Warning - Rant ahead
Another day passes and I sit quietly in the office pondering what the fuck I am doing here.
We have started a new site around 36km from the Tarkwa office. Nice big job controlled ex Johannesburg and staffed by loads of expats.
Everyone in business knows communication is the backbone of running any business. More so one in deepest darkest Africa. The site manager requested assistance from SA head office and they offered the same solution we use. Which is farking expensive – some R25,000 per month for a 64kb connection and is available in 1 month or maybe 3 months time. We had contacted a local ISP – Africa on line – who gave us a solution at R36.000 capital cost for the Vsat and R6.000 per month for 128kb. Delivery time – 3 weeks
Our site manager had committed the cardinal sin of advising JHB we have contacted a local ISP and poof – one times phone call asking me to put down what I am doing in an email. One email sent to JHB. One reply saying “The solution will work but is not in compliance with group policy”.
My response: Here is the proposal – do with it what you will.
So site will continue without communications until someone – who does not really give a shit – decides to implement a more expensive solution. I love working for corporates.
That said – I have already implemented the same solution in Accra for $750.00 a month 64/64 and it works like a dream. But – no Cisco Router, No Internet Solutions, No Security consultants and no fat overheads make it contrary to Company Policy.
And of course my sat system is not supported in Ghana. It went down two days ago and if we had not decided to take the system apart and see it was a blown fuse, some poor idiot would have had to get on a plane, drive to Tarkwa and replace said fuse. No wonder the guy was chuffed when we phoned and said we had replaced a fuse and it was working fine.
Rant over!!
We have started a new site around 36km from the Tarkwa office. Nice big job controlled ex Johannesburg and staffed by loads of expats.
Everyone in business knows communication is the backbone of running any business. More so one in deepest darkest Africa. The site manager requested assistance from SA head office and they offered the same solution we use. Which is farking expensive – some R25,000 per month for a 64kb connection and is available in 1 month or maybe 3 months time. We had contacted a local ISP – Africa on line – who gave us a solution at R36.000 capital cost for the Vsat and R6.000 per month for 128kb. Delivery time – 3 weeks
Our site manager had committed the cardinal sin of advising JHB we have contacted a local ISP and poof – one times phone call asking me to put down what I am doing in an email. One email sent to JHB. One reply saying “The solution will work but is not in compliance with group policy”.
My response: Here is the proposal – do with it what you will.
So site will continue without communications until someone – who does not really give a shit – decides to implement a more expensive solution. I love working for corporates.
That said – I have already implemented the same solution in Accra for $750.00 a month 64/64 and it works like a dream. But – no Cisco Router, No Internet Solutions, No Security consultants and no fat overheads make it contrary to Company Policy.
And of course my sat system is not supported in Ghana. It went down two days ago and if we had not decided to take the system apart and see it was a blown fuse, some poor idiot would have had to get on a plane, drive to Tarkwa and replace said fuse. No wonder the guy was chuffed when we phoned and said we had replaced a fuse and it was working fine.
Rant over!!
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