SAS FutureFunding, page-7

No matter how much testing is done on the ground , they will not know what sort of mess they will wake up to the day after D-Day (day after launch day) .

It will likely be all hands on deck to sort it out software problems with upgrades , patches and bug fixes of the software on the satellite and ground stations .


Fortunately , they do not have to support an existing user-base through this as their service is not live yet . Only having one customer to start with will enable them to focus on getting that customer working properly .

My concerns are that they may have left it very , very late to scale up the technical team and business side :-

- in order to support multiple customers , they are going to need not only a software development team but big i.t. support and testing and customer service teams supporting customers 24 X 7 . More office space too .

- new software staff will need to be inducted into SAS and familiarised with the software so they can support and develop it . There is going to be nobody to induct them if existing staff are flat out trying to meet the launch date and will be flat out afterwards fixing bugs .

- a super sales team will be needed to get this accepted

- peripheral systems like call billing may be needed

- new customers are not going to sign until they see evidence that SAS can support them

- implementation teams will be needed to get telco's hooked up

- Brooks law states that adding people to a software project which is running late makes it later . People have to be added sooner .

In short , SAS will have to go from a shoestring start up to a proper company with 100 - 500 people , maybe more .

It's not only launches that SAS have to pay for .

They really needed an injection of significant funds 6-12 months ago to enable the scale up to start when existing staff could induct new people - not when they are flat out trying to get ready for a launch and afterwards bed it in .

The figure of 500,000 dollars from the recent capital raise which was ear marked for software development was a complete joke .

I'm optimistic they can do it but prefer the Softbank way of doing it . At minimum , SAS should have some valuable I.P. which provides downside protection .