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Shoreline in the News
I guess everyone's had their breadfruit of the allegations between Shoreline Group of Companies. and former IT Manager Piveni Piukala. Likewise we have the saga's of the lawsuit and the planned people's protest march.
If you want to know the goss' then you'll have to head over to The Kele'a (http://www.kelea.to) and the Taimi 'o Tonga (http://www.taimiotonga.com) The TongaStar might have some news from the People's Democratic Party's perspective (http://www.tongastar.com) Unfortunately the Kele'a is still working on their 'online' version but it wouldn't hurt the Kele'a for you to buy a print copy ?
The Billing System.
Well, all that aside, we do know (or feel) that something's gone screwey with Shoreline's billing system. We haven't recieved our Electric bill, and for the 1st time we didn't get our Internet bill from work. Strangely, Shoreline used to Bill us after we paid. So, either they've fixed up their Internet billing so they actually know which customers have already paid (don't bill them again?) or something more serious has gone wrong with their Billing System.
Of course, the issue of plain incompetence at head-office isn't being addressed here.
The New IT Manager
Let's fall into the gossip channels by submitting that Shoreline representatives have contacted Mr. Hekisou Fifita, formerly at the Ministry of Education's THS, TIHE before a stint at the US Peace Corps (?) and then again with TCC to now being at Revenue Services. Apparently Mr. Fifita is being recruited for the post of IT Manager, replacing Piveni Piukala. Will he accept ? Geez at TOP$100,000 as a potential number, that's very tempting?
Pulu & I Need serious Help. The one thing Pulu and I now have clear, looking at all those different posts Hekisou's held in the past two years. Geeez, we sure as hell don't know how to get a job offer!! Need to take another look at that playbook, there's definitely a lot of things missing.
On Visual FoxPro
One of the allusions in those articles attacking Shoreline implied that the billing system has been modified and no support can be provided by the original vendor. La la la la. The implication for the article is that with out their former IT Manager, Shoreline will have as their only recourse to contact Microsoft.
Strange, because I believe Shoreline still owes money to one of its vendors who just happens to be the most proficient Microsoft Visual FoxPro programmer in Tonga. But if you're not going to look for proficiency, let's just forget looking period!! In fact, the two most competent database programmers (with actual track-records) in Tonga don't seem to have been approached in the last round of Shoreline's recruiting system.
(No, unfortunately I'm not one of those competent database programmers, I can dream though?)
On the Internet Access
Tonfon's first internet wireless system still works great, and far better than TCC's system. YES, newly introduced 'cheaper' system by the former IT Manager is still crappy and a headache for many clients.
If the first wireless system were to shutdown I'm quite certain that the Internet Cafe's in town would no longer be profitable and are likely to go into other lines of business or just close.
TCC's fixed landline is pretty solid for us (at work, here at home it is horrible) so we haven't complained.
ciao,
Sam T.
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Shoreline in the News
May 05, 2005 07:40 PM
The simplest form of Billing whether telephony or utility billing is the perfect V.
A Person (Who can have 1 or more accounts)
An Account (Which can have 1 more SAs)
A Service Agreement ( With different SA Types eg.Water/Telephone/Sewer etc) linked to an SP
Service Point(Configured to have diff. Types of Service points) linked to a Meter
Meter (Contains meter reads) which is attached to your Premise
Ofcourse it gets a little more complicated than that when it comes to actually Billing an account especially when you have to take into account Billing Zones, Effective Rates and Bill Factors, Different Bill Cycles etc etc etc But seriously I don't see it getting THAT complicated in Tonga with probably what, 100K or so customers?
I guess in most dev projects (Billing System) I've worked in, the underlying success doesn't rely on a talented IT manager, its a combination of alot of things including Bussiness Analysts, Architects and designers that knows alot about Pricing and Invoicing, and understands the nature of the business inside out.
Not every Billing product is 100% defect free and with everything from SAP/FLEXCAB to SPL Cordaptix, you get the base product and you also get the customised plugins you need, these are modules tailored specifically to your requirements - and to minimise code defects requires alot more than just knowing how to code.
Goodluck to them anyhow.
N4
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