In This Issue
WiMAX World Coming Soon
Resource Corner
Industry Insight
Message from Dick McFarlane
Meet Our Staff
Quick Links
 
 

 
WiMAX World Coming Soon
Interested in learning more about next- generation mobile broadband technology solutions?  Come to WiMAX World 2008 September 30- October 2 in Chicago, Alliance's hometown!  Register today.
 
Resource Corner
Stuck in traffic?  Download a podcast on next generation networks.
 
Industry Insight

Text or talk?  For a majority of Americans the answer is now text. The past two years have seen huge jumps in texting while phone usage has remained fairly flat. SMS charges have doubled in the past year, leading to nice margins for carriers - and inquiries from lawmakers.  Read the news from CTIA Wireless IT & Enterntainment and Nielsen Mobile surveys.

Please contact us any time with questions, feedback, or just to exchange ideas about telecom industry issues.  You can reach us at 847-782-1500 or [email protected].  For the latest information, visit us at www.atswireless.com
 
Sincerely,
 
Dick McFarlane
Alliance Telecom Solutions
Message from Dick McFarlane, President
Last Friday Jay Leno said the U.S. has entered a new chapter in our history - Chapter 11.  Regardless of your view of the degree of our economic problems, we still have to deal with them.

Because our practice is 100% telecom, we participated fully in the last recession.  The financial industry is replacing telecom as the poster child for this recession.  As I travel the country speaking with industry executives and managers, I am not seeing big changes due to the economy yet.  Most of you are concerned, but you are moving ahead with expansion plans and aggressively pursuing OSS & BSS upgrades.

During the next 12-24 months we believe more focus will be on tactical issues.  Execution and efficiency will become more of a focus as money tightens.  Employee turnover will decrease, creating an opportunity to increase productivity through performance and process improvement.

This may be the time to review the performance support tools available to your new or existing employees.

Good business process is only effective if it is translated to consistent daily tasks.  Do your new employees know your way to complete the processes they handle?  Or do they do what they did at their last job, or create new process themselves?

Author Gene Bellinger says it best: "The value of Knowledge Management relates directly to the effectiveness with which the managed knowledge enables the members of the organization to deal with today's situations and effectively envision and create their future. Without on-demand access to managed knowledge, every situation is addressed based on what the individual or group brings to the situation with them. With on-demand access to managed knowledge, every situation is addressed with the sum total of everything anyone in the organization has ever learned about a situation of a similar nature. Which approach would ...make a more effective organization?"  Read the full article here.

Performance support or job aides provide employees with ready access to the correct process.  When is the last time you reviewed your new employee training and on-boarding process?  What do you have in place to support people transferred or promoted to new positions?

Call or email Alliance today if you'd like an unbiased review of your performance support and knowledge management systems - or to work with you to create new ones. 

And let's hope Jay Leno has something else to joke about soon.

Meet Our Staff
Featured Consultant: Salima Asaria, Senior Computer Systems Analyst

Salima has more than 12 years of programming and development work and has focused exclusively the telecom industry and Amdocs software for the past eight years.

TT: How did you get into telecom?
SA: I started my telecom career when I was employed by Amdocs in 2000. Then I joined Alliance as a consultant and (resource manager) Rick Chapman placed me at AT&T in Dallas TX in 2005.

TT: What is your subject matter expertise and how did you develop your knowledge in that area?
SA: Working in the (Amdocs) Enabler team in AT&T we are given exposure to all modules of Enabler, including Acquisition and Formatting (A&F), Rater, CM and PC. For the past two years I have been assigned the Point of Contact for the A&F modules which includes design, development, unit testing and supporting any A&F related issues in System Testing and Production.  I developed my expertise in the A&F module because it is similar to the MAF module in Ensemble where I first started to work in Amdocs so I had a previous background in that area.  And my projects at AT&T have given me more exposure to design, development and providing support in this area.

TT:  What is one of the most interesting projects you've worked on?
SA: All the development projects we work on are very interesting but the project which I enjoyed the most was developing the A&F code related to VoIP.  Usually we just do enhancements to Amdocs code but the VoIP project was different because my team at AT&T did coding from scratch.

TT: What do you feel is the biggest contribution you feel you've made to a client?
SA: I have sole responsibility for the A&F module, starting from the architecture work up through supporting system testing and production issues, so that provides contributions every day.  The most unique challenge was getting the VoIP product working in A&F at AT&T.
 
TT: What is your favorite city or country to work in?
SA: Dallas, TX

TT:  What do you like best about working with Alliance?
SA: The people at Alliance (especially Rick Chapman, Dick McFarlane and Geri Michau) are very willing to listen and provide support in every matter.

TT: What hobbies do you enjoy in your free time?
SA: Spending quality time with my daughter and family.

To request Salima for your next project or to view her full profile, visit www.atswireless.com/ServicesConsultHot.htm