RE: Proposed Management Team for the UIXP

[lunghabo@linuxsolutions.co.ug]

Barbara

could you please indicate to us a concrete suggestionon how the 
IXP can out source its proposed services and yet at the same time 
allay Mr. Hans' fears of IXP guys knowing too much about another 
network ? Otherwise I think Mr. Badru's submission is okay.

Lunghabo


On 2 Feb 2002, at 10:07, Barbara du Plessis wrote:

> I totally concur with Hans' comments.
> In addition, MTN already offers IXP services to its customers and as
> such would be unwilling to reallocate nor procure additional resources
> for the UIXP. For practical and financial reasons it may be beneficial
> for the UIXP to consider outsourcing its proposed services rather than
> investing in infrastructure and resources which it can ill afford. 
> Contractually it can ensure all goals and policies are achieved and
> maintained and can thereby focus on strategic and administrative
> issues pertinent to the interest of all its members.
> 
> Barbara du Plessis
> GM IT
> MTN Uganda Limited
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hans U. Haerdtle [mailto:hansu@imul.com] 
> Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2002 1:58 AM
> To: Badru Ntege; techies@uixp.co.ug
> Cc: taskforce@uixp.co.ug
> Subject: Re: Proposed Management Team for the UIXP
> 
> Well, certainly a very noble idea from a technical point of view, but
> practically I don't see this working. Building a skill base of
> engineers and gaining expertise is certainly in any good and
> professionally run company's very own interest and training will be
> provided to their technical staff.
> 
> This is simply necessary in our industry because the most advanced
> technology applied will give the respective company the competitive
> edge in the market. And this is directly proportional to the company's
> business success due to client appreciation of superior QoS standards
> and delivery. Of course paired with marketing and sales efforts.
> 
> Let's be realistic: How do you address the issue of conflict of
> interest? By nature of their work and involvement the 3 proposed
> rotating staff members would need to have a considerable if not
> in-depth knowledge of all the member ISPs network concepts and
> architecture. This includes company proprietary software at least to
> some extend plus even future planned upgrades and introduction of new
> services. Introduced for the very reason: to provide better performing
> and more advanced services to their clients and to the industry and
> market as a whole - and gain market shares! In a fair competition and
> respecting proper business ethics. And this very competition is the
> driving force of any market improvement and clients and the industry
> are the very beneficiaries of this.
> 
> Don't get me wrong: As a techie I am, this suggestion is certainly a
> noble vision and I could support this within a University or Institute
> environment or even between large industry participants who put high
> level specialists together in a scientific research joint-venture for
> reasons of cost and resource sharing. But all this are laboratory
> setups with fundamental scientific research tasks still far away from
> practical applications and never close to near-to-market-delivery
> solutions which are already in the hands of the marketing managers
> keenly watching market tendencies and deciding on tactical release
> dates.
> 
> The IXP is certainly a very useful institution but let's be honest: It
> is in the first place a commercial issue and not an inter-networking
> or technology challenge. This very knowledge is the skill base anyway
> of the respective member company and a good part of its success in the
> market. It is the commercial issue, which makes an IXP desirable
> because of the possible cost saving element. Just like an interconnect
> arrangement between telecom operators. For the ISP industry in Uganda
> this will be a saving on relatively expensive international bandwidth,
> which is at this moment still only available through expensive V-Sat
> links. Link redundancy could be an additional feature provided that
> interconnect capacity requirements are met and a commercial agreement
> is in place.
> 
> Therefor the IXP is a commercial issue and a facilitation provision
> and it has its operational costs for a professional setup and running.
> Depending on the respective local interconnect traffic of a potential
> member it is viable or not. Like any other business case. Otherwise
> even now any two or more companies could go together and setup private
> interconnectivity for cost saving or other resource sharing reasons.
> 
> Also additional data interconnect facilities could be offered by the
> IXP for wider industry applications (WAN and VPN) or even regional
> inter-networking could be proposed (if telecom operators are part of
> this) with ultimately load balancing, resource sharing or link
> redundancy features and benefits (i.e. Euroring). But this is
> certainly a different scale and would require a complete different
> setup and approach in terms of inter-networking architecture and
> commercial requirements.
> 
> In my view, the IXP has to be an independent and neutral commercial
> entity, a service provider with an offer to the market to provide and
> manage interconnect facilities and value added services with standard
> connectivity interfaces and scaled link capacities.
> 
> Hans U. Haerdtle
> General Manager
> Infocom
> 
> 
> At 09:04 PM 2/1/02 +0200, Badru Ntege wrote:
> 
> 
> Members please find below a suggested method of running the IXP.  This
> would help us build a good skill base of engineers and also enable
> professional networking between engineers from different companies and
> network providers.
> 
> 
> There will be Three People detailed to work at the UIXP.
> 
> 1. Project Leader
> 2. Team member
> 3. Team Member.
> 
> The Project leader will overall be responsible for the running of the
> UIXP. Ensuring that the UIXP is up and running at all times and will
> be the team leader.He will also be responsible for future planning at
> the IXP, preparing progress reports, billing of members, and
> attracting new members to using the IXP and enforcing the UIXP
> Acceptable Use Policy. He shall be employed on a 6 months - 1 year
> basis at which point his contract can either be renewed or some other
> member takes up the role.
> 
> The team members will be technical people from the participating
> entities who will rotate on a 3 month basis. These team members will
> still be full time employees at their repective places of work and
> will be doing part time work at the IXP. The IXP will pay them a small
> fee on top of what they get form their parent companies for the period
> that they work at the IXP. The team leader will also be an employee of
> one of the ISPs doing part time at his place of work.
> 
> Thus at the end of three months, the two technical people go back to
> their respective places of work and another team of two from some
> other members take up work for the next three months. At the end of 1
> year, the current team leader would either move back to his place of
> work, or his contract could be renewed for another 1 year period.
> 
> IN case of the former, then one of the other technical people probably
> one who interned with the old team leader can take over as the next
> team leader. The outgoing team leader is free and encouraged to apply
> to do a three month stint as just a team member if he so desires under
> the new team leader provided of course that his parent company is
> willing to release him further.
> 
> It is assumed that all these people remain on payroll at their parent
> companies and will work at the UIXP as part time people. it is
> estimated that to maintain 10 hours working time from say 8.00 a.m. to
> 6.00 p.m. 7 days a week this would come down to 23 hours per person
> per week. On any one day of the week, one of the team is on call and
> can be called at any time in case of a failure at the UIXP.
> 
> Emoluments for the team will be as follows:
> 
> Team leader:   Ush. 480,000/=
> Team member 1: Ush. 190,000/=
> Team member 2: Ush. 190,000/=
> 
> This on top of what their parent companies decide to pay them per
> month. It is up to the parent companies to decide whether they will
> adjust their employee's salaries during this period or not.
> 
> This is done with a vision of creating a skilled and knowledgeable
> work force so as to enhance the industry. We believe the knowledge
> gained would be useful to the participants back in their parent
> companies.
> 
> 
> 
> Badru Ntege
> General Manager
> Technical Director
> Sanyutel Ltd
> mob: +256 777 000 88
> Tel: +256 41 345 466
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