Empire Music: “Get Low“ G-Cizzle Ft Rugged Man.

Introducing the brand new collaboration with Ruggedy baba by a new young sensation.
A single from Empire Records by G-Cizzle "Get Low" Ft Rugged Man.
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Viewpoint: Big data and big analytics means better business

Decision-making is the essence of management.

Careers and companies are built or buried by the judgments of a few, even a single individual. Decisions mould company strategy - which markets to enter or what products to develop, for example - and impact company resources.

Today, as the world globalises and the pace of change quickens, managers must make high-pressure decisions faster.

In fact, 74% of the global executives SAS recently surveyed with the Harvard Business Review stated they "feel under pressure to achieve results in less time than ever before".

Savvy managers turn to analysing data - on their customers, operations, risk and more - for guidance.

They are bringing ever-larger amounts of "big data" - from traditional databases as well as unstructured text from call-centre logs, social media and more - into their decision-making to achieve competitive insight.

Like the amount of data that organisations store, the value placed on data by firms has grown rapidly. According to new research by Dynamic Markets, for example, one in five of the UK's largest companies now quantify the value of corporate data on their balance sheets.

Better decisions

Today's mobile phone companies exemplify using analytics to drive decisions.

An emerging analytical concept in the industry is customer link analysis, which helps determine an individual customer's influence among his or her peers, friends and community.

Customer link analysis works by examining the type, length, frequency and timing of inbound and outbound calls.

By analysing the call data, phone companies can visualize social networks of callers to identify the most influential.

The companies can use this analytical insight to better target these influencers with focused marketing and retention efforts, making better decisions about which offers to make to which customers. Entire marketing budgets are now based on this type of analytical insight.

SAS recently examined the acceptance of analytical decision-making in businesses worldwide.

Working with the Harvard Business Review's analytic services team, we surveyed 700 senior executives for a study titled: The Evolution of Decision-Making: How Leading Organisations Are Adopting a Data-Driven Culture.

The findings show that acceptance of analytics has grown and is delivering tangible improvements. Almost three-quarters of respondents said their division or department relies on data to make decisions today; 40% percent felt that analytics have improved the importance and standing of their functional areas.

One group of respondents stood apart in its use of data to inform decisions. This group has integrated analytics across the whole company, and is characterised by:

A data-based decision-making culture.
Decision-making transparency.
Company-wide decision-making processes.
Emphasis on managerial insights as a supplement to data.
Continual refinement and testing of new ideas.
Eleven percent of the responding organisations have integrated analytics across the entire organisation, rather than using it ad-hoc.

What, why, how

Strikingly, among all the benefits of analytics, respondents most frequently cited faster decision-making.

"Analytics accelerates our decisions because everyone is now looking at the same reality," said Filippo Passerini, Procter & Gamble's chief information officer.

"Decisions come down to 'what,' 'why' and 'how'," he added.


It is a challenge, Paul Kent says, to balance data-drive decisions with traditional gut instinct
"Many organisations spent a lot of time debating the 'what' because different people had different data. Once everyone has the same version of truth, you can shift to the how—and you are able to do more and more, better and better."

While moving beyond instinct alone is definitely gaining acceptance, the research shows that significant challenges remain:

37% of respondents said their managers relied on "gut feeling" rather than data and analytics to make decisions.
44% think their organisations have little or no transparency into how key decisions are made.
One-third of respondents believe their companies lack the skills to derive the benefits of analytics.
A quarter have no formal decision-making processes.
Weighing quantitative insights against the experienced judgment of managers is difficult.

Skills shortage

Michael Pierce, customer service manager at Bosch Security Systems, says: "Personally, I run with analysis first, and during the research I will listen to my intuition. When my gut does not agree with my decisions - and all analytics show it is the correct one - I pay closer attention to the results."

Managers see that making the right decision in a timely manner is a matter of balancing data analysis with judgment and experience, not exclusively relying on one method over the other.

As the volume, variety and velocity of data increase, opportunities for firms that embed analytical insights into decision-making will continue to grow.

But so too will the challenges. There is a global analytics skills shortage, with too few students graduating with degrees in math, science and technology.

The effects are already being felt in the workplace: 52% of managers surveyed said they needed to re-train to be able to use analytics in their decision making. Furthermore, one-third of respondents couldn't find the right skills mix at all.

As companies compete globally and technological change accelerates, decision-making windows become ever smaller. Businesses need to instil a culture of data-driven decisions, supported by the people, processes and technology - especially analytics - to ensure success.

Otherwise, they'll be left merely guessing.

Paul Kent is the Vice President of Big Data at SAS, a leading business intelligence and analytics firm.
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Niger Delta Ministry Linked To N29bn Fraud

Alleged fictitious contracts totalling N29 billion in the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, between 2010 and 2011, have been uncovered.

But the minister of Niger Delta, Elder Godsday Orubebe, has denied any involvement in the alleged dirty deals.

The scam involved payments for phantom projects, over-budgeting and violation of Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) guidelines for the award of government contracts.

According to official documents made available to LEADERSHIP yesterday by Anti-Corruption Network, a whistle-blowing organisation headquartered in Abuja, the award of these fake contracts, which had been ongoing, violated the BPP rules but were nevertheless fully paid for with the authority of Nigeria's Ministry of Finance.

Examples of such non-existent projects, which the group said have been exhaustively investigated and found to be fraudulent, are: contract for the canalization of Odoubou-Bololou creek project in Ogbaba- Gbene, Burutu LGA, at a cost of N1.259bn;  contract for land reclamation and shoreline protection at Ogbobagbene, for which the sum of N2.431bn was fraudulently paid; and the contract for canalization training of Foupolo-Bunu Ndoro creek project in Burutu  LGA for  which N2.370bn was paid even though the project did not exist.

According to a Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs document obtained yesterday by LEADERSHIP at the media briefing convened by Anti-Corruption Network, contract for land reclamatinon /shoreline protection project at Ogbobagbene, Burutu LGA, Delta State, under the watch of the ministry and awarded in 2010 at the cost of N5,813,743,373.92 was found to have been over-funded to the tune of N12,925,132,704.00.This was despite the cost-reduction review totalling N1,067,349,380.28 given by the BPP.

Briefing journalists yesterday, the executive secretary of the anti-corruption group, Otunba Dino Melaye, said over N29bn had been siphoned through a list of fictitious contracts by the ministry, adding that, also in 2010, a contract for land reclamation/ shoreline protection and canalization in the Niger Delta region, Batch 1, was awarded by the ministry to one Messrs Hanslum Construction Ltd and six others at the sum of N14,270,966,124.99.

"We are resolute to expose corruption at all levels. We are going to take this fight to the next level by not only exposing them but also going to court to challenge those who perpetrate it. In the Niger Delta Ministry, it is unfortunate that we have discovered three phantom projects. They are not just phantom but non-existent. We say that it is satanic, the collaboration between the Niger Delta Ministry and the Ministry of Finance in this scam," he said.

He noted that the anti-corruption network would send copies of the documents proving these scams to the presidency, the ministers of the affected ministries as well as the relevant anti-corruption agencies such as the EFCC and the ICPC for further investigations. The move, he said, would be followed by a court action against the key players of the  fraud, adding that, as a whistleblower, he owed it a duty to the nation to uncover corrupt dealings wherever it was found.

Elder Orubebe has denied any knowledge of the alleged fraud of  N29billion meant for the contracts' funding in his office.

The minister, who described the allegation of embezzlement of public funds as very untrue, a fallacy and a miscounted one, said  via telephone that he was open to an investigation by "any authority".

Orubebe, who further described  the allegation as cheap blackmail by unrepentant liars and cheap popularity seekers, advised them go back and check their facts as the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy would never release funds without carrying out proper inspection of projects sites.

"The minister of finance and coordinating  minister of the economy cannot  allow that at all; there is no way the minister will approve funds for projects that are not on ground. Projects are inspected before the release of funds," he stated. "If we had done a fraud on such a massive scale, wouldn't they have found out? In 2010 and 2011 we carried out contracts according to the funds availed us and have lamented bitterly of shortfalls and there are just three allegations out of the hundreds of contracts."

Our papers are open to scrutiny. Every allegation they have made, we have countered. We have got the documents for everything. I have all the facts and figures to show the allegations are false," Orubebe told LEADERSHIP.

 

Jonathan wants Ribadu report  submitted Friday

Meanwhile, barely a week after the Mallam Nuhu Ribadu-led Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force announced that it had discovered shady deals and crude oil theft in the petroleum industry, President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday gave a marching order to the task force: it should present its report to him on Friday this week at the presidential villa, Abuja.

Jonathan also ordered two other committees set up by the federal government early this year on different aspects of the petroleum industry to submit their reports to him on the same Friday.

A statement issued by the special adviser to the president, Dr. Reuben Abati, said Jonathan's directive was in furtherance of "the administration's commitment to transparency, probity, and accountability in the petroleum sector".

 "President Goodluck Jonathan has directed that a comprehensive report of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force chaired by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu should be presented to him this week," he stated.

The statement made available to LEADERSHIP reads in part: "The Committee, which was set up in February 2012, was required to, among other tasks, determine and verify all petroleum upstream and downstream revenues (taxes and royalties, etc) due and payable to the Federal Government of Nigeria, and to take all necessary steps to collect all debts due and owed; to obtain agreements and enforce payment terms by all oil industry operators. 

 "The presentation of the Committee's report will take place on Friday, November 2, at 11am, at the State House, Abuja."

Abati noted that the president further directed "two other committees set up by the federal government earlier this year on different aspects of the country's petroleum industry to also present their reports" to him on Friday, November 2, 2012.

Similarly, the senior special assistant to the president on public affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, in a release made available to LEADERSHIP, said the president had not even seen nor received any copy of the Ribadu Committee report. He said what had been released to the media prematurely is a draft copy which will be subjected to clarifications and due process from the originating ministry before the official handing over to the presidency.

"President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan should be commended for his personal resolve to fight institutionalized corruption in Nigeria. President Jonathan ordered the probe of the oil industry for the period of ten years (2002 - 2011) which also covers the tenure of his administration. No president in our history has gone this far and this explains why the rot in our system has persisted for so long.

"President Jonathan approved the appointment of a well-known anti-corruption crusader, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, who ran against him at the presidential poll on the platform of the Action Congress  of Nigeria, ACN.

"It is also noteworthy that the secretary of the Committee, Mr. Supo Sasore, was a former attorney-general of Lagos State under an ACN government.

President Jonathan's unwavering and commendable determination to fight corruption is clearly demonstrated by his approval of the appointment of credible Nigerians, anti-corruption crusaders and members of the opposition party in the committee," Okupe said.

The president's aide said Jonathan was committed to exposing fraud at all levels including the oil sector as illustrated by the Aig Imokhuede committee on fuel subsidy.
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Fwd: Niger Delta Ministry Linked To N29bn Fraud

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Daniel Onche
Date: Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Subject: Niger Delta Ministry Linked To N29bn Fraud
To: onchedaniel@gmail.com


Alleged fictitious contracts totalling N29 billion in the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, between 2010 and 2011, have been uncovered.

But the minister of Niger Delta, Elder Godsday Orubebe, has denied any involvement in the alleged dirty deals.

The scam involved payments for phantom projects, over-budgeting and violation of Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) guidelines for the award of government contracts.

According to official documents made available to LEADERSHIP yesterday by Anti-Corruption Network, a whistle-blowing organisation headquartered in Abuja, the award of these fake contracts, which had been ongoing, violated the BPP rules but were nevertheless fully paid for with the authority of Nigeria's Ministry of Finance.

Examples of such non-existent projects, which the group said have been exhaustively investigated and found to be fraudulent, are: contract for the canalization of Odoubou-Bololou creek project in Ogbaba- Gbene, Burutu LGA, at a cost of N1.259bn;  contract for land reclamation and shoreline protection at Ogbobagbene, for which the sum of N2.431bn was fraudulently paid; and the contract for canalization training of Foupolo-Bunu Ndoro creek project in Burutu  LGA for  which N2.370bn was paid even though the project did not exist.

According to a Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs document obtained yesterday by LEADERSHIP at the media briefing convened by Anti-Corruption Network, contract for land reclamatinon /shoreline protection project at Ogbobagbene, Burutu LGA, Delta State, under the watch of the ministry and awarded in 2010 at the cost of N5,813,743,373.92 was found to have been over-funded to the tune of N12,925,132,704.00.This was despite the cost-reduction review totalling N1,067,349,380.28 given by the BPP.

Briefing journalists yesterday, the executive secretary of the anti-corruption group, Otunba Dino Melaye, said over N29bn had been siphoned through a list of fictitious contracts by the ministry, adding that, also in 2010, a contract for land reclamation/ shoreline protection and canalization in the Niger Delta region, Batch 1, was awarded by the ministry to one Messrs Hanslum Construction Ltd and six others at the sum of N14,270,966,124.99.

"We are resolute to expose corruption at all levels. We are going to take this fight to the next level by not only exposing them but also going to court to challenge those who perpetrate it. In the Niger Delta Ministry, it is unfortunate that we have discovered three phantom projects. They are not just phantom but non-existent. We say that it is satanic, the collaboration between the Niger Delta Ministry and the Ministry of Finance in this scam," he said.

He noted that the anti-corruption network would send copies of the documents proving these scams to the presidency, the ministers of the affected ministries as well as the relevant anti-corruption agencies such as the EFCC and the ICPC for further investigations. The move, he said, would be followed by a court action against the key players of the  fraud, adding that, as a whistleblower, he owed it a duty to the nation to uncover corrupt dealings wherever it was found.

Elder Orubebe has denied any knowledge of the alleged fraud of  N29billion meant for the contracts' funding in his office.

The minister, who described the allegation of embezzlement of public funds as very untrue, a fallacy and a miscounted one, said  via telephone that he was open to an investigation by "any authority".

Orubebe, who further described  the allegation as cheap blackmail by unrepentant liars and cheap popularity seekers, advised them go back and check their facts as the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy would never release funds without carrying out proper inspection of projects sites.

"The minister of finance and coordinating  minister of the economy cannot  allow that at all; there is no way the minister will approve funds for projects that are not on ground. Projects are inspected before the release of funds," he stated. "If we had done a fraud on such a massive scale, wouldn't they have found out? In 2010 and 2011 we carried out contracts according to the funds availed us and have lamented bitterly of shortfalls and there are just three allegations out of the hundreds of contracts."

Our papers are open to scrutiny. Every allegation they have made, we have countered. We have got the documents for everything. I have all the facts and figures to show the allegations are false," Orubebe told LEADERSHIP.

 

Jonathan wants Ribadu report  submitted Friday

Meanwhile, barely a week after the Mallam Nuhu Ribadu-led Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force announced that it had discovered shady deals and crude oil theft in the petroleum industry, President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday gave a marching order to the task force: it should present its report to him on Friday this week at the presidential villa, Abuja.

Jonathan also ordered two other committees set up by the federal government early this year on different aspects of the petroleum industry to submit their reports to him on the same Friday.

A statement issued by the special adviser to the president, Dr. Reuben Abati, said Jonathan's directive was in furtherance of "the administration's commitment to transparency, probity, and accountability in the petroleum sector".

 "President Goodluck Jonathan has directed that a comprehensive report of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force chaired by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu should be presented to him this week," he stated.

The statement made available to LEADERSHIP reads in part: "The Committee, which was set up in February 2012, was required to, among other tasks, determine and verify all petroleum upstream and downstream revenues (taxes and royalties, etc) due and payable to the Federal Government of Nigeria, and to take all necessary steps to collect all debts due and owed; to obtain agreements and enforce payment terms by all oil industry operators. 

 "The presentation of the Committee's report will take place on Friday, November 2, at 11am, at the State House, Abuja."

Abati noted that the president further directed "two other committees set up by the federal government earlier this year on different aspects of the country's petroleum industry to also present their reports" to him on Friday, November 2, 2012.

Similarly, the senior special assistant to the president on public affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, in a release made available to LEADERSHIP, said the president had not even seen nor received any copy of the Ribadu Committee report. He said what had been released to the media prematurely is a draft copy which will be subjected to clarifications and due process from the originating ministry before the official handing over to the presidency.

"President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan should be commended for his personal resolve to fight institutionalized corruption in Nigeria. President Jonathan ordered the probe of the oil industry for the period of ten years (2002 - 2011) which also covers the tenure of his administration. No president in our history has gone this far and this explains why the rot in our system has persisted for so long.

"President Jonathan approved the appointment of a well-known anti-corruption crusader, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, who ran against him at the presidential poll on the platform of the Action Congress  of Nigeria, ACN.

"It is also noteworthy that the secretary of the Committee, Mr. Supo Sasore, was a former attorney-general of Lagos State under an ACN government.

President Jonathan's unwavering and commendable determination to fight corruption is clearly demonstrated by his approval of the appointment of credible Nigerians, anti-corruption crusaders and members of the opposition party in the committee," Okupe said.

The president's aide said Jonathan was committed to exposing fraud at all levels including the oil sector as illustrated by the Aig Imokhuede committee on fuel subsidy.
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Pope names six new cardinals

VATICAN CITY, Oct 24 - Pope Benedict, putting his stamp on the future of the Roman Catholic Church, on Wednesday named six new cardinals from around the world to join the elite group of prelates who will one day choose his successor.

The six are from the United States, Lebanon, India, Nigeria, Colombia, and the Philippines. The ceremony, known as a consistory, will be held on November 24, the pope said in a surprise announcement at his weekly general audience.

The new cardinals are - Monsignor James Harvey, the American prefect of the pope's household; Archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria, John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan; Archbishop of Bogota, Colombia, Ruben Salazar Gomez; Archbishop of Manila, Philippines, Luis Antonio Tagle; Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites in Lebanon, Bechara Boutros Rai; and the major Archbishop of the Trivandrum of the Siro-Malankaresi in India, Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal.
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Fwd: "Convergence: features and benefits for African telecoms” is discussed with Mikhail Khomarov, VP of R&D of CBOSS

What is convergence? What benefits will a telecom operator acquire by using convergent solution? Mikhail Khomarov, VP of R&D CBOSS answers these and other questions.

What exactly do you mean under the convergence of BSS solutions? 
Convergence as we define it - is a principle of unification and standardization of solutions to complex problems. Complex BSS systems could be assembled from many components from different vendors, or they can be complex and with that manufactured by single vendor on the basis of a unified concept.

Convergence is a base concept of the CBOSS BSS solution and it consists of several elements, which we call multi-dimensional convergence:

- Account types: prepaid, postpaid and mixed (hybrid)
- Services: solution ensures that provisioning/removal of all types of services is done based on unified rules and not depending of the type of service networks/infrastructure
- Payments: any supported payment type could be used to cover any services regardless of networks/infrastructure
- Platform: all convergent solution components run on a unified hardware platform from one vendor
- Support: our customers enjoy one point responsibility, namely technical support for the entire solution, all its components and integrations between them, including hardware, system and application software – is provided by our company, so that our customers don't have to guess whom to talk to about any particular issue.

CBOSS convergent solution is an integrated and unified set of software and hardware components, used for automation of the telecom operator business processes, and provides real time billing, customer care, data charging (including PCRF), mediation, interconnect with dealers and partners, network control, analytical reporting, CRM, and some other components.

Why do you think convergent solutions will be demanded by African telecom operators? 
In a few words – convergence reduces IT costs while boosting usability and quality of the solution, and through that – subscriber satisfaction and operator ability to reduce time-to-market for new products and marketing initiatives. Market research shows that unified convergent solution can increase operator EBITDA by up to 4–5% a year.

African telecom market is very dynamic, shows rapid growth of subscribers, the necessity to cover new territories and tremendous demand for communication services, which makes the region attractive for many telecom operators.  At the same time, the market is already highly competitive and operators entering it have to make better offers to subscribers and, on top of that, must have lower costs. All these demands could be addressed by convergent BSS solutions.

The standard benefits of convergence – account type, payments, fix-mobile convergence, are well known and covered in the media. Let me briefly touch upon a less mentioned, but yet important aspect of a convergent solution from a single vendor – cost savings in the integration layer(s).

Convergence dictates that all components of a solution are integrated with each other. If the solution is assembled from several components from multiple vendors, it always runs the risk that some components will not work because of integration problems. In this case the operator has to, thoroughly test implementation of each component, code and/or configure the integration layer, thus spending money and resources.

In CBOSS convergent solution components are factory pre-integrated, the manufacturer is responsible for smooth inter-operation of components, testing, configuration, and implementation of the entire solution. This way the manufacturer distributes the cost of integrating components between many clients reducing the price per customer. And I did not even scratch the surface here, because we can talk about uniformity of BSS UIs, how it affects operator employee productivity, and if what is the cost of achieving such uniformity.

What operators will mostly benefit from use of convergent solutions?
Convergence is very efficient for start-ups and emerging operators. Moreover, a convergent solution has a shorter launching period due to pre-integration of its components and due to the fact that it's rolled out by a single vendor.

Mature operators would appreciate CBOSS High End solution scalability, where solution scales to tens of millions of subscribers simply by hardware upgrades, and high availability, which allows component upgrades and even hardware replacement without any interruption to the subscriber service.

Replication of the same standard convergent solution is also very beneficial for operators of a telecommunication group, as it will allow reduction of the total cost of implementation, ownership and promotes sharing of operational experience and best business practices among the telecom operators of the group.

What methods, do you think, should be applied by African operators for making their businesses more efficient?In the process of selecting BSS solutions, telecom operators should consider subscriber facing surfaces of the solution, as well as conformity to the operator and industry requirements. Operators should strive to use more customer-oriented and standardized solutions and products, and we are ready to help them make the most effective selections.

I can illustrate it by a case of our customer in the Central Africa. They required a new method of collecting payments from subscribers, as the number of payment methods was limited in the country. We suggested a solution enabling organization of network of subscribers, and dealers, who collected the money on their accounts. Then dealers inform their subscribers of the balance top up by USSD or SMS notifications.

Application of this method has given convenient payment method to subscribers and higher consumption of services to the operator, as subscribers can promptly top up balances for the ongoing use of mobile services.

Another way of raising business efficiency ih marketing campaigns and provide mobile service discounts, depending on bases to use solutions enabling reduction of costs by optimizing usage of the existing infrastructure – as an example I can mention a successful project implemented by CBOSS for a subsidiary of a global telecommunications group. In this project we helped the operator to launch station load, location of subscriber and time of the day, thus helping them to optimize network utilization without additional investments into infrastructure.

The key feature of this product is the discount calculation and call rating practically in real time with change of actual load on base station used for the subscriber's connection. The solution automatically regulates the demand-to-discount ratio; the higher demand is, the less the discount, thus reducing the traffic through the station, and vice versa. This principle can be used when the operator wants to reduce load on stations in the downtown and increase it on stations in sleeping suburbs.

What does CBOSS expect from participation in AfricaCom 2012?
We expect to meet interesting people, who are looking for robust yet economical BSS systems. We would like to inform them about CBOSS convergent, integrated, end-to-end solutions and show our experience and knowledge in implementing such solutions for our customers.
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written by Mikhail Khomarov, the Vice President of CBOSS.

Cred, Connections, Cash — The Workings of a Business Accelerator

Entrepreneurs tend to be stereotyped as headstrong individualists who think they know the best way to do everything. While confidence and determination may be necessary when launching a business, sometimes the most important thing an entrepreneur can do is to talk with others founders and get some advice from experienced CEOs. That's where a business accelerator can come in.

A business accelerator is an intensive, immersion experience in which an entrepreneur moves into a shared office space with other new founders for a period of time to work under the tutelage of advisors and experts to grow their business rapidly. In exchange for the expert mentoring, exposure to investors and cash investment that entrepreneurs get from the accelerator, the entrepreneur gives a portion of his or her company's equity to the partners of the program and for this reason is often called a "seed" or "venture" accelerator.
Accelerators are similar to business incubators, but the latter typically don't take equity in the companies, according to the National Business Incubation Association in Athens, Ohio. Accelerator investors often offers between $18,000 and $25,000 in funding in exchange for between 4 percent and 8 percent of each company.

Program

Giving away a piece of your company to accelerate growth can be a big decision. What can make this trade-off so attractive? To help answer that question, we spoke with several recent participants in the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Acceleratorin New York City. Here are five of the program's biggest benefits they described.

1. Networking. An accelerator can help you meet the kind of investors, advisors and other entrepreneurs who are interested in helping nurture startups. Consider Derek Webster, the CEO and founder of LocalBonus, a "shop local" credit-card rewards program. Webster had "big company" experience in the credit-card industry, but he didn't know the players in the NYC startup scene before participating in the accelerator, which takes an 8 percent equity stake in each founder's company.

At the end of the program's three months, says Webster, "I had a massive number of those one-one-one meetings, so that now I could turn to any one of those people and ask for help."

2. Decision-making practice. One common reason for failure as an entrepreneur is "death by indecision." Being in the accelerator really forces you to make decisions, because you are always meeting with program directors, mentors and investors, says Jonathon Ende, founder and CEO of Bizodo, an online-document builder and management system. At 29, Ende is already on his 15th startup, so he knows a bit about the momentum of getting a company off the ground. "Every week you are checking in with someone. You want to make progress," says Ende.

3. Founder camaraderie. Being around other founders all day every day is often comforting and educational. At the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, the CEOs had weekly meetings together, as did the chief technology officers. "When you are a new startup, there are all sorts of challenges that you face that are relatively common," Webster says and having an opportunity to talk through those problems was helpful.

For example, LocalBonus CTO Tim Saunders has 14 years' experience as a developer and so when fellow company founders were hiring technology developers, Saunders helped them interview and choose the most qualified candidates. "The day we all moved in felt like the first day of high school," says Webster. But "very quickly we realized there was more to be gained by helping each other out than anything else."

4. Testing assumptions. "It is very easy to drink your own Kool Aid, if you will. You believe you have the best idea and the way you have to do it is the best way," says Ende. But when you are constantly being forced to explain yourself, you end up re-evaluating your business on a regular basis. "Being able to question the assumptions that you have made, what people want, what you are building," says Ende, results in your business changing for the better.

5. Street cred. "The fact that you have already been through a filtering process" can give you — and your business — a leg up, says Webster. At ERA's demo day, LocalBonus founders met investors they otherwise don't think they would have had the opportunity to meet. Just to be in the program can be a mark of validation to the community of fellow entrepreneurs and investors.

Curled from; Young Entrepenuers.