IMPORTANT! BENEFITS OPEN ENROLLMENT
Open Enrollment is your one time each year when you can enroll or make changes to your benefits without a qualifying event. As mentioned, TriNet will continue to be our Professional Employer Organization (PEO), but we will be carving out our benefits with NFP Corp, and partner with BCBSTX (Blue Cross/Blue Shield) for our medical, dental, and vision coverage.
Please note – TriNet is still sending notifications to enroll in benefits. Please disregard and wait for additional information from HR on next steps.
In-person meetings will take place in early September and calendar invites will be sent for specific date(s) for anyone interested in attending.
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WELCOME TO ALL NEW EMPLOYEES WHO JOINED FORTRESS IN JULY!
PLANO, TX TEAM
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Rachel Bowlden - Billing Specialist
Rachel has 10+ years of experience in billing. When Rachel is not working, she enjoys family, road trips, fishing, and concerts.
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Dora Chicas - Repair Technician
Welcome Dora!
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EMPLOYEES OF THE MONTH | August 2022
Congratulations to our employees of the month!
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LEESBURG - Karen Cody | Material Handler
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PLANO - Zachary Boyd | Logistics Specialist
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REMOTE - James Ramsey | CTAC Support Engineer
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MEET THE TEAM
We'd like to re-introduce the Fortress Diversity team! Each member of this team provides a unique and special viewpoint that helps shape our programs both internal and external. We have a lot planned for the remainder of this year and into 2023!
DIVERSITY TECHNOLOGY SCHOLARSHIP
We’re thankful to our leadership for encouraging our support of the Fortress Diversity Technology Scholarship program, which provides scholarships to individuals interested in pursuing technical careers. The Diversity Team has received letters of appreciation for our support from our Florida summer scholarship recipients.
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In July, the A/R team processed approximately 10,200 customer documents. The A/P team processed approximately 1,300 vendor documents.
The team continued cleanup of the voucher payable accounts, including development of a new report to help focus cleanup efforts; continued movement to our new banking partner, Crestmark; assisted the HR team in selecting a new benefits provider; assisted IT and R&D with financial analysis projects; and worked on several customer contracts and renewals.
We are also very glad to welcome Rachel Bowlden to the team as a Billing Specialist. Hiring Rachel is a key step in preparing for our new banking structure that will place greater demands on the team.
Thank you to each member of the accounting team for the hard work during July!
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Please click button to view the full charts and statistics:
- Count of SRO Number by Ship Month
- Count of SRO Number by Ship Month and Site
- WIP Trend FL & TX - 12 Months
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OPERATIONS: PLANO UPDATES |
July 2022 was a challenging month due to the holiday, PTO, OT reductions and being a short business day month. Customer WIP is showing an increase, but it is still lower than expected, especially from VZ. We will be working on efficiency improvements in the coming weeks to make the repair process better, faster, cheaper. |
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OPERATIONS: LEESBURG UPDATES |
On July 23, the Leesburg team held a Summer Fun Family Picnic at Hickory Pointe, a recreational waterfront park experience. Our FL employees enjoyed delicious food, kayaking, a park for the kids, a nature trail, horsehoes, bounce-house type games, swimming and our very own in-house live band - Soundwave! Everyone in attendance had a blast. See photos below: |
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Internal audits in Plano and Leesburg completed. There were several findings related to documentation control, NPI, IT and HR. 38 CARs/PARs have been opened on the findings as well as the Opportunity for Improvement. Lenexa will be scheduled some time in August/September timeframe as well as an internal audit of the new facility in Plano at 1909 10th Street.
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
Please see this link to review the last 13 months of metrics related to On Time Delivery, Return Rates, No Trouble Found and Unrepairable rates, plus the latest Customer Satisfaction scores. The NER rate has been updated to only show those unrepaired units that Fortress could not repair vs those that are damaged beyond repair, corroded, previously CRR, etc.
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Please see below for July's metrics:
Number of units shipped to customers in July: 2774
On time delivery percentage overall: 98.4%
On time delivery percentage, Fortress only: 100%
Number of receipts for July: 2471
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REMEMBERING STEPHEN BELCHER
"Simple King of Man"
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Stephen Lynn Belcher, Fortress’ own “Simple Kind of Man” passed away July 14th, 2022. Well known for saying “Don’t sweat the small stuff; and it’s all small stuff”, started with Restor Telecommunications in March of 2010. He was no small part in building Fortress Lenexa into the facility it is today including literally swinging a hammer on almost every section of shelving in the Lenexa warehouse.
Steve retired in 2019 but just couldn't stay away from Fortress. He came back frequently over the last few years to assist with many special projects that required an extra set of hands. Steve was an inspiration to many of the team, past and present, and was always happy to see you. He was almost never seen without a smile on his face. Our loss is truly great, he will be missed.
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EV CHARGING CONFERENCE
We are very excited for an upcoming opportunity Fortress has with the EV Charging Conference. Brendon will be solo presenting a session on Power Storage and Management of Buildings & Batteries.
This is a big step towards creating strategic partnerships with players in the EV Charging market as Fortress continues to grow their efforts.
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LET'S KEEP IN GOING!!
An AMA is short for "Ask Me Anything", an interactive, informal post in which someone answers YOUR questions!
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To view last month's answers, click here.
TIP! Bookmark this page as all future answers will be displayed for all to view here.
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JULY SYTELINE MODIFICATION
The RNC Tiger Team identified an issue that sometimes occurred when receiving Verizon SROs. A few customer units had incorrect pre-alert data and needed to be returned. The receiving workbench would not receive the unit because of bad pre-alert data. The team designed a modification for the receiving workbench that would reduce the amount of time required to process these customer units. This modification was released on July 10.
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ENGINEERING | R&D UPDATES |
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PLANO R&D
AT&T Wireless: R&D and the Operations team analyzed, repaired, and shipped 15 Alcatel enterprise cellular access points for AT&T in July. Once the test and repair procedures are documented the Metrocell will be through NPI.
AT&T continued sending a few additional RAN items for repair from various CSSLs (Critical Spares Stocking Location), as well as asking for quotes on additional wireless items. Fortress is also working on a RAN repair contract with AT&T.
Verizon Wireless: Additional items for NPI/repair arrived from Verizon Wireless in July, and most have been tested/repaired. The good news is they are beginning to send in some Nokia LTE radios for repair, which the team is ready to work on.
Verizon Wireline: Plano R&D continued NPI on the Flashwave 9500 and Ciena 6500 as part of the PICS award. R&D continues to provide NPI updates to VZ to route new items to Fortress for repairs. R&D has also installed additional 6500 shelves required for some of the VZ award items.
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LEESBURG R&D
Verizon Wireline: The Leesburg R&D team continued NPI and completed several new Cisco 15454 and 7342 ISAM items that were part of the PICS award. Updates have been shared with Verizon to begin routing to Fortress.
Titan 5500 OC12 Redesign: The R&D team continues testing/debugging the design prototype. Once qualified this project will represent significant new revenue for Fortress from CTDI, Verizon, and CinBell.
DACS IV: R&D completed NPI on this Lucent digital cross connect system in July and is working with Operations on ETI and repair training. Customers for this system are Verizon, Windstream, and CinciBell.
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FORTRESS SOLUTIONS FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS |
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FORTRESS COVID-19 NOTIFICATIONS
Please see below for ways to stay informed as we navigate COVID-19 as a Fortress Team:
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SHAREPOINT | FORTRESS INTERNAL
The Fortress Intranet has all the latest information for employees across all sites.
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FORTRESS SOLUTIONS EMPLOYEE PAGE
An employee-only page on the Fortress Solutions website for all COVID-related updates. To view, click here. This page is a great resource for updates while you are away from the office. Please bookmark this page for easy access. |
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TEXT ALERTS & UPDATES
In the event of an important alert, Fortress can communicate with you via text. Please opt-in to receive text message alerts.
Based on your location, please send a text message with one of the following keywords to (855) 877-1576:
- For PLANO employees: plano
- For LEESBURG employees: leesburg
- For LENEXA employees: lenexa
- For REMOTE employees: remote
You will receive a text reply stating you have successfully subscribed. If you have any issues or have questions, please reach out to Morgan Brown. |
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UPCOMING FORTRESS HOLIDAYS: |
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Labor Day
Thanksgiving Day
Day After Thanksgiving
Christmas Eve (observed)
Christmas Day (observed)
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Monday, September 5
Thursday, November 24
Friday, November 25
Friday, December 23
Monday, December 26
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The 2022 Holiday & Pay Calendar can be found on HR Resources page of the
Fortress Internal Website, here!
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Customer obligations may require some team members to work.
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FOLLOW FORTRESS ON SOCIAL |
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