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CTAC Online
The Capital Technician Assistance Center provides facilities where Special Services, I&M, CXM, or CO Technicians can " get comfortable" with various equipment, ask questions and receive technical support on both new and existing technologies. There are GRADUATE VERIZON TTA Technicians available via phone or field visit to answer any Technician or customer request. Assistance to Technicians is available using the MELARD SIDEARM, or laptops for testing and turning up various equipment. The CTAC staff is also available to other departments, such as Outside Plant, Engineering and Construction, Sales, Marketing, and Central Office. Verizon customers are also welcome to visit the center for demonstrations of our latest telecommunications technology.
Facts about CTAC:
CTAC was formed in 1998 by 3 Next Step Program graduates as a Tier 1 tech support group for outside plant technicians. First building an extensive lab and then taking around 10 to 20 calls a month as an unknown quantity. Word soon spread to Verizon techs that they had a place to call to get their questions answered by fellow techs. CTAC now takes over 600 calls per month from all over New York state and parts of New England . The motto of CTAC is “Techs Helping Techs”.
CTAC has designed and offers 26 accredited courses to both craft and management and has trained more than 2,000 people in these courses. We also offer on-site assistance for various upgrades, turn up procedures and trouble shooting when requested>
Upper management requested that CTAC publish a bi-monthly newsletter for the burgeoning FiOS program offering tips and breaking news on the technology. CTSC also publishes “The Helper”, another bi-monthly newsletter aimed at the outside plant community. Included in the “Helper” is a contest to win a refurbished former NSP laptop for giving the correct answer to a question.
CTAC has developed a Laptop program by which inexpensive refurbished Laptops are loaded with a special “Verizon Tech Test Programs” package developed by us and are offered to managers for distribution to their craft people. This program has saved Verizon an estimated $900,000 since its inception.
CTAC has developed 4 websites.Two may be accessed from Lotus Notes or the company EWEB and 2twofrom the World Wide Web. These give the user access to our Lotus Notes databases and are password protected. Also, a file transfer protocol site where techs may be able to find and download particular software for use in accessing the many different technologies used by Verizon is available.
About Technical Assistance Centers
Advances in the deployment of new technologies continue to effect Verizon's ability to keep a large number of technicians current on all versions of the many vendor software systems in use throughout the region.
The need for specific technical support for new products and services is escalating. In the 80's and 90's, 80% of the technical problems were solved by referring to Bell System Practices, Manuals, and stepped work processes (broken down so each could do a part.) Today, 80% of the problems must be solved by a working knowledge of current technologies (ever changing) and intuitive problem solving stemming from that increased knowledge.
The Next Step Program and the Technical Assistance Centers are addressing that problem by creating virtual teams that are in a mode of continuous learning. No single technician can know all that is necessary to solve these complex problems; technicians need to support each other.
Technician Assistance Centers enable a few highly educated technicians to maintain a resource Center that supports 4,300 field technicians. This is an economically sound model that generates improvements in productivity.
Capital Technician Assistance Center
6360 THOMPSON ROAD
SYRACUSE NY 13206
Phone: 315-459-5986
Phone (Toll free): 890-6500
Fax: 315-459-5607
Cell: 315-415-3293
CTAC WWW SITE: VZ.NET SITE
Go to downloads to see courses and newsletters
News From CTAC...Still Innovative "after all these Years"
This note was received after Next Step donated its dysfunctional 4 year-old laptops to CTAC.
"We wanted to let you and the team know that we have successfully re-built, loaded with testing software, and deployed 6 of the old laptops you gave us last year, with several more on the shelf ready to go. The techs in the field can plug into the MUX's and Litespans and test and configure circuits. Instead of waiting for budget money to buy new laptops, the used ones Next Step donated work just as well, if not better in some cases. We advertise the fact that these laptops were donated to us by Next Step. Thanks so much, and if there are any more, we would hustle down and pick them up."
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