Most Important Skills in Product Management

Working as a product manager requires different skills from different fields. It is not a job that requires one, two or even ten skills. It is like starting your own business and you must have different skills from different fields. It requires Skills from marketing, creativity, technology, pricing and leadership, etc…

Always I do ask myself: “What is the most important skills working as a Product Manager?”. I decided to enter Linkedin and post a new discussion in a popular group called Product Management that have more than 9,987 members and in Telecommunications Product Development Group that have more than 869 from different industries and I had more than 79 comments from different professionals. They had highlighted different skills. Some of them mentioned one skill and others more than one skill.

The number one was Communication. 47 professionals say it is an important skill. Number two was Stakeholder Management (Managing Internal and external stakeholder). 33 professionals say it is an important skill. Number three was Market Understanding. 18 professionals say it is an important skill.

17% of the professionals say Communication is the most important skill. 12% was for stakeholder management. Stakeholder management is something similar to communication. That means both of them is 29%. Product manager should care about developing those two skills.

The important skills from 4 to seven are: Customer Understanding, Product Understanding, leadership, Project Management, creativity, analysis and delivering effective training.

Working as a Product Manager is a challenging job. Although I did not get one answer that a particular skill is the most important skill as Professionals have different opinion, I can say communication is very important skill working in the filed of product management. 

Product Design Differs in Gulf

Product design from region to region differs for many reasons. I have been working in this field for more than seven years and made lot’s of product design which I had learned many things. Would like to share my knowledge and experience with different professional working in the field.

Marketing Communication

The way to reach customers in gulf differs from USA and Europe. One of the examples is marketing through web sites. Customers do visit local web sites but will not buy online from a local web site. Same Customer will buy from http://www.amazon.com as he trust it as an international web site. Many customers in USA and Europe have high internet access. In gulf, Penetration of internet is low and speed is low comparing to Europe. You can not use the internet to show high quality videos to gain more customers. We use here different methods. For instance, in Oman Marketing for government sector through news paper is very successful as the newspaper is delivered to the employee daily.

Culture

The religion in Gulf is Islam. Providing the right messages and pictures is very important. People will not except some messages which does not respect Islam religion. Furthermore, the Arabic Language. Marketing materials in Business to Consumer need to be prepared in both languages mostly. A professional should consider that when developing the marketing materials.

Word of mouth is very successful method in the Gulf. People do trust them selves a lot here in gulf.

Awareness of Product

In gulf, we do have many foreigners from out the gulf region and they might have lot’s of information about the service and local citizens with no information and do not know about the product. Way of providing awareness should be considered that some people know a lot about the service. On the other hand, some other people need to be educated.

Market Research

In gulf when doing market research we have the challenge of the difficulties of there is lack of data. It is not easy to get data and information. Statistics is not much available. Many times in developing a market research I spend a lot of time developing reports. Very popular method many professional use is benchmarking. In gulf for the benchmarking they do compare between the six countries of gulf which are: Oman, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain & Kuwait.

Learning from Other Countries

Many professionals do see what had been succeed in other countries and try to implement it here in the Gulf. This is very populate here in the gulf. One advise I would like to give to professionals is that to customized the solution based on our region.

Vendors Developing the Service

In gulf in many industries such as Oil & Gas, Telecommunication and Information Technology do have local representative with companies outside the country. Many local representative are not establish in the country. We do keep this into consideration when developing the product. Sometimes, the vendor need to find a local representative do the work with the customer.

Here in Gulf, professionals trust a lot of companies who show them selves in a professional way. Also, providing business cases and portfolio that their product was successful. In Information Technology they do trust a lot Indians. In Telecommunications, they do trust a Chinese company called Huawei which is a leading global telecommunications solutions provider as it is saving a lot of cost to telecom operators.

Furthermore, after providing the service, the weekend in gulf is different from other countries. In Oman, our weekend is Thursday and Friday and outside the gulf is Saturday and Sunday. The days we share are three days per week which are Monday till Wednesday.

GDP is High in Gulf

The GDP of countries in the Gulf is High. In the CIA World Factbook two of gulf countries were in the top 10 which are Qatar and Kuwait. In World Bank Qatar & UAE was among the top 10. In addition, in International Monetary Fund Qatar was among the top 10.

This shows that GDP in Qatar, UAE and Kuwait is very high and customers are willing to spend to buy products. Through my personal experience, marking in Qatar depends a lot in Quality and they do have the cash to invest.

Request and Needs of Customers

Request and Needs of Customers in some product might be different in our region. This is something I would like by the end of my article. For example, our nature and environment is different from other places. Our nature is deserts and mountains. I had been in one of fiber to the home and the company considered that our region has deserts and mountains.

This are some of some points what makes product design in our country different from others.

Time to Market

Time-to-Market methodology is a popular methodology discussed worldwide in the market world. The first time I had heard this concept was with Orange from France. I liked it and in many services I try to implement it to make it successful service.

Time-to-Market is a methodology which is from the start of the idea till it is ready for selling it. Making the service ready from all the different directions. For example if a company needs to finish launching a project with three categories which are: Vendors tasks, commercial side and technical side. The Time-to-Market methodology target is to finish the project from the different categories. Time-to-Market not only focus on time. It also concentrates on the resources. It’s target it to reduce the resources. One of the resources is the amount of cost of vendors, buying equipments, services requested and others.

I want to tell you about one of the experience I had for one of the services in my work. Many challenges do employee who is responsible of managing and launching of the service of not get all the internal approvals. In addition, it may find many challenges that the service is getting to make the technical tasks ready. Time-to-Market targets too is getting the internal approval and make the service ready from the technical aspect.

Some popular technical tools are available online which some can use and others are desktop tools Time-to-Market. Online which is free from Zoho and desktop which is Microsoft Office Project.


Personally, I do feel it is nice concept to be followed to let the SMEs and big enterprises launch their services in the market and be happy that they had launched a new service.

Market Research from an Omani Working in Gulf

Market research is an important role and task working in the field of marketing. Being a Product Manager, Marketing Executive or Marketing Manager the Market Research is an important responsibility. Personally, I enjoy doing Market research. From collecting data to the last stage which is preparing the report to our Senior Managers. Some of the companies in the Gulf let the Market Research part of the responsibilities of one of their employees in the marketing department. Some of them let a dedicated employee with the Marketing Research job title.

The first step in doing Market research is defining the objective of the Market research. The Market research is divided into two types in terms of purpose which are: For operational and strategic. The objective of operational is for the daily tasks in the company. The second type strategic purpose.

In the Gulf we do go to some global companies and ask them for reports such as Forrester Research, Hall & Partners and Gartner Group. We do also have local research companies such as Arab Advisers Group and International Data Corporation (IDC) in Dubai.

Data been collected is divided into two types which are: Quantitative and Qualitative.

Some of the methods we do implement is to collect some data from press releases from local newspaper such as Al Watan and Oman. Some of the popular places that provides useful reports from the government are The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority in UAE. In Qatar is Qatar's ICT Landscape which been conducted by Qatar ICT. I am also using popular portals during my Market research from Gulf. Popular news portal in the Gulf that i trust a lot are AME Info FZ LLC and Zawya. Collecting data from employees from different department is a nice way to collect data. I do collect from Sales, Customer Service, Call Center, Engineers, and technicians.

After collecting data we do analyze through using different tools. We do measure by different tools. Some of the tools I had been using are Risk Analysis, Cost/Benefit Analysis and Return on Investment (ROI). In the gulf, Benchmarking is an important method that is used commonly in the government sector where governments compare with the different countries in the gulf.

Technology had changed the way we work in the Market Research. Internet had changed the Market research dramatically. Products from Microsoft, Oracle and IBM and other vendors is helping a lot. Microsoft has a product called Microsoft SQL Reporting Services which you can develop and obtain report easily. We do collect data internally from Databases and Warehouses. I Do also use a tool commonly in the Microsoft Office which is Excel.

Personally, I had conducted many Market research in the Telecommunications & Information Technology industry. I did for Internet services and fixed services. In addition, in Information Technology industry.

Introduction to Business-2-Business Marketing & Market from Gulf

I have been working in Marketing for more then six years in the Gulf. Every business whether small or big wants to market their business to get more customers, generate more revenue and grow their business. Marketing in business which sells products to women is different from marketing products which sells to tourism shops. I will share with you some of the features of B2B market and marketing that I saw in gulf.

Generally, we can divide marketing into two types. The major types are B2C which is Business-to-Consumer and Business-to-Business Marketing which is B2B. The following are examples of selling in the B2B market. This week Oman Fisheries Co won a contract from Ministry of Defence to supply Fishes for three years. Another example, Etisalat is providing Broadband Internet service to their business clients in UAE. Marketing in B2C is different from marketing in B2B. In B2C, companies market through leaflet as one method with is popular. Some of them had used new technology like Mass SMS to market their products. In B2B, companies market through press releases such as saying they had signed a contract with a partner which will allow them to sell a new product. This will let other potential customers to be excited buying the product. This kind of business we call it as B2B. Briefly, Business-to-Business Marketing is a type of marketing in a business to other business to sell their products and services.

We can divide B2B market into different segments. The different major segments of Business-to-Business are: Big Companies, Small & Medium companies (SMEs), governments.

Marketing to a business is different from marketing to individuals. The way they make a decision differ too. Some of the products are similar and some of the products are different. Marketing the products in B2B is different then B2C.

One of the important features of Business-to-Business Marketing is relationship. For example, Many Companies in Dubai in B2B release and concentrate a lot in one of the jobs called business development manager. He is responsible of managing relationship with the client. I had found from my experience in the gulf that having a good relationship with the client is very important. Good to build relationship with decision makers in the business you want to make revenue. In B2C business do not spend much time with customers. In B2B, the relationship in many cases is long term not short term. Sometimes business spend with some clients 10 years. Also, the way of making decision. Customers might buy a product within five minutes. But in B2B the seller might spend many minutes, many days and many months before he make a decision to buy a product. In the private & government sector in Muscat the client takes a long time to make a decision. In many scenarios it starts from an employee. The employee talks to the direct manager. The direct manager speaks to the General manager and tell him that this product will save money or generate revenue to the company. The General manager make a decision.

Client do consider when he purchase a product that this product generate revenues or it safe cost for his business. It is not enough to market the product with its features. It is important to market that this product will generate revenue for the business or it will save money for the business. For example, in the Information Technology industry going to a customer and telling him that spending in Internet Marketing will generate more revenue will let him think about it. But the client will not say “Yes” from the first visit. The company needs more then one meeting, more then one call and more then one email. The business need to be patient and never give-up from the first visit. Briefly, it is more complicated process and it takes a long time then B2C. Marketing materials are different too. In the B2C Leaflet is a popular marketing material. Before starting the new semester of the school in Muscat, Many schools were distributing Leaflets after the Friday prayers. In the B2B developing business case studies is very popular. Showing other companies what other had purchased will give confident to the client to buy it. Here in the Gulf when showing business cases that companies in similar industry from USA and Europe are using your product will make the company more willing to purchase it. Another thing that customers in B2B are less in quantity. Some of the B2B companies only have one or two customers. For example, some in the oil industry in Sultanate of Oman have Petroleum development of Oman or more popular as PDO and Occidental Oman as their only clients. Some of them do have more clients. Other in the B2B do have clients more then that. Some do have 100 clients. Some do have 200 clients. Many companies do divide their clients as Accounts and Key Accounts. Key Accounts are the important accounts and which most of the revenue of the company do come from the key accounts. Many companies in IT industry in Oman do consider Information Technology Authority (Popular as ITA) as key Account as it is willing to spend a lot in the IT projects and they do care about ICT a lot in the country. When dealing with clients in the B2B they will be asking lot’s of questions. For example, selling services in Telecommunication industry such as ADSL clients will ask if the company do provide Static IP or Dynamic IP and many other questions. If the seller do not know the difference the client will be unsatisfied because the seller do not know the difference. The seller should have a strong technical knowledge about the product that he is selling. This is a good advantage when selling the product. The seller should learn about the products and from time to time read about the product.

The Internet had changed the method of marketing in B2B. Having a good web site which gives a good impression to the clients is a good method to market products in B2B.

That is my opinion of Business-2-Business Marketing and market from my experience in the Gulf.

Performance of the Three Petrol Companies in Oman During 2Q of 2010

In Oman we do have three companies providing petrol stations services which are: Al Maha Petroleum Products Marketing Co. SAOG, OMAN OIL MARKETING COMPANY SAOG and Shell Oman Marketing Company SAOG. The three companies are listed in Muscat Securities Market. Shell is among the MSM 30 Index companies. The net profit of the three companies had increased in 2010. Al Maha had increased OMR 528,000, Oman Oil had increased OMR 1,135,505 and Shell had increased OMR 769,000. Furthermore, Earnings Per Share of the three companies had increased. Al Maha Earnings Per Share (EPS) had increased mostly by OMR 0.076 and Shell Earnings Per Share (EPS) with the lowest OMR 0.007.

Al Maha had opened 5 new filling stations during the last year. Shell Aviation Business had won new contracts. Some of the projects are Fly Dubai and Shaheen Air. Oman Oil had signed an agreement with Vale S.A. (VALE) to Invest in Sohar Iron Ore Pelletizing Plant.

Personally, The net profit and Earnings Per Share (EPS) shows that the Omani economy is doing well during 2010 and it is expending comparing to 2009.

From Abu Dhabi, Leading Change in Your Organization

During 2010 I had the opportunity to go to Abu Dhabi and attending a conference called "New Essentials for Leading Change in your Organization". It was nice experience and had learned from Daniel Goleman and John Kotter. Individually, personally, senior manager, entrepreneur, member of an organization and ministry dream of a change. Some leadership do success and some do fail. Steve Jobs CEO of Apple succeed in establishing Apple and launched successful products such as iPad, iPhone and iPod. Bill Gates CEO of Microsoft established the company and launched many successful operating systems and softwares. In the middle east, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid made Dubai one of the most popular cities in the world and very successful city in the middle east and world wide.

During our professional life we always see a problem and we want to change it. Sometimes businessman see their business is not working well or does not make revenue and decide to sit with himself or the members and say "Let's Change". Members of the group meet and discuss about changing the group and say "Let's Change". We always want to change to better. I had learned from the conference a very nice way that I really liked it and I do advise companies to implement it.

First Step: is setting direction. It is nice to set a direction and have a clear picture in your mind of what you want to change. It is having a clear vision in your company for what you want to achieve. In other words, is creating a strategy.

Second Step: aligning employees to the direction you had set it up.

A great leadership cannot do the job alone. Good to have employees believe in your vision and let everyone as possible to be part of your strategy. Communicating your vision and strategy to the employees in the company is important issue. One person can not do everything. Teamwork and collaboration with the different employees will make your strategy come true.

Third Step: Motivating employees to do action is very important. From time to time, Create things that will motivate employees. Some employees do get motivated by giving them promotion. Others do get motivated by giving them more challenging jobs. It is like career development. Everyone has different things that motivate them.

Fifth Step: Having creativity and innovation is good. Do not do like all other do. Sheikh Mohammed did not think as all the Arab leaders to make Dubai successful. Bill Gates did not thought like all the CEOs in the Information Technology industry to make Microsoft successful.

Sixth Step: Proper Business Model. In other words, It is planning how you are going to achieve what you want to achieve. Ask your self an important question which is How the customer needs our changes? Creativity and motivation without the customer needs is not good. It is good to think from customer perspective.

Changing is a challenge but everyone can do it. Not all the people who changed are the same. But all have one thing in common. They believe they can do it.

Investing in a Petrol Station in Oman

Cars are increasing in Sultanate of Oman year after year. The demand of oil products is increasing year after year. Citizens and expatriates driving the car in the country are increasing. Many petrol stations are opening outside Muscat and the petrol stations inside Muscat are doing well. The retail sales had grown 19% in Al Maha in 2008 (Source: Financial Report) and it opened 11 petrol stations. Oman Oil had started 8 petrol Stations in 2008 (Source: Financial Report)

Government Rules

Government in the Sultanate of Oman do consider that all the individuals who are interested in opening a petrol stations do have a land which is commercial or Residential & Commercial lands and the size to be not less then 2600 m2. And the distance between each petrol station to be 5 Kilometers. The Five Kilometers rule does not apply in Sohar and Salalah (Source: Employee from Al Maha). Those rules are appliciable to the three companies in Oman managed by Ministry of Oil & Gas in the country.

Brand

In Oman we do have three brands for petrol stations which are: Oman Oil, Al Maha and Shell. Selecting which brand you want to represent is important. The three companies will support you well. Having good relationship with the company is important and showing that you can manage the petrol station is important while you are with them. Thinking about the way the Marketing strategy that the three companies do follow and the Customer Service Support they will provide you is important. According to a research done by an independent company it shows that customers in the country prefer Shell (Source: Shell Oman Marketing Report). When an investor go for Al Maha they do prepare for him a business case and feasibility study (Source: Employee from Al Maha)

Products to Sell

Selecting selling the three major products which are super, regular or diesel is another factor. Being in a location where many tracks do by pass means it is important that you sell diesel.

Location

Location is very important criteria when you want to start a petrol station. Knowing about the new roads where the country is planning to open. Roads which they are many cars do by pass and there is know petrol station. The Volume of cars is important. Surrounding major projects and houses is important factor. This an important factor the three companies do care about.

Value Added Services

Another very important factor is Value Added Services are services beside the major petrol station is important. Opening a shop with the petrol station is important. This will generate direct sales from the shop. Also, it will increase the revenue of the petrol station as people will stop their car to fillup their car and then stop shopping in the shop. Providing a Car wash. Furthermore, starting a restaurant where people can eat will let more people come to the petrol station.

Investing opening a petrol station is a Long Term Investment where you can make good Return on Investment for the Long Run. The three companies in the country will support you and Ministry of Oil and Gas in the country will provide you a great assistance.

Selecting Location for Petrol Station in Oman

One important criteria when investing in Starting or buying a Petrol Station is the location of the Petrol Station. How do I know the location of the Petrol Station I want to build or buy is good? They are some few questions you need to answer and gather the data to know if the location you are selecting is good. First of all, is the traffic in the location you would like to start building the petrol station. Are they many traffic in the road where you want to build the petrol station? Remember that the traffic in weekdays might be very different from weekends. Type of traffic is another important factor. Do most of the traffic are cars or trucks? And are the traffic willing to fill a lot while stopping in the location? Also, ask if the road is accessible by many cars from different locations. It is very important selecting a location where car drivers can access the petrol station very easily. In addition, accessing the petrol station from different roads to the petrol station. Being able to access the petrol station from more then one road is important factor to consider when selecting a petrol station location. It is very important selecting a location where car drivers can access the petrol station very easily. Furthermore, are they any other petrol stations around you or near by the location you are thinking of? Selecting a location where nearby they are no Petrol Stations will let car drivers come more to your petrol station. The future growth and the future projects in a certain location is important factor to consider when selecting a location. Gathering data that a certain area will be having many future project is important factor for the location.

Wish you all the best selecting location of your Petrol Station in the new year of 2010!

Difference between Super and Regular Fuel in Oman

In Oman when going to Al Maha, Shell, Oman Oil Petrol Station we do find two types of Fuel which are Super and Regular. Many people do not know the difference between super and regular. I had asked my self what is the difference between Super and Regular? The first difference between Super and Regular is the price. During writing the article the price of Super is 120 Baiza Per Litter and the Regular is 114 Baiza Per Litter. The difference between the two is 6 Baizaes.

New cars do use Super and very old cars do use Regular. Super is smoother for the car engine. Regular is harder for the car engine. One of the companies in our country which is Shell do promote their super product by, "Designed for extra kilometers at no extra cost". Usually the usage in Super is higher then Regular.

Technically, Super in Oman is 95 octane and Regular is 90 octane. Briefly octane means ability to resist knocking. The Government of Oman do set this value for the octane. octane requirement in hot countries like Oman, UAE and Qatar is higher then cold countries like France and UK. Sports cars and luxury cars usually do need higher octane.

WiMax from Product Manager from Gulf

Mena Telecom in Bahrain launched WiMax. Mobily launched a new WiFi-enabled WiMax. Algeria was the first Arab country to deploy WiMax. Five other arab countries followed Algeria and among the five three gulf countries which are Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain. As I am a Product Manager in the Gulf I hear a lot about WiMax release, business case, feasibility study and Market Research and many do not know what is WiMax.

What is WiMax? WiMax stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access. It is a technology that provides operators worldwide to provide Broadband Wireless solution. It can cover an area for up to 50 KM providing Internet and the speed is upto 72 Mbps. Comparing to other technologies it can cover a bigger area and provide a faster speed. Comparing to WiFi it can cover a bigger area. Comparing to ADSL it can provide similar speed or a faster speed. WiMax can be a competitive of ADSL. Moreover, WiMax can provide more then ADSL as it can provide Mobile Broadband to operators.

Some operatoars do use WiMax to cover Rural Coverage like in Algeria. Some of them use it as a Fixed Broadband and compete with ADSL. New Entrants to a market find using WiMax easier and more cost-effective then Fiber or cable like in Oman.

Nokia Siemens, Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel Networks, Huawei Technologies and many Telecommunication Global enterprises put many Human Resources, Technology, Market Research and many stuff into WiMax. WiMax is Growing and many opportunities are ahead in the gulf region and world wide.

WiMax face challenges from ADSL Broadband Internet and to win it it should be more faster and easy to use. It also do face a challenge from Mobile Broadband technology as 3G or 3.5G it should provide more mobile solution, higher speed, cheaper equipments and easier to use. Also, HSDPA do challenge WiMax. HSDPA is more mobile. But WiMax is faster then WiMax.

I do believe Operators in Middle East and business and residential customers can benefit from WiMax technology.

An Exciting New Way for Paying

Information Technology Authority had launched Payment Gateway. This had opened new doors for Government Entities, Banking Industry, Private Sector, Entrepreneurs who are thinking of starting business and expatriates and citizens in the country. Payment Gateway will boost businesses, guarantee an open market, promote innovation and contribute to overall economic growth. It is An Exciting new way for paying. We are going Toward Digital World. A new way towards benefiting from Internet World.

Before launching the Payment Gateway Information Technology Authority had made sure that there is a law which they called it E-Transactions Law which organize the online transactions. This is a good thing as it will organize the online transactions and people will be more confident because they know there is a law which protect their transactions. This will help citizens and expatriates pay online with confidentiality. The E-Transactions Law will let people trust, confident and do their transactions and they know there is a law which will protect them. I had like the strategy of issuing E-Transaction Law before the Payment Gateway. This will contribute to the Digital Oman and everyone will feel they are protected.

I had liked the payment gateway solution. Government entities will be able to provide their services in a convenient way. Also, in a new way. In addition, this will let the Ministries go into the E-Government Road more then one step ahead. I want to see Sultanate of Oman ahead in the E-Government. Using the Internet in the Government Sector citizens and expatriates will make happy. This also will introduce the administration work.

Banking Industry will benefit from the Payment Gateway as well. I feel this will promote the credit card usage in the country. The number of Credit Card will increase especially if people feel they can finish their E-Government Transactions and local shopping online. For the telecommunication Industry it will encourage people to use the Internet more and this will let them make more revenue.

Entrepreneurs can benefit a lot from the payment gateway. Payment Gateway can save the cost of starting a business. They can develop a web site which is something like E-Commerce Solution. Customers can view the products online. After viewing the products they can buy online. This will let the entrepreneurs get customers inside the country and outside the country.

People from home can finish their transactions. Oman Mobile & Nawras customers now they can pay their bills online. This will help people to be bills online from home. This will help businesses to gain money in a new way. People will be able to pay their bills online. People will be able to shop in a new way. The solution Will help the government sector to provide their services online. Not only that, citizens in the country will have additional methodology to finish their financial transaction. For the customer side he will be happy as he will have a new way to buy, pay for bills and order online. Busy people with busy schedule will benefit from the payment gateway as they will be able to pay their bills online.

I feel awareness and promoting the payment gateway is important thing to let the growth of usage in the country. It is not about only selling and busying inside the country.

Challenges that different segments will face are different. Start-ups will most consider about the cost of using the service and the commission they should pay to Information Technology Authority. I would suggest that ITA should provide a special offers to Omani Youth Citizens. Government Sector will face a challenge that it should change it process and let it comfortable to pay online and let people finish online. Private sector should promise people that they will deliver their services and products after people buy online. Banking Industry should let the process of obtaining the Credit Card Simpler and easier.

We are founders of Digital Touch. We have experience in E-Commerce & E-Government Solutions and we are happy that Information Technology Authority had opened for us a new door to develop more Advanced E-Commerce and E-Government Solutions. We can help companies benefit from Payment Gateway.

I am happy to see Online Payment available in Oman for the government & private sector. This will let us go ahead in the Digital World. In addition, It will let private companies to enter the E-Commerce World. Payment Gateway will have great impact in our Economy.

Building Business Case in Telecommunication Industry

We here a lot from Presidents in the telecommunication industry in the middle east asking their senior managers, "Prepare for me a business case" or sometimes after hearing about a new Technology employees ask their self, "Why don't we do it in our Company? Does it worth developing a business case?". What is Business Case in the Telecommunication industry? Omantel, Qtel, Etisalat and Du and the other telecommunication operators always ask for a business case for new projects, services or ideas. Telecommunication and Information Technology Industries comparing to other industries changes a lot as every day we listen to new services and technologies around the world. We do listen to a new way to make money or safe money. Top managers and employees working in the Product Development do prepare lot of Business Cases. For me personally, I do prepare business cases a lot as I am a product manager and I do evaluate the new ideas and services. The initial way to evaluate is to stay by my self and think, "Can we make money our of this project". Let's say something like WiMax. I do stay with my self and ask my self, "Can we make money out of WiMax?!" If I said to my self, "Yes, WiMax is a good opportunity for our Telecommunication Company". I go to the next step which is developing a Business Case.

Business Case is a document that includes the following sections: 1) a background of the service. 2) Reasons for thinking of the service 3) Financial & Human Resources Required 4) Readiness of the business providing the service 5) Project plan 6) Project Scope 7) Customer Impact 8) Risk Analysis 9) Service and Project Deliverables 10) Financial Justification 11) Consequences of not executing this project 12) Decision (Go Ahead/Not Go Ahead)

Let's take WiMax as an example of developing it and selling it in Sultanate of Oman. First of all, provide a short description telling the Senior Managers and different employees about WiMax. For instance, "WiMax is a telecommunications technology that provides for the wireless transmission of data using a variety of transmission modes, from point-to-point links to full mobile cellular-type access". Explain to Senior mangers why we should go to WiMax? Telling to the managers the benefits that the Company can benefit from WiMax. Also, the Readiness of our existing Telecommunication System. It is important to tell them that we are ready or not from the Human Resourcs, Network Capability and Finanically. Questions will be something like "Can we use or existing system or do we need a new system? who are our strategic partners and alignment to provide this service? Can we go with Ericsson, Nokia Siemens or Cisco?

Part of it is making Market Research and gathering data, How other Operators around the world made money from WiMax. For instance some operators think this way "Building the mobile Internet with WiMAX"

They are many questions to need to be answered in the Business Case. Business Case help the compay make the decisioin that the proposed servcice or technology we can make money out of it.

The business case is a document help senior managers have a clear picture of a new service or opportunity in the telecommunication industry. Business Case is important as it documents that documents everything and make the decision of "Go Ahead or not Go Ahead" for a service or project. Business cases includes the quantitative and qualitative analysis.

Developing a business case in the telecommunication industry requires basic Financial background, some telecommunication background, industry analysis and marketing analysis.

Let's take WiMax as an example. On one hand, It is important to know the basics of WiMax. Something like, "How to get WiMax" On the other hand, it is important to evalutate from the finical and commercial perspective. The Capital cost required, the Operational cost, evaluting the prices of the equipments. It is important to understand financial terms like Rate of return, cash flow, length of payback period and other financial criteria.

Bottom line, in the telecommunication industry business case should help you communicatate, "What you are doing, How will make money? Can we make money out of it?"

Good Luck in Developing Your Business Case!

Product Development Process

Product Development is an interesting field. I will tell you my own opinion of Product Development Process and method I feel will benefit you a lot.

Product Development is developing a Product or a Service that you want to sell to customers. Building a Product that people really needs and there is demand for the Product or Service you want to develop.

While Developing a product you need to consider that you product is technical and from commercial side you can develop.

Below are the steps you need to follow to develop a successful Product or Service.

Step I: Accept all ideas. Bring all ideas from different sources. Bring from customers, ideas from colleagues, customers, magazines, internet and from every where what you want to implement and develop. Everyone Dreams, bring all your ideas that you think you in your business. If you were in Real Estate Industry think of different options and put all of them in a piece of paper.

Step 2: Evaluate ideas. Ask you self: Will customer buy what you want to sell? Can you finically and technically provide your ideas to customer?

The expected growth is very important. Also the pressure and the expected competition are important factors to consider when evaluating a product.

Select the ideas that you feel mostly will be successful. The idea that will mostly customers buy. Also, the idea that you feel you is capable and ready to implement it it.

Step 3: Develop a business case, financial feasibility study, and Product Description.

Business Case

Business Case is a document that includes information about the Product, the requirements you need to start the product, the Human Resources that you require and many different sections. This will help you gather more information about your product and understand it more.

Usually a Business Case includes the following sections:

1. Executive summary
2. Brief Description about the Product
3. Customer Impact (What will customer benefit from the service)
4. Objectives and deliverables
5. Costs: Which Includes: Capital Cost & Operational Cost
6. Market analysis which you can include which includes: Target Market, Demand Assumptions, Growth, Pricing and Industry situation for the Product
7. Price Proposed
8. Implementation Period
9. Partners if any
10. Risk Management
11. Conclusion
    

Feasibility Study

Includes the Expected Capital and Operational, and Demand Analysis. This is a Sheet which includes numbers and the amount of money required.

Capital Cost is the equipments and services that you need to purchase to start the service. For example, to start a Real Estate Project you need a land. A land is considered as capital cost because it is in the first step of developing the project and only one time payment. Operational cost are the cost you need to pay to run the service. For example, the labor cost you need to pay form employees to finish your Real Estate Project.

It is nice to develop a Feasibility Study as you will now the expected revenue and cost.

Product Description is a short document where you can put a brief description about the product you want to sell.

Step 4: Is to decide to go for the Product or Not to Go. You need to make decision if the Service or Product you want to launch is Feasible. If feasible you go to the next step.

Step 5: Project Management. After deciding to go for the project you need to implement the project. This requires good skills in Project Management. You need to make the Human Resources, the Financial Resources and the other resources ready.

In the last phase you need to think of the message you want to deliver your customers, where will customers be able to buy the service, how you goanna sell the service and many marketing things.

Step 6: Product Launch. This is a nice part where you will celebrate the launching the product or service.

Step 7: Evaluating You Product after launch. From time to time you need to evaluate your product and service. See how much money you generate? Is customer satisfied? Does the growth is same or above expectation?

That are the steps for Product Development Process.

I like product development and I like what his highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Says about Something related to Product Development and Management.

You need to be a leader, As His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, "Everyone dreams, but only the leader can change dreams into reality"

My Experience of Product Development in 2007

It is the last day of 2007 and I want to share my experience and opinion of Product Development in this year.

Product Development is the most exciting part under Marketing. On one hand, turning an idea into reality is hard thing. On the other hand, it is very exciting and challenging.

You need different skills from different fields. You need experience in Marketing, Finance, Accounting, Economics and Technical experience in the field you are working in. One of the challenges that I face are technical employees view the product only from the technical side. Also, non-technical employees looks at the product from the commercial side only. I had tried to bridge with the two sides and be in the middle.

Dealing with partners and try to understand their needs is very important. In addition, trying to communicate with them and tell them about your needs and requirements had required from me to have business development skills. Also, developing strategic alliances is very important. Partnership with partners had provided for me an opportunity to learn about other cultures and to understand how other international companies are working and learning from them.

Project Management is very important in Product Development. I had used useful tools that had helped me in Project Management which are: Microsoft Project Management and the online tool Google Documents.

Research skills is very important. Using the Internet, meeting professionals from the same field is very important, gathering data from the company database and conducting surveys were the main methodologies I were using. Using the Internet and trying more to understand how to use the Search tools more effectively and efficiently had helped me to get what I want from the Internet easily.

Coming from a Technical Background and being enthusiastic to learn more about product had helped me a lot. It is not only about money and figures. You need to understand the Product from technical side. That had helped me to provide First Level Support and to answer questions that employees are asking about the Products.

Learning and providing knowledge transfer to the employees in your company is very important and making every one being committed and excited to be happy in launching a particular product is a challenging thing.

This what I have in the last day of the year. I am happy that I am working in this field.

Wish you a happy & successful new year!

Happy New Year!