Recent Blogs Posts

I would like to thank all of you that have been so very kind to send me Seasons Greetings either by electronic media or by postal service.

This year when I was about to start thinking about sending the usual Christmas cards I was informed that we do not have any cards in the company this year but I could send an electronic Greeting.

For me that created a bit of an emotional conflict as I do believe in the physical card with a beautiful picture on it. It can be a picture of a mountain, a city skyline, the sky or sometimes it can be more related to Santa Claus. In general cards are very beautiful and make you feel happy. The beautiful cards arrives in envelopes with stamps on and just by that you can see from which country the greeting comes, sometimes the stamp is also a special Christmas stamp that has been created by the postal service just for this time of the year. You open the envelope and by then you can see who the kind person is that have sent you this greeting for the season.

As you might have gathered by now I’m a favorite of cards sent by postal service but as I mentioned in the beginning we did not have any this year so I was trying to adjust my mind to send the electronic version but just as I had come to grips with this for me very revolutionary thoughts I heard that we might be able to find some old fashioned cards after all. The cards arrived eventually but a bit late for me to be able to have them in the post in time for the holidays.

My Seasons Greetings have been stuck somewhere in space this year and it is not even cyber space, I will now save the physical cards for next year when I will once again be able to send a card in a envelope with a stamp on.

I believe that I’m quite good at using modern technology as well as social media but I strongly believe in some of the traditional ways of communication as well. We must not forget the joy of getting a real letter in these days of emails, facebook, twitter etc.

The ironic bit of this is that after making a speech about physical cards I will end up wishing you all happy holidays through a community!

Seasons Greetings and a Happy New Year

Hello all BB users and others!

My recent blog was about the extensive use of tools to be online all time, this blog will be along the same topic but from a very serious angle; Blackberry crise!

For the last few days everyone that use a Blackberry have been in great despair on and of. No emails have reached the little device and it has been difficult to send emails. Then all of sudden you get a whole bunch of emails and you think that the problem is over but that was not be trusted! A few hours later the problem is back again!

Personally I have been enormously worried about this behaviour from my little blackberry! And I do depend a lot on a well running flow of emails.

I have now realized that this is global problem, 30-40 million blackberry user have problems right now all over the world. That is about 50% of all blackberry users!
My conclusion of this is of course that the problems with Blackberrys have negative effects on the global business environment!

Maybe it is about time that we realize that Blackberrys are part of the systemically important infrastructures of the world, do the authorities realize that the have to take measures to make the situation stable? Or is this a chance for me as a addicted Blackberry user to realize that I have a chance to take a break from the constant urge to always read emails.....

Dear friends,

Have you noticed how we all have changed during recent years and I do not mean that we have got more grey hair, at least some of us, or that we actually are older. I'm thinking of how we act during meetings. 20 years ago or even 10 years ago we paid attention during meetings. We took a break when it what scheduled and we normally took care of whatever telephone call or other matter during that break.

How about now? If you look around a meeting or conference hall today you can see most attendees busy on their Blackberrys, IPads, lap-tops or other devices.

Is this showing that you are interested or that you contribute to the meeting?
What is more important, is that respect to the person or persons that are talking??!!

I have seen participants that do not let go of the Blackberry for one single moment during a meeting, I have seen the use of IPads being used constantly during meetings. What is also becoming more and more frequent especially in larger meetings is that independent discussions start amongst the delegates resulting in everyone getting disturbed.
Now you will most likely say that I do the same which I have to agree is true. I do act the same way during meetings and I think this is showing how bad it has become. I have advocated for a long time that this is a very bad habit and I very clearly have the view that all these devices should be left alone during meeting, still I act the same way!
It is now my clear view that we should respect the meeting, this would benefit all of us!
The next meeting I attend my Blackberry will stay in my pocket

Originally Posted by Lars Millberg

A Swedish daily magazine (IDG.se - Strst p IT, dagliga IT-nyheter, tester, forum, guider och nyhetsbrev mm) wrote the first article about the Benche in Sweden and are now doing a follow-up interview. They want to know about our experiences and how the Benche have developed since launch. In order to bring more "meat" to the interview would we really appreciate to get some direct feedback from the members. Please post your experience and/or comment in this thread.

What is good?
What is missing?
What can we do better?


With anticipation
Lars Millberg

Many sellers using letters of credit (L/C) as a payment instrument have often faced that presented documents are not L/C compliant. It has been estimated that almost 70% of all L/C documents globally presented are not compliant at their first presentation. As a result issuing banks are not obliged to pay and ultimately it is ony the buyer, that is the applicant, who can accept documents with discrepancies and as such enabling the issuing bank to pay.

Discrepancies, more or less spurious, threaten to undermine the value of the L/C as a secure payment instrument. It takes a high level of expertise to deal with all the parties involved in a L/C scenario - buyers, banks and carriers - who may have differing priorities, requirements and stipulations. Furthermore, each party may have preferences or suggestions on how L/C documents should be prepared, which can leave the seller even more confused.

Some sellers may decide not to accept L/C because they do not have the expertise, the time or the employees necessary to deal with the process. However, this translates into lost business opportunities, which most firms cannot ignore without possible economic consequences. Other sellers, unwilling to let a business opportunity slip by, agree to use L/C, accepting the time consuming task of compliance and negotiation as part of the deal.

Until now, sellers have been faced with these two alternatives: passing up business or attempting to coordinate the document preparation with the various parties, accepting the fact that they are getting further behind in receivables as cash flow turns into a trickle.

Outsourcing, if made available by the banking industry, provides a way out of the document dilemma for sellers. It allows professionals with particular expertise to prepare the documents exactly as per L/C requirements. The use of a third-party, professional documentation preparation service can help to reduce multiple bank fees, expedite documentation processing and accelerate cash flow. The benefits of outsourcing document preparation include:

• Better working capital management and prudent risk management due to higher accuracy and cost savings. Accelerated days sales outstanding, reduced from several weeks, possibly even months, to days, because discrepancies are reduced or removed and time spent on document handling is minimized.
• Offers the sellers to change L/C document processing costs from fixed to variable one, as FTE’s can be released at the seller’s end.
• Pre-checking of L/C to ensure compliance is possible before shipment. Some exporters accept L/C without realizing that some of the conditions may be impossible or not beneficial to comply with.

As a natural conclusion – who else is better in providing the above service than banks handling L/C on daily basis with decades of experience? To give full consideration, I would appreciate if you could share with me your expectations/comments you have on the above topic.

Sven Kööp