Fairpoint Communications’ problems in migrating former Verizon customers to its own back office systems are examined thoroughly in a new report issued this week by the Liberty Consulting Group. It’s not pretty.
For starters, while Fairpoint recently promised regulators a return to normal operations by June, Liberty says it will probably take longer than that.
Atop its immediate recommendations, Liberty cites a “lack of unified senior executive leadership” necessary to correct Fairpoint’s problems and suggests the company either bring in outside experts to help or consider “permanent executive level change.”
Notably, Liberty also suggests Fairpoint is not being entirely candid about the extent of the damage. For example, while Fairpoint says about half of its orders are being provisioned late (and that’s after Fairpoint elongated its provisioning schedule), Liberty writes there are “problems with these reported numbers and believes the actual fraction of late orders is much larger.”
Liberty Consulting Group is aware of only a small portion of FairPoint’s problems. It is obvious FairPoint is and will continue to go down the tubes fast. FairPoint’s CEO David Hauser may have the best of intentions, but most concerned employees know this man is preaching the gospel while standing in a bed of quicksand.
FairPiont’s mid-level and upper mid-level management seems to be a collection of yes men. Most have little or no background for the positions they hold and when asked if all is going well, most reply “Yes, absolutely.” This lower level management not having the proper experience is doomed to continually make errant decisions costing the company millions. This we feel the CEO may not be aware of.
The systems that were implemented last March 09 are still no closer to working properly than when they were first turned up and most say they will never do so. This should have been a large red flag to the afore mentioned administration, but they still try to fix, upgrade, patch, enhance and redo systems that were not meant to work the way FairPoint is trying to use them. It is like buying a new car and trying to pull it down the road with a mule. The dog and pony answer is that these are good systems and we are ironing out the problems. This statement could not be farther from the truth.
Another of the large problems is the hiring of qualified personnel. There have been many hired since this magical system cut over. Most of these new hires are without telecom back ground and will not be productive right away. Some will not be productive for years as this is how long it will take to train them. The sad fact of the matter is that there are highly qualified and trained professionals vying for the jobs, but are not being considered. These hiring decisions are being made by none other than the inexperienced mid level management of FairPoint.
These are just a couple of the many and massive problems FairPoint continues to face. Without proper and experienced leadership, the only direction for FairPoint is “down”.
I have never seen such a collection of incompetence in one company. Shame on those who did the diligence on this whole thing. Wasn’t Liberty one of these companies? Now what happens? They should make Verizon get back in there and fix this mess. Fire the Fairpoint people and when the service is at a respectable point sell it to someone with he expertise to run a next generation company.
The company was going down the drain long before it became Fairpoint, Ma Bell, Verizon, now Fairpoint, it’s all the same engine under the hood.
Workers don’t care, they’re treated like garbage, managers don’t care because they get treated like garbage from higher up. The entire system was destined to fail, with little to no accountability, it’s easy to just float on through for 30 years and leave.
Those who come in now find that their enthusiasm is met with utter defiance, along with being labeled as someone who goes against the grain. The sheer amount of in-effeciency this company exhumes, is baffling.
They have people with bachelors and masters degrees, sitting around twiddling their thumbs, just waiting for something to do, while others making a substantial income, make ridiculous decisions to make themselves look better, while not benefiting the entire company.
It’s a miracle the entire phone company scam hasn’t gone belly up yet now for the sheer dog and pony show that it is!