 | B/OSS Show
| B/OSS takes place June 9-11 in Washington, DC. With sessions on digital billing, managing complex networks, and mobility in rural America, the show is sure to keep you up-to-date on the latest B/OSS developments. Register today, and come visit Alliance at Booth 204!
|
| |
Industry Insight: WiGig | | Looking for a way to cut cords connecting devices at home and achieve speeds 10x faster than WiFi? The WiGig Alliance published initial specs and added Cicso's support, bringing the technology closer to its 2011 launch goal. |
| | Need a Laugh?
| 
|
| |
Did You Know? | Did you know that 65% of net
retails subscribers in Q4 2009 were prepaid?
Did you know that elephants sleep only two
hours a
day? (Imagine how much you'd get done!)
Look for more factoids about topics including the telecom industry, sports, geography, Alliance services, and more on our website and in special messages coming soon.
|
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 info@atswireless.com. For the latest information, visit us at www.atswireless.com.
Sincerely,
Richard McFarlane
Alliance Telecom Solutions |
|
|
| |
Message from Richard McFarlane, President
|
This year's Billing and OSS conference opens in Washington,
DC in less than a month. Alliance
will be exhibiting at this year's event from June 9-11. We hope you will be there and will stop
by booth 204 to say hello. If you
have not registered yet, contact me for a 50% discount code, and join us at the
conference.
The show has evolved from a shopping mall for billing
systems ten years ago to a broader format. This year still has billing solutions for sure, but the conference has
an entire track devoted to putting the customer first. This discussion will go beyond the
billing function and tie the customer experience across the board to business
process as well as systems.
Alliance has been deep in the billing space since our
inception in 1994. But we have
been working during the past few years to help our clients look at business
process across the customer experience from end-to-end. This has brought development of two
additional practice areas for us: Revenue Assurance and Customer Experience. We believe these are natural extensions
of our clients' drive to deliver voice, data and content in bundled packages
that are much more complex to bill and deliver.
Attention to integration and business process are areas in
which our 16 years of telecom experience can provide immediate benefit and
clear improvement to our clients.
Stop in and review some case studies of recent projects we
have completed to help clients convert or consolidate billing systems, improve
business process, or design new approaches to improving customer
experience. We will be offering a daily drawing for a no
cost Food for Thought session, which will be delivered on your site in coming weeks.
|
| |
Meet Our Staff: Valerie Ryan, PMP
| Featured Consultant: Valerie Ryan, Senior Project Manger
Valerie has 26 years of telecom experience.
TT: How did you get into telecom?
VR: I was one of a few COBOL developers hired at Northwestern Bell Telephone 'off the street' in 1984. Nearly all of the NWB's development staff was trained in-house via a six month series of classes focused on their business needs. My first project was to help build a pilot billing system for AT&T since they did not get any of the billing systems with divestiture in 1984. I wrote the Service Order extracts and feeds to the billing system and then moved to the Journals side.
TT: What is your subject matter expertise?
VR: Telecom switch usage and data flow. I was one of the lead developers on the Amdocs/US West partnership project to build a new, flexible business rule based Switch Mediation system, called MAF. I reverse engineered existing COBOL programs, one of which was more than foot high when printed, into a logical grouping of business rules. The project lasted more than three years as we converted three unique Bell company mediation systems to one single platform with business rules that worked for all of U S West's switches across 14 states.
From there I moved into Project Management and Staff Management, working at MFS, WorldCom, Sprint and CSG. I managed MFS/WorldCom's Network Mediation project to completion on time and under budget. At Sprint I led several Local Resale projects as a consultant before being hired to manage the MAF development team and at CSG I managed a large software development team. I received my PMP certification in 2003.
TT: What do you feel is the biggest contribution you've made to a client?
VR: When I was given the MAF team at Sprint in late 2002, I was also given the Amdocs contracts and a pile of invoices. I read the contracts, reviewed the invoices and felt that Sprint was being overcharged by nearly $1.5 million between the OGS (Ongoing Support) and the RFP related invoices. I presented my interpretation of the wording of the contract all the way up to Sprint's Lead Counsel, who agreed with my findings. Ultimately, Amdocs' second ranked executive and Sprint's COO Ron LeMay came to an agreement of a credit of $1.1 million - real green dollars as we say in the corporate world!
TT: What is one of the most interesting projects you've worked on?
VR:
If chose based on people, it would be the MAF development project. I worked with men and women from Israel, Russia, Greece and Turkey. When asked by one of Amdocs' directors for ideas as to what interesting things he could do while in St. Louis to get a taste of America, I suggested he go to Hannibal, MO to see the beautiful old homes in that area from the Victorian era - and as soon as I said it remembered he grew up in Jerusalem where 'old' is really old. He was very amused.
If I chose based on location, it would be my current assignment at ACS in Anchorage, Alaska. I have been able to do and see things that I would not have imagined a year ago. I have caught a salmon on the Kenai River, taken the controls while flying to Homer, Alaska in a Cessna 172, watched ice fog come in and put a thick layer of frost on everything and turn even the brown dead foliage stunningly beautiful. If you go out of the city while there is still some darkness, you can look up and see the Big Dipper so huge and bright you understand why it is on the Alaska state flag and maybe even see the Milky Way.
TT: What is your favorite city/country to work in?
VR: I have only worked in the United States but would love the opportunity to go elsewhere. Of course I love working where I live in the Omaha/Council Bluffs area where my family is. Seattle is gorgeous, but it is hard to beat Alaska in the summer. It is green, days are long, flowers are bright and colorful and last for weeks, the air is fresh and clean and - last, but not least - the mountains are spectacular. And my commute is under 10 minutes. Don't let Alaska be the one state that you have never visited. It is incredibly, naturally beautiful.
TT: What do you like best about working with Alliance?
VR: Alliance's support staff is outstanding! When I was asked to become an Alliance consultant, time was of the essence in getting to the client site. Rich Chapman and Geri Michau helped in every possible so that I could be onsite in three days. Dick even gave up his personal laptop so that I had all the tools I needed to be of service to the client.
TT: What hobbies do you enjoy in your free time?
VR: When at home, I spend as much time as I can with my daughters, who are both in college, being a mom.
In Anchorage, with more free time than I have at home, I have been able to do some painting. I have completed one large canvas and have two more in the works. I like to offset my number driven world of computers with creative things like painting, cooking, scrapbooking and listening to beautiful music.
To request Valerie for your next project or to view her full profile, please visit our web site.
|
|
|
|
|
