Spencer
Wolfe

It seems the race is on for push email services. Research In Motion is in Japan trying to run their services through NTT Docomo. We have used NTT Docomo for 5 years and put up with constant disconnects and horrible customer service. It may not be wise to go back to that quality of service (QoS) level. In the meantime, we see various other options for push email available in Japan. Some of the options are, Microsoft’s Activesync for the Microsoft Exchange server pushes everyone to Exchange 2003, the Visto solution seems to work, RIM’s Blackberry is definitely the leader, and of course Intellisync, a company that has been around for years who Nokia purchased to synchronize multiple devices. It seems since there are so many options it seems there is become more of an interest in the devices.

For the US, the all around device of choice is probably the Palm Treo. It is unfortunate, but it seems by selling the Palm OS off and marketing a Windows mobile device that Palm threw in their towel to become just one of many other hardware providers. In Japan, we don’t have Palm as an option. Willcom has been very successful with Window Mobile devices from Sharp (the Sharp Zero 3, and Zero3 ES). The Sharp products, although a bit bulky, have actually been quite popular as a combination of great hardware with a very reasonably priced service that is very reliable.

A popular product right now in Japan is the Nokia e61.  It is a copy of the Blackberry but running the Symbian OS. AINEO has started calling them eBerrys internally. Nokia has been smart to design the devices to work well with both the Blackberry server and other push email server applications as well. It is nice as it is both fully Japanese and fully English. There is interesting commentary on the US version (evidently called the e62) on at this site.

So far, the AINEO opinion on the current devices today is

1) The Blackberry is great for executives who need access to their email but are not really planning to install additional applications.  Hands down the best in the market.  Not good for someone wanting to install various applications.

2) The Sharp models for Willcom are great for Japanese only and will run Activesync just as any other Windows Mobile device. The Willcom service is a bit weak out in the country-side, where you normally aren’t at anyway.

3) Generally, Windows Mobile is great for people who want to install applications.  You do get the glorious MS freezes with these devices similar to your PC.

4) The Nokia’s e61 is good device but not really supported by any of the carriers (AU, Softbank, Docomo or Willcom).  Its input is well designed, it currently supports Japanese (Blackberry users have at least until June 2007 for that) and can be run carrier independent. That means on either Docomo or Softbank’s Networks can be used to deliver the service. Watch out for those connection charges.  (We got a 150,000 bill from Softbank during our tests for just a few weeks of use).

As the IT department of many great organizations, AINEO is testing various solutions and hopes to have something concrete in January for our clients to help roll-out to sales people, consultants, and other staff who work regularly outside of the office.

With so many push email service and software provider options, it will be interesting to see which will be left standing in 2008.

© 2006

The world is certainly changing. Some change is a bit scary as what is was once abnormal is later considered normal. However, we are of the opinion that most change is good. Change in an enterprise (or corporate environment) should be founded on the facts of the current business process and making it better. For example, if you service hundreds of customers per day (like AINEO), then how can you make life easier for both the customer and your team? That is what win-win business is all about. Looking at both sides of the coin, and making sure something makes sense for both your customer and yourself. People respect.

With the advent of technology, the internet is forcing people to be more transparent. In the old days, companies could say things and no one would notice. There days, you can’t be a hypocrite (thank God!) by saying one thing and doing another. You will be found out. A large public relations (PR) firm was caught this year doing a fake web log (blog) for a fake customer of Walmart. They were quickly found out. The executive of that company (Edelman), quickly apologized and talked about how bad that was(link). Not shortly there after, the same president was apologizing for doing the exact same thing.

Thanks to the business AINEO is doing, people can no longer blur the truth. CEOs from large firms are now maintaining blogs that tell you exactly how things are. The president of General Motors (GM), who is going through major difficulty is telling people in his blog that ‘its not been an easy year’. This type of transparency was unheard of 5 or 6 years ago.

I recently purchased a book that my teenager wanted. It was a book on how to study and do well in school. I flipped through it an say one statement that said, ‘Honor is doing what is right when no one is looking’. Of course, there are some dishonest people out there. We do our best to avoid them like the plague. But it is also important to do what is right when no one even knows. The word is going to get out, so why bother compromising or even lying when you can do the right thing and look your customer in the face and say you’ve delivered the best product or solution for their needs.

Working hard and working smart is honorable. Honor pays because we all like to work with people who do the right thing whether or not we are looking.

Let’s do the right thing. The world will be a better place for us all.

© 2006

November 2006 showed the passing of a great man. Mr. Kaoru Suzuki was a great guy, with spunk, desire to learn new things, and a great leader. I was very sad to hear that he has left this world. He was a great manager to me at RICOH when I just came to Japan out of University. He put up with my developing Japanese years ago, and I tried to understand his interesting English. The point was he made the effort to develop his English.  I am not sure if he ever got his English straight but thanks to him my High School and University Japanese got practical applications very quickly.

He was a great man, that I would see a couple times every year that always had a great greeting (aisatsu in Japanese). He was a great role model for me and our whole team. He taught us how to do business with honor.

I’ll never forget working until mid-night on a proposal for improving a multinational bank’s operations until the last train until midnight. I put a note on his desk saying I would be coming in at 930AM the next morning. As a great Japanese boss, he acted very angry with me for coming in 30 minutes late (even though I usually came to work an hour early every day) the next morning. I’ll never forget my surprise at getting in trouble, and always wonder if he really was mad. If he was mad, it probably disappeared pretty quickly when the bank put their confidence in us to deliver the solution.

Mr. Suzuki, we will miss you! I hope that I will see you again someday.

We installed a Watchguard firewall (Firebox) at our Tokyo offices some time back.  We were very happy with Watchguards speed of configuration and purchased a maintenance agreement with the box.  We decided not to renew the maintenance agreement, and started to have considerable trouble with the system.  Dropped connections to the internet were the main problems.  We had installed the exact same hardware at a customer site.  Most of our customers really become good friends as we work closely with them to make sure their technology enhanced their business opportunities.

However, the Watchguard box did the same things that our out-of-service agreement box had done.  We took a third box that was out of the extended and discovered the same trouble.  The AINEO SE conclusion was that Watchguard had built a ‘Sony Switch’ type of ‘feature’ into their system that rendered the system inconsistent once you stopped paying maintenance contracts.

We replaced both boxes with another firewall and haven’t had a problem since.  It is coming on two years since we have had these issues, but I would hate to see someone else experience the same troubles as it is embarrassing to recommend something only to see it cost your company and your friend’s time and money.  I hope they have fixed this by now but I would not risk it again.  Our conclusion, watch out for Watchguard!Â

In Japan, we have found that there are a lot of choices for broadband internet connections.  Softbank brought all the pricing down by their now famous (and much copied) sales campaign.  They branded the service Yahoo BB (BB for broadband).  They had young part timers with DSL modems in a shopping bag on what seemed like every corner, telling people to take home a modem and plug it in.  The big point was the usage was free for two-months.  They got a lot of market share and shocked the incumbent carrier NTT.  Not only did NTT have to cut their pricing, but they also had to try to be a little creative as all this business was going to a competitor.  That competitor is now trying to do a similar thing in the Japanese wireless arena.  Unfortunately, they are using deceptive advertising that says one thing and delivers much less.

For AINEO, we have really been happy with NTT’s BFlets service.  It delivers a FTTH (Fiber to the Home) connection to the facility with a top speed of 100 mbps.  When it is installed you actually see about 65 mbps.  With this type of throughput Japan has currently got the best broadband in the world.  With no IP address, the service included an ISP is about 7,000/month.  In the US, we understand Americans tend to pay about $50/month for 1-3 mbps.  I think the actual Japanese FTTH service delivers 30-50 mbps once you put it through a router.  The service is provided by NTT and the ISP can be any company that provides PPPoE.  We found Asahi Net had the best pricing, although even after cancelling the service we continued to have charges on our credit card for six (6) months.

This fiber optic service is fast and cost-effective.  Many of the DSL subscribers have moved to the FTTH.  AINEO has built a lot of offices with this fiber optic internet access.  Why would you put in a dedicated service that costs 200,000 to 300,000/month, when you can get set up a VPN through a faster, cheaper, and just as reliable service?  The ‘just as reliable’ point there is where we loose a few people. It is a ‘best effort’ service so there are no service level agreements saying that you will get 100 mbps.  We have had one AINEO datacenter on this service for about 3 years now, and have had no problems with it.

Of course, no one wants to put all of their eggs in one basket.  We actually recommend against using NTT’s Bflets along with their OCN ISP service.  Four of AINEO’s client sites lost interest access in 2004 when NTT’s OCN service went down.  All of our Tokyo sites were fine, so it took about an hour to figure out that the service outage was OCN not the actual fiber.  Another great option is through the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).  They have taken advantage of their electrical cable access and implemented fiber optic-based internet access as well.  I would seriously consider using TEPCO as their service is probably less-crowded. The only issue might be they could have long delivery times.

We were recently impressed by their TEPCO Cable Television service.  Instead of coming in through fiber, they come in via coaxial cable.  They have sales people that actually came to our house to sign us up.  We terminated our NTT phone number and got an IP phone number (050-XXXX-XXXX).  The number is 700/month and has 8/minute international calling to the US.  They were very helpful.  For someone who is new to the internet, it is very easy to use.  You just plug your hub/router to their modem and start using it.  (With PPPoE, you have to mess with logins and passwords to a line that is installed to your house).  The call center representatives were very courteous and helpful.

We highly recommend TEPCO Cable TV Internet access to the home users. For the office, Fiber from NTT and TEPCO give you the best throughput in the world, right here in Japan.

© 2006 AINEO Corporation

One of the things that we say at AINEO is that you can teach a person how to do technical things, but you can’t teach them common sense. What is common sense? In simple terms, common sense is having the sense of understand what is common among most people. The Webster’s dictionary defines common sense as

“sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts”

As information becomes more abundant, and we become more and more overloaded with so much to sift through, it becomes more difficult to sift through the details. Believe it or not, people are becoming more ignorant. That is what I told a doctor at Koshigaya Municipal Hospital as we were discussing the way of the world.

In business, we’ve found a lot of people who would like to work at AINEO. We have a great team, customers, environment, and from top to bottom we are a agile and friendly bunch of people. We work hard, but we make a point of having fun while we are doing it. People want to work at an AINEO-type of environment.

When we first started the Tokyo branch, we looked at everyone for their potential. We saw the great things that they could do if they were just willing to make a few changes. The problem with that way of thinking is that many people do not want to change. They do not want to be flexible, but would prefer to stick with only what they know. Change is some distant frontier somewhere that they don’t want to pass through. They have so much information on how to make the change, but they are unwilling to make the step. They didn’t have sense that was common to the business world and they were unwilling to try to gain it.

After hiring a few people like that, the management team realized that although we should always see the potential in people. In actuality, none of these people have worked out. All we ended up with was a lot of wasted time. It is better to sift through them before you actually put them on your team.

© 2006

Over the last 15 years the AINEO team has had the opportunity to use various mobile phones in Japan. We have tested them in Tokyo and all around Japan. We have used Willcom, Softbank (Formerly J-phone/Vodafone), NTT Docomo, Tsuka and AU (owned by KDDI Corporation).

NTT Docomo has been by far was the leader for reception nationwide. AU has closed the gap on coverage. Whether you are in a hotel, subway or the back end of a little restaurant somewhere you can expect good reception from these two carriers usually. There are sometimes exceptions. Docomo is the most expensive to use and cuts the users off frequently with its poor reception. Years ago with our first Docomo, the shops told us that it was the telephone terminal that was having trouble if we took it took the shop for too many dropped calls. After switching the unit once or twice, it became clear that it was the network that was the problem.

As NTT Docomo is a part of the NTT group, many Japanese have considered it to be a ‘safe’ bet for service as NTT is the incumbent carrier for Japan and therefore has the largest amount of infrastructure as a telco. They were able to amass users numbering in at about 50 million people. However, the ability to receive a call doesn’t mean that you can continue the call without a drop. We found that the service

-drops constantly

-network is overcrowded

-voice quality is poor

-customer service is poor

Softbank Mobile definitely has the best roaming service. We joke that their service works better outside Japan than it does in Japan. Their reception is not that great, and their customer service team is poorly trained. We found at Golf Courses and other offsite locations around Tokyo, Kyushu, and Shikoku, AU and Docomo reception was fine but Softbank was usually sketchy.

Probably, the rising star for mobile in Japan is Willcom. Willcom was originally DDI Pocket until a large percentage of shares were sold off to some international investors (the Carlise Group from the US). They have introduced a 2,900 monthly plan that includes unlimited email and calls to other email users. They lowered the rates for calls from Willcom to other mobile phones and recently introduced reasonably priced international direct dial (international calling) that is very competitive with even calling card companies and IP phone services. They have been continuously picking up new subscribers as they have been the first carrier to successfully introduce a Windows mobile device. The Sharp Zero3 (Zero Three) and Zero3ES (otherwise known as the ES) have been in high demand with major retailers like Bic Camera and Yodobashi Camera selling 30-40 sets a day.

Willcom has become a second phone for a lot of people. A lot of Japanese youth, business people, and even students are using these phones for their mail and calling and chatting with each other. Many of AINEO’s airlines customers and internal project managers and engineers are using Willcom sets. Willcom has got great quality, very reasonable pricing and excellent customer service. Their main weakness is that outside of Tokyo, or more specifically, out in the countryside they have little to know reception. So if you have any staff that will need to close deals from a rice paddy then Willcom may not be the best choice. It works fine throughout Japan and within all the cities we traveled we had no problem.

With number portability introduced on 24 October, we planned to acquire one HTC windows mobile device. The advertising said that the unit was to sign up. The fine print said it as a two year contract with an approximately 2500 penalty for uncompleted months in the first two years. However after waiting 25 minutes, the CSR (customer service representative) told us that indeed it would be an additional 690 yen/month for the phone. In the US, we call this deceptive advertising. Most people off the street would call it a lie. After listening to 10 minutes of explanation, it was clear that they plan to make their money on add-on services and bait and switch tactics.

So what is the right phone for me? Our recommendation is AU for those who want to be able to receive calls in the mountains or the middle of the golf course. However, if your mobile phone is for doing business then Willcom is the best choice. Unfortunately, they do not have English on their voicemail system so that could be a challenge if you are out of range and receive calls from abroad. Also, we have found that Willcom reception can occasionally be sketchy in very high buildings that have did not install mobile phone repeaters or if you are in the core of the building.

For traveling, Softbank Mobile seems to be the best option price-wise. In Australia, it was 80/minute to receive calls with Softbank and 120/minute to receive calls on AU. We have not tested Docomo internationally but all of their pricing has tended to be on the high end with services on the low end. One AINEO customer, complained that Softbank limits the amount of calls you can make when traveling abroad to 20,000 yen/month. It was frustrating for the service to stop working in the midst of a business trip in Asia and Europe.

With mobile number portability (MNP) now available in Japan, we predicted an exodus from Softbank, and especially Softbank to AU. However, Softbank has put up a good fight by introducing the best selection (to date) of new terminals, and what seems to be cheaper running costs on the monthly subscription fee. Although, AU has not kicked up the dust to draw attention to themselves that Softbank has, they have certainly played on their 3-4 consecutive years of winning J.D. Powers awards for satisfied customers. They certainly deserve the awards. As of today 31 October, AU is leading the churn wars for Japan with 100,000 new subscribers who have migrated from other companies.

Our call on the best mobile phone for Japan is if you must have a high-powered mobile phone then AU is the choice. For international roaming, Softbank Mobile has got the best pricing but is not that great outside of the major cities in Japan much like Willcom. However, if you want the perfect phone for business, then Willcom is probably the phone you want would want to arm your Japanese sales teams with. It is cost effective, reliable, and has got the customer service team to back it up. Their line-up of Windows mobile devices also makes a mobile sales person (commonly known as the road warrior) more mobile.

Let us know if you have any questions.

© 2006 AINEO Corporation

There are so many companies these days selling various products and services. You’ve got financial services, consumer product (probably the easiest sell), industrial products, technology products, and all sorts of services to support and enhance them.

In AINEO Network’s business, we are truly an engineering service company. People rely on our ability to be bright, quick, and flexible in supporting their technology around the Asia Pacific region. They trust AINEO because our fundamental is that everything we do should be win-win. Our definition of win-win business is only sell what you would buy yourselves. If you wouldn’t buy it, it almost seems immoral. On top of that, it is no fun for your team to support.

For three years, AINEO has been providing outsourced customer care to consumers. We did not plan to be working with consumers. We have a ten year track record and our success has been based on enterprise (corporate) clients. In 2002, we were asked by one of our enterprise clients if we could add this function to our already existing customer support team (helpdesk). It has been a great success. The wonderful thing now is that our team probably knows the products better than the Japan office of the manufacturer. I am very proud of our team. Evidently, we have done such a notable job that other clients have asked AINEO to do their consumer care. Great job AINEO Customer Care!

As we continue to expand the AINEO Customer Care to support consumers, we anticipate our will continue to provide great support which is bright, quick, and flexible. The consumers will continue to love us. We wholeheartedly believe that the best person to sell your product is you, but the best team to service your customer is AINEO.

When choosing the right computer there are many things to think about; is it for work, games, desktop publishing, organizing your personal life? There are many variables that picking the right computer much like putting together a puzzle.　　Before you take anyone’s on opinion or comments, it is advantageous to understand their background. Most people see things through filters.

For example, the President of the United States may be doing a great job, however if the media doesn’t like him then they will spew forth anything and everything negative about him to work to discredit him. Those constant negative attacks through the media can eventually hurt that President’s reputation with people that trust or believe what they are told. Bad news sells evidently. Our natures should be positive and supportive of people trying to do their job. We should not be afraid to speak our mind, rather than another negative voice in the world. We should offer an alternative idea and be a positive force not a negative voice.

This writer runs the Tokyo, Japan branch of a major information technology (IT) systems support firm. Our firm stays very busy helping people (our great customers) use computers to support and grow their businesses. The vast majority of those computer environments run on Microsoft products. Microsoft servers, Microsoft personal computers running Windows, Microsoft databases; the list goes on and on. We know Microsoft products like no other. Microsoft keeps us busy but AINEO’s strength is we believe all busy should be win-win. We are not afraid to give advice in the best interest of our friends, who are usually our customers.

If you are looking for a computer to

-search the web

-do your email

-organize your music and videos

-edit video

-build a website

-organize edit, publish pictures and slideshows

-and so forth

Then Apple Computer’s Macintosh built on OSX (pronounced OS ten) is for you. Version nine of Apple’s operating system was not interesting to AINEO at all. But with the introduction of OSX, we have seen the advent of the best operating system on the market. What makes it so good? This can be very easily summarized in two points

- It is extremely stable.

It is based on Free BSD UNIX kernel. What does that mean to the end user? Let me give and example. I purchased a Powerbook three years ago at the same time I purchased and IBM Thinkpad. The Powerbook is based on Apple’s OSX operating system. The Thinkpad is based on Microsoft’s Window XP system. With use the Windows registry fills up with various files. It starts slowing down, hanging, and things just not working right. The best fix for Window XP is to rebuild the machine (get a fresh install from scratch). In terms of time that means about 5-7 hours of work reinstalling the OS, the applications, and your profile. Painful! I the In the three years since of use of both machines. We have had to reinstall Windows XP five times. Conservatively speaking that is 25 hours of time. We have yet to do anything with the Mac and we have used it more.

- User Friendly

Coming from a Windows environment of users, the Mac is a bit of a shock. Everything is so simple and logical. Three years ago when I pulled the Powerbook out of the box, I remember the struggle trying to figure out how to add my email and how to see things. I figured out that if I pressed the plus at the bottom of the box of email accounts, I could add an account. It took me 30 minutes, as I was so used to the so-called wizards from Microsoft that help you set up accounts. The windows way was so much more complicated than the OSX logic. Once I figured out not to make it too difficult, things became a breeze. Clicking on the right pointing triangle would show you the details within the account.

There are so many things I could tell you about Apple’s Mac versus Windows and even items like LINUX. However, the best thing is buy a Mac for yourself and check them out. The Mac Mini is a great little entry level box for 50,000 yen (about $500 USD) that can give you a feel for the system. Of course, not everything is perfect with the Mac. We did have the speakers in the Powerbook fail. We had purchased Apple Care (a three year extended warrantee for parts, service, and advice). Fortunately, the speakers were replaced due to that warrantee. Also there is is an abundance of software written for Windows. So Apple users can sometimes be limited.

If you are living in a large city (such as Tokyo) the Mac notebook computers are monsters to lug around. This is when you want to think about a nice lightweight Panasonic PC. At 900 grams Apple is not a good choice for a road warrior doing email and such on the fly. For that matter, that is what Blackberries are for.

In closing, for the home user or someone not corporately tied to Windows, the Mac is an option you don’t want to pass up. If you have any questions about what computers might be right for your office environment, give us a call. The elite team of AINEO experts would be happy to find out what you do and give you the best advice for your needs.

© 2006 Wolfe- AINEO Corporation