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Keeping Connected

Posted on: Tuesday, 2 August 2005, 12:00 CDT

As any international business traveler knows, choosing the right gift for a business counterpart in Tokyo is child's play next to deciphering how to stay in touch while overseas. Sure, "medieval" might be wonderful when talking about architecture, but it's not so great when it describes the phone jack in your hotel room when you're trying to plug in a modem. Foreign languages can be charming, but not when your cell phone company tells you that your CDMA 1990 dual-mode phone will not work in the U.K. or that you need to use a GSM 900/1800 network due to inter-protocol differences. "Vive la difference" has its place, but not when you're trying to figure out the difference in dialing patterns between Paris and home.

For today's business traveler, a mobile phone and Internet connectivity are as essential as a suitcase. While mainstream telecom companies have done a great job enabling roaming within North America, it's not the same when traveling overseas. Key challenges include:

* Incompatibility: Everything from the number of prongs on a plug to the cell phone system's underlying technology can be different, making your existing tools impossible or very difficult to use.

* Inconvenience. When you're hopping from city to city and hotel- to-hotel on a European sales trip, it's tough for anyone to catch up to you by calling your hotel or sending an e-mail you may have difficulty retrieving. Time zone differences only exacerbate the inconvenience.

* Cost and Control. Having your modem dial back to North America for an Internet connection or using the hotel phone for overseas calls can be prohibitively expensive. Furthermore, from a corporate telecom manager's perspective, such costs are usually deeply hidden, buried in a hotel charge or the "calling card" section of a thick phone bill.

Given these issues, the first rule of international business travel is, "Don't assume." First, ask your ISP, cellular company or corporate IT or telecom manager whether your services will work overseas and if so, whether your specific destinations fall within their coverage areas or roaming agreements. Second, if the answer is "yes," ask how much it will cost and whether or not you need any special accessories, such as outlet adapters or voltage converters.

If the answer is "no," help is available. Specialized telecom suppliers now offer a variety of services for business travelers and the companies they work for. Those services are backed by knowledge and support that are specific to the international arena.

For example, Roadpost offers three main service categories, including international cellular phones, satellite phones and Internet access. With a variety of plans to suit your communication needs, International cellular service will keep you covered in over 150 countries and can even provide you with local numbers in the U.K., France, Italy or Switzerland for when you need a little more "local" presence.

If you are headed somewhere remote and beyond the reach of "conventional" cellular phones, then Iridium satellite phone service provides pole-to-pole coverage.

Recognizing travel patterns differ from person to person and company to company, make sure you look for services that are available on a short-term rental basis or, for more frequent travelers, via annual subscription. The rule of thumb is to buy a phone and sign on for an annual plan if you take two or more overseas trips per year. Less than that and it's more economical to rent.

From a corporate perspective, these services offer a cost- effective and controllable means for employees to maximize productivity when on the road. Many companies will buy a phone or two, subscribe and then share those phones among multiple travelers. For organizations with larger scale requirements, a variety of corporate plans are available, backed by account managers, 7x24 support, flexible billing options, a variety of programming features and reporting tools that are specific to the challenges and requirements of international connectivity.

Your service should also be able to offer next business day delivery of phone kits so your equipment is there when you need it. With the right tools, you can be as connected in Paris, France or in Paris, Texas. And for an effective salesperson, staying connected is table stakes.

Founded in 1991, Roadpost provides global voice and data communications solutions to end users and network carriers/ distributors. Morris Shawn is president and CEO of Roadpost Inc. Mr. Shawn has also previously held senior management positions in the electronics, investment banking, market research and consulting industries. Mr. Shawn holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, and an undergraduate business degree from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Copyright National Research Bureau Aug 2005

Source: American Salesman, The

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