At the time of writing this, Steve Jobs is 50 minutes into delivering the keynote to Macworld 2008 in San Francisco..

..and no sign of anything earth shattering as yet they tell me, unless iTunes movie rentals in HD grabs you.  Which well it might.  From my perspective of website content and support it’s clear that we are getting more customers than ever using Apple, and we keep our eyes on new developments with interest. From a Product design perspective these developments might in time change the way we all use the Internet.. again.

Over on this side of the pond, up here in Sheffield, it’s been dark and raining all day. I’m sure our little rays of sunshine at PlusNet Towers will brighten up the dreary weather with a sparkling EOD.

Let’s start with Adheel in the CSC:

It’s been steady in the CSC today, and of course we have had to look at rain teaming down all day, so have a moment to feel sorry for us!

The main issues as seen in the CSC today include:

1) Router set-up – Not only new customers, but customers reconfiguring their routers are calling in asking for advice on setting up their devices, and talking through general settings and confirming realm required for connection.
(hey guys, have you seen this? – Ed)

2) Fault chasing – Mainly No Sync and Speed, no determined pattern, and most of these faults (especially No Sync) that have been already logged and just requiring a update.

3) Outlook/ Webmail Email Accounts – Again seems to be mainly new users, but a lot of people setting up their outlook accounts slightly incorrectly, and calling in to confirm settings. The set-up guides in help and support are clear, but a lot of users don’t seem to know about these, so may again be something that could be highlighted particularly to new users.

4) Billing queries – Customers calling in regarding billing and account queries, a lot of customer looking to upgrade their packages to suit their needs!

5) Sales Enquiries – A fair few new customers looking for information on our broadband AND home phone packages; before Christmas this was definitely only mainly broadband sales calls.

Adam in Business Support:

Another straightforward day for us today which started off with all of us picking up the same roles as yesterday. After wringing out my hair, beard and clothes I started on picking up on some escalated fault cases I have taken ownership of before working the logged faults pools with Keith, Alex and Jon.

Paul has continued the retention faults role for this week helping our retentions team keep the cancellations down, plus he has been working through home phone faults, and some other escalated faults.

Mick has been busy again in QOS/training and has had a bit less time to spend helping us out today but his efforts have been greatly appreciated and go a long way.

We’re in a similar position to yesterday with regards to faults touches and we are close to having all faults tickets looked at in the last 72 hours, not bad for the work of 5 people who are covering other workflows such as calls eh?

Catherine in QA tells us:Well, today, the team have been commenting on how I do or don’t portray them in the EOD. Apparently, descriptions such as ‘Nigel did some admin’ don’t really do justice to what’s actually been happening, but short of a minute by minute account, it can be difficult to reduce a day’s work into a few lines (a few lines?  you want to be grateful you don’t have to edit it – Ed) for your reading pleasure. So, please remember that what’s listed here isn’t *all* we’ve done all day

So, today we have been enjoying the company of the Madasafish QA department, who have come up to Sheffield to get a first hand view of how we work and certainly not just for the free food

Gavin and the ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ Gary have been working on QA Wizard all day, creating new scripts and delving deep into the mysteries of automated testing. Gary was also shocked to the core to get a packet of Nik Naks with a hole in the bottom, meaning that – oh noes! – they had gone soft and stale.

Paul has been working away on project work. It’s about half way done now and progressing well. He’s also been helping with some problems, attending the QA meeting and delaying his lunch to help our own Portal Pete with an urgent piece of testing.

Matt Roberts has been very grateful to Colin for setting up the staging email access, but slightly less than amused at the 28,000 email haystack he’s got to search through in search of a particular needle. Lest ye think this is all he’s been doing, he’s taken his share of problems, too.

Matt Buckley has once again been testing problems, helping content, coordinating developers and drinking copious amounts of Diet Coke, apparently.

Nigel has been honing his skills as a QA ninja. This involves an intensive period of meditation, mental exercise and cake bars. The all black clothing and face mask are on order for next Tuesday.

I’ve been working with Rupert from the Webdev Team on some changes to the referrals process which will really help our big referrers and learning lots of fascinating facts about physics. Apparently, the physics portrayed in Hollywood isn’t always 100% accurate. Who knew?

Martyn in Marketing:

It’s been a dark, wet and miserable day here in Sheffield (we know, we know – Ed) but the marketing show must go on. I’ve been putting together detailed plans for the projects we’re got coming up this quarter. I’ve also been sticking my nose into some SEO work that’s being done in the Web Team, with the aim of increasing the visibility of the Community Site in search engines. (That’ll be me wanting more people to read my ‘tech news’ then – Ed).

Chris has been busy with PR work, while Tim, our new Web Designer, has continued his induction as well as getting stuck into his first piece of creative work. I think we’ll get him to write an end of day before the week is out.

Paul In Development, has it been raining?:

Bucketing down over Sheffield this morning. I live close enough to walk into work, which provides for some daily exercise, but on days like this I think more about having wet shoulders and soggy feet than the impact on the environment or my fitness of using my car. Still, I eschewed the car and arrived at work with wet shoulders and soggy feet.

The Dev floor is humming along as usual, mostly focused on working through our  problem tickets (17 closed today!) and preparation for the next project. Rowan, one of our lead developers, posted a delightful first report from his visit to India where, in addition to meeting with one of our partner companies, he discovered the joys of ayurvedic massage.

Today I have been clearing up some remaining issues with an thorny script, fulfilling requests for data from QA and planning an upcoming recruitment event with the other senior developers.

And finally Matt in the tea room:

Well I bought my wireless Les Paul today (and conveniently a copy of Guitar Hero III) so I know what I’ll be doing over the next two days. I’ll be thinking of the guys from my warm lounge with my cold beer over the next few days (in exactly the same way as they think about me as I man the comms desk over the weekend all on my lonesome… *sob*).

So other than that, what have we been up to?

As ever by all accounts it’s been a razzingly busy day. James has started on his objectives with a will, raising a problem regarding the issue with BT IP profiles and also (finally!) stopping speed faults being returned to customers with a message stating that no speed fault had been found. On top of this he’s been sat with the Customer Service guys helping them out and has also stayed on top of the forums. What a man!

Mand has once again been the very soul of decapitated poultry, haranguing poor developers left right and centre. She’s also been in several meetings and has been catching up on a few of the projects that are now being picked up.

Chris has been Mr Change Control today, fielding both Development AND networks change controls like a hero. He’s also been updating the ticket causes (a bigger job than it sounds), has been chasing our own internal forums and has been the only member of the team today to make a cup of tea. Of course we tried to get Bob to do it but getting Bob to make tea is only marginally harder than completing Through the Fire and the Flames on Expert.

Speaking of Bob, what’s he been doing? I shall ask.

Well that was concise – SPAM.

I myself have been getting pictures together for the faults blog, which really needs to be cut back (I wonder how long 15 pages of MS word will be in wordpress?) and have been about in the forums too. I’ve also been the port of call for Comms advice to the CSC.

So, same again for the guys tomorrow (and lots of rocking for me…). Have a good one all.
 

Wowee.. and whilst I’ve been through that lot correcting the lousy spelling, it looks like the new MacBook wasn’t just hot Air.. exactly how much???!!!

P-j

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This entry was posted by Peter Jackson on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 7:15 pm and is tagged with and is posted in the category EOD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a reply below. Pinging is currently not allowed.