Tag: Project Management

5 Common Questions about iBwave Wi-Fi

After going to a good handful of conferences over the last 6 or 7 months, there seem to be a few questions/comments we get a lot. And fair enough, we’re still kind of the ‘new guys’ on the Wi-Fi block. So, I figure if we get asked these questions at the shows, maybe they are questions others are interested in as well…. 

Here we go. 

1. Who is iBwave?

We launched our Wi-Fi only software in March 2015, and it’s funny because although we’ve been around for over 14 years, this is one of the most common questions we get when we visit the Wi-Fi conferences. And fair enough – like I said, we’re still the new guys on the Wi-Fi block and we haven’t been around in the Wi-Fi only space for long. Because while we’ve always had Wi-Fi in our software, DAS has always been our focus or what we’re known for.

In a nutshell, here is our history:

iBwave was started by two friends back in 2003 here in Montreal  – they were working for telecoms, noticed how manual the process was to deploy indoor wireless networks (when they were just becoming more and more popular) and decided to develop a software to address that issue which is now known as iBwave Design. And it worked – iBwave soon became the industry standard software for designing indoor DAS networks and is used by many of the large operators, OEMs and system integrators around the world. It’s been used for some of the biggest indoor spaces to install DAS networks – the London Olympics Village, this year’s Rio Olympics Indoor Arena, and Kyle Field Stadium, to name a few. 

And while we’ve always included Wi-Fi as a technology in our flagship software iBwave Design, in 2015 we decided to launch it as it’s own stand-alone product – which is how iBwave Wi-Ficame about, and how we started hanging out at all the Wi-Fi industry shows.

This brings me to the next often asked question/comment….

2. “Looks great, too expensive though”

This is a common one. When we launched iBwave Wi-Fi, we knew the price had to be competitive with what is on the market – and so that is what we did. 

Here is the pricing basics:

Shared licenses are also available, as well as bundle packages for those who need multiple licenses.

All pricing for iBwave Wi-Fi can be seen here: https://www.ibwave.com/buy-ibwave-wifi

3. Speaking of licenses, how does licensing work?

For the PC software (iBwave Wi-Fi) you can buy either a single license or a shared license. With shared licenses, 5 people can share one license, although only one person can use it at a time.

For iBwave Wi-Fi Mobile there are only single licenses, no shared licenses.

4. How does the cloud work?

We basically have two cloud options – one which is a simple 10GB of iBwave Cloud storage that comes with your iBwave Wi-Fi Suite that you can use to save, access and share your files through. And then we also have another product, iBwave Unity, which is our cloud-based site management solution for larger companies or system integrators who have multiple sites and want a way to view and manage all their projects and sites from a single hub.

In either case, the cloud keeps all of your project information synchronized at any given time. That means that basically, anything anyone on the project does on the project, regardless of it’s on the mobile app or in the PC software, the project information is always synchronized, it’s always accessible to others, and it’s always the most recent information. 

5. What makes you different?

There are a few things we think make us different, here is a quick list:

  • iBwave Cloud – (see #4)
  • iBwave Wi-Fi Mobile – a cloud-connected mobile app to do active/passive surveys, capture site photos and annotations, and do simple designs and heatmaps from a tablet.
  • 3D Modeling – always a crowd favourite, our 3D modeling capabilities are pretty advanced. But they aren’t just pretty – 3D modeling is great to view heatmaps, and to impress your customers by showing them the network in 3D.
  • Design beyond Access Points – with iBwave Wi-Fi you can place vendor-modeled routers, controllers, switches, antennas, cabling, and you can even place things like racks and cabinets. Then produce a single bill of materials and cost estimate report with it all.
  • Prediction Calibration – To ensure the most accurate prediction results, you can use a measurement from your active survey to calibrate the prediction results during network simulation.

So there you have it, a few questions we commonly get and hopefully were interesting to you as well.

Interested in trying iBwave Wi-Fi? Get a 14 day free trial here.

Tell me one thing: Where’s the value?

Where’s the Value?

As we march on with the continued development of our excellent Unity solution, there is one question that keeps coming up from customers: Where’s the value in your solution? It’s a standard question posed by any customer – and by the marketing and sales teams – because they want to know why anyone should shell out their capital for something that isn’t always tangible at first blush. Value isn’t easily defined, but equally importantly, defining value is a misleading question to ask.

Value Is What You Want It To Be

As I am in product management, here’s my take on the term value. Value is defined by who the user is you’re trying to help and what they want to hear. Or not hear. One person’s value could be time-saving and for another it’s how much did the solution cost compared to other similar ones. In other words, what am I getting for my money?

Essentially value is fluid, it changes with time and with the audience who’s looking at the solution. Unfortunately pricing and perceived value are often equated, and that’s tough to overcome. Particularly for software solutions because no one wants to pay for anything. It’s tangibility is virtually nil, and making use of it usually means change, and change is pain. So where’s the value?

How Do You Make Something Valuable?

There are two ways to deal with this value dilemma:

  1. Price it high and come up with a value prop that you hope and pray will mesmerize the potential buyer to pry open a rusted-shut wallet
  2. Speak to resolving pain points and deal with the value prop later

No matter what, as a product manager, I have to come up with a price and a value prop or they’ll fire me and hire an intelligent chimpanzee who wears a hat. However, to me that is secondary. I can always come up with something that shows you your ROI is ‘X’ dollars over ‘Y’ years. That’s the perceived value argument.

But in reality, I’ll get better customer response and eventually sales if I discover the pain points and resolve them. Like a human body, when you’re freed from pains, you can focus on what matters and be productive. The difficulty is that pain is relative. No one likes pain (at least in business) and everyone’s is different. Sales, engineering, development, administration all have unique pains, so my job is to find out specific pains, and alleviate them. In this case with software.

As for my Unity product, all we do is focus on alleviating business pains but it’s hard to put that into a monetary value.

Additionally, the question I have to ask is, regardless of the value, is your pain big enough that you need this solution? I am assuming it does otherwise we wouldn’t be doing this development. From a marketing/value prop perspective, I have to find a way to make it obvious that you don’t want to let your pain get so bad that you’re desperate for help. Let me help you before you’re hooked on consulting fees, physiotherapy and meds.

So where’s the value, you ask? Let me answer it this way. Focus on removing the pains first, the deal with the value later. Freedom from business pain is perhaps the greatest value.

Unity Webinar – Recap on Project Management Best Practices

7 Best Practices

Hi all,

We just had a great series of webinars on a cure for your project management woes. It was fun and educational! (The dream scenario of every teacher and parent.) We covered some points of contention we face in the world of wireless network deployments. Not least of which are the dreaded “4 Pillars of the Project Apocalypse” – Software, Hardware, Regulations, and People!

OK, maybe apocalypse is a little strong, but wireless network deployment projects are really complex. So many interested parties, so many things to consider, so many things to organize and so little time. You need to make the best of what you’ve got. Using Unity, for example, is a great place to start to leverage all the brilliant designs and mobile files you’ve gathered to deliver the finest QoS your customer will be delighted with, of course.

But beyond that, I want to briefly list the 7 best practices we covered:

  1. Store Project Assets Centrally; Make sure they are in a structured format with classifications and a search function, so you can access them later when you want to leverage what you already did. This way you save time, effort and get projects done more quickly. And don’t forget, those project assets are your IP and they also cover your posterior in case you have to prove something to an official. So cherish them dearly.
  2. Build a ‘Diamond’; Make sure the key influencers inside AND outside your organization talk to each other on a regular basis. Sounds simple, but making it happen is hard. It’s worth the effort when questions come up.
  3. Frequent Checkpoints; Have quality checkpoints, but don’t micromanage. Validate the completed work done using objective KPIs before moving on to the next stage of the project. Fewer long-term costs and repairs that way.
  4. Know Your Regulations; Actually, don’t just know what the regs are, have a go-to person who is the point person for all questions. Not several people, just one. And any documents relating to the regulations should be stored in — you guessed it — your central project repository.
  5. Think Bigger Picture; Don’t focus solely on the budget and timeline of the project. Know how strategic a project is to your organization and the importance it has to the execs. Make sure the key stakeholders (see point #2) are informed at all times, and especially execs – they HATE surprises!
  6. Parallel and Sequential Tasks; The short version, parallel tasks are task silos that can go on without any dependence on another task, whereas sequential tasks have dependencies. For those, use a workflow engine. Way easier to manage projects.
  7. Plan for Iterative Loops; Like the sun rises in the east there will be amendments and fixes from the final design to the actual as-built. But you can make this less painful by leveraging that Diamond I mentioned in #2. Also, plan to have your RFE and field techs hang around for a while after the “final” design, if they need to make changes and retest.

Now wasn’t the helpful? I think it was.

In future episodes of the Unity Blog, I’ll explain in greater detail what to keep in mind when you roll out your next project with iBwave tools & solutions. I promise you’ll profit from it – if not financially, then you’ll at least be able to impress your friends at parties with sage project management advice.

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