So you have your core team and you’re ready to start pitching and getting business. You have no idea what software your accountant will use and you really never even thought of it. After all, how is that relevant to what you’re trying to sell?

When I first started my company, we used spreadsheets to keep track of our sales process. We kept track of who we called and their contact details. We used weekly reports from executives to management. It worked fine for a handful of prospects. Our accounting was done on a custom-made software that did little but record journal entries and spit them back at you. Truth is, I didn’t even have a dedicated accountant as we were fortunate enough to have a sister company provide some of the basic administrative support during our first few months.

As our administrative support functions gained independence, I decided to go with one of the more popular accounting softwares available: QuickBooks. My concern was finding an accountant who knows how to deal with the software without needing training. This was particularly important since I couldn’t possibly be the one doing the training. Needless to say, our ‘temp accountant’ left almost everything to be desired.

QuickBooks was a decent enough accounting software, with annoying quirks that I didn’t get to know about until much later on. But it’s not just accounting that needed a revamp. We needed a Customer Relationship Management system (CRM). Five years ago, SugarCRM was the most mature Open Source solution I have found to suit our needs. Deploying it was a breeze and off we went.

It took several months to get the sales team to make proper use of the CRM. Despite coming with great analytics and dashboards, we made little use of it and relied on manually prepared reports. The CRM served as a record and an address book and fell short of doing more. This is mostly a result of our own processes and not the system’s fault.

In the meantime, our client services went through 2 different ticketing systems that ended in Request Tracket (RT). RT is also an Open Source ticketing solution that helps us track of client requests and our response to them. Early on, we learned that one of the biggest sources of client frustration is slow acknowledgement of their requests. It was important for us to have a system that helped us take care of it and RT helped us implement service quality policies.

As the company grew, dealing with HR proved to get more demanding. Attendance, vacation time, overtime, etc. left us with no other option but to find a system that can help us streamline processes. None of the Open Source solutions available out there was satisfying but OrangeHRM was probably the closest to what I was looking for. Deploying it was also a straight-forward process.

The HR system simplified a lot of the work that we spent a lot time dealing with. But then we ended up with too many systems and a lot of information that is duplicated. The CRM had client details that weren’t shared with the accounting software and vice versa. Accounting had to get data from the HR system manually and then apply changes separately. It also required a lot of learning and training.

But this is how you manage a company on a tight budget, right? You use free software, here and there.. and make the best with what you have, right? Sort of. But what if there was a better way? In comes the ERP.

When you hear the words ‘Enterprise Resource Planning’, you think: huge company. I’m here to tell you, that does not need to be the case. You already do ERP at some level. You’re keeping track of your customers, you’re invoicing them, you’re collecting from them, you’re servicing them and you have staff to do that work. These functions are a part of every company, no matter the size.

Next, I will detail how we started the migration of all our systems into an ERP.

Not too long ago, Western diplomats kept a relatively lower profile. Ambassadors acted as a representative of their governments to their hosts’s government. Then, Wikileaks happened and the landscape changed. While most cables did not reveal anything people didn’t already know or suspect, it confirmed them. Confirmation is not to be taken lightly.

As unrest swept the Middle East (aka ‘Arab Spring’ — a term I fail to grow an affinity to), the West struggled to react without compromising its interests. A slow reaction is seen as an endorsement of oppressive ‘friendly’ regimes. A quick response is seen as a move motivated by greed.

Most remarkable is the French and US ambassadors’ actions in Hama, Syria. The public support of an ambassador for a protest that is disrupting the government of their host nation was met with mixed reactions. It is  without a doubt a significant shift in how Western diplomacy is conducted. It is almost as if they are attempting to communicate with the masses directly, bypassing their official counterparts.

More recently, British Ambassador Nicholas Kay to Sudan was summoned over a blog post on hunger and Abeyi. The government of Sudan is clearly not thrilled with an ambassador publicly making such comments. While none of what Kay has written is privileged knowledge or untrue, it appears at odds with what we expect from a diplomat.

Nicholas Kay comes off as condescending and arrogant. I now understand how Gulf nationals feel when expats ruthlessly criticize their countries. It doesn’t matter whether the criticisms are true or warranted. What matters is who is delivering the criticism.

Are we witnessing a sign of things to come from Western diplomats as they grapple with the new realities of the region? Or is Nicholas Kay just another holier-than-thou personality that is punished by being assigned to Sudan?

When Wikileaks decided to dump all US diplomatic cables it had in its possession, we were finally able to see some of the cables from the less interesting parts of the world. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I did (and still do) fear for the safety of some of the people whose names aren’t redacted.

Business Growth and Government Regulations

Among the cables is a meeting between Fenandez and Osama Daoud of Dal group. Daoud is a hosehould name in Sudan. He and his group of companies touch so many Sudanese lives that it is almost impossible to go on without getting in contact with something he owns or operates. With such wealth in a country as poor as Sudan, controversy is a guaranteed companion.

The meeting details shed new light to a personality idolized by some and despised by many. The cable shows a man frustrated that his businesses are experiencing a dramatic slowdown after a stellar performance. A performance that, by all accounts, is above the norms. He blames the government for his troubles. I would argue that these same erratic and self-defeating government policies are also responsible for his unusual 30-40% annual growth his businesses experienced in 2006. It’s not like the government has changed since then.

Daoud goes on to complain about how the government did not consult the business community on the 2-day weekend that was introduced in 2008 and how the rules are still not clear. While I realize that this is a bit of a tangent, I feel the need to address this point as it stuck out for me. I run a business in Dubai and am often faced with rules and regulations that appear to be arbitrary at best. The rules are rarely clear and often change and morph into a new policy as people grapple with its introduction. This is certainly not the most conductive thing for business. However, I would be hard pressed to consider this a big enough variable that would affect my business growth. It feels petty, from a man who operates more businesses than I can recount.

This is not to say that Daoud doesn’t make any compelling arguments. In his remarks regarding the “business profit tax”, he says:

I’m not personally familiar with the regulations around the business profit tax, but I would agree that taxing businesses should probably come after encouraging their growth first. However, I can also see how the government sees him and his businesses as a good target for taxation and would not be surprised if those ‘arbitrary’ regulations were designed with him in mind.

Daoud also makes a point that I would have a hard time arguing with, citing that the corruption of the SPLM makes it impossible to consider as an alternative to the ruling NCP.

Disowning Sudan

The cable goes on to a discussion on the Teddy Bear incident where a British school teacher was arrested for “insulting the Muslims’ prophet”. He says that he was embarrassed by the affair that was exploited for political rivalry. Up until this point, I was with Daoud and then he was quoted saying that when traveling he now tells people:

Unbelievable! Seriously Daoud? Instead of trying to represent a country that badly needs a face that would contrast the idiocy you felt was embarrassing, you go off claiming to be from Dubai? I lost any respect I could possibly have had for the man. I wish it ended there.

Supporting Darfur War

I have often argued that it is unfair to hold the government of Sudan to the same standards other more militarily advanced nations are held up against. For example, when an American smart-bomb drops, you expect it to not harm civilians. It is designed to be ‘smart’. The government of Sudan does not have access to such technology. It has very basic explosives that it drops from old Russian Antinovs. It sometimes hits and it often misses. Unfortunately, with such poor target control, the casualty count on the civilian side becomes significant.

The question I always asked was, why isn’t the government accompanying their military campaign with humanitarian aid to offset this unfortunate casualty of a war? The answer was always simple: it can barely support its run-down military, how is it going to support humanitarian aid as well? That response often kept me at bay as I pondered what solution we can come up with.

This cable however, seems to have answered that question: tap the business community for support. It made sense. Daoud says that the president called them (business community) to his home and asked them for their support to help the victims of the bombing campaign the government was planning. Daoud says,

In that he means, he knew it wasn’t going to the victims. He then goes on to say that he no longer ‘responds to government requests’. So, instead of the business leaders getting together and supporting humanitarian aid without providing the government with cash, he simply wrote a check. He wrote a check and he knew what was going to happen.

Wow.

I’m one of those people who can’t let go of things that I feel are wrong. Call it a.. unique personality trait. Also, let me make it clear, I have nothing against Porsche or their owners. What I do have a problem with, is people who park as if they are entitled to more space.

Inspired by online notes for people with parking challenges, I printed one out that I liked. It went a little like this:

I know, the “Get a life” part is harsh. Of course, when I decided to put this up on someone’s windshield I did consider the remote possibility of them seeing me. I felt confident that it could either result in a shouting match or even an amicable understanding of how parking should happen.

So there is this parking spot that is badly designed. You could park two cars in it comfortably, but it is, nevertheless a very awkwardly designed space. Unknown to me, the security of the building has approved for a single car to park in that space that is made for 2 cars. This is news to me and I intend to make full use of this new revelation.

What I did not know (and still contest) is that leaving notes (such as the one above) is in any way against the law. I seriously doubt that the police officer who arrived at the scene is qualified to give such an opinion. I do know that a complaint can be lodged and it could turn into a case. But I can also take a wild guess that any judge would throw the case out. Of course no one wants to get caught up in a year long court case over a stupid note.

Admittedly, the whole exercise of printing out the note does give you an idea of how upsetting this whole parking situation is to me. I know I’m not the only one because the Porsche guy and his other Porsche pushing buddies all ganged up on me. They all have been receiving notes on their windshields, chalk, scratches, etc. I honestly have absolutely nothing to do with any act of vandalism. That is beneath me. Leaving a note is not. Printing out is not. I will go at great lengths to make a point, but causing physical harm to persons or their property is not my thing.

I am definitely not surprised. I’m glad there are others but I wish they were around at the time.

Of course the Porsche guy called me a lot of names. “A big coward”.. a “fucking coward”.. “fuck you and fuck off”.. were among some of the obscenities thrown my way. You know what, that’s fine. An understandable reaction to leaving a smart-ass comment on his car . But Mr. Brave man denied every bit of it when the police were there. I thought that was funny. Of course it’s me against him and his buddies. I didn’t bother.

So the Porsche driving Sales Manager gave me a long-winded lecture on what a AED 600,000 means. He even tried to make it easier for me by explaining that this could buy you an apartment. That’s how much money it is, he explained. No really, I sat there listening to the guy explaining to me that 600k is way more money than my obviously ragged self can comprehend.

Thanks for the lesson. I’m obviously jealous.

I have been happy with the iPad. Very happy even. It brought the joy of reading back in my life. Unlike most of my friends and people I know, I’m not app-crazy. I don’t have dozens of apps I’ve never run or only run once. I get what I want and only what I want. Don’t care much for the games, but I’m blown away by Keynote. Like I said, happy.

Moving to Big Boy Laptops

Then my laptop changed and I moved from a MacBook Pro to a Lenovo Thinkpad X220. It’s not as slick as the MacBook Air but it’s light and packs 8GB of RAM with an i5 processor. The X220 comes with a docking station so I’m on my 22″ LG monitor and Apple keyboard and mouse at the office. Since almost everyone at our office is already on Linux, it made sense. Apple simply didn’t offer a powerful enough machine that worked for me. Had the MacBook Air been designed to fit more memory, maybe? I don’t know. I do know that I’m satisfied with my X220 running Ubuntu Linux.

Until it had to meet my iPad. I couldn’t get the latest iTunes to run under Linux (Codeweavers don’t seem to be too concerned with it either — I would have thought it would be a high priority item). There were semi-functioning programs here and there but nothing really solved it all. Not only that, but a sync with Banshee managed to mix up album covers with one another on the iPad. It was just a mess. I’ve had it.

Size Always Matters. Storage That Is

In my search, it was a toss-up between the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Motorola Xoom. At the time of this writing, the maximum capacity you can have on either was 32GB. The only difference is that the Xoom had an SD Card slot that allowed you to increase capacity by an additional 32GB. Wait? You mean, as much storage as I have on my iPad? Cool. I can do that. The Xoom wins.

Form Factor and Buttons

When I first started playing with the Xoom, I wasn’t entirely bothered by the on/off button that is in the back (as opposed to the front like in the iPad), but I was very annoyed by the lack of volume control within the screen. I had to use the two strong buttons on the side of the tab to change the volume. That is really annoying.

The Xoom is snappier than the iPad, I can tell you that much. Oh and I mean the iPad2 as well. But it also has less animation and eye candy. It looks more ‘futuristic’ than ‘beautiful’. Then I saw the keyboard. Oh boy what a keyboard! The Android keyboard improved a little since Android 2.3 on the phone but this thing on the tab is just horrific. What on earth were they thinking?

No problem, I use SwiftKey X and I will just grab the tablet version. WRONG! SwiftKey isn’t available to the UAE market and my “Market Enabler” doesn’t want to run so I can fake a US provider and download it. I know there are a million ways around these things but it’s just such a cumbersome experience.

The Sync!

What I did like is that it quickly synchronized all my apps from my phone (Nexus One). And my contacts. It was effortless. I like.

Happily, I took out the USB cable and plugged the Xoom into my X220. Sure enough, nothing was recognized. Apparently the Motorola Xoom has a USB connection that use MTP  (Media Transfer Protocol) and not MSC (Mass Storage Class). So, downloaded mtp tools and I have this line in my /etc/fstab file:

mtpfs     /media/xoom     fuse     user,noauto,allow_other      0      0

Now it mounts whenever plugged in. OK, now what? Nothing. Banshee doesn’t recognize it, neither does Shotwell.. no one wants to sync with anything! I started a manual copy process of my Music folder. It was slow. It was horribly slow. The transfer rate on this thing is horrifyingly slow. The copy kept failing.

I’ve had enough of that. Quickly put together a shell script and put it on a cronjob to run rsync on my Music, Pictures and Videos.

Conclusion

Now I have everything sync’ing automatically. This is not a pleasant user experience. I most certainly would not recommend the Motorola Xoom unless you enjoy this sort of thing. It is otherwise a decent device.

Education is often seen as a noble endeavor. One that respects the tutor and the student. It is also a sector that appears to be one of the most depressing casualties of war and instability in Sudan. Universities while increasing in number in the past two decades, have only managed to produce unemployable graduates.

As government institutions fail to deliver, the private sector comes in to pick up the slack. Free market, like clockwork! I have some very strong libertarian tendencies, but I do make an exception to health care in which I believe health is a core government function. However, I don’t see education as a core government function. I don’t believe that the government should be in the business of running schools or universities. I would like to ultimately see the private sector take over and let the government do what it should be doing. Legislate and regulate.

The very thought of a university being for-profit brings out a lot of negative feelings. Education should be for that purpose alone and not for turning a profit. The result of turning a university for-profit is catastrophic! All they will care about is the bottom line and education will suffer. Not for Sudan. The best universities in the world are not-for-profit!

I’ve heard a lot of these arguments and they all fail to convince me. Take for example, Sudan. I find it hard to accept that a private for-profit organization can do any worse than your stock government-run university. It’s just difficult to even imagine it. If anything, the only possible change is an improvement.

Allow me to first elaborate on what I mean by for-profit education. I mean, the institute engaging in education should be able to make a profit from one or more of its activities. I am not interested in the legal wrangling of the status of world-renowned institutes like Harvard and MIT. The truth of the matter is, both of these institutes turn a profit from a plethora of projects started by its students and its different departments and divisions. This provides the institute with the incentive to not only excel at its educational offering but exceed it.

The key to privatization of what are otherwise seen as government functions is regulation. The regulators’ only task should be to maintain a balance of incentives and disincentives to guarantee that it is profitable to provide good education. The truth of the matter is, for-profit education has not been around for long enough to have empirical evidence upon which to base our assumptions and conclusions. However, for-profit schools up to high school have been operating in the GCC with varying degrees of success. There are obvious schools that fulfill the role of taking the rejects of the privileged. However, there are real schools that provide value that is otherwise impossible at a government level. These schools have a reputation they guard very seriously. Their reputation affects their bottom-line.

Perhaps we should embrace for-profit education and instead focus on making sure lawmakers are legislating to keep them “honest”, so to speak.

As an expat in the UAE, I have grown accustomed to accepting laws and regulations that wouldn’t necessarily sit well with me if I were a citizen. I’m constantly reminded that I am not a stakeholder but rather, a guest. I knew the deal coming in, so I have no qualms about it. As a guest, my interest in the well-being of my hosts is short-term. It’s only fair.

I am well aware of the restrictions on the media and the conflicting reports about what is acceptable and what is not. As many expats know, since this is not our battle, there is little point in attempting to push the envelope. Why bother? The cost-benefit analysis consistently confirms that an expat should keep their mouths shut and let the citizens fight their own battles. I certainly would feel that way if I were a citizen. I would want to fight my own battles, not some foreigner from some far off land coming and telling me what freedoms I should have.

Recently, Arabian Business published a short article quoting a Dubai Police Colonel threatening up to 10 years of jail for spreading rumors on Twitter, BBM, etc.

Says Col. Abdulrahim bin Shafi, Director of Dubai Police’s anti-organized crime unit. Yes, that double-take you just did is justifiable. I paused for a minute thinking with images of human trafficking, money laundering and some guy RT’ing a tweet that turned out to be a false rumor.

Col. bin Shafi goes on to say,

So, relevance of organized crime aside, I understand the reasoning behind all of this. I just fail to understand how that is going to achieve anything positive. As an expat, this spoke directly to me. It seems to me that anything and everything that is not praise could be considered “dishonoring”.

I discuss a variety of subjects on my blog and my twitter feed. I don’t shy away from taboo subjects and don’t really care what others think or don’t think. I also don’t break the law. I certainly don’t want to break the law in a country I’m a guest in. So how do I know if I’m breaking the law or not?

The heat in Dubai is ridiculous. It is so hot I am instantly drenched in sweat in a sauna-like environment when I step outdoors. Does that cause panic? Is pointing it out breaking the law now?

TECOM are always finding creative ways to charge me more for less service. When they fail to deliver, it’s not their problem. Does complaining about their service to my company dishonoring Dubai’s reputation?

I’m not trying to be funny here. I am seriously wondering if the law is this far-reaching or if this is a simple case of a misinterpretation by the Col. bin Shafi that a reporter ran with as it seemed like an interesting news story. I don’t know where the law is written and I don’t know where I stand.

It almost feels like the law is saying to expats, I dare you.. try and push the envelope. But see, I don’t want to. It’s not my envelope.

Ramadan is a month that Muslims around the world look forward to. It is supposed to be a month of reflection and self-evaluation. A time to abstain from some symbolic pleasures in life (like food, sex, etc.). Some even consider it an opportunity to cleanse your body and start afresh. But I’m not here to tell you about the spiritual aspect of Ramadan. Let’s talk business.

A lot of businesses suffer during the month of Ramadan. Bars are the most obvious negatively affected business from Ramadan. But it’s not just bars and alcohol related businesses that are hit. Other businesses feel the pinch as well. Almost all services-based businesses suffer.

Working Hours

Read the full announcement.

So every business now has lost 2 working hours from its day, regardless of whether these employees are fasting or not. Imagine now that you are talking about a call center or any other business that may experience fewer calls (or workload) but cannot effectively cut operating hours. What options do you have? Only one. You have no choice but to offer overtime.

Slow Sales and Collection

Ramadan is the one month that everyone expects others to expect them not to do any work. Read that again. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy if you will. That means that any pending contract that is expected to be signed is unlikely to happen. It also means that any meeting is subject to random cancellation.

It is not uncommon for people to simply decide to dodge their responsibilities because they believe everyone else is. It’s okay if everyone’s doing it. This doesn’t only affect sales meetings though. It also hurts collection.

We live in a region that is notoriously known for complete lack of respect for suppliers. The bigger you are, the more license you give yourself to not pay your suppliers on time. This is compounded by the acceptable snail pace of Ramadan where very little gets done.

Accuracy and Concentration

In our business, accuracy and timeliness are everything. This unfortunately is not something many can do anything about. With sleep deprivation, dehydration and hunger combined, individuals are bound to underperform. You would hope that people would adopt a healthier sleep pattern to be able to perform the next day, but cultural norms often override work efficiency and the result is the inevitable quality downgrade.

Of course it’s not all bad news for all businesses. For example, airlines with routes to Saudi Arabia often struggle to meet demand. What hotels lose in alcohol sales they make up for in lavish buffets and tents with sheesha. But for the most part, business slows down to a grinding halt and it just couldn’t possibly be the best month of the year for business.

Is your experience different from mine? Please let me know!

The Enough Project has been at the forefront of starving Sudan and pressuring the US government to uphold sanctions that are responsible for the continuing underdevelopment which is fueling conflict. In other words, if I were to simplify this for the masses, the Enough Project is killing people in Sudan.

You see, the problem with the simplification of a complex conflict is that there is a point when you find yourself completely and entirely divorced from reality. On the other hand, trying to explain the intricate details of a complex problem results in the masses losing complete interest in the subject matter. Take Dr. Mamdani’s brilliant debate with Prendergast (see YouTube video below). It’s academic. You would have to be extremely interested in Sudan and the Darfur conflict to listen in. Here comes oversimplification.

When US Special Envoy to Sudan Princton Lyman pointed out that the US government cannot verify mass grave claims made by the Satellite Sentinel Project, citing lack of access as an obstacle, he was attacked. One of the interesting points Lyman makes:

So, in response, I tweeted that the Satellite Sentinel goons are starting their attack on Lyman. Apparently the word “goon” struck a nerve. A fury of tweets from @jonhutson directed to different journalists and individuals I don’t recognize, telling them that I just called them a “goon”. He then proceeded to say this:

I was stunned! But I also found it strangely funny. After all, this is such a great example of oversimplification. Why bother and draw the distinction between the PR architects of a campaign and their audience? It’s a lot more compelling to make me sound like a delusional individual who thinks everyone is a “goon”. It’s brilliant!

Not clear enough? The above says if you tweet about it. No, Jon makes sure you understand. He clarifies here:

Ladies and gentlemen, this is how it’s done! Jon Hutson is a PR guru and is not director of communication at the Enough Project for nothing! He knows how to break down the details and sum it up in 140 characters. He’s so good, I would hire him!

The Satellite Sentinel Project is a pet project of George Clooney’s and Enough Project’s co-founder John Prendergast with a focus on Sudan.Together with Prendergast lobbying clout and Clooney’s finances the SSP has become a real force to be reckoned with. Taking sattelite photos of military planes in airports as proof of aerial bombardments targeting innocent civilians, pick-up trucks with boxes on them as evidence of looting, etc.

While some of SSP’s (Satellite Sentinel Project) pictures are real, their interpretation and analysis are often marred with sensationalism that begs the question of whether the project is a PR campaign or a serious fact finding effort.

What I have noticed from my observation in the past few months of their Twitter (@SudanSentinel) activities is that they start off by making strong claims, such as “Evidence of ..”, “Proof of..” which gets attached with satellite images. In 2-3 days, the language changes to “Potential..”, “Possible..”. However, you find news outlets hungry for more sensationalism running with the original strong statements.

Is this Push-Pull PR strategy ethical? Is it justifiable?