Hello, and welcome to the June edition of Endeavor Telecom’s newsletter – Endeavoring.

The feedback and comments from May’s inaugural edition of the newsletter were overwhelming and highly positive! We received responses from employees, customers, partners, and other friends of the company, all of which have encouraged us to continue with this important communications tool.

We also received a number of great suggestions for future newsletter articles, many of which we will address in the months ahead. One of those ideas was a recommendation that we feature the great work going on at the Endeavor Technical Access Center (TAC), so this month’s edition features a short piece on that topic.

As we grow and expand our presence in the market, it’s important that we continue our commitment to brand-building, public relations, and targeted marketing programs, and this edition highlights some of our recent marketing activities.

We continue to enjoy great success and a lot of very positive momentum as an organization, and we should all take great pride in our work and accomplishments. Our success is making Endeavor an exciting and rewarding place to work, with continued growth opportunities for each of us.

Keep the ideas and feedback coming! Please email us at editor@endeavortelecom.com with your thoughts, comments, and suggestions.

ENDEAVOR TELECOM APPOINTS NEW VICE-PRESIDENT OF STRATEGIC ACCOUNTS

June 11, 2007 - Endeavor Telecom, The Telecom Truck Roll Company of Choice for carriers, service providers, VARs and equipment manufacturers, today announced that Andrew Schroer has been appointed the company's Vice President of Strategic Accounts. In his new role, Andrew is responsible for leading Endeavor's account management team, with a focus on initiating, developing, and expanding customer relationships, as well as managing related sales operations. Additionally, he will take an active role in the company's sales and marketing activities and will play a role in aligning Endeavor's operations with the needs of its customers.

"Over the past decade, I've been impressed with Andrew's ability to build and maintain strong bonds in all of his professional interactions," said Endeavor's Justin McLain. "Andrew has a sincere desire to seek the best for all parties who enter a relationship with Endeavor, and he works tirelessly to assure those outcomes. His skills will serve our company well as we continue our exceptional growth and expansion." Click here to read the full press release.

THE TELECOM TRUCK ROLL COMPANY’S ODOMETER CLICKS OVER TO A NEW MILESTONE

On Monday, June 11, 2007, Endeavor’s dispatch counter clicked over to 1,000,000, marking an impressive and historic milestone for the company. The dispatch counter issues incremental unique service request (SR) numbers to each dispatch, which could represent a new install, a move/add/change (MAC), or a basic trouble report. This means that our organization has been issuing an average of 50,000 SRs per month since the dispatch system was put in place in March of 2003. This milestone represents an incredible amount of work and teamwork and a whole lot of satisfied customers.

Great work team! Let’s keep the odometer clicking…

THE ENDEAVOR TAC KEEPS THINGS ROLLING

At the heart of every great operation are people with big hearts, and Endeavor’s Technical Access Center (TAC) is a shining example of this business principle in action. The TAC is staffed around-the-clock, 365 days a year by a tight-knit team of dedicated professionals who exemplify Endeavor’s commitment to delivering high-value customer services, on-time delivery, and end-user satisfaction – no matter what it takes.

The TAC consists of three primary support groups; Service Provisioning, Service Delivery, and Technical Support. Service Provisioning, led by Ernest Hatfield, handles all the complex scheduling and logistics details needed to ensure that an Endeavor service technician arrives on-time at the end-user’s location, armed with all the equipment and specific information needed to successfully complete the scheduled dispatch. The Service Delivery group, under the direction of Phillip Hargrove, takes it from there, providing on-site support throughout the service call, and overseeing a successful transaction. The TAC also manages frontline technical support to end-users, as well as the customer’s internal staff. Technical Support’s Tier I & II staff determine if trouble reports relate to user-error, premise equipment, carrier failure, or possible hardware issue by following a predetermined, customized script for fault diagnosis.

One of keys to Endeavor’s success is a unique ability to deliver highly-customized, customer-branded service and support plans across a rapidly growing customer base that includes: carriers, service providers, integrators, VARs, and manufacturers. The TAC is where “the rubber hits the road” in terms of supporting these customized services. Every technical aspect of these services is integrated into a well-documented plan; including customer-specific decision trees, fault isolation matrixes, and escalation procedures, and the TAC ensures that each service plan and each service call is handled according to strict procedures and performance metrics. In many cases, Endeavor’s white-label services are customer-branded, and the TAC manages every element of the service process to ensure that services are professionally delivered under the customer’s banner and brand.

It truly takes a special kind of person to work in the TAC. This is a high-pressure, high-stakes environment, where customer satisfaction and Endeavor’s reputation are on the line every day. The high volume of service calls and the highly customized nature of Endeavor’s services demands teamwork and exacting procedures, and unexpected events – like natural disasters or network outages – can raise the stakes even higher.

“There’s something very special about working in the TAC, and most people aren’t cut out to handle the pace and stress level here,” said Ernest Hatfield, Service Provisioning Manager. “But the energy level and the demand for precise teamwork have a way of creating very special bonds and relationships between us. We have a tough job, but we all get great satisfaction from consistently delivering exceptional service and customer satisfaction, all of which make the TAC feel less like a job, and more like a family.”

Justin McLain sat down to discuss Endeavor Telecom in the hot-off-the-press edition of COMPTEL Velocity. Here’s a small sample of that interview:

Q:  What are the benefits to service providers offering enhanced professional installations?

A:  We all know that traditional access has become a commodity and that the new ‘gold rush’ is in adopting managed services as a component of the service provider’s business model.  Extending demarcs and installing equipment are just the necessary elements of a service provider turning up service on a new circuit.  But there is a great deal more on the table. 

Once the service provider makes the decision that they are no longer in the business of just providing dedicated internet access or brokering the cheapest six seconds of long distance, it’s a whole new world - field service can become a revenue center, versus a necessary evil.  Many of Endeavor’s engagements now, while relying upon traditional access, include installation elements such as secure VPN, point-of-sale (POS) integration, credit card terminal installation, security appliances, ambient music and entertainment-based content solutions.  End-users are already accustomed to paying other vendors for installing the services that operate on the access medium, which creates new opportunities, because service providers can easily mask the cost of the access installation in their integration work.  This not only simplifies matters for the end-user, but it also provides incremental revenue to the service provider, on the managed services required to power the applications. Read more about this conversation.

ENDEAVOR CONTINUES "BUILDING THE BRAND"

In the same edition of COMPTEL Velocity, Endeavor sponsored an advertorial piece focused on communicating and reinforcing our value proposition.

MANY SERVICE PROVIDERS DON’T REALIZE that most outsourced installation companies rely on multiple layers of affiliated subcontractors to reach the end-user. What they do see are large monthly bills complemented by disappointed performance in the field. Many outsource providers rely upon other national providers who sub to regional organizations, who sub to local affiliates, who in turn sub to individual contractors.

This adds incremental layers of profit taking, and unnecessary distillations of instructions, which results in an over-priced, under qualified, and ill-informed technician representing the service provider on site. Click here to read the full text.

More Endeavor Marketing

Click here to check out Endeavor’s latest advertisement, running this month…

Look for Endeavor Telecom at the following Industry Events:
 
IT Expo West, September 8-10, in Los Angeles, CA, Booth # 437
Channel Partners, September 26-28, in Secaucus, NJ, Booth # 321
And COMPTEL, October 7-10, in Dallas, TX , Booth # 726
Fall VON, October 29-November 1, in Boston, MA, Booth # 1062