Business

When Google Runs your life OR maybe not

Posted by on Dec 30, 2009 in Business, Technology | 2 comments

A recent Forbes article on Google is a very interesting read. Here is an extract:

Your day begins with a wake-up call from your Google Android phone. As you run to the shower, you hit Google News and check headlines, then Gmail. Your first appointment of the day has been moved to a new location; Google Maps will direct you there. Quickly update your expense report–including the printout of that sales presentation using, say, Google Template–and shoot them to the back office in India (in Hindi, if you prefer, with Google Translate). Your boss wants to discuss your group’s contributions to some marketing documents? Lean on Google Groups. You’re not even out the door yet. You have the rest of the day to search for work-critical information on the Web while you’re at the office–to say nothing of snatching a few moments to download a game, check stock prices, organize your medical records, share photos and pick a restaurant and movie for the evening. How convenient. And a little creepy, perhaps.

Here is the full Dec 10, 2009 Forbes article.

If you don’t like this then you can decide to opted-out of Google and go and live in the Google Opt-out Village. Sounds like fun 🙂

Google Opt Out Feature Lets Users Protect Privacy By Moving To Remote Village

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10 Free (or Cheap) Tools for Start-ups

Posted by on Dec 11, 2009 in Business, CRM, Technology | 0 comments

Inc. magazine recently published this list of 10 free or cheap tools for Start-ups. I use Skype, Zoho and Google Docs. I would add TaDaList from 37signals and Evernote. Easy to use free software.Did they miss any good ones?

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Do you work in sales? Thank you.

Posted by on Sep 11, 2009 in Business, Entrepreneurship, Sales | 0 comments

I’ve known Mark Lange for awhile and he writes excellent opinion pieces in the Christian Science Monitor. This one on sales is concise, but to the point — great stuff!

Do you work in sales? Thank you.

By Mark Lange

from the September 9, 2009 editionSAN FRANCISCO – Had enough of the recession? Next time somebody pitches you something – whether or not you open your wallet – at least say thanks.Because economic growth is a story we tell one another. Transactions are its dialogue. And the authors of both are the master storytellers: salespeople.Before you tune out, consider this: Nothing happens until somebody sells someone something. And no matter what the rest of us do all day, our paychecks and prosperity rely on their efforts.At some level, of course, everyone sells. Authors and academics (if they hope to have impact), the yard guy across the street, the young woman shilling for Greenpeace in front of Target, even President Obama. None of us succeeds without applying the art of influence, in the best sense.But front-line, all-day salespeople are the connective tissue between what we have and what we need. Their work demands a rare mix of audacity and humility, hope and realism. They take rejection and abuse that would crush the spirits of most. Yet they bounce back with the resilience of Tigger and the patience of Job.Especially in harder times, selling compels tremendous creativity and a humble heroism. This isn’t to say all salespeople are heroes. Some get a bit too creative, while a (very) few are desperately dishonest. But that’s not sales. It’s fraud.While political campaigns come and go, salespeople practice the politics of hope every day. They live by faith – faith that someone, somewhere needs what they have.Critics accuse politicians of being salespeople. If only that were true: Good salespeople can actually explain what they’re trying to sell.Everyone else in an organization can grumble and grouse, play office politics, soak in a bath of righteous cynicism. Salespeople don’t have time for that. They only get paid when somebody outside the cubicle cocoon is moved to act and demonstrate one of the truest measures of trust – parting with their money.The good ones, along with intellect, have impressive integrity. They focus on your interests, not theirs, because they know that if they’re clear about yours, their own will follow.Rather than spray you with words, they ask you questions, and listen carefully to what you’re really saying. They bring your authentic interests into sharper focus.They really don’t want to waste your time, because they make a living on theirs.Not buying? Try just saying “No thanks – but keep honing that pitch.” Better yet, offer a pointer to raise the level of their game. And if something about their approach annoys you, coach the manager who set both of you up for frustration. That’s a public service.If the world is divided between builders and complainers, there’s no doubt that salespeople build – confidence, companies, and gross domestic product. They make the potential, actual. They move minds. Build trust. And motivate the transactions that keep us all fed.Don’t be too hard on them, especially now.

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Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa’s portfolio of companies

Posted by on May 26, 2009 in Business, Carel's Conversations, Entrepreneurship, South Africa, Technology, Venture Capital | 0 comments

Hasso Plattner’s African Venture fund was launched in early 2008. In February 2009 I attended the fund’s Emerging Market Africa conference in South Africa. HPVA has invested ZAR80mm of ZAR350mm in 5 companies to date and expect to invest in at least 5 more. HPVA doesn’t disclose investments and shareholding, although they did indicate that they only take minority shareholding.You can find Hasso Plattner Venture Europe’s investments here.Recently the African fund disclosed some of the investments it has made so far:

  1. Cibecs: Enterprise backup solutions. According to some articles, HPVA invested ZAR8mm for a 25% stake in the company (HPVA indicated that these numbers aren’t correct. They didn’t say what the correct numbers are.) Cibecs was formed in 2004 by Richard Dewing, and its software has been sold to more than 30,000 users in South Africa.
  2. Inala operates in the fields of telecommunications and broadcasting in South Africa.
  3. Global Vision specializes in marketing automation software.
  4. KnowledgeTree is an open source document management system. KnowledgeTree uses a number of social media technologies to promote its products, including Facebook, Twitter, and blogs…very progressive!
  5. Dabba Telecom: Low-cost telecoms in South Africa. Dabba’s CEO Real Lissoos was voted Social Entrepreneur of the year in 2008.

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Cheapest international call rates from your iPhone

Posted by on May 10, 2009 in Business, Technology | 5 comments

These days you can make really cheap international calls directly from your iPhone. I’ve used VIP, Jajah, ATT Wireless, Skype and Google Voice. All these services will use your mobile minutes, with the expection of Skype’s iPhone app in WiFi mode. In this post I’ll give my experience with each service from a cost and ease-of-use perspective. I would love to hear about your experiences in the comments.Here goes…

  • VIP has many low cost rate plans available. I’ve used VIP for many years and it continues to be my fall back provider. It’s not very user friendly to use, i.e., no integration with the iPhone’s Contacts app. You have to dail a tollfree number and then you can dail your international number.
  • Jajah has an iPhone dailer web app that works well. You can add contacts to you Jajah address book via the Jajah.com web site. Unfortunately Jajah’s iPhone app doesn’t integrate with the iPhone’s Contacts app. Jajah on the iPhone only works when you are in 3G or/and WiFi mode.
  • ATT Wireless: Adding ATT’s $5.99 p/m World Connect service to your plan allows you can make international calls directly with your iPhone’s Contacts app at much cheaper rates (e.g., 28c p/min to a UK mobile phone vs ATT’s standard $1.69 per min.). This is by far the most friendly solution although not the cheapest. ATT World Connect and Standard Rates lookup.
  • Skype recently launched it’s own iPhone app. With the Skype app you can make FREE (only in WiFi mode) calls from your iPhone to any Skype user around the world. The rates below apply when make calls to landlines and mobile phones. Skype’s app works well and a huge plus is that it integrates directly with the iPhone’s Contacts app, so I don’t have to duplicate my contact info in Skype. Skype’s VOIP calling competes with Fring.com.
  • Google Voice: In a previous post I wrote about Google’s new Voice service. Google Voice has the lowest rates for international calling! You can access the service in one of two ways: (1) Using Google’s mobile web site — also only works in WiFi and/or 3G mode, or (2) by calling your own Google Voice # and using voice prompts a-la VIP mentioned above. One great thing about Google Voice is that all my contacts are sync-ed with Google automatically using my Mac’s AddressBook. Calling from the mobile web site is fairly easy. Definitely not as easy as Skype or using World Connect.

This table compares call rates from the US to land lines in different countries (click on a title to sort each column):

ProviderUKGermanyFranceSouth AfricaAustralia
Google Voice0.020.020.020.060.03
ATT Wireless (World Connect)0.080.090.090.360.09
ATT Wireless (Standard)1.491.491.492.693.49
VIP (SANZAR Economy Rate Plan)0.070.080.070.0790.05
Jajah0.0310.0330.0330.0850.037
Skype (incl VAT)0.0240.0240.0240.0780.024
The following table compares call rates from the US to mobile phone numbers in other countries:
ProviderUKGermanyFranceSouth AfricaAustralia
Google Voice0.190.180.150.180.17
ATT Wireless (World Connect)0.280.260.220.530.24
ATT Wireless (Standard)1.691.661.622.863.64
VIP (SANZAR Economy Rate Plan)0.2390.260.230.210.189
Jajah0.2030.2880.1970.2220.201
Skype (incl VAT)0.2910.2830.2330.2680.233

To summarize:

  • Ease of use winner: ATT World Connect. For ease dailing you cannot beat dailing directly from your iPhone’s Contacts app. Skype is a close second, followed by Google Voice, Jajah and then VIP.
  • Low cost winner: Google Voice is the cheapest. Skype is the cheapest (FREE) if you have access to WiFi.
  • Overall winner: For me Google Voice is the overall winner — fairly easy to use and the cheapest rates. If cost was less of an issue then I would’ve picked ATT’s World Connect as the winner.
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GrandCentral is now Google Voice

Posted by on Mar 19, 2009 in Business, South Africa, Technology | 0 comments

Google Voice logoOn March 11, 2009 GrandCentral finally became Google Voice. I’ve used GrandCentral since November 2006 and found it to be a very useful and reliable service. David Poque does a great job of explaining GrandCentral’s original “one number for life” approach. In July 2007 GrandCentral was acquired by Google and for awhile people thought that Google killed this service. Here is a screen shot of the new home page:

Google Voice home page

So as a GrandCentral user I am one of the favored few to be able to use the new Google Voice service. Here are my initial thoughts:

  • I prefer GrandCentral’s main page and preference settings. Google Voice uses Google’s bare bones, but familiar user interface. I’m sure I’ll get used to this over time.
  • The transcribing feature is very cool and seems to work ok. I’ll have to try it with other languages like Afrikaans and/or Germany as well.
  • The mobile interface works much better on my iPhone and I’m very impressed that you can playback voice messages using iPhone’s Quicktime player. I hope Google or somebody else will develop a native iPhone app for Google Voice. Here is the iPhone Mobile interface:

Google Voice on iPhone

  • One huge benefit for me is that I can now use OSX’s AddressBook with Google Contacts syncing functionality to keep my contacts updated in Google. GrandCentral didn’t provide an auto-sync facility and it wasn’t easy to keep contacts in GrandCentral in sync with my Mac’s AddressBook.
  • International calling rates seem to be very competitive. I’ll blog about this in an upcoming post. Btw, you get $1 free to get you going. Thanks Google. For example I could speak for 17 minutes calling a land line in South Africa (8c a minute).
  • With Google Voice you have an instant and FREE (for US users) conference call facility. Very cool. I’ve been using freeconferencecall.com.
  • SMS is new and you can now save an SMS conversation. So far I’ve been able to send and receive SMS message to US numbers. I’ve had success in sending SMS messages to international numbers and only partial success in receiving from international numbers.
  • Google doesn’t migrate your old voice messages, however you can still access them by going to the GrandCentral web page.

Here are some other useful postings regarding the new Google Voice service:

I would like to know about your experience using Google Voice? Do you of any other similar service?

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