Content Management And ECommerce

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The 3G wars AT&T vs. Verizon

I have always had a cell phone it seems and I was definitely one of the first to get a "smartphone".  I feel that over the years, I have had a phone on all of the "major" networks, but never have I had the opportunity I had today.

While driving home for Thanksgiving, my beautiful wife agreed to drive giving me the chance to get a lot of work done.  During that time, it dawned on me that I should take this chance to see what network really was faster over time over a distance.

So, I hit areas from Columbus to Toledo to Ft Wayne, IN consistently testing Verizon's network vs. AT&T's network.  I am a long-time Verizon customer, so to say I was surprised by the outcome would be a massive understatement.

Stop One:  North Columbus

Verizon 3G:  288 down 271 Up

AT&T 3G:  2814 Down 371 Up

North of Delaware, OH:

Verizon 3G:  351 down 317 Up

AT&T 3G:  984 Down 281 Up

South of Toledo, OH:

Verizon 3G:  91 down 86 Up

AT&T Edge:  271 Down 34 Up

Just East of Indiana/Ohio border:

Verizon 3G:  72 down 71 Up

AT&T Edge:  149 Down 39 Up

OK guys and gals, these are the facts.  I haven't changed anything.

Apps/Phones Used:

Blackberry Storm

Potential excuses for slowness - Connected to corporate email server

No other apps running

Apple iPhone 3G

Potential excuses for slowness - Connected to corporate email server

No other apps running

Conclusion:

I guess if I were Verizon, they can claim that something is 3G when maybe it really isn't so fast?  I have "felt" that my phones were slow on Verizon's network (I have had 3 blackberries and a Palm Treo) and all of them felt slow, but there was no good way to benchmark the speed.  The wireless cards appear to be good and I have usually been able to pull 300KB down on them and 300 up with the rare exception I have gotten them to 700 KB/s down.

Truth in advertising:

TRUE:  Verizon's 3G coverage appears to be larger in space than AT&T's 3G coverage. (Several times above in VERY rural areas, I dropped to Edge as you can see in my results)

TRUE:  AT&T is the fastest 3G network

Questions:  What is 3G?  Most people claim Edge is "2.75G", however it appears that Edge has better download speeds than I am getting on Verizon side by side, but slower upload speeds.  I guess the answer is up to interpretation, but if you believe ads, well, then..  ummmmmmm dot dot dot, you are naive :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

RFID in an OPEN world

RFID has been around for several years and my first introduction to it was several years ago when I had the pleasure of working with some visionaries at Simon Property Group.  We were looking at RFID to track kids in the malls for their parents.  RFID has come a long way since then and I am still amazed it hasn't really caught on.

If you read my last post on OPEN E-Commerce and you take that approach, implementing RFID in your retail locations and showing immediate ROI on it is within easy reach.

I read a really good blog post on the subject here: How to Implement RFID in a Store Quickly.  They go over, in detail, how your employees can even install the system.  They mention the big thing in retail which is reduced shrinkage.  At the touch of a button, you can know where every item in your inventory is.

What would really make the ROI extreme though?

If your store is setup with a wireless internet connection (this can be done very easily even with a Verizon myfi), installing small, netbook type computers into the dressing rooms with the RFID sensor at the door will pay for itself in spades.

Scenario:  Customer walks into the dressing room with some size 4 jeans and 2 medium t-shirts.  The RFID will automatically sense how many items and what items are present.  This can be displayed on the screen with ratings and reviews (which could also be added right there in the dressing room) as well as recommended cross sell and upsell items.

Lots of information can be garnered just from what a customer takes into the dressing room.  For instance, we know she is a woman, looking for casual wear and she is a size 4.  By feeding this information into an engine such as ATG recommendations, the system will use it's Artificial Intellegence (AI) features to call out what things would go with the items best.  All of this information will also help you on-line as the additional information feeding into the recommendations engine will create better recommendations.

Talk about wow-ing your customers and making sure they know that you care about them and are giving them the most OPEN and transparent information they can get.

If you are in Retail, it's about moving the dial and nothing will move the dial like this will!

Honda FCX Clarity - Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle - Official Web Site

Changing the conversation on oil

I really enjoyed this article and I felt that it does a great deal to highlight where the real issues are with gas prices and it paints a realistic picture.  There is one interesting thing that I am honestly SHOCKED I haven’t a lot more of.  Since we know we can affect the market forces in terms of oil costs, why aren’t the politicians changing the market?  Amazingly, I did see a little of this with McCain’s new battery push, but I mean a real investment in alternative fuel solutions like Honda’s FCX car.  If the government gave several billion dollars and tight timelines around making these cars (and an array of vehicles) affordable, accessible and serviceable, dramatic change could occur in the next 5-6 years.

I looked at this report:

I retrieved the following data:

Automobiles:

USMS members report 2.17 cars per household. 49.4% report having 2 cars, with 19.7% having 1 car and 19.6% having three cars. 51.9% of households report buying a new car every 5 or fewer years. The average length of time between car purchases is 6.3 years. Given the average number of cars per household we can extrapolate that USMS households purchase a new car every 3 years, on average. Japanese car makers are the preferred automobile provider. 43.9% of members report preferring Japanese cars, 33.6% of members prefer American cars, and 14.2% prefer German cars. 8.3% prefer “other” countries of origin.

If we do something significant like provide a $5,000-$10,000 tax credit to ALL people (not tiered by income) in order to drop the barrier to entry somewhat on a new car purchase, I think we could affect that 6.3 years.  Since the car already exists by Honda, they could step up production significantly within the next 1-2 years and within the next 2-3 years most manufacturers could follow suit and we could change the market.

I would personally love to see the market changed vs. looking at how to fix something that is inherently broken and finite.

Additional notes:

Consumption Article:  http://www.usms.org/admin/surveys/May2006/consumption_report.pdf

Article Link:  http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jun2008/db20080619_412349.htm

Honda FCX Clarity:  http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/

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This is me :)

OPEN E-Commerce

People always ask me about tying the new trends of the OPEN Brand or Social Commerce into what is reality in the technology world of E-Commerce.  I found myself sitting at the Partner conference for ATG in January this year while the ATG leadership team was talking about the future of their platform and how it was the last platform you would ever need.  This got me thinking how that would become a reality due to the cost ramifications when I know that my client’s best interests are my number one objective.  It suddenly dawned on me this week as I was working through a myriad of E-Commerce issues as it relates to a number of my Retail clients that this new world of E-Commerce should be MUCH LESS EXPENSIVE, both to build and to maintain.  Given budgets this year, this is extremely important.

The first question that comes to mind is just how can I do all things social and be where my customers are while maintaining costs?  It seems we can’t touch our core E-Commerce solutions for less than 7 figures… That, however, IS the answer.  You DON’T touch your core Commerce functionality.

Your CORE E-Commerce functionality should be these things and these things only: •    Catalog •    Checkout (Payment and Fraud) •    Inventory Management •    Fulfillment •    Back Office Integration The things I find myself being asked to change the most are things like this: •    Facebook Applications/Fan Pages •    Path to Product/Checkout •    SEO •    Personalization/Scenarios •    Search Implementations (Endeca, Google) •    Advertising Campaigns The previous items are the most common pieces that drive conversion and sales for marketing organizations.  Let’s face it, Back Office integration is more of a cost of doing business vs. something you can show true ROI on, at least in the short term. How do you DO IT? I have long been a fan of the acronym KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid).  The running norm is to try and build everything into the Core Commerce system, which generally ends with everyone being less than pleased.  Boiling the ocean is not something anyone should undertake.  An E-Commerce solution can be broken up into 3 basic layers: •    Front-End •    Commerce Enablement •    Back Office Segregating these layers allows for a scalable and organized approach to not just e-commerce, but commerce in general.  Back Office pieces such as Data Warehouse, CRM, Inventory Management, Warehouse Management, etc. are all core competencies of your business.  These areas would be managed and run as they are today, but with the new approach, there would be significantly more clarity about what needs to be done. Commerce Enablement is all about connecting these Back Office systems to your commerce system in a consistent way so that the inputs and outputs are always a known quantity.  By settling on what these inputs and outputs should be, clear lines of delineation can be drawn, simplifying your organization and minimizing your need for overhead. Clients should focus on the only exposed items of your E-Commerce system to be your catalog being available and REST APIs being available for the following things: •    Add to cart •    Remove from cart •    Check Inventory •    Checkout •    Get Confirmation These are the core functions necessary to be able to checkout a customer.  Everything else is something extra and it can generally be done for a lot less than trying to build it all into the Core Commerce system.  The separation will allow front-end applications to be built, upgraded, modified, and extended without affecting the core commerce experience.  What does that end up meaning?  Everything costs a lot less. This sounds too good to be true… There are some drawbacks to this approach.  Personalization would not be done via the core commerce platform, however there are lots of SaaS based personalization services from ATG that are available for your promotions that are significantly easier to implement into your code base. The upsides are endless… Point of Sale registers can be easily replaced by a web based system that will eliminate long and difficult closing processes and it will allow for cross sell and upsells from the register and even in the dressing room.

I like to always say that a picture is 1,000 words.  In this case, it's less than 1,000 :)

Next up..  RFID

My rant on the new iPhone Data Plans

I believe the term is "Indian Giver" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_giver

That is in a nutshell how I see AT&T now.  Anyone who knows me has heard about my my rants on companies doing these kinds of things.  Recently, Pei Wei took away free soda with your carry out order.  Since they essentially made the soda worthless, customers assume the cost is built into the food (which it must be because the food isn't "cheap").

There are dozens of examples of this in the corporate and retail world and there are acceptable and unacceptable ways of doing this.  

Acceptable ways of changing the rules generally mean it's clear that you are getting a "deal".  For instance, Best Buy may do a promotion of Buy one, Get One (BOGO) free and that promotion may run for a week or 2 weeks or it may run for a year depending on the circumstances.  However, it's clear that you are operating under a promotion.  This is the case with Dish TV and DirecTV and Cable where they may "give" you promotional pricing for a year or they may "give" you HBO and Showtime for 3 months.  However, in all cases it's pretty clear you are getting a promotion.

Alternatively, if your cable company was giving you 200 channels and then said hey, we are going to now give you 20 channels but we will charge you $10 less, would that be "OK"?  I am going to guess no in 90% of the situations.

If, for instance, 95% of the people are in the under 200MB range, then why change the rules?  Does anyone honestly buy that this is in the consumer's best interest?  It's kind of sad if you really do. 

When someone gives you something and then takes it away, it's crap.  I use quite a bit more data for streaming Pandora and downloading movies for the kids via iTunes. God forbid if you find yourself on the road and your kids are screaming for Spongebob.

Guess what?  If you are on board with this plan, you're in trouble.  Gone are the days of surfing You Tube.  I find myself wondering what is the point of an iPhone when you are locked down on data?  Everyone knows that the iPhone SUCKS as a phone.  It's only advantage were the great apps that use data.

Why does the iPhone suck as a phone?

High-powered CDMA signals have raised the "noise floor" for GSM receivers, meaning there is less space within the available band to send a clean signal. This sometimes results in dropped calls in areas where there is a high concentration of CDMA technology. Conversely, high-powered GSM signals have been shown to cause overloading and jamming of CDMA receivers due to CDMA’s reliance upon broadcasting across its entire available band.

The result of this little cross-broadcasting joust has led some cities to pass ordinances limiting the space between cell towers or the height they can reach, giving one technology a distinct advantage over the other.

This is the case is most of the US where CDMA has the advantage.  

So, most would ask, why does my iPhone drop calls more than my Blackberry?  Well, the iPhone grabs more data on a tower in addition to the voice.  GSM towers hold connections for about 60 users each vs. CDMA holds about 300 users each.  So, what happens on the iPhone is that when you move from tower to tower, there is a higher likelihood that you will get squeezed out when you switch towers.  Certain areas of high usage make these drops happen more often.

So, now what we have is all these people putting up with crappy voice service because it's really a mobile mini computer with an always on data connection.  Taking that away is a really bad move and it ensures the continued adoption of Android en masse.  This is really sad for me personally because I feel like a strong offering from the iPhone will make all the options better, however this change will likely slow down advancements. 

Personally, I use quite a bit of data on my e-mail for opening and looking at docs while on the go.  I have actually been iPhone-less since I left my last job and I have been on my Droid 100%.  I "have" to go to an AT&T plan though and I have a stay atleast until June, but now I am thinking I might as well stay with Verizon and just suck it up.  I have a real problem with locking you down to 2GB and the fact that people are actually "buying in" to this is really shocking.

So, here is what I am seeing:

AT&T vs. Verizon:

Data - AT&T wins

Voice - Verizon wins

Apps:  (Taking Jailbreak/Root out of the equation) For all intents and purposes, it's a wash now for apps that you would regularly use, however:

Android gives you Google Voice, Chat, Maps, etc. and it's all free.  You have to pay for decent navigation on iPhone.  Both have Skype, however you have to pay for it on iPhone now.

AT&T just killed their only advantage over Verizon. 

I was so excited for the new iPhone (really, I was - I admit it) and I was actually going to buy it.  However, literally EVERYTHING costs more on iPhone and to be quite frank, the Android experience is pretty darn good.  I just wish AT&T would get a decent Android device.  

Stupid move ma bell.  Feel free to comment away :)

Dish Network Horror Story - my Dish Customer Journey

This is my letter verbatim to Dish following a horrible night which ended in me not only canceling my service, but writing a blog post and posting extensive angry tweets about Dish.  SO, in this one evening, I went from being just a customer that would have probably stayed with them for a long time based on not wanting to deal with change to someone who would write all this up.  For those of you scoring at home, this is a customer service disaster...

I joined Dish several years ago and early on I was a very happy customer.  I raved about the service and the customer service with the Sirius channels and all.  I had DirecTV in the past and cable and friends of mine have others like UVerse, etc.

I started with a single HD DVR and a couple of HD receivers and this was great for awhile.  Once Dish offered the 922 box with Sling Box, I had to have it.  I am big on TV and I think its great to have the option to stream your TV everywhere.  I replaced one of my low end boxes with the 922 and was in love.  

It worked AWESOME for about 8-9 months and then one day the hard drive blew up on it.  I called Dish and they promptly replaced it.  The first unit I got didn't work well, so they sent another and this one became the bane of my existence.  I am EXTREMELY technically savvy and I have extensive AV setups in every room of the house including Google TVs, Apple TVs, 2 Home Theatre/Projector setups.  SO, needless to say, I know my stuff when it comes to A/V things.  

The 3rd 922 box would work great for a day or so and then all the sudden the guide would come up, but the tuners wouldn't pull up a show.  The only fix for this seemed to be hard resetting the whole box.  This was discovered after a series of calls with Dish Tech Support.  Eventually a pattern emerged where the receiver would work for about 8 hours and then it would die in the same manner.  The Dish people told me I needed to call Sling (even though they own Sling and they are Sling) but they gave me an 800 number to call.  I tried 3 times to get through and each time I ended up on hold for 25+ minutes and never got to speak to anyone so I eventually gave up and haven't used my sling service since.  Dish can confirm this in their usage logs.  The irony of this issue comes up at the end.  I am assuming when I added the 922 box, my contract was extended somehow secretly or they buried it in some long "listen to my 120 second terms and conditions".  Of course, the date that this happened is unknown and the only way to get said date is to call and ask.

Today:

The US National Soccer tem is on playing Scotland and since I am a big soccer fan, I wanted to see the match..  Unfortunately, on Memorial Day Weekend, it was only on in Spanish unless you subscribe to the top level of Dish.  DOes anyone else get the irony there?  How un-American can you get.  So, I post my irritation on Twitter and some guy from their Social Media tries to help and he says to try ESPN 2.  I am initially excited that they were paying attention and I thought, wow, I am impressed.  After I tell him that ESPN 2 is actually showing some odd form of racing and not soccer, he said it was on channel 159 which is an NBC Sports station that is only available if you pay for the full subscription of 250 stations (I only get the 200) which ironically blocks out History 2, Military, History international and a few other channels I really like but I had to draw the line somewhere...  So, if you only spend $123.99/mo you don't get any of that AND you can't watch the US National team.  How incredibly insane is that?  At this point, I am now annoyed and I start thinking about what my options are.

First phone call - I was disconnected and didn't get a user ID.

Second Phone Call:  User ID: 8UF - Front-Line person - I called about contract - was told I don't have a contract since I was past my 2 year agreement with Dish.  I also called to complain about it being Memorial Day weekend and I needed the 250 channel plan in order to see the US National team in English.  I had them on 4 stations in Spanish.  I also asked again about Fix issue with my 922 receiver - and I asked about the Hopper vs. my current setup.  They transferred me to Advanced service.  For those of you that don't know, the Hopper is Dish's answer to the whole home DVR and it's a very nice system.

Advanced Support:

User ID GVT - I asked again about the Hopper vs. DirecTV due to 922 issues and being out of contract - He walked me through issues on 922 and offered to replace or send a tech out for free.  I told him I wanted to talk it over with my wife before I had them send a replacement or do the hopper.  This individual was very nice and helpful in was trying his best to give me every option to stay with Dish.

Call One to DirecTV

I then talked to my wife and called DirecTV.  The cost was determined to be right at about $70/month vs. $123/mo on Dish with all the receivers included and no cost at all on the equipment.  The service is similar to a hopper and 3 Joeys (which is not an option) - so I would need 2 Hoppers and 2 Joeys.  Based on cost and the DirecTV solution appearing smoother and everything involved, I decided to switch.

Third Phone call:  Cancellation line:

User ID: RMS - I called back to cancel.  Upon hearing I wanted to cancel, I was advised I do have a contract.  This was the FIRST mention of a contract at all.  I asked for a supervisor.

Supervisor Andy

User ID: ZTH - Andy got on the phone and made it clear that he was a no nonsense guy and that I was wasting my time asking for anyone else.  He said I was under contract and if I wanted to cancel, it would be $60.  There is no recourse to my being told by all previous reps that I wasn't under contract AND it's impossible to find out your contract status unless you call in.  Since I was told one thing before I was going to cancel and another thing after, it's obvious to see why I am upset.  

I asked Andy if there was any worse company than Dish - He advised me DirecTV was worse than dish because their ETF fees are worse and they don't waive anything.  I asked him how this helps me at all since nothing is being waived for me.  I asked for his supervisor and he advised me they don't take calls and this was a take it or leave it situation.  Since I have already signed up with DirecTV, I was left with no option but to pay the $60.  If the card that I signed up with 3+ years ago wasn't still good, I would be billed for the $60 plus any additional fees needed to cancel.  Obviously your card numbers change when your cards expire and I am pretty sure any card I had 3+ years ago has changed and he didn't even know what card it was.  So, using a scare tactic, I felt compelled to give him my credit card for the $60 and given how this discussion was going, I REALLY didn't feel comfortable giving him my information.  However, if I didn't, he implied my costs would escalate to cancel.  Andy further told me that any future deals with Dish would be null and I would have to pay more to get back in with Dish since I was canceling early saying something like I would have to pay in advance for service or something like that.  At this point, I was completely disgusted with Dish and I didn't really even understand what he meant.  I also decided it would be a good time to document and Andy became excessively evasive.  He would only give me User IDs (not even first names) of the people I spoke with previously and I had to identify what each conversation was about before he would acknowledge anything.  For those of you at home, your shady meter should be on over drive at this point.

I know this will go nowhere because I am just one customer who has had a horrible experience with a person who was an incredible jerk given what I have had to deal with (broken 922 receiver and being told I was no longer under contract, etc.).  However, I figure if this goes into a file where there are other complaints maybe someday someone will read this and take corrective action.  Needless to say, I am basically done with Dish for good because with Andy's threats of me not getting deals again, any advertising you do to me is going to hit deaf ears.  This whole situation is a terrible way to deal with customers though and I am hoping I heard him wrong.

I hope this diatribe goes somewhere in helping someone else avoid getting into this situation with Dish and essentially avoiding them as a provider.  My last Day with Dish is Wednesday, May 30 2012.  I will update you all on my conversion to DirecTV and what my thoughts are.  I will try and avoid the Honeymoon phase that is sure to occur.

One extremely frustrated former Dish customer.