Conference 7.286::digital

    re: .0
    
    You may be complaining about the relo package, but I think the
    important thing here is that you have indicated that less than 10% of
    the current staff is willing to xfer to Mass.  Talk about a brain
    drain!
    
    All you folks left in Sales and Sales Support, remember what happened
    the last time some clueless person decided these folks should go away? 
    You'd better start screaming and getting somebody's attention.  You
    should also tell  your distributors and others external to Digital who
    have access to these folks that even though 1-800-DEC-SALE isn't going
    away like last time, the voice at the other end of the line isn't going
    to be much help (and this is NOT the fault of the poor soul answering
    the phone).
    
    Bob
    

    If this group is being offered something less than the Digital Standard
    Relocation Package, than they should complain very loudly to Human
    Resources. It is against company policy to offer employees something
    less than the standard package. The relo package is not something that
    gets negotiated with individuals. To quote HR Policy 5.01 Page 1 of 18
    "In other words, managers cannot add to or reduce any provisions of
    the Relocation Policy to a relocating employee."
    
    
    Of course, if they are complaining about the standard relo package than
    they really don't have much a recourse.
    
    

I'll be tracking down whatever management is accountable for this and finding 
out what is going on. As a Tech Support Consultant out here in the field, we 
are expected to know everything and to be able to configure large, complex and 
expensive systems. The folks at 800-DEC-SALE are absolutely necessary and if 
we are not doing everything to retain these people and keep them educated, 
we're making a serious mistake.

regards,

Jim Mickol
Senior Consultant
Upstate NY SBU Technical Support
Rochester, NY
716.436.2565

    re: .2
    
    The relo packages were changed 12/95.  Apparently, 99% of the folks
    only qualify for a 'T2' package, which is a lot less than what the
    people were offered when then moved to ALF several years ago.
    
    Bob

I'm at the Windows NT Wizards Symposium in Seattle this week and we had a 
presentation by Winnie Briney, who is VP of Worldwide Tech Support Programs. I
had raised my hand to ask her about 800-DEC-SALE, but she didn't see me.
Its a good thing anyway because the press was in the room this afternoon
and no sense airing dirty laundry. 

Anyway, after her presentation, I went up and indicated my concerns with 
putting our existing DECSALE support people at risk. She indicated that a new 
manager was brought in who wanted to consolidate these excellent support 
people in one location and give them the tools they need (which I guess have
been lacking). I said that we're selling our customers distributed solutions,
why can't we implement them for this organization. She didn't have an answer 
to that. Winnie said she was up to her neck in this issue and that she
appreciated my feedback. 

After thinking about it, with the technologies available today, 800-DEC-SALE 
staff could work out of their homes and provide a high level of support. The 
need to move everyomne to a centralized location is lost on me.

I plan to pursue this further.

Jim

    
    <<< ..the need for centralized ...
    
    C.O.N.T.R.O.L
    
    Old ways of thinking, die hard.
    
    But the other side of the coin says....
    If you come in new to an organization, wouldn't you like to see your
    people? How can you build a team, provide accountability, provide
    leadership, if your people are spread out across the geography? With
    todays internal tools lacking what other choice does one have?
    
    Tough call. If I *knew* my people, and their abilities, and the
    systems, no problem.
    But a new person... a new company... argh!
 
    
    -Mike Z.

    Remember, the new VP doing all this is from IBM.  I believe they have
    a reputation as being very much into CONTROL.
    
    Bob

    re .6 you say..
    
    >If you come in new to an organization, wouldn't you like to see your
    >people? How can you build a team, provide accountability, provide
    >leadership, if your people are spread out across the geography?  With
    >todays internal tools lacking what other choice does one have?
    
    Wouldn't it be less expensive if we just relocated that one person to
    where the 'team' was?  If I relocated everytime there was a management
    change I would have movet to Canada, Kansas, and Colorado in the last
    1 1/2 years.
    
    robert johnson

.5> Anyway, after her presentation, I went up and indicated my concerns with 
.5> putting our existing DECSALE support people at risk. She indicated that a new 
.5> manager was brought in who wanted to consolidate these excellent support 
.5> people in one location...
    
    The obvious error in this reasoning is that excellent people don't
    chase their current jobs cross-country -- they just find new jobs,
    usually with the competition, often within 24 hours.
    

I just sent this memo to my boss (Sales Support Manager in the ABU) to ask
for her help in this matter.  Maybe if we all scream loudly enough, we can
save these people yet again.  Permission is granted to forward this letter
to any Digital employee, along with any edits you deem appropriate.

-- Ken Moreau


Lee,

I wish to make you aware of a situation at the Remote Sales Support
organization in ALF, that will seriously degrade the ability of Sales and 
Sales Support to perform our jobs for the next 9 to 12 months, which will
seriously hurt Digital's revenue and profitability goals for that same period
of time.

A new manager has decided to move all of the people in ALF to somewhere in 
the Greater Maynard Area (GMA).  He has also decided to eliminate many of the
features of the Relocation Program for the people who are affected by this
decision.  Both of these decisions (i.e., moving people from balmy Atlanta 
to icy New England, and having people pay for large parts of this move
themselves), are forcing a huge percentage of the people affected to not
accept the move, and therefore to leave Remote Sales Support.  The new manager
either does not know the extent of the number of people who will not move, or
feels that they can be easily replaced by people already in the GMA.

But the net effect of this is to eliminate the expertise on which we depend to
do our jobs.

I personally call RSS between 2 to 5 times/week, which I expect is about
average for Sales Support.  They always have the information I need, such that
I get answers to my questions in 5-15 minutes, and are then able to complete
the quote, move ahead with the design of a proposal or answer the customer's
question in a very timely way.  If I had to investigate the issues without
their help, I would take (and this is an optimistic estimate, which is very
low for some questions) 4-5 hours of checking notes files, searching IR,
paging through the SOC and price books, etc.  And worse, if I don't find a
definitive answer (and much of this information is not in our regular
manuals), I may get it wrong, causing quotes with missing or incorrect
equipment to be sent to the customer, designing a proposal which does not work
or is not cost-competitive, or answering a customer's question incorrectly
causing customer satisfaction issues.

There are two components which make the people at RSS effective: the
information in the databases and their experience.  Of the two, the latter is
by far more important.  An experienced support person will know the questions
to ask not only of the databases, but of the caller, such that they can answer
the question quickly and perfectly the first time.  An inexperienced person
will not have these interview techniques or the complete knowledge of how all
the pieces fit together, such that they will be forced to spend a long time
researching the question, and miss important pieces of the answer.  Both of
these lead to the same kind of errors I listed above.

It takes between 9 and 12 months for the people to get "up to speed" and
become efficient at RSS.  This is roughly the same time-frame for a new
engineer or a new support person in the field.

The bottom line of all of the above points is simple:  If the majority of
people at Remote Sales Support in ALF leave their position, then Sales and
Sales Support people will be putting in many more hours of work, and producing
far less quality results, for the next 9 to 12 months.  This will directly
impact Digital's ability to make our sales goals, and our revenue and
profitability will be seriously decreased.

This letter sounds alarmist: it is not.  The impact of this decision is real,
it is imminent, and I am using strong statements to insure that you understand
the urgency and importance of this situation.

I would encourage you to make this known at all levels of the organization,
and to poll your peers concerning this situation.  Thanks for your time.

-- Ken Moreau

        Re .10:

    Ken,
    	I applaud your attempt to stop such a stupid mistake.
    I hope you keep up your attempts.  It's sad, but I think your letter 
    will fall on deaf ears.  It appears most managers think anyone can do
    anything, and experience has little or no effect on how a job is done.
    I've been screaming here to my manager about similar situations, but it
    has little effect.  Now how does that saying go again:  "NEVER TRY TO 
    TEACH A PIG TO SING.  IT WASTES YOUR TIME AND ANNOYS THE PIG".
    Good luck with your letter.

    Jim Morton

From:	MRMTS::MRMTS::MRGATE::"SALES::A1::RELATIONS"  4-MAR-1996 11:56:04.34
To:	@Distribution_List
CC:	
Subj:	New England Facilities Consolidation                                   1

From:	NAME: Corporate Community Relations  <RELATIONS@A1@SALES@AKO>
To:     See Below

THIS MESSAGE IS FROM PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT AND CORPORATE EMPLOYEE RELATIONS
    
    As part of Digital's commitment to return to profitability, we will 
    continue to carefully evaluate, analyze and where appropriate, 
    consolidate our real estate holdings worldwide. 
    
    When evaluating our real estate portfolio for consolidation, we 
    consider a number of factors including the best use of available space, 
    business needs and the impact to employees, businesses and communities.
    
    In the New England area, Digital currently occupies about 35 buildings 
    in 18 cities and towns, which represents more than eight million square 
    feet of space.  However, due to the reduced number of New England 
    employees and the increased number of telecommuting employees, we have 
    more than 2,000 empty offices.  Over the last several months, the 
    businesses have been evaluating their current and future space needs 
    and have made the following consolidation and relocation decisions: 
    
    The following changes are planned for the July 1996 timeframe:
    
    The ABU Customer Order Management organization will move from 
    Merrimack, N.H. (MKO) to Taylor Road, Littleton, Mass. (TAY2.)
    
    The PCBU Sales Administration, Telesales and Logistics will move from 
    MKO to Acton, Mass. (AKO2)
    
    The SBU Telecoverage and Telesupport organization from Alpharetta, Ga. 
    (ALF) and MKO will move to a state-of-the-art Call Management Center in 
    TAY2.
    
    The SBU Americas Headquarters Marketing Operations will move from MKO 
    and Marlboro, Mass. (MRO2) to TAY2.
    
    The Marlboro 2 (MRO2) building will be closed.  The Components 
    organizations in the building will relocate to Marlboro 1 (MRO1) and 
    Shrewsbury.  Other groups within the MRO2 building will also relocate 
    to MRO1 in the April/May time frame.  
    
    The Littleton (LJO1) facility also will be closed in April.  SBU 
    employees in this facility will relocate to MRO1.
    
    We are currently evaluating the Nashua, N.H. (ZKO) facility to 
    determine whether it can be refitted to house the CSS Engineering 
    organization currently located in MKO.  This evaluation is designed to 
    determine how the facility can be refitted to create a world-class 
    engineering center that accommodates all tenants.  A team including ZKO 
    employees will work on a completing this evaluation.  An update on the 
    results of this review will be provided to the affected groups in the 
    March/April time frame.    
    
    To minimize anticipated disruptions to employees and businesses, a 
    special team has been formed to analyze company policies and practices 
    and make recommendations to management in 15 to 30 days. 
    
    We are committed to making these decisions thoughtfully and to sharing 
    the decisions with you as soon as possible.
    
    

Distribution:
This message was delivered to you utilizing the Readers Choice delivery 
services.  You received this message because you are located in ALF, MRO, 
MKO, ZKO, LJO or LKG.  If you have questions regarding this message, please 
contact the author.
 





To Distribution List:

<deleted>

Permission granted to forward or plagiarize...


                  I N T E R O F F I C E   M E M O R A N D U M

                                        Date:     07-Mar-1996 01:00am EST
                                        From:     JIM MICKOL @RCO
                                                  MICKOL.JIM
                                        Dept:     UPSTATE NY SALES SUPPORT
                                        Tel No:   716-436-2565

TO: See Below

Subject: The need for 1-800-DEC-SALE                                 

I would like to express my concern with the changes being considered for
our Remote Sales Support (1-800-DEC-SALE) organization.

Those of us out here in the field who directly interface with our customers
are expected to be experts on the full spectrum of Digital products. From a
pre-sales perspective, this is a pretty tall order. Beyond that, we are
expected to be able to configure working solutions that go directly to
quotes, become orders and end up generating revenue.

With the complexity of our constantly changing computer technologies, RSS
is an absolute necessity to ensure that we deliver working solutions to our
customers.

I understand some of the things driving the changes to the RSS
organization. I would like to point out, however, that Digital has moved to
a Telecommuting organizational model for much of our corporation. With the
networking technologies today, there should be no reason why RSS could not
work from their homes as we in Sales & Tech Support currently do. In fact,
that solution may end up costing less than implementing a large,
centralized call center in Massachusetts.

If you feel that you must centralize these valued individuals, then it is
only fair that they be given the same relocation they were offered when
many of them made the move years ago to Atlanta. There is also a
cost-of-living disparity that should be addressed in the relocation
package.

I cannot emphasize too strongly the importance of keeping the technical
experts in RSS focused on our products... and ready to respond to the needs
of our customers.

Thank you for listening.

Regards,

Jim Mickol
Senior Consultant
Upstate NY SBU Technical Support
Rochester, NY
716.436.2565 


Distribution:
 
howard berg@mro
winney briney@tay
bob stuono@cho
 
joe maguire@lex
debbie miller@mro
jim davis@kyo
kathy power@lex
rick roland@rco
randy zackrisson@rco
mike broomhead@rco
tom knight@rco

    
     
     Hello Jim;
    
          Thanks for the support, but I believe that the reolcation
      of Decsale to Litteton is a positive move for Digtial..
      
       - It will put Decsale in closer proximity to the numerous
         engineering oragnizations, hence, better information flow
         and an opportunity for "hands-on" time on new prducts.
     
       - New Technology, the new call center will be built on newer
         Alpha hardware, and industry standard database products.
         (Call handling systems, prouduct info databases etc.)
         For those that do relocate, they will have more opportunites
         vs the current Decsale structure.
    
    Timelines for the "move" have be pushed out until Oct'96, and 
    relocation packages will be offered to those who are serious about
    moving to Littleton.    
    
    Yes; we will loose some people, (myself included) due to family and
    personal issues that make relocation a non-option...Yup, I will be
    on a job search come Oct 1...
    
    /Tom
    
    
     Tom Foley
     Systems Support Consultant
     770-343-2275/DTN 343-2275
     Internet:[email protected]
        

RE: .14 <Tom Foley RSS Systems Support>

Well, you certainly will be much more directly affected than the rest of us,
so I must respect your statements, but parts of your message confuse me:
    
>          Thanks for the support, but I believe that the reolcation
>      of Decsale to Litteton is a positive move for Digtial..
>[...some text omitted...]
>	For those that do relocate, ...
>[...some text ommitted...]
>       Yes, we will loose some people, ...

I really don't understand how this can be a positive move for Digital
if most of the people who make up the team will be forced to leave the
team, and their hard-won expertise will be lost.

And as far as your other points are concerned, I would *love* to talk
to a customer who said that, because I would consider it a *perfect*
opportunity to tell them how they could improve their business practices
and cut costs by using the technology available today, which Digital
has been selling to other customers for years, and which is currently
in use by multiple other organizations inside and outside of Digital.

FWIW, and IMHO.  I continue to believe that losing all of the experts
who make up the team today will destroy the effectiveness of the entire
program, since barely adequate tools in the hands of an expert produces
far better results than excellent tools in the hands of a new-hire who
must be taught how to spell Alpha.

-- Ken Moreau

Re .14

 >      - It will put Decsale in closer proximity to the numerous
 >        engineering oragnizations, hence, better information flow
 >        and an opportunity for "hands-on" time on new prducts.

As 2/3 of the organisation has no chance of moving for the privelege of 
better info, namely Europe and AP, wouldn't it be better to re-arrange 
the information flow out of engineering to cope with pre-sales technical 
support groups outside GMA?

>       - New Technology, the new call center will be built on newer
>         Alpha hardware, and industry standard database products.
>         (Call handling systems, prouduct info databases etc.)

Why is this only possible in GMA? Wherever it is, is the cost of new 
Alpha technology so high that it is cheaper to re-employ and re-train an 
entire group? I'd love to see the cost-benefit analysis. (So would our 
competitors:-))

>         For those that do relocate, they will have more opportunites
>         vs the current Decsale structure.

This is just one more step in the collapse of all functions towards our 
GMA center and so I must agree with you here. Though not, perhaps, in the 
way you intended it.

Mike.
Pre-sales technical support, Europe.

   Ken;

      I hear you, I hate to see any of our skilled people leave because
      of relocation etc. Believe me, it's not my idea.....The real 
      issues runs deeper....
      Decsale has for years been compensating for the broken communication
      infrastructure within Digital..Arcane tools, cumbersome legacy 
      applications, redundant and conflicting sources of information..
      All of the stumbling-blocks that make doing business with Digital
      almost impossible at times.
      Support organizations like Decsale do not generate direct revenue,
      and as a result; funding is always an issue...Like the Fire 
      Department; no one wants you until their house is on fire...
      As a result of lame funding,...you guessed it...poor training,
      inadquate staffing, ... salary compensation... second-hand vxt2000's
      off of DIAL...(We finally got a handful of PC's)
                        Trying to "do business" under these conditions on a
      daily basis (at Decsale) is a grueling task. We cannot continue to be
      successful with our current 2 legged  milking-stool implementation. 
      Meanwhile, the market is putting more and more demands on our ablity to 
      deliver accurate solutions and product information..after an 8-hr.day 
      here in Decsale we are burned-out...
                              I agree with the concept of a new call center,
      built from the ground up on new technology, it needs to happen......
      Why Littleton?..the space is readily available, and I have doubts
      that the Alpharetta facility will be a Digital owned site in the 
      future... 
                              I do not like the fact that we will loose
      some good talent, the should be some way that we could retain them
      (and myself) as remote members of the new call center..../nuff said

   /Tom   
      
       
  

>    <<< Note 4455.4 by ROWLET::AINSLEY "Less than 150 kts. is TOO slow!" >>>

>    The relo packages were changed 12/95.  Apparently, 99% of the folks
>    only qualify for a 'T2' package, which is a lot less than what the
>    people were offered when then moved to ALF several years ago.
    
  What is a "T2" package? Are there still cirumstances where a relocating em-
ployee other than a VP can qualify for a "good" package?

>   What is a "T2" package? Are there still cirumstances where a relocating em-
> ployee other than a VP can qualify for a "good" package?

  After posting this, I read the new policy in VTX ORANGEBOOK, and that answered
some of my questions. There are two relo policies for this sort of move, T2
and T3. T3 is the "good" one. Someone told me off-line that in this move only
the managers and top-level individual contributors will get the "good" package.

    re: .19
    
    I've been out of the office for the past week, so I'm just now getting
    caught up on notes.
    
    I believe the T3 relo package applies to Consultants and higher. 
    Supposedly, there are only 2 Consultants in the RSS.
    
    Bob

 RE: .17      
    
   ** Why Littleton?..the space is readily available
    
    I'm not sure what you consider "readily available", but please be aware
    of the over 100 people that will be moved out of TAY2 to accomodate
    the RSS.  Some have sites to move to, others have not and are still
    negotiating for space.  
    
    Wendy