[Asterisk-Dev] Using Asterisk to record calls NOT passing throughAsterisk

[Benjamin on Asterisk Mailing Lists]

On Mon, 13 Sep 2004 08:58:08 +0200, Florian Overkamp
<florian at obsimref.com> wrote:
> Seriously, if I deliver you an Internet link and someone wants to offer you
> a firewall on that link, could I still deliver an SLA on the link as it
> passes through that unkown firewall ?

That's not how things work in Japan. There is no such thing as an
'unknown firewall'.

Even if you are Ayava or Cisco, you will never be able to sell to a
major Japanese corporation directly. They only buy from companies of
their own conglomerate, so called keiretsu.

So if you are Avaya and you want to sell to -say- IROHA Callcenter
Services KK, then you would have to go through another company within
the IROHA keiretsu that would become your reseller, -say- IROHA IT
Services KK. If there is a firewall installed, -say- a Checkpoint,
then that would also have been sold and would be looked after, not by
Checkpoint, but by IROHA IT Services KK. Anything that IROHA
Callcenter Services KK ends up buying will be bought from and looked
after by IROHA IT Services KK. No unknown suppliers, no unknown
components.

Sometimes things are a little different in practise, but the above is
the blueprint of how corporate Japan works. So, the situation you
describe will never arise in the first place. IROHA IT Services KK is
in charge of everything and they have SLAs with the suppliers and
their brethren customers.

Now, if IROHA IT Services KK knocks on your door for something that
their existing suppliers cannot deliver, then this is a great chance
to get into the IROHA conglomerate. If you become a supplier to IROHA
IT Services for external call logging systems, then all IROHA
companies will likely end up having to purchase your external call
logging solution through IROHA IT Services, even in cases where
another solution would be better suitable.

In the Western business culture there is a similar thing and its
called "preferred supplier status". The Japanese equivalent is much
stronger because most of the time there is only one preferred supplier
for any particular category of product. As a consequence, you have to
stick to your category of product. All you can do is deliver a good
product and wait for the day that they themselves think about the
possibility that your product might as well be used for other things.
Until that day comes, you better not argue the way you did for how
they manage their SLAs is none of your business and you are not
supposed to stick your nose into it. If you do anyway, you may not be
doing any business with them again.

Like everything, the system has both upsides and downsides. On the
upside the system helps Japanese companies in terms of quality
control. On the downside, it hinders competition and keeps prices
high.


> Anyway, for the OP: Maybe http://vomit.xtdnet.nl/ can help ?

Thanks, I will check that out.

rgds
benjk

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