Michael N. Dundas

The Canadian Government announced this morning that Globalive (operating as Windmobile in Canada) is free to enter into the Canadian Market and compete with our Tier 1 providers in the wireless space.  Their ability to compete in Canada has been under fire by Rogers, Telus, and Bell for a while now.  What I am amazed at most is the responses I have been seeing on Twitter, instant messaging, comments on news articles and even a poll.  If it wasn’t obvious before now, Canadian consumers seem to be:

• very happy that the CRTC decision was over turned and Globalive is allowed to compete in Canada.
• Customer anger, frustration, and resentment are very obvious with Rogers, Bell, and Telus.

These feelings don’t just pop up.  They have obviously been building in consumers over time.   I hope this is a wake-up call for the providers.  The anger and frustration being expressed is serious and I am disappointed they either were too naive to see it building in their customers, or just didn’t care.  Either way, it will now probably directly affect them.  My hope is that they learn to value their customers thoughts and opinions in the future.  As a side note, I think this is the happiest I’ve seen Canadians with the current conservative government to date.

Today, I was trying to find a article that I had recalled reading a couple of months ago. As most do, my first step was to ‘google’ it. The article presented itself in the search criteria. Clicking on the first two results from the search entry gave me results informing me “Sorry, this article is no longer available.”

No reason as to why it is no longer available. Not enough disk space? Too difficult to maintain? I would think that news agencies would want to keep their articles available. I’ve actually started keeping a copy of articles that I reference in my blog just in case the article ever ‘disappears’. This way, I always have a copy and can manually link to it, should it get pulled down for some unknown reason. This of course is completely counter-intuitive to how the Internet is suppose to work. Most websites prefer that you ‘link’ to them instead which I am glad to do. But for that privilege I expect that the site will keep the article available for view. If the article moves, then use a HTTP 302 “Moved Permanently” message with a link to where the article now is. This fuction in HTTP has been around for years for just this purpose and most browsers will automatically follow the link in these requests making it transparent to the user.

Fortunately, after much searching I was able to find the article here. And yes, I’ve extracted a copy just in case it ‘disappears’ in the future.

I recently had to fly for business to Dubai. I ended up flying on United Emirates Airline (UEA). The lady in the picture above is Emma from Manchester. Emma is part of the Cabin crew that was assigned to our area. The outfit she is wearing is what they wear when you board and de-plane the aircraft. I thought it was a cool outfit, but that is not the reason for this entry.

Prior to booking with UEA, I attempted to book as I normally do via Air Canada. Given the last minute timing of the booking due to customer logistics, I expected the cost of the flight to be more expensive regardless of the airline. The price for Air Canada was double the cost to fly via UEA and UEA flew direct, Air Canada I had to transfer. I took the time to call Air Canada and explain to them differences both in time and cost. Their response was pretty much ‘yes we know. And sorry we can’t do anything about it.’

I booked with UEA and it was the best airline decision I ever made. Even considering Air Canada for this trip was naive. The UEA planes are new and amazing. The flight was on a Boeing 777-300. The entertainment system is the best I’ve seen on an aircraft. The selection of television shows, movies, albums, games beats any Canadian or American airline I have been on (and I’ve been on quite a few). And it’s included. No extra charge. You can even use the entertainment system during take off and landing with the exception of the headphones which must be put away. You can watch the map, view the forward or underbelly cameras, or watch the movies without sound. The meals and non-alcoholic drinks are included with the flight.

The staff were amazing. They were friendly, attentive and honestly concerned that everyone was as comfortable as possible. Many times I saw Emma and the others saying “Are you ok?” to different passengers for any of several reasons — and it was real not fake. I mean, they really cared and were really concerned and wanted to make sure things were okay. The staff were smart, attentive, and professional. I spoke with several of the staff, Emma the most as she was the main person in our area. They engaged in conversation, they asked questions, they answered questions and it wasn’t fake. They honestly liked their work and enjoyed talking to the customers. They were interested in them and their comfort. All in all it made for a great flight. One of the advertisements for UEA recruiting on the television in the middle east highlights that they select top of the class individuals for this work. I am willing to bet they do a personality assessment as well prior to hiring. And I bet they pay them well too.

Whatever they do it works! I am not an airline expert but I’d suggest that Air Canada, American Airlines, North West Air and any other North American carrier take a serious look at what they do and start copying it. American Airlines is now going to start charging for baggage, removing flights and laying off staff. It is expected that other airlines will follow suit. Apparently it is due to the rising cost of fuel. United Emirates Airline is posting profits! North American Airlines should take a serious look at how customer service should work and United Emirates Airlines would be a good goal to use.

Colleagues of mine have flown Singapore Airlines and say that it is a similar experience. I haven’t had the chance to fly them yet but it they are posting profits too.

In the future, if I have the option to fly with UEA or Singapore airlines I’ll do it. I won’t even consider North American Airlines.

Experts: IDS is here to stay is an article who’s title is a little misleading. It is about IDS (Intrusion Detection Systems). Why IDS is still of value given the number of IPS (Intrusion Prevention Systems) available and why the author Bill Brenner feels IDS will be around for a long time. However, what interested me about the article was the view on customer requirements, and the security landscape.

Bill Brenner comments on who he feels are the top four IDS/IPS security vendors and the fact that they all have excellent detection technology and are backed up by security teams. Many companies don’t like the latter. They want to sell a product that requires minimal to no employee requirements. The device should be able to everything automatically without any people or with as minimal people as possbile. Although this is a wonderful goal, with security and it’s intricacies as it exists today, this is very far from the truth. Systems and automation are good, but smart people are still required. Bruce Schneier and other security professionals have echoed this again and again. “Humans will beat computers at hinkiness-detection for many decades to come”. If you create a method of detection, the bad guys will figure out a way around the method. People are still your best bet.

Bill Brenner comments on customers of security products wanting more automation, the ability to pull data from disperse systems, analyze and assemble this data into a big picture scenario more quickly. This is the message we have been receiving from our customers over the last year and is exactly what my company is constantly working toward. It is the key to having a reasonable chance of detecting and stopping the bad guys on the Internet. Given the change in security over the last decade from worms and viruses where the author’s goal was ‘fame’, now it is BotNets and spyware. The goal now is stealth not ‘fame’. Add to this the money that can be made by selling BotNet and spyware services. Current methods in the industry do not hold up these threats. My investigations for customers as of late have clearly shown this and most security professionals will echo this sentiment.

This morning, I went into Starbucks to grab a Cafe Latte before going into work. This is not my normal procedure, but I had to get an oil change done on my car which was long overdue, and they were not open yet.
I ordered a Cafe Latte and a muffin. An issue came up and another employee came over to place my order. I paid. When my drink came, the lady who took my order said “Oh, I’m sorry I only charged you for a coffee, not a Cafe Latte.” I offered to pay the difference, but she said not to worry about it and have a good day. I was shocked! It was so nice to have a customer service person actually realize that the inconvenience experienced by a customer to have to pay the difference was not worth the actual difference between the two items. What I found more pleasing was that the employee was actually ‘empowered’ to make that decision. Often times, the employees know this, but now a days so many of the front line employees are forbidden to make any decisions for fear of loosing their job or other punishment. “Don’t think. Just follow the procedure!” It made my day. And I’ll go back to that Starbucks.