Conference 7.286::digital

    Reseller News had an article about Compaq dropping DEC for UNISYS in
    Europe and Asia. Seems we can't service their customers adequately. The
    article went on to explain how MCS was causing problems with the
    channel, competition for their service offerings. According to the
    author DEC was considering getting out of third-party MCS offerings and
    turning that business over to channel parners. 
    As for the people/parts issues, that is evident here in Texas. Our CS
    people were impacted with the last MCS layoff. I don't understand why
    since the customers I talk to usually have complaints about the lack of
    response and the level of expertise of the engineers and every part
    seems to need to be ordered from somewhere. I know the CS people and
    they are working more calls than they ever have. As far as parts and
    training, well I hate to see the people in the IVORY TOWERS waste money
    on that when they could use the money to appoint VP's.
    Don't expect it to get any better. Compaq is eating our lunch in PC's.
    The PentiumPRO, in 32bit environments, has a price/performance lead
    over ALPHA. Most unsettleing is that these seem to be non-issues, maybe
    instead of "whatever it Takes" try "What me Worry?".
    Who cares, well obviously you do, and I do, and most of the people I
    work with do. We put out the fires we can and keep a watchful eye on
    the glowing horizon. Do the VP's and the powers that be care? Who
    knows.

    If this company expects to turn over the maintenance business of 3rd
    party offerings to channel partners and still live up to the
    standards of excellence we have been expounding to our customers we
    have a big lesson coming again from the marketplace.  It's getting
    to the point where I am hesitant to sell a solution because we are in a
    precarious position of being able to adequately deliver the solution.
    
    Digitals management within MCS needs to wake up and understand that if
    we don't staff sufficiently to meet our customers needs they will take
    their business to people who can.  Maybe we need to get dealt a few
    hard losses for them to realize they have gone too far with the cuts. 
    Perhaps the loss of the business with Compaq in Europe will be the
    start.  If not rest assured that Mr. Rando's numbers will start to head
    south and then the you know what will hit the fan in Maynard.  The
    "Whatever it takes" could simply just turn to "Whatever"
    
    Mav

    Here in So Cal we see the same things. I listened to a Concall last week
    where high level managers discussed the latest reorg.....I wondered,
    "Do our managers care about the service we deliver and how to improve
    or at least deliver it? Are they only concerned with the internal 
    structure and the perpetuation of their own kingdoms?" So much focus
    on internal things and whos whos; so little concern for my parts, 
    training, and delivery issues. I have VARS doing things like selling
    the customers prepaid DEC installations and delivering T & M to them
    and pocketing the difference. If something is bad they complain that
    warranty should cover it. This company is so full of money leaks and
    nobody in a position to state policy does anything. I have VARS doing
    their own installations (8400 and Highend storage servers) and when
    they botch something they log a call and claim warranty. PC contracts
    delivered on 250 PCs for a grand total of 1400 odd dollars a month.
    Day one $10,000 worth of parts are required to make them functional.
    If this was Bobs garage computer company I'd be bankrupt already. We
    need to focus and insist on being paid for what we do. Then deliver
    it, better than anyone else. Our management owes us the leadership
    readiness and tools to accomplish this (or step aside). I suspect a 
    complete lack of understanding of our work by our management. There
    seems to be no technical background  there. This is not 7-Eleven. You
    cannot run this business by looking at spreadsheets only. Ding ding
    ding ding wake up hello anybody home????????
    

    
    
    If you want a real flavor for how bad things in MCS are, here's a look
    at the total calls in the combined CSC queues. There are customers
    in there who have been waiting for a callback for a month!
    
                                                  Number of Return Calls
                                                          Older than
                                  Total Number of         45 minutes
                Queue Name          Return Calls       With No Attempts
                                      ----                  ----
                  Total                6850                  5447
    
     
    I'm sure some percentage of those calls are in some administrative type
    of queue and inflate the numbers....But even if they accounted for 50%
    of the calls, that's STILL whole lot of folks waiting for a
    callback....10 years ago, our goal was to take as many calls LIVE as
    we could (directly without having to put the customer in a queue)...
    now our goal is to take the calls before the customer forgets that he
    even called!
    
    "Frustrated" doesn't even begin to describe the overall mood in MCS
    these days......
    

  I don't think that upper management wants to destroy or sell MCS
(field service and sales).  I do think they are making very bad
decisions that will either destroy MCS, or even worse create a lawsuit.

  Several mistakes are being made by upper management in an attempt to
bring down the cost per call.  Most of the mistakes IMO are because
most managers don't know, or worse yet won't learn what it takes to do
the job effectively.  Some know but because they are eunuchs won't
confront upper management about the problem.

  One of the mistakes management makes is thinking that the equipment is
easy to fix and that any monkey can fix it in minutes, with out having
parts to troubleshoot with.  Yep!  The implementation of centralized
parts means that engineers usually don't have the parts they need to
troubleshoot with.  I've heard many times from management, why can't
you fix it?  It's only a box!  That question alone proves the ignorance
of a manager.

  From the above example it is easy to see why a manager would lay off
most of the experienced engineers in MCS, or the best sales people.
Heck anyone can sell our equipment. :-)  Training, who needs training
for a box.

  There is much more, but I deleted most of what I wrote, because I didn't
want everyone to fall asleep.

  My Suggestions:  Management better get their heads out of their ... or
sell MCS while they can still get money for it.  Realize that there is
a cost per call.  Find out what it costs to service everything and then
charge that plus what ever profit we can.


Jim Morton

    Sell nothing that is materials or labor intensive.  
    
    Don't assume the silence of the wolves is evidence of thoughtful
    planning.  We're waiting.  You've got to know We've paid some 
    consulting firm to tell us what MCS should be.  That pay will be so big 
    that no one will question our blind obedience to the result.
    
    We lack a visionary.  Someone to slam the hand down on the desk and
    shout who we are as a company and what we will be...by damn!.  Someone to 
    stir the good feelings and values we all want to share...
    
    Maybe some courage is needed here....
    
    
    
    
    

      Any pointers to the article referred to in .1? Is it available
    electronically, or anyone willing to type it in? We fix Compaq warranty
    equipment here in the UK PRC, it's the first I've heard about losing
    it. We have a backlog of work; this is because the volume of calls has
    risen rapidly to 100++ per week, against the @150 per month forecast.
    Plus it is a lot more difficult to recruit competent repair techs than
    some senior management seem to believe.
    
    Ken Ricketts
    Support engineer
    PRC Winnersh UK

    Meanwhile the same senior "management" have apparently created a new
    offering where we invite Joe Public to walk in to the repair centre in
    Winnersh with their broken anybrand PCs, saying we'll fix it, "whatever
    it takes". 
    
    Methinks someone should open their eyes and smell the air. Or
    something.
    
    regards
    john

What? Reference this, please. I can see doing whatever it takes, as
long as the customer understands that they'll have to pay whatever it
costs.

Pete

    
    Re: .5, others
    
    Please be careful what is entered here regarding lawsuits.  This
    entire string could be used against Digital in the process of
    discovery.  BTW, its not, "may be", its "may be more".

    
    Also, our expense to revenue ratio is worsening.  In order to
    improve that, management has focused on expenses.  Doing otherwise
    would require understanding the miriad reasons that this situation
    has worsened and having the internal systems to report expenses
    acurately.  Not there.  The margins just aren't out there anymore.
    You cannot discount your services and maintain margin.  Steps are
    being taken to offer higher margin services, but time is the enemy.
    
    I don't think management is trying to ruin MCS, but the question is
    can we improve margins before it is?  From a business standpoint, 
    it would be better to contract our "break/fix" to an independant
    company made up of former Digital employees, offering head-to-head
    competion with other "break/fix" companies and focus on the higher
    margin "knowledge/skill/experience" based services.

    
    
    re .8
    
    
    That's a GREAT idea. Just like it is for us to hype "Multi Vendor
    Customer SUpport"...
    but ONLY if we 're going to actually be able to do the job. 
    Instead, we sell the service cause it sounds good, then the calls 
    start coming in (or the folks with PCs start walking in) and we
    are totally unprepared for the business....
    "sorry..never seen one of those"..."sorry...don't have the manuals 
    for one of those"...."you have a what???"
    Someone comes up with these great ideas and MCS mgt says "sure we
    can do that"....then they say to the folks who actually do the work
    "do this"....and who's the one who looks like an ASS when the customer
    calls in or comes in and your jaw hits the floor and you have to
    start dancing.......
    
    If you're going to SELL a service, make sure you can PROVIDE the
    service. Right now, the MULTI VENDOR part is a FRAUD.
    

    
    Greetings all,
    
    I agree that noone's trying to kill MCS on purpose, it is just having
    that effect. We are the cash cow of the company and as something of a
    farmer myself the way you get the magic stuff out of a cow is to.. for
    the lack of a better term ... milk it! It appears to me that DEC needs
    the cash we are generating from something we do fairly well and the way
    we are being milked is by being beaten on the head. For goodness sake
    UNISYS is getting buisness we can't keep! Whoa there is a sucess story
    for someone to explain. 
    
    Anyways, one more story. I was in a meetings with a customer who was
    steamed beyond reason about why their contract was so screwed up. The
    base rep and her manager (both of whom subsequently given the package)
    were at pains to explain why we needed 3 weeks to get a quote on 3rd
    party stuff. The base rep said yah its just so much easier to deal with
    digital products! The customer really rubbed our nose in the
    multi-vendor stuff after that.
    
    Fred

    It seems this time even the local managers cant hold out anykind of
    hope anymore.Stocking locations are being closed while we have
    commitments that require us on site within ,sometimes 1 hour.The
    physical toll it is taking on us tech types is incredible.We are pushed
    and pulled in so many directions,without any hope of a good
    ending.Digital continues to sign contracts that we have no chance
    of fufilling and that was before this rightsizing.There has been talk
    of the right mix of skill sets and eventually hiring people,but
    everyone knows its a croc.Soon digital will have more fe,s with nervous
    breakdowns,than satisfied customers

    
    It would be nice if John Rando or Janet Wallace could read this string
    and then comment on all the "real" issues that we in the field face
    everyday. But, I doubt that this will happen.
    
    Mark

    re:15
    
    I watched the Janet Wallace video and believe it or not she seemed
    aware of alot of these problems. At least as far as the contracts being
    sold with no way of breaking even let alone making any money. I just
    don't feel she knows how impacted the field has been hit and is being
    told the right moves are being made!!!! NOT SO THOUGH!!

     
    The comment regarding not being able to make commitments really hits
    home - We have a site 3 hours away from the nearest engineer (if he was
    home, (closer than the office) - and had the right parts in his hand)
    that has a GUARANTEED 2 HOURS ONSITE CONTRACT. And a half-hour fix too.
    At least they fired the looney who signed that, but we still have to
    live with it.
    
    A comment from a friend in W.VA - "We are 15-20 calls deep at all
    times, and when I asked about help, my manager said, "Not until you are
    maxed out on overtime"." And he was told NOT to do overtime, as it
    costs too much. Now there is Catch-22. 
    
    We need a way to track who sold what to who, when and for how much. we
    do not have such an item. I called DELTEC for warranty on a UPS for a
    radar system, they knew within SECONDS that the serial number I gave
    had been sold to digital in NH, with a name, a PO and that the warranty
    was up in 2 months. WE CANNOT DO THIS. (they use HP, maybe we should?)
    
    Start now, put the serial id on the FRONT OF THE DAMN BOX, make it
    pretty, give it a bar code. Scan it in at some point (like when it
    leaves digital) and start using one of those fancy VLM databse
    altavista gizmos. There's a starting point. I expect it done by summers
    end. Handle that.
    
    RE CSC32::PITT and his numbers. Yup, gotta agree. I'm thinking of
    placing calls to support for something I might not be able to fix
    tommorrow, so if I can't, at least the phone will ring while I'm still
    on site. Support like that is like playing "Stick Quiz". After a while
    you figure out that there really is no USEABLE support and quit
    calling. (subtract 1 from those numbers, I ignored the 1:30 AM page)
    
    My point is that the CSC was a truly great tool before "they" killed
    it. Now it is more of an inconvience, due to all the cuts. It's really
    sad when something that could have generated absolute tons of cash for
    dec has been castrated by clueless dilbertesque management. And "They"
    still work here I'll bet.
    
    One deal I'd like to see, is akin to "Take Your Daughter To Work Day"
    only more like "Take your bosses bosses bosses boss to work today" Take
    off the suit, wear the dokkers, shirt and tie and hop in - we'll go fix
    something with nothing. "Hey - here's my tools, fix that box while I try
    and calm down this customer. Whadda ya mean ya can't? It's only a box,
    Right?
    
    I could rave on for hours about this, but it's kinda like being the
    invisible man, you may be heard, but no one listens.
    
    .mike.

Re .-1 , Mike, I'm with you all the way. These days you "Grow the business" 
by providing service and products "second to none". Before you make the decision
to have fewer resources in the field to do more work, Common sense would dictate
that you have a plan in place to augment/offset those losses of people. Ford is
currently in the process of evaluating third-party packages ("off the shelf")
for replacing their home grown systems. If successfull, it will mean that they 
will need fewer people on their IS staffs. Do you think they're laying off some
of their IS staffs now? No, they're "making dam#" sure that what they're putting
in place is going to work first, then they'll make decisions as to whether to
cut or not. 

How do we offset the loss of people? Maybe by building simplier systems to
maintain? Perhaps by putting more intelligence in the systems we design/build?
Do MCS service engineers get to talk to our systems designers (in CSD) about
serviceability of the systems that are designed? Does Manufacturing get
involved? Have we standardized on the diagnostics available on every machine,
can we make them the same (less training for everyone involved)? Can we make
those diagnostics more sophisticated/simpler/better? How are product defects
tracked? When field service makes a call to replace a part that was in warranty
and in a system that was "just powered up", is there some type of reporting
mechanism, that goes to a central location, that the failure is reported to the
right engineering, manufacturing, and management responsible for that product?
Do we have a way of flagging "a bunch of bad disks" for example? Do we know who
the suppliers are that provide us with "good high quality parts"? Do we do more
business with them or do we just keep buying "parts" from "whoever"? How do we
follow up with our customers that have had numerous failures of the same type on
different "new systems"? (Our account has had this problem, and I've been very
disappointed with the follow-up ---- almost none with the exception of the
account team). Do we track customers systems and their purchases? Next time an
upgrade is available for a certain type of box, can we find those customers that
have installed systems compatible with those upgrades? I can think of many
creative ways to "enhance" our position in this market place, as I'm sure
everyone else also has ideas. A company differentiates itself with its people
and ideas.

I really don't know what the possibilities are, but if people really thought
about it, I'm sure we could come up with ways to be more efficient. I like your
idea about a database for all systems. To this day, I'm amazed that a company
like ours has never developed the necessary applications for supporting the
field, both sales and service. It's like pulling teeth to try to find out what a
customer has on site. We talk about "INFORMATION" and how important it is to
other business's, why doesn't the same importance apply to us, with our own
internal systems?

MCS's ability to service the customer, not only affects existing contracts and
the ability to sell such contracts. It also affects our ability to sell "NEW
SYSTEMS". In the last few months alone, I have never seen so many complaints
from our "big" customer about our field service organization and their ability
to fix things in a timely fashion. It's not the FE's fault, they're understaffed
and already being pushed to the max. But a customer doesn't care about our
internal problems, they purchase a contract and expect us to execute/comply with
the terms/conditions on the contract. We could have our FE's show up peddling a
bicycle with a cart behind it, "as long as he gets there to do the job,
according to the terms of the contract", that's all the customer cares about.

 It's getting to the point, that we have orders on hold (for new product),
because of these issues. 

Bottom line ----- We're all in this together, what happens to and how MCS
conducts its business , impacts CSD (SBU, ABU, PCBU, SI, MANUFACTURING,
ENGINEERING) , STORAGE and SEMICONDUCTER OPERATIONS. We are all intertwined in
this. Anyone who thinks otherwise, should think twice. 

Just my two cents worth,



Rick C.
 




 

    Re: .17, Take Your High Mucky-Muck to Work Day

    Hyatt Hotels does this on an annual basis.  The corporate staff goes
    out to various properties in the system and works for a day at the
    front desk, kitchen, banquet setup, etc, at the grunt level.  By all
    accounts, it reduces the frequency of "you nitwits in the trenches
    ought to do X" pronouncements/directives when X is totally illogical or
    inefficient, or both.

    To paraphrase one of the top people at Hyatt, you haven't lived until
    you've told a customer that there was a screw up in reservations and,
    oh sorry, we don't have a room for you.  Oh BTW, it's 4am, said
    customer just got off the redeye from Singapore, and he's the CFO at
    Ford, which does Y million dollars of business with Hyatt.

    George

    	
    
	It seems like we focus too much on the profit margins  - and the
	reason is the 'very high' margins we had in the good old days. 
	We (digital) must accept lower profit when dealing with the
	Multivendor Stuff. I know for sure that we're in a position were 
	all the money is needed and the service revenue is declining, but
	I refuse to lay down and die just because of that !!!

	
	IMHO : Do NOT try to balance out the declining margins by reducing 
	the workforce - It won't work in the long run.

	- And I hope we're here for the long run ...

	I strongly agree with previous noters ; It's not by purpose
	they (management) are killing MCS , it's just the result of
	a lot of mistakes made.

	The BIG question is "- How the heck can we change this trend ? - "

	We can spend hours here , writing notes that makes us even more 
	frustrated about the situation , but it wont help us - sorry :-(

	PLEASE ! Upper management or whatever we call it - LISTEN !

	/ H�kan Widman / CSC Sweden
 
	
	
    
        

    re: take your manager to work.
    
    this was done once by Ken, when he became concerned about the
    complexity of ordering our systems. Each VP was required to configure
    and order a system, using only the SOC. All the orders were shipped to
    a site, and the VPs had to put them together. There were some funny
    stories about their success.
    
    I guess we didnt learn much. Kens gone, we have lots of VPs, and
    I bet there isnt one of them that would know what 'configure a system'
    means, let alone know how to do it.
    
    

    Take your managers manager to work. I spend much time insulating my
    customers from the booracrats and bean-counters, I could end up with
    no credibility at all if they actually met these people. Bad Idea! Did
    you think our management types would LEARN something? The reply in .18
    is good, send them a copy of that and lets keep the customers we still
    have. 

    (-: booracrats :-)
    

    re: Take your manager to work day
    
    MacDonalds does this on an annual basis.  They seem to be doing
    pretty well as a company.
    
    Bill

    Maybe we should take our managers to McDonalds??????

    As long as we don't have to check into a Hyatt afterwards...

    re .24 - Oops, I ate there yesterday, and still can't remember
    how to spell the name.  It should be "McDonalds", not "MacDonalds".

    Back 10 years or so ago, the Salem, NH Manufacturing plant was
    requested to have ALL upper management staff receive a whole system
    order, remove it from the boxes/crates, etc.  Then after checking the
    PO and the contents of the order for accuracy, assemble the system,
    following the user documentation contained in the order.  
    
    This opened their eyes to a lot of short ships and they found that we
    truely do make things complex...to a fault...when ordering/shipping a
    product.
    
    I never found out the results of this project, due to the invent of the
    now popular TFSO.
    
    -VT.....who is now religated to relocating back to Massachusetts.  Oh
    well, I figure I can scrape out another 6-8 years in DEC, er, Digital
    before I retire.  I hate to leave GA, but I plan to come back
    eventually.

    I feel that too many short term decisions are being made that screw
    things up in the long run. A different 13 week vision each quarter will
    not improve profits in the long run. The only pattern I have seen is
    this didn't get us $XXX in profit so lets TFSO. Repeat procedure until
    all the upper mgmt. get those LARGE stock options. Vision like this
    seems self defeating to me. Listen to the people in the field and they
    will tell you what our customers want, as opposed to us telling the
    customer what they should have. 
    
    What would I do if you made over $9 Million in salary and stock? Would
    your actions be customer or stock market directed?
    The stock market will still be there, BUT will our customers?
    
    David
    

    re:.24
    
    Maybe we should let our managers and VP's SELL hamburgers for a
    living.. They obviously don't know what's real and what's not.. Then
    again they'd probably lay off all the people at the cash registers.
    
    IMHO anyway....:-)))
    
    Joe

    
    In my very humble (I should know!) opinion the whole issue is
    simple.  MCS must produce a certain $$ amount this quarter for
    the corporation.  There is no alternative and no excuses will
    be accepted, jobs on the line, etc.  The only way to do that
    short term is to cut expenses (unless somebody donates a whole
    bunch of cash!) and try to minimize the impact to the business.  
    
    Marty

     re .32
    
     Yes ; that's the kind of logic that seems to dominate these days.
     It will fix the figures in short term ...
    
     Remeber - Most of our expenses are people-related but so are 
     our income too... 
    
     / H�kan W
    
    

    
    In my also very humble opinion, it doesn't seem right that we
    received success sharing checks one month and TFSO notices the next. 
    I'm glad I'm no longer in MCS but as a Dec employee it still concerns
    me.   The decisions that come down seem a little strange to say the least.
    
    In regards to MCS change forums...I attended one.   After that I was 
    too busy getting real work done.   
    
    Teri                              

    Would not be surprised if MCS adopted the ABU model of account
    management.  Choose 100-200 accounts to sell services to direct and the
    rest go to service channels.
    
    Also, could see base and new sales merge along with above.  A single
    MCS sales account manager responsible for base and the growth of that
    base through new sales.
    
    Given the above, layoffs will continue....

    I just got a copy of reseller nuse and its not a pleasant picture of
    dec which is painted in its paragraphs, therin.

    What is 'reseller nuse'?  What issue - date, etc.
    
    

    spoke to an MCS grunt yesterday at length; 8 yrs ago when he came to
    digital, had 125 in their division, today 9.

    
    The work is not going away just the people.  Its being outsources, done
    by other groups, done with less people, only partially done...etc, etc.
    
    Teri

    I always hated being known as a "grunt". All the Field Service people I
    know are professionals.

>    I always hated being known as a "grunt". All the Field Service people I
>    know are professionals.

I first heard the term "grunt" used in reference to foot soldiers.  I usually
think of it in terms of "the guy on the front line" or "not a manager".  I
don't think it is intended to be derogatory.

    To me, the term "grunt" seems to indicate someone who does physical
    labor (grunting while working), which translates to a "not a manager"
    definition for most corporate employment situations.
    
    That said, I'd rather I'd be called a "grunt" than to be called the
    R-word*.  I'd rather be a low-level worker than be an inanimate object,
    to be used and discarded at will by the "human" population.  Uggggh!
    That REALLY keys me off!
    
    -- Russ
    
    R-word: "resource"
    Oooooh!  I typed it!  I TYPED IT!  I've got to go wash my hands!!!  ;^)

    > I first heard the term "grunt" used in reference to foot soldiers.
    
    Me too.  I heard at one time that the word "grunt" came from the noise
    infantry soldiers made when they went to pick up their field packs.
    This is probably what one would call "military legend."
    
    From my military experience, "grunts" are the ones doing the pushups,
    as opposed to the one calling the pushups.  Same sound....same name!
    Makes sense to me. :-)
    
    Paul Brooks

I was told that GRUNT referred specifically to Army enlisted personnel.  If you called a 
Marine a grunt, then you should be ready to have your head handed to you.

    Well, I never minded the term "Grunt", I always looked at the term as
    one of respect.  To me it means someone in the trenches defending life
    and supporting what he believes in.  As for me I'm helping the numbers
    of Digital in the best way I know------I QUIT-------and I can't
    remember the last time I was happier.  Good luck to all you "GRUNTS"
    that are left.
    
    Simon Ballenot (MCSE, CNE, ASE)

    
    
   > Simon Ballenot (MCSE, CNE, ASE)
    
    Hmmm - "MCSE" is pretty obvious, how many years?
           "CNE"  that's lot's of work, should be a desirable asset.
           "ASE"  is one that escapes me, but probably a good thing?
    
    Who loses here? the individual? or the company? Why is this guy happy?
    What's wrong with *this* picture?
    
    Personally I never minded the "grunt" tag, it just meant (to me) that I
    had to get my hands dirty and you didn't. That meant (to me) that I
    could, and you couldn't.
    
    .mike.

grunt = GRound UNiT

M

	And I thought a grunt sat on the front porch making comments...
	...oh, nevermind.

							mike

    
    	I thought a grunt was a stereotypical trailer-park resident.
    

I am with many of you on the "grunt" issue: I am a line grunt, and proud to
be one.  To me this is not in any way a derogatory term, but more of a very
"descriptive" one.

The ability to get one-on-one with the problems that line grunts face (such
as designing a new piece of hardware which can do the job, be manufactured
for a reasonable cost, survive the rigors of life in the field and which can
be maintained reasonably; or designing a new piece of software which can do
the job, which interfaces well with other pieces of software, which works
relatively efficiently and which can be maintained reasonably; or selling
the above products in a reasonable period of time, while dealing with the
customer politics, fending off attacks from the competition, keeping up
with the myriad demands placed on you by Digital and doing so to a level 
which keeps the paycheck up to a point where the creditors aren't after you;
etc, etc, for all other positions) is something that we should be proud of.

But this should not let us denigrate the efforts of non-grunts.  Managers
need the ability to deal with all of the Digital politics and demands for
reports and other information on incredibly short notice (often just to see
the information disappear with no results), the ability to keep their people
motivated and productive in the face of the problems that we face today,
the need to implement policies which they had no hand in planning and may
or may not agree with but for which they are now required to make work, all
without the time or capability of doing the actual work themselves, so they
must delegate everything.  I know that I would not be able to do that, and
I have the greatest respect for those that can.

Sorry, but with all of the praise for "grunts" here, I wanted to make sure
that non-grunts weren't being put down.  

-- Ken Moreau

    as a grunt all my life, i consider that a term of respect and i used it
    in that manner.

    God forbid I should forget the term "worker-bee".  No drone jokes.

    OK, you folks have set me staight. I always thought it was a put down.
    I stand corrected.
    
    
    ..Fred
    
    

> We should have done NT training 2-3 years ago, they wouldnt listen!

2-3 years ago there was really nothing to be trained on.  NT hadn't
actually happened yet.
    
> We should have focused on project management training last year, no $$.

I was required to go to Digital Project Management training.  The trainer
was competent enough, but the training itself was so bad, and so
irrelevant, that even the trainer admitted it's a waste of time.
    
You're not missing much.

___Pete

    re .55:
    
�2-3 years ago there was really nothing to be trained on.  NT hadn't
�actually happened yet.
    
    I did my first NT training almost 4 years ago. Haven't regretted yet.
    
    I'd say 2 years ago NT definitely had happened - we miaght not have
    needed thousands of trained people then, but certainly more than we did
    have at the time.
    

 Computer Reseller News Publishes Revised Compaq Alliance Story
 ------------------------------------------------------------------
 Contact:  Bott Ikeler @OGO, DTN 267-9981
 
 An erroneous front-page story, with the headline, "Compaq-DEC Deal in 
 Disarray," ran in Computer Reseller News on Monday, April 8th. John 
 Rando and Janet Wallace, along with Compaq's top management, have 
 conducted an interview with the editors of CRN to put the record 
 straight: the alliance is on plan, on schedule and has already begun to 
 generate significant revenues for both companies.
 
 CRN published a correction in the April 15th edition on page 3, 
 entitled  "Compaq, Digital Defend Service Alliance."  The article 
 reports that both companies state that the international service 
 agreement is working as orginally expected.  It goes on to clarify some 
 confusion about the agreement in areas of potential channel conflict 
 and in Compaq's selection of Unisys as the regional support provider 
 for Japan and Latin America, two major geographies not included in the 
 agreement with Digital.     
 
 If you have additional questions, please contact:
 
 Brian McKeown @SHR, DTN 237-3802 North America MCS/Compaq Program Mgr.
 Jerry Baker @SHR, DTN 237-2193 North America MCS/Compaq Sales Mgr.
 Charles Starks @SCA, MCS/Compaq Service Delivery Project Mgr.                                           
 Bott Ikeler @OGO, DTN 276-9981 MCS PR Manager (for press questions)

    re: .46  what is an ASE?  Compaq's highest level of certification
    for customer service systems engineers, I believe.  Having ASE's on 
    staff is part of the MCS support agreement with Compaq.  

    
    
    
    re .46 and .58,
    
    
    	having a large number of CCIEs on the payroll is part of the
    corporate agreement between Digital and Cisco.
    
    
    To my knowledge Digital has managed to get 4 certified over the last
    two year, it has sent a lot more through the training.
    
    one is now a non digital consultant
    one is  a digital consultant
    one is working for cisco
    the other is about to join cisco.
    
    Believe me, becoming a CCIE is a *lot* harder than becoming a CNE, but
    having got that qualification MCS is not quite sure what to do with the
    person concerned. That person is usually very technical, and worth a
    lot of money, since Digital MCS doesn't seem to know what to do with those
    people except make them team leaders, they leave.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    	Conrad
    
    	CCIE #1252 (they start at 1000 in Europe)

    What is a CCIE?

    
    re .-1
    
    Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert
    
    
    2 day lab exam.
    Build a network out of Cisco routers.
    
    Build 
    
    IP (OSPF), IPX, Appletalk, Decnet IV, OSI and bridging
    (Transparent and Source route)
    Prove that these all work over X.25, Token Ring, Ethernet, serial,
    frame relay, possibly ISDN and ATM
    
    80% pass mark, 70% failure rate.
    
    You know you've been scrutinised when you've been through a CCIE exam.