25 June 2003



Tony Nash on Always On talking about export of jobs. Somewhere down the comments it morphed in to a discussion on Russian outsourcing. I reread my comments and am pretty proud of them - its not often that you make short comments and feel in retrospect that you hit the nail on the head;

I have joined this discussion a little late - the joys of traveling through low-bandwith / high charge countries, otherwise known as Europe and only now catching up on my reading. The comments on Russia as an offshore programming / products center somewhere to the top of this page are pretty much spot on. Russia enjoys an enormous wealth of programming talent; its more expensive than India or China on a per hour basis but a number of companies have concluded that on a per line basis it competes well. Where it competes badly is in management, both strategic and line, and productization and sales of ideas. Almost none of the companies that I am involved with in Russia maintain Russian senior management or product managers. Its not a cultural failing but one born of isolation. Whilst the USSR collapsed over a decade ago it is only in the last few years (the start date is after the 1998 crisis) that people have started to take Russia and Russians seriously. It will take a decade for the cross-culutral osmosis to occur that will result in Russia regularly churning out world class products - be they IT or tech general.

A string of Russian tech companies will start to make headway in the next few years - however most people won't know them to have originated in Russia as they will have an almost entirely western front end.

Lex: Mobile handsets
Published: June 24 2003 20:31 | Last Updated: June 24 2003 20:31


Vodafone may crow that some customers now ask for the "David Beckham phone" - inspired by an advert for its Vodafone live! service featuring the England football captain. But most still ask for a Nokia. The branding of handsets in Europe remains a more powerful draw for users than the networks they are signing up to.

The continent's big operators are doing their best to make sure that changes. Orange, which already stamps its brand on handsets, on Tuesday signed a deal with Motorola which will produce a unique set of handsets. Orange also talked of putting more intelligence on to its network rather than into handsets. The network operators are increasingly aware that they need to differentiate themselves as data becomes a bigger chunk of revenues. Handset branding is one element. Another is having more say in design, so users find it easier to use new services, and therefore spend more money with the operator.

Vodafone live! is a good example. The Sharp handset, which is heavily Vodafone-branded, has easily outsold the equivalent Nokia. Its configuration for Vodafone services has also driven higher usage than from other handsets. Networks have long attempted to wrest more control over handsets. Market leader Nokia has so far resisted and continued to go from strength to strength. That will not change overnight. But as operators become more aggressive in working with individual manufacturers and stamping their identity on handsets, the risks for Nokia increase"



Oh boy, even the FT Lex Column is starting to talk about intelligence in the network and quits wittering about mobile networks always being about handsets. Maybe the world really is changing. Whatever, the truth is that the future of all communication networks will be driven by intelligence. Intelligence used to be hard, soon everything will be software running on standard NEBs boxes. The traditional TEM's will lose this battle to the IT giants - who in turn will buy their components from....

25 June 2003



Tony Nash on Always On talking about export of jobs. Somewhere down the comments it morphed in to a discussion on Russian outsourcing. I reread my comments and am pretty proud of them - its not often that you make short comments and feel in retrospect that you hit the nail on the head;

I have joined this discussion a little late - the joys of traveling through low-bandwith / high charge countries, otherwise known as Europe and only now catching up on my reading. The comments on Russia as an offshore programming / products center somewhere to the top of this page are pretty much spot on. Russia enjoys an enormous wealth of programming talent; its more expensive than India or China on a per hour basis but a number of companies have concluded that on a per line basis it competes well. Where it competes badly is in management, both strategic and line, and productization and sales of ideas. Almost none of the companies that I am involved with in Russia maintain Russian senior management or product managers. Its not a cultural failing but one born of isolation. Whilst the USSR collapsed over a decade ago it is only in the last few years (the start date is after the 1998 crisis) that people have started to take Russia and Russians seriously. It will take a decade for the cross-culutral osmosis to occur that will result in Russia regularly churning out world class products - be they IT or tech general.

A string of Russian tech companies will start to make headway in the next few years - however most people won't know them to have originated in Russia as they will have an almost entirely western front end.

Lex: Mobile handsets
Published: June 24 2003 20:31 | Last Updated: June 24 2003 20:31


Vodafone may crow that some customers now ask for the "David Beckham phone" - inspired by an advert for its Vodafone live! service featuring the England football captain. But most still ask for a Nokia. The branding of handsets in Europe remains a more powerful draw for users than the networks they are signing up to.

The continent's big operators are doing their best to make sure that changes. Orange, which already stamps its brand on handsets, on Tuesday signed a deal with Motorola which will produce a unique set of handsets. Orange also talked of putting more intelligence on to its network rather than into handsets. The network operators are increasingly aware that they need to differentiate themselves as data becomes a bigger chunk of revenues. Handset branding is one element. Another is having more say in design, so users find it easier to use new services, and therefore spend more money with the operator.

Vodafone live! is a good example. The Sharp handset, which is heavily Vodafone-branded, has easily outsold the equivalent Nokia. Its configuration for Vodafone services has also driven higher usage than from other handsets. Networks have long attempted to wrest more control over handsets. Market leader Nokia has so far resisted and continued to go from strength to strength. That will not change overnight. But as operators become more aggressive in working with individual manufacturers and stamping their identity on handsets, the risks for Nokia increase"



Oh boy, even the FT Lex Column is starting to talk about intelligence in the network and quits wittering about mobile networks always being about handsets. Maybe the world really is changing. Whatever, the truth is that the future of all communication networks will be driven by intelligence. Intelligence used to be hard, soon everything will be software running on standard NEBs boxes. The traditional TEM's will lose this battle to the IT giants - who in turn will buy their components from....