Powerstorm new staff guidelines, romania

POWERSTORM

NEW STAFF

GUIDELINES, Romania
BASIC FACTS about POWERSTORM

1. Powerstorm is a telecom equipment reseller
2. Powerstorm has offices in the US and Europe
3. Powerstorms Official European Office / Postal Address:

J. Geesinkweg 999

1096 AZ Amsterdam

The Netherlands

Phone Number in NL:+ 31 35 698 2037

Who is Powerstorm? Powerstorm is a US and Netherlands based company who is specializing in providing difficult- to- find-telecom-spares (for equipment which has been discontinued by the large manufacturers, such as Siemens/Nokia, Ericsson, Cisco, Marconi, etc.) and in providing brand new equipment to local offices worldwide when local suppliers have delays in delivering purchasing de-installed or surplus equipment.

Our clients are telecom verticals: World Wide Network Operators (providing fixed and wireless services); OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers (Siemens/Nokia, Ericsson, Cisco, Marconi, etc.), ISPs (World Wide Internet Service Providers), System Integrators and Engineering Companies, Brokers/resellers/distributors (other companies dealing/reselling telecom equipment.

Distinguish between: Infrastructure/Mobile phones; Hardware vs. Software (solutions)

Who is Telco Dynamics Local Romanian Research company providing employment contract to you; this company delivers services to Powerstorm. Telco Dynamics does not have a public face to our clients. You will refer to the Powerstorm Brand at all times.

BASIC IT INFORMATION

To log on to your Web Mail:

URL: www.webmail.powerstorm.com

User name:

Password:

Check your web mail to make sure it works. If you encounter any problem, please inform Simina to communicate this problem with IT consultants. (Simina, copy me on your requests to Lykle!)

MSN (hotmail.com, yahoo.com, gmail.com etc. )

Please register a new account for work, or show yourself as busy or working when you are working, so to avoid spending too much time saying hello to your friends.

Purpose: Ensure communication while someone is on the phone / busy / away.

Place picture on it so we will not miss you!! Say Hello and 30 min before you leave please say Good Bye to everyone in NL and Romania when you check-in. The reason for this is: we are working on different time zones and we sometimes appear as GHOSTS which we are not. Besides this, most important of all is that fact that we are quite busy at the moment and we may say: wait, before you leave, please call xyz.

INSTANT MESSENGER:

Find out all your colleagues MSN id from Lotus Notes Contact Database (see later section), and add / accept them to your contact list. (Simina, ensure you have a list with all (from Milana)

Ana-Maria Pruteanu, example: send IM to globalcloser@hotmail.com , general manager

Victoria Burlacu: IM to burlacu18@hotmail.com Manager Sourcing/Purchasing

Milana Mu example: send IM to milanamu@hotmail.com Manager Logistics/HR

Galina Bychkovskaya, NL (Russian Speaker) Accounting/Bookkeeping

Ally Burlacu: NL Office Assistant, for sales and weblinks, Lotus Database Entries Coordinator

Barbara Forys: Office Assistant, sourcing , calling (Polish Dutch, English)

Aliya Shakirova NL Sales Assistant, CIS Region

Claire Jacquet, NL Office Assistant, general duties

Farah Souhail, NL Sales Assistant, CIS Region, Middle East

Sue Ye NL Office Assistant, general duties

Cindy Hesketh: Office Help, Research with emphasis on Thailand, Cambodia, Laos

Maria (MIA) Utomo, Sales Assistant, Asia Region, emphasis on Malaysia /Indonesia

Sebastian Macarie (Team in Romania): Research and Co-Supervisor New Employees, (Local)

Simina Stoian (Team in Romania): assistant Sourcing and Co-Supervisor Ro Employees

Christian Grecu (Team in Romania), Research, Training Assistant

Christian Ionescu (Team in Romania) Research, Training Assistant

Teodora Stoian: Assistant: general research and call Duties

New Employees:

Radomir: Telecom Research

Daniel: Telecom Research

Andrei: Telecom Research

Andra: Assistant: general research and call Duties

Dorina: Assistant: general research and call Duties

Web Calendar for Team Romania:

https://freecal.brownbearsw.com/powerstormro

- enter your plan well ahead, several weeks or ideally at the beginning of each month

- if any changes, notify supervising team member (Simina, and Milana) send to reports with appropriate subject (example of Subject: Change in Calendar_Date____)

Scroll down to the bottom of the page, click Add/Edit

Enter your name in Enter text for a new event

Choose a background color (see Color names) and type the name under Background (This is your color. Please make sure you dont choose the same or very similar color.)

Enter Date, Start Time and End Time

Only one day at a time, do not block more than one day!!

Click Create Event - DONE

SPAM emails received at Powerstorm:

Please do not open any emails which contain attachments from people you do not know in case of virus. Unless you know the source, PLEASE DO NO DOWNLOAD!! Viruses may be sent to you with ugly and dangerous attachments NEVER open .exe attachments. ONLY open attachments when you are 100% sure that the sender had the intention to send you a document. If not sure, ask your colleagues.

IT problems

Please address all your to Simina/Ana-Maria, who will streamline them to our outside IT consultants, (Lykle)

DATABASES

1. What is a Database

An inbox. We send a copy to this e-mail address with relevant information for quick reference by management.

2. Databases

Reports@powerstorm.com: our daily reports

Assignments@powerstorm.com, on-going tasks

Project@powerstorm.com : current company tasks-requests from potential clients

ForSale@powerstorm.com: equipment offered for marketing by OEM and Operators

Specs@powerstorm.com: specification/datasheets of equipment: (applies to some users only)

Reports: Write report (e-mail) at the end of each working day to reports@powerstorm.com (reports), and to your immediate supervisor and colleagues who are involved; More individual details will be explained.

Summaries what you have done and attach excel result if needed

When you prepare your first reports, please scan the reports database for examples. Please use short lines, bullets, no rich text: it is a to-do / have-done list.

Purpose: ensure better communication within the team, so that others know what you have done and where they can follow up.

Assignments: Everyone who is working on an assignment will copy assignments@powerstorm.com and Simina.

To reply to an assignment you will write the following: DONE (in the SUBJECT, in front of Assignment, or Hand-over (when you cannot finish) in front of Assignment, describing from whom to whom, depending on the situation: NEVER DELETE the REFERENCE Number!!) DONE has the same meaning as Final Version, since if the email is not Done it can only be 'Hand- Over'. Only emails which have in SUBJECT assignment: will go to the database. Reply to all others will arrive via normal email communication

Naming of E-mails and Documents

All names must be clear of its content.

Use formula whenever applicable: Country / Company / Deal / Time etc.

Purpose: clarity for others to find the right e-mail / document and to avoid confusion

Examples:

E-mail subject:

Request for Quote (RFQ) from Powerstorm: Shipment NL-Malaysia, Apr 07

Project African Operators, calling and Notes updates from Simina, March 13, 2007

Document:

Invoice_SO0101071_T-Mobile-Germany_Ericsson-ODUs_Jan-22-2007.xls

PO13576_from_Telecom-Solutions-UK_Lucent-Cards_Mar-1-2007.pdf

Do not reply to one subject and talk about another thing. This makes it very hard when you try to find this e-mail later on, because it has a subject thats irrelevant to the matter.

Reply to ALL: if more than the writer is copied to this email.

USEFUL WEBSITES:

Please study our website: www.powerstorm.com

Explanation GSM (see Telecom Explained, separate document) Please study these websites, as it is feasible possible before Sunday Training (30 min each!!)1. Here is the explanation of GSM, Radio Interface, and Network Structure

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_Station_Subsystem

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_Station_Subsystem#Base_Station_Controller

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Switching_Subsystem

2. Explanation of Mobile Network Operators

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_operator

3. Roaming

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roaming

4. International Mobile Equipment Identity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mobile_Equipment_Identity

5. A dictionary containing terms related to telecom in general

https://www.mobifi.com/glossary.php

Calling to update Contact Database:

Study: Powerstorm Calling Guide: for OPERATORS (separate document)

Study: Powerstorm Calling Guide: for OEM (separate document)

Study: Powerstorm Guide for: RESEARCH Install Base

You will get a task in order to verify email addresses, phone numbers or other information included in the Contact Database. Here is a quick guide of how to do it professionally and efficiently.

Phone Manner:

Always friendly (smile), warm and professional

Calling people

Hello, this is XXX from Powerstorm

Name dropping: Ana-Maria / Victoria

- I am Ana-Marias assistant / colleague, who has been in touch with you

Name dropping his/her colleague

I have just spoken to your colleague XXX, he advised we contact you for this matter

Try the person's office number and mobile number.

If cannot reach, try switchboard number and ask the operator for him/her.

If there's no switchboard number please, search through his/her colleagues from the same company in order to find out.

Tell the colleague ask them if they know why XXX's email address doesn't seem to work any more. Sometimes it's due to change of emails such as from @abcde.nl to @abcde.com. Sometime it's just misspelling. Sometime they will confirm you that XXX has left. In which case you can ask for replacement; or if they do not know, please ask for the operator: 'I am colleague of Ana-Maria's/ Victoria (if a broker) who has been in touch with XXX. Recently we found out that the emails we sent to XXX have not been delivered to his / her email address. So we just wonder if XXX has changed the email address, or are they still working for XYZ Company?'

NOTE: MERGERS: Please note that due to the recent merger between Nokia and Siemens Mobile some contacts of each of these 2 companies will be slowly updated from SIEMENS to NSN.

Same applies for: Alcatel-Lucent, Harris Started, as some of the contacts may appear under the sole company name!!

Very likely you will be telling this story to an operator, and the operator says she cannot find the person from her directory. You can suggest that this person has left the company and therefore you would like to have a new contact from the same department, i.e. the replacement.

When calling Operators, the departments we are usually eager to get a contact from are: Purchase (Procurement) or Spare Parts/Maintenance Division, or Technical (Transmission, RF, Network Planning, Switching etc.). When calling OEMs, we are asking for Department in charge of telecom Infrastructure Sales. We are not very interested in Marketing, PR, or Roaming or Customer Service Contacts. In the past, we have had such names in order to help us get to the colleagues who may be dealing with the issues related to our business, non effective process.

Always try if there's a mobile phone number. If the person has left the company, ask him where he's moved to (if he's still in telecom). If he moved to another telecom company, take his new email, phone etc If he's in a different industry, say good luck and we don't need him in the database any more. We cannot have a company with NO CONTACTS, so if there is only one contact and that Contact has left the company, we must try to find a way to get in touch with replacement.

If all seems dead-end, go to their website what is obvious from their email address (for ABC@XYZ.com, go to www.XYZ.com) and see if there's any phone number you can call (usually in 'Contact us'). Use your common sense, there's no need to call if the number is a customer's hotline like 0800-1234 or so. You can always Google it using address, names, old phone numbers etc.

CALLING OPERATORS/ ISPs/ SYSTEM INTEGRATORS

Please read carefully through these points. Make sure you understand the logic behind.

Normally when we write/call and contact system integrators we do it from 2 approaches:

1) to see if they or any of their clients are doing any reinstallations or Swaps of telecom related hardware (project manager, logistics/warehouse manager, purchasing manager or in case of sale of equipment which they may own: (by having taking it back from a client : finance person) (a swap is when you take out one equipment and install other!)

2) to see if on behalf of their clients they may need to urgently purchase something. (Contact: purchasing manager, manager of spare parts/maintenance dept. and /or project manager) Note: we have been successful in the past providing DISCONTINUED SPARES to all Verticals when their maintenance contracts to their clients have forced them to purchase refurbished spares from Powerstorm since OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer, like Ericsson, or Marconi, no longer manufactured this equipment!!)

before you call, please look at each and every website, and compare what we have registered in our SELECTION of each contact of that particular company - to their website: if you find that any of the so called: System Integrators may in fact be: software solution providers with nothing to do with our business, call the 'contact' in database and ask if they ever Purchase or Deal with hardware. If they say NO, please mark for deletion; if they say yes, ask what types of hardware: please familiarize yourself with the types by looking under our website (at new equipment page!!). If you hear or see on their website equipment you are not familiar with, write it down, then look under Google/ask one of us to ensure you heard it correctly and then place mark it for update.

4) Before you get started, please make a REMINDER LIST with above POINTS or Have Calling Chart in front of you

CALLING BROKERS:

1. Call the company and ask for the particular person

2. if there is no phone number in lotus, check the website, or other other colleagues working for same company. If the website is not working, and there is no other colleagues, please enter just email address in an excel file and enter in comments 'mark for deletion'

3. If that person has left the company, get another contact, enter the new contact in lotus, and in the excel file, enter the email address of the person to be deleted with comments 'mark for deletion'

4. when you speak to the new/old contact, reconfirm: email address, phone number, and OEMs they are dealing with

5. once an existing contact has been updated please mark it up. This way the list of brokers with wrong email addresses will eventually shorten up.

6. when you work on the brokers project, you do not need to go into each others report. You go directly into the folder and you work on the contacts that are left there. The objective is that day by day the list of contacts with wrong email addresses will get shorter and shorter and eventually disappear.

NOTE: A project that is not done properly is a WASTE of TIME.

SOLUTION for: non working and impossible to find numbers

When we are hit with the impossibility of a phone number, please remember these 2 very important resources which were the basis of my setting up and finding numbers in this business in the first place:

1. Local Telecom Ministries, for example in Kenya, will be the Communication Commission of Kenya, or Ministry of telecommunication: example, when you call you can use a link like this, https://www.itu.int/wisd/2007/cd/index.html on this site, you will find names of important people associated with the ministries, when you call the department, you can ask for this person's office. Ask the secretary to help. Always say you are calling from Abroad, US, NL and are eager to get some help.

2. US Department of State, (of the USA see it in Google!!) Commercial Division of that Country. In this case, you look on the net, find the person in charge of that division, it is normally an American living there working at the commercial part of the US embassy, their job is to further US business in that part of the world. They will normally provide local numbers and local contacts if they are asked this is their job, do not feel bad. We are a US company as you know, so please write kind email and ask them for a local contact in xys company. Pre-approve email with one of use before sending.

TIPS :

If asked from which country you are calling, say Netherlands, do not mention Romania, the fact that you are here should be transparent. Try to give as little details from your side as you have little experience. Please always state that you are calling on behalf of your manager, and it is OK to say you are new if you are not really sure about something, and that you are an assistant Just say, I am new, but will obtain the answer and send you an email.
Guidelines for research projects, when applicable: (see: Powerstorm Guide to Research!!)

In order to study your reports quicker and follow up on them, we are trying to have them better organized, so that it become easy and fast to look through results.

When you do research projects, such as Spare Part Management, or Telecom Auctions, or others, please follow the following guidelines

1. Always include on the top the keywords you used in your search, so we can advise if needed

2. Always add a column with date, so we can see what has been done in one day and what in the other. This relates to projects that last longer than 1 day.

3. When you are done with the projects rename the file name including 'Finished' in the title

4. Check always company names that you get in your results so we if we have them in lotus, if not please contact, and get the contact details of the purchasing manager.

3. It is very important to formulate appropriately the 'comments'. As this is the first thing we would look at in your file. Keep it concise and to the point. For example for Spare Parts project. Ericsson Manages Spares Parts of Vodafone Germany or Nokia manages spare parts at O2 Ireland, UK, and Germany. And not 'Nortel does that too'this doesnt tell us anything. In summary, the comments column has contain the main idea of the press release or article of whatever document u have researched in relation to the topic of your research.

4. Now you only list the link to the particular page you found reference to your assignment. From now on, please cut and paste the the actual article, of course if it is a long one just the part the it mentions the main idea related to our topic of research. And highlight the main idea

So you will have the article pasted after each line of result.

5. Please list the results that are directly related to your topic on top, and the other ones at the bottom. so for example if you found some general information about sourcing, do not list it as result number one, but probably somewhere at the bottom of you search.

LOTUS NOTES: will only apply when Company Laptops will be given to you, (within approx 6 months)

1. Log in with password provided

If you encounter problems, ask Milana, Galina, Ally or Victoria.

2. CALENDAR and DO TO LIST

Use Calendar or Do to List for yourself as a reminder

Use: Meeting + Invite (in Calendar): you can keep your team informed of the event

3. MAILS

Use preview

Double click to open an e-mail. Esp to close current tab (or click x on the tab)

Use Reply to all, without attachment (if suitable) - to save space on server; but with history- to make sure the context is clear to all recipients.

Create signature, including telephone number, + 31 35 694 2037, e-mail and website.

Use spell check when sending out e-mails, especially external e-mails.

Create folders and sub folders to categories e-mails (use the button Folder) use continent, country, name of operator, year, name of deal, type of organization etc.

To attach, use the safety pin button, or File > Attach

Open attachment to double check before sending out the e-mail

4. CONTACT DATABASE
5. For Laptop Users, only: To Open and Bookmark a Database
1. In Lotus Notes, Ctrl + O
2. Select: Server: ER1/Powerstorm
3. Select: Database: Mail, double click
4. Select: Database: eg. Projects database, single click
5. Select (left to scroll area): Bookmark, single click
6. In new pop-up menu, select Add to: Bookmark Bar, click OK
7. Close the remaining pop-up menu, the new bookmark is created

Alternatively, you can double click in step d, and then drag the tab to left side bar (book mark area). A book mark is created.

Click the address book button on the left side bar to open Contact Database

If you do not have address book button, do the following:

In Lotus Notes, Ctrl + O

Select: Server: ER1/Powerstorm

Select: Contacts Powerstorm to open

Click on the Contact tab and drag it to left side bar, this creates a bookmark for Contact

Double click to open a contact (ESP to close)

Business

Only one e-mail address, no comma, colon etc.

Extra e-mail address in Other e-mail1, 2, 3

Telephone number: +31 20

WRONG: 0031 (Always use plus sign),

WRONG: +31-20 (no dashes, slashes),

WRONG: 035 . (even if its a Dutch number, still use country code +31)

Use spaces to make numbers easy to read: e.g. +886 256 777 1911

Always use country code. If not clear, consult the country code list.

Remove the 0 before region code when adding country code (except Italy: +39 020)

E.g. If you have a US number 0555 ., input: +1 555..

Extension: +44 223 332 445 ext. 203

When verifying e-mail addresses on phone, be aware of the confusion of pronouncing certain letters (eg. Dutch E etc.). Spell out using names, cities etc (R for Romeo) to avoid misspelling.

Tick No Mailing if the person is not supposed to receive broadcast e-mails (CFO, Accountant etc.)

Briefcase

Here to drop relevant but not formatted information

eg. He replaced Mohammed Khan in 2006

Married on Jan 12, 2007

Warehouse address:

Selection - Type

Manufacturers

Companies who produce telecom equipment, such as most big names in mobile phone brands: Ericsson, Siemens, Nokia, Motorola. They manufacture equipment that enables the mobile/fix network. Other big names: Cisco, Lucent, Nortel etc.

Also: companies that produce antennas (Kathrein), cable (Andrew), switching cards (Marconi).

Wireless / Fixline operators

User Corporations of such equipment, who need it to enable the network they operate.

International big names: Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile etc.

Regional or country-specific: China Mobile, AfriCell, Bangalink

Brokers, Resellers, Distributors

Companies who dont manufacturer, but (buy and) sell telecom equipment.

6. Domain Search

Use the magnifying glass button, or click the little arrow next to it, select Domain search

In the new window, type in key words.

Use Advanced when needed

Select Newest first

7. Rules: apply only to laptop users

Databases should never be seen by external users:

Use BCC, e.g. when we send an offer to a client, blind copy reports@powerstorm.com

Never send e-mails FROM databases.

They are technically e-mail inbox, but they only receive, not send.

Update whenever changes occur

E.g. When the charges of a shipment change, delete previous e-mail and send update.