaustively hyped mobile data services and the tide of third generation wireless technology arrive.
In the late 1990s, the slogan was: “Build it and they will come.” Following passage of the telecommunications Act of 1996, the telecom sector rode the high-tech current of an economic expansion that, in retrospect, appears to have been built on blind faith. In the five years that followed passage of the 1996 legislation, the telecom industry received $1.3 trillion from investors, and has since lost more than $1 trillion in market value.
Survival therefore for telecommunications equipment and services will largely depend on operational focus, financial discipline, and opportunistic growth. Six Sigma can help with all three.
The enormous potential of Six Sigma across the numerous functions and processes on which telecommunications companies can be viewed through the following:
- Increasing sales force availability for customers in emerging markets
- Reducing the sales to cash interval
- Reducing business market collections
A successful Six Sigma in services businesses needs a relentless focus on customers and on meeting their needs as efficiently as possible. The telecommunication industry can rely on Six Sigma tools to address these issues.
Six Sigma Sharpens Services in Telecommunications
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Services, Telecommunications
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Bechtel Telecommunications’s Innovative Six Sigma Project Honored
Posted by: meikah | 13 June 2005 | 1:54 am
Five years into deploying an innovative Six Sigma Project and Bechtel Telecommunications already has a Six Sigma award. Bechtel received Most Innovative Six Sigma Project Award honorable mention for their “Alternative Site Selection Process Improvement.” The awarding took place during the Sixth Annual European Six Sigma Summit in London on April 27, 2005. The process uses Virtual Survey Tool (VST) for network deployment.
Bechtel Telecommunications was the first major engineering and construction company to embrace the industry-leading process improvement program, Six Sigma, in 2001. The VST enables integration of the Site Acquisition and Network Planning activities for network deployment. It allows quick and cost effective accurate site selections from a desktop environment. With the initial version tested on a complex rail network coverage project in the United Kingdom, it demonstrated potential cost and schedule benefits for future projects. The VST is currently being deployed on a pilot project in the United States.
According to Jake MacLeod, Chief Technology Officer of Bechtel Telecommunications, “We are honored to receive this prestigious award. It validates our innovative network deployment process utilizing Six Sigma methodologies. The Virtual Survey Tool has the potential to revolutionize the way operators manage their end-to-end network deployment cycle.”
Six Sigma uses a rigorous set of tools and methodologies designed to produce dramatic enhancements in work quality, profitability, customer and employee satisfaction, and leadership of business enterprises. Bechtel Telecommunications, a unit of Bechtel Corporation, provides network planning, RF design, engineering, site acquisition, project management, and construction management services for the deployment of wireless, wireline, and other telecommunications facilities worldwide.
With more than 83,000 wireless sites deployed, and 23,000 kilometers of wireline fiber laid, Bechtel is the global company of choice for network deployment.
