This document discusses process innovation and challenges the practice of network freezing at the end of the year. It argues that network freezing was invented by equipment vendors to allow their employees to travel home for holidays, and was later adopted by operators for the same reason rather than for technical reasons. However, freezing stalls projects and delays critical work. The document advocates eliminating network freezing and treating fiber connectivity as an essential utility that is prioritized year-round like electricity or water. Customers deserve consistent attention regardless of the time of year.

1. Digital City
Innovation is easy
The Hard part is
Changing

2. 27th December 2013
From all Innovations PROCESS
INNOVATION is the hardest
Process Innovation is to “do something
different rather than doing the same thing
better”
It involves people
People don´t like change

3. 27th December 2013
Innovation is easy.
Consider the light bulb.
Changing a light
bulb is hard

4. 27th December 2013
Innovation is easy.
Consider the wheel
Changing a wheel is
hardW.T.F!
3 guys per wheel!

5. 27th December 2013
• Our goal is for fiber to be treated as an essential service
• We are working to get fiber connectivity to be treated as
important and crucial as electricity, water and sewage
• If we get fiber as crucial as any utility then we have to
behave like an utility.
What has this to do with fiber?

6. 27th December 2013
•
• To changemake is to turn something 180º
and give it a hard look
•Consider practice of year’s end network freezing:
• You have heard that:
• “This is critical period for our business. We’re going to freeze the network”
• But you have never heard that:
• “All leave for key personel is cancelled during critical period for our
business”
• If we have heard that we would have had the shortest freeze period in the
industry.

7. 27th December 2013
Built for the INTERNAL customers
• 4 Project managers
• Three internal handovers
• 4 acceptances visits
• Freeze in December stops for a month
• Takes a year
FTTB FTTH
Built for the EXTERNAL customers:
• They want it now!
This freezes
No time for
freezing
here.

8. 27th December 2013
• Network Freezing properly explained:
• In essence, no planned maintenance or upgrades will occur during the
predefined time period a.k.a network freeze.
• Importantly, however, all normal service restoration and service
installations should continue as usual
• Once the network freeze was put in place, the service installations people
jump into the bandwagon and now even the tea boys are frozen too !

9. 27th December 2013
• The freeze is in place not because of the peak period.
• Nor for the benefit of the customers.
• The freeze is in place because there is no key people to manage the
operations properly. Because they want to go on holidays.
• Of course an essential change in the network could be done.
• That would require a higher level decision. But the high level decision
maker is away

10. 27th December 2013
Why do we have freezes?
• Freezing was invented during the mobile boom years by Siemens Ericsson
and Nokia.
• When fixed line ruled, the political promises had to be fulfilled and there
was never a freeze at year’s end.
• Siemens Ericsson and Nokia managers and engineers wanted to spend
Xmas at home and created the freeze thing to fly out to their countries of
origin.
• The operators’ engineers and managers found that a good idea and
supported freezing com gusto.
• The so-called ‘network freeze period’ is an industry practice that is
observed during peak retail periods.
• That means during World Cup there is a freeze. So that the network folks
can watch football without having to worry about the customers

11. 27th December 2013
• We should not put the freeze up and hide behind the freeze.
• That stalls projects
• Of course we would not swap the billing system at peak period.
• We don’t upgrade firewalls during same period.
• But the freeze become: “Don’t touch anything that is live.”

12. 27th December 2013
• Freeze makes people concentrate all their holidays during a short time
span
• Many people going on holidays at once there is no one minding the shop
• People hearing about the freeze relax and block everything
• As network is in constant change, stopping in December delays critical
work
• Vendors knowing of the freeze slow down from December 1st to January
15th
•Lets have a look at this again:
•We want fiber to be treated as strategic asset
• We are working to get fiber connectivity to be treated as
important and crucial as electricity, water and sewage
Now establish relationship:

13. 27th December 2013
Is 100 Shillings we earn at Xmas week more valuable than the one we earn
in say, third week of April? No.
Do our customers deserve more attention in December than they deserve in
April? No.
Do we give them a discount in April? Or do we charge them more in
December? No.
Safaricom should deal away with the Freeze that occurs in
December.

14. 27th December 2013
• In a nutshell process innovation a.k.a changemaking is this:
• You challenge the status quo
• You force people to think hard about what they think is the norm
• We take them out of the comfort zone