Wholesale: Products & Services

Open Product/Process CR PC050703-5 Detail

Description Of Change

The issues of frequency of Service Manager changes and lack of a clear, effective and documented transition process is persistent and common among CLECs. This problem was identified, for example, in "comments arising out of the OSS testing process." See enclosed proposed "Agreement between Qwest and the Minnesota Department of Commerce" (Qwest/DOC Agreement). The problem was serious enough that it became one of the issues addressed by the MN DOC in the proposed Qwest/DOC Agreement in the MN 271 docket. In that document, Qwest describes a process that it claimed it had implemented "processes to assure the smooth transition of responsibilities when account representatives are reassigned." See enclosed document. These processes, if implemented, have not adequately addressed the problem. If Qwest had developed these processes jointly with CLECs through CMP (as should have been done for new processes), CLECs would have had input from the CLECs to ensure processes that address the problem. Instead, Qwest’s unilaterally developed process is inadequate. Vendors, such as Qwest, should operate with consistency and quality of service when dealing with issues that affect CLECs.

The changes in Service Managers occur too frequently. Please see experience of the following CLECs:

Tel West - J.S., Account Rep, (1998- 4/18/2001); K.M., Account Rep, (4/18/2001 - 5/9/2001) Transition Notice (to P.W.) received on 5/08/2001, effective 05/09/2001; P.W.(05/09/2001 - 9/17/2001)Transition Notice (to S.G.)received 09/13/2001,effective 09/17/2001; S.G.(09/17/2001 - 02/05/2002) Transition Notice (to P.J.)received on 02/04/2002, effective 02/05/2002; P.J.(02/05/2002 - 10/03/2002); S.K. (10/03/2002 - 4/28/2003)Transition Notice (to R.V.) received on 04/22/2003 effective 04/28/2003. R.V. (04/28/03 - present)

Eschelon - L.B, Account Rep. (February 1996 - Fall 1996); R.R., Account Rep. (Fall 1996 - Late 1997); L.J.(Late 1997- July 2000; Account Rep. until Fall 1999); J.V., Account Rep. (Fall 1999 - July 2000); P.L.,Service Manager (January 2000 - September 2002); B.F., Service Manager (September 2000 - April 2001); J.R., Account Rep. (July 2000 - April 2001) & Sales Rep. (April 2001 - Summer of 2002); J.H., Sr. Service Manager (April 2001 - June 2001); S.S., Service Manager (Fall of 1999, collocation & June 2001); S.S, Sr. Service Manager (June 2001 - May 2003)

J.N., Sr. Service Manager (May 2002 - Current); J.T., (September 2002 - Current); C.A. Sales Manager (Summer of 2002 - Current)

Contact - Has worked with 4 different Service Managers over the past 4-1/2 years and just received the fifth on April 28, 2003. One Service Manager lasted 31 out of the past 54 months. The benefits of his "extended" stay vs. the average of 7 months for the previous 3 Service Managers are obvious. This customer of Qwest’s has voiced concerns with the quality of personnel and frequency of personnel changes. Given the importance and level that a Service Manager position is within Qwest, a change every 2 years might be acceptable. A few days or one week transition period is definitely not enough time.

As shown above, personnel changes in Service Management are frequent. Often, transitions of Service Managers occurs with a few days notice and no written transition document(s). Qwest should create a documented and adhered to transition process that outlines standard timelines, and required meetings, transition documents. Service managers should maintain a database or other tool that tracks issues, and then successor service management personnel may review that database to learn the history and status of issues. This process should be jointly developed with the CLEC community. In addition, the CLEC community would like Qwest, in the "Spirit of Service," to seriously review its current staffing practices that are resulting in frequent Service Manager changes or poor quality Service Management.

Project Meetings

White-Qwest presented the response. Powers-Tel West stated that she was again concerned that this had been denied. She stated that she would raise this issue at the oversight committee. Thomte-Qwest stated that Ken Beck and Toni Dubuque would be willing to host a meeting to discuss this issue outside CMP. ========================================== 05-21-03 CMP Meeting

Powers-Tel West presented the CR. Zulevic-Covad stated that Covad had had a recent transition where the issues weren’t communicated between the old manager and the incoming manager. He stated that this problem exists at senior levels as well. Balvin-MCI stated that service managers are folks who MCI must train about MCI’s business. She stated that Qwest must insure that impact to CLECs is minimal during transition. She stated that transitions were especially impactful to smaller CLECs with only one service manager. Powers-Tel West stated that Qwest sent the more experienced service managers to the bigger companies/accounts. Osborne Miller-AT&T stated that AT&T had none of the problems expressed in the CR. She explained that she did think the service manager transition process was important.

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Clarification Meeting Wednesday, May 14, 2003

1-877-550-8686 2213337#

Attendees Matt White – Qwest Lynn Powers – TelWest Liz Balvin – MCI

Introduction of Attendees White-Qwest welcomed all attendees and reviewed the request.

Review Requested (Description of) Change Powers-TelWest reviewed the CR. She stated that most CLECs agree that Qwest’s Service Managers do not conduct and adequate transition. She stated that since submitting the CR she had received feedback from Covad that they were also disappointed with the transitions. She stated that this was a systemic problem within Qwest. She stated that she was also requesting that Qwest reduce the frequency of Service Manager transitions.

Balvin-MCI stated that this was especially difficult for smaller carriers who had only one service manager. She stated that in MCI’s case, there were multiple Service Managers, which made transitions much smoother. She stated that any process Qwest implements must address the impact to CLECs.

Powers-TelWest stated that she had received a denial to another CR earlier in the day. She stated that she was disappointed with the level of discussion in the response. She explained that there should be significant discussion of why a request was outside the scope of CMP if Qwest elected to deny for that reason. She stated that two paragraphs were not sufficient. She stated that she anticipated that this CR (PC050703-5) would also be denied for being out of scope. She stated that if that was the case, she expected a far more detailed response.

Confirm Areas and Products Impacted White-Qwest confirmed that the attendees were comfortable that the request appropriately identified all areas and products impacted. Identify/Confirm CLEC’s Expectation White-Qwest reviewed the request to confirm TelWest’s expectation.

Identify and Dependant Systems Change Requests White-Qwest asked the attendees if they knew of any related change requests.

Establish Action Plan White-Qwest asked attendees if there were any further questions. There were none. White-Qwest stated that the next step was for TelWest to present the CR at the May Monthly Product/Process Meeting and thanked all attendees for attending the meeting.

CenturyLink Response

DRAFT RESPONSE For Review by CLEC Community and Discussion at the June 18, 2003, Monthly CMP Product/Process Meeting

Lynne Powers Tel West Communications

This letter is in response to Tel West Communications Change Request (CR) PC050703-5. This CR requests that Qwest create a documented and adhered to process for the transition of Service Managers and review and revise its Service Manager staffing practices for quality improvement. Qwest denies this CR on the basis that it is outside the scope of the Change Management Process because the CR seeks adherence to existing procedures. It is Qwest’s policy to adhere to the Service Manager transition procedures in the Account Team / Sales Executives and Service Managers portion of the Business Procedures section of the PCAT (http://www.qwest.com/wholesale/clecs/accountmanagers.html). An excerpt from these procedures reads:

In the event that it is necessary to reassign you to a different Qwest Sales Executive or Service Manager, the former Qwest Sales Executive or Service Manager will be responsible for familiarizing the new Qwest Sales Executive or Service Manager with: - Your corporate profile and all contact information - Your sales and/or service objectives - Your network - Your Interconnection Agreement and any pending amendments - Your meeting schedules They will also: - Transition all current open issues/sales proposals to the new Qwest Sales Executive and/or Service Manager along with all background information, parties involved, commitments and timelines - Establish a conference call or meeting with you to introduce you to the new Qwest Sales Executive or Service Manager - Provide your files to the new Qwest Sales Executive and/or Service Manager including emails and any pertinent document

If you believe that Qwest is not adhering to this process, please contact your Service Manager to discuss your concerns. If your Service Manager is unable to resolve the problem to your satisfaction, please feel free to escalate through the Service Management Escalation Process.

In addition, this request seeks a change to Qwest’s internal processes for making decisions regarding staffing and organizational issues. CMP is not intended to address changes of this nature. Instead, as described in the first paragraph of Section 1.0,

This document defines the processes for change management of Operations Support Systems (OSS) Interfaces, products and processes (including manual) as described below. CMP provides a means to address changes that support or affect pre-ordering, ordering/provisioning, maintenance/repair and billing capabilities and associated documentation and production support issues for local services (local exchange services) provided by Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs) to their end users.

Similarly, the CMP Redesign Team determined that issues of this nature fall outside the scope of CMP when it agreed to and published the Qwest Service Center and Manager Roles in Relation to CMP document.

Sincerely,

Judy Schultz Director Program / Project Management Qwest