So, we’re at that point of the week when we’re all starting to think about Friday and then before you know it, it’s Monday again. Someone said to me earlier today, “Isn’t it funny how Wednesday and Thursday take ages to pass, yet the same period for Saturday and Sunday seems to disappear in no time”.

Anyway! Enough of my rambling. Here are today’s updates:

Kelly in the CSC tells us that:

Today in the CSC we have been concentrating resources on managing our Faults and Cancellations pools.

Main reasons for contacting the CSC today:
(1) Fault updates 10% – More so than normal but these are where customers are contacted by SMS to let them know of an update.

(2) Router config 10% – Customers who have new routers and need help setting up the username field (@realm) and advanced settings

(3) Sales 10% – A large amount of sales calls today which is always good news!

(4) Raising and checking faults 5% – Mostly no sync faults but no real pattern to this.

(5) Email config 5% – Customers who have got a new email address but need help setting it up on their computer. The main issue is due to an email address which is by default blackholed. This can be solved by renaming the default mailbox or creating an alias/mailbox.

Other Misc. issues – 60%

Mand in Comms states:

It’s been a typically busy day here in Comms.

Chris has been doing, and I quote, ‘not a lot’ . In reality he’s been dipping in and out of the forums, actioning and approving networks change controls, and clearing up some other tasks. He’s also done a few tickets for the CSC. [ed: He's also been whinging about his manflu!]

Matt has been looking at problems coming through from the CSC and talking to the relevant departments, as well as frequenting a couple of external forums we participate in.
James has been dealing with customers in the forums, and has been dealing with some rather nasty personal tickets (I’m sure he has a speeddial to the BT faults team, that or a sore dialling finger ;p). [ed: He does not sadly, but challenges anyone in the company to dial BT Faults faster than he can]

Bob has been continuing with the comms plan for our VoIP improvements, and has managed to make a record two rounds of tea for the team in two days!

I’ve been helping out with some CSC tickets, continuing a couple of forum debates, and writing some training for the CSC which I’ll be delivering next week. I’ve also managed to clear out some niggly ad-hoc tasks.

Development, with Daniel

I’m a developer and I’ve been working in PlusNet for more then a year.

I must say that the last year has been one of the best years of my life. Not only I’ve learned a lot, but I’ve met fantastic people from all over the globe. We are an international family where everyone can count on others. When you work in environments like this it helps you understand how great the people are.

Today I’ve been working on some new components for our platform that will improve the services we offer to our customers. Those components require communication with remote datasources so I’ve been using API (application programing interface) prepared by another developer. Building and using any kind of API is not a trivial task. You need to know now how the remote system works and then you need to be able to simulate it’s behaviour on you local development environment. The task is even more complicated is you do not have complete documentation about remote system and you need to learn how does it work before you will start any kind of development.

Now, Martyn in Marketing:

Today feels like it’s been a strange day in Marketing. We’ve all been really busy but with loads of small tasks rather than large project items. So, instead of boring you with a long list of what we’ve been up to, I thought I’d tell you about some promotional work we’ve been doing to tap in to the student market.

Our 1-month contracts are great for students, who move around frequently and are often away in the summer, making 12 or 18-month contracts fairly unattractive. To try and spread the word to students we’ve employed an agency to visit campuses around the country, armed with a PlusNet stall and a stack of flyers (not to mention PlusNet pyjamas!). This week they’ve been in Newcastle, next week they’ll be heading to Leeds and Bournemouth. If you’re in the area, pop along and check it out.

Products, with the placement student. Yes, we all know it’s Darren!

Another day in the life of Products. So what have our multi-talented team been up to?

Today I have been doing some competitor analysis, finding out everything about the competition from a customer point of view. I continued work on PlusNet’s Halloween celebrations. I’ve also upgraded customers to the wonders of up to 8mb speeds.

Rich: Today I have been working on VoIP; I have developed a project specification for the BETA trial. Started to define processes for account management and continued to collate test results.

Maria: Today has been filled with numerous things. I have been working to reduce the amount of outstanding tasks I have especially in light of the fact that Nick managed to offload plenty when he changed roles. In addition I have been working with finance to agree the management of budgets now Nick is in his new role. I have also spent some time on calls with BT and met a new member of the PN team. Finally I have been in the product matrix meeting where we have discussed all of the developments/enhancements and offers/marketing work that we are currently trying to plan for the forthcoming months. I’m now off to write some requirements for the development team to look at and tell me if it’s doable and by when. I’ll be on leave tomorrow so that’s it from me for this week.

Ian: Meetings, Meetings, Meetings. Traffic management, product planning and prioritisation and a workshop on a community site related idea from our finance team. A day with a high dose of debates and discussions as well as what is rapidly becoming the normal dose of Lemsip.

Fiona from Finance adds her 2p:

The finance team has had a busy day again today.

238 tickets have been closed, as well as working through a backlog of post, caused by the recent postal strike. We have had a new addition to the team today, Nick is helping us out with the post backlog, direct debit processing and general filing for the next 2 days. The commercial team have had hardware planning meetings today, and well as doing some strategy planning. In the failed billing team, we are working hard to catch up on the backlog that we have, and each team member is having a great day, 2 have already hit their daily target, and there’s still 2hrs of work to go!

Nigel now, from the Platform team:

Helloooo Customers!

I’m Nigel Wood, part of the Platform Team within Networks. The team was formed a few years ago to gather all the skills used to design and develop our web apps in one place. It’s job is to design and coordinate the overall software system and the servers on which it runs. I’m one of the two software developers within the team (whatever the fancy title says).

This week we made another significant technical step forward by introducing an new rollout system based on Radmind. It will improve the configuration consistency within our server farms, help detect unauthorized changes and allow us refresh our testing platforms much quicker.

I’ve spent the day comparing some minor inconsistencies which existed before Radmind’s introduction and working out which is the correct one. Not immediately beneficial to customers, but the less time spent doing day-to-day things like synchronising servers means more time for productive things.

That’s it folks! Niki in Finance is also trying to drum up some support for “In the Pink” day to recognise Breast Cancer. She’s trying to get us all to come into work in pink, so there’s been numerous jokes about my pink (magenta) trainers that I used to own! See tomorrow, it’s Friday!

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