Accenture tells us that we are humans to

Lucy Kellaway in the FT today reveals the latest dvd from accenture. She like me asks just why have they decided to release short storries on ten employees to the entire company?

The UK Managing Director says that it helps build teams if they understand each other. The PR Speak is "These short stories were wonderful, and to know they are about people we work with made that much more enjoyable."

Perhaps with accenture needing to once again restock on new staff they are trying to show that the company is diverse and does understand work life balance. If so I am not sure if it will help attract experience staff to move to accenture. In the UK I am confident that it would be a turn off with people affraid that they would be asked to feature in the next video if they revealed any personal issue. (Now if I were cynical I could say that such shorts would reduce the calls to personnel asking for personal time.)

From the spoken to the written word

FT.com has a feature on Spinvox about how voicemail may be at an end with the launch of technology that turns speach to text. The technology does not delete the original voicemail and so if the conversion to text is not always accurate you can finally listen to the message.

This is the Unified Messaging as outlined by Orange's Futurology team some five years ago. They also told of "speaking emails" where your inbox would be delivered to subscribers by the silkie voice Wildfire Siren as seen on the Annova website. Oh happy memories of rosie futures from the boom times.

The problem is that I look at my phone and see that I have a number of missed calls from those who would not leave voicemail. The other problem is do I wish to pay for the delivery of voicespam from my network and others who want to tell me of "excellent new offers". How can I profile my service so that only those on a set list are able to have voicemail converted to text and all others are left for me to access when I am ready?

It is services such as this that networks can lock in users, but the issue has to be how much will I pay for such a service? If I am already on a higher user tarrif and a committed user is it not better to give the service away free as part of my service knowing that it will lift the number of minutes I use and voice is the most profitable service for my network.

Telephones should be used for talking

The FT says that telephones are for talking and all the other flashy data services are just that. It is also something that the networks have acknowledged in as much as they are tarrifing third generation services lower than those of existing ones in an effort to speed the upgrade.

I a discussion last night about wireless we agreed that voice is the one service that you have to provide on a allways on basis. A chief executive can cope without access to his email or his corporate accounting systems he cannot function without a telephone. The other issue about complex communication systems is that they are an ecology that is interdependent so that when a network plugs in a new component they are quite likey to knock out a number of services because they do not understand cause and effect. This is why we have had to wait so long for the launch of 3G.

As someone who has spent all his working life in wireless telecoms I can remember back to the point almost 20 years ago when Racal and BT launched mobile phones and the evolution seen until today we have come to a point when advance sees us having to regress in order to progress rather than Darwinian evolution.

I for one am looking forward to the next few months as the Networks balance the two systems and discover what the consumer will pay for as an individual and as a business.

Mobile Operators hunt for content to make 3G work

The International Herald Tribune wrote a good feature on just what 3G looks like from an America's point of view. The Feature has a piece on can Mobile operators become media players? which acts as a good conter piece that allows us to see the cons of launching 3G.

Whilst in The Sunday Times has a road test of Vodafone's 3G service in which the reviewer talks about his experience with the Sony Ericsson V800 handset which he likes compared to his first experience. The interesting thing is that he does not point out that in order to get consumers to switch Vodafone are offering a 20% discount on its current tarrif. When signing up for 500 minutes you get it coists £40 per month on the 3G plan and £50 on the 2G plan, plus you get some free downloads so that you can experience just what the improvements are when using 3G.

As for me well I am giving up on T-Mobile over the next few weeks and moving over to Orange so that I can have a 3G experience in terms of voice.

DE

Is T-Mobile playing with your brain

BBC Five Live report has had access to BBC 3's analysis of UMTS masts. The key discovery is that T-Mobile used the clause in its current mast contracts to install the new technology without consultation.

Last week over cocktails another Network executive was talking about how they have a group of unhappy former employees who are trying to tell all about 3G mast deployment. They are confident that teh story will be a non-starter because the stakeholders do not want to publish the fact that they are broadcasting higher level microwaves.

Perhaps if we become neoconservatives and are born again the churches will not have to seek income by renting out tower sites in the belfry? Or perhaps if we are to become born again we should be happy that those seeking religion will benefit from a few rays!