By Dan Trimble

As you may have

seen at the NCS BBQ back in
July, we are undergoing
some exciting rebranding
activity. Your NCS leadership
team decided a while ago
that it was time for a fresh
look, and as a result the company now has an updated
logo and a new website that
is well under construction. As
with any design project, its been a journey, and in the case of
the logo, the final product looks nothing like the initial concepts, which we solicited through crowdspring.com, a crowd
sourcing logo design website. We received over 650 design
iterations and were thrilled with our final selection. We hope
you like it too and were excited to present it to our external
audience soon.
We also went through several design scenarios for a
brand new website thats forthcoming. The preliminary design
featured a smoky background with several small squares highlighted in a mauve color palette scattered throughout. Because
opinions regarding graphic design vary and we wanted to get it
right, the NCS leadership team decided to form an employee
focus group with representatives of both genders and various
age brackets to solicit constructive input. Feedback highlighted

the desire for strong colors that would become a trademark

design and represent our roots here in the Pacific Northwest.
Blues and greens were specifically suggested as colors that
evoke an emotional response and suggest stability, calmness,
trust, growth, and positivity. It was also suggested that the
overall website design take on a bolder look that emanates a
progressive technology feel that exudes confidence. We ultimately took a 180 degree turn from our initial design and todays prototype looks nothing like our first concept.

The website is typically the first part of a company

that is seen by prospective customers and new employee prospects. It represents a companys mission, products, service
offerings and overall personality. Not only will our new website
reflect these elements, but it will also generate growth and
entice good talent and potential customers with an attractive
interface and current, informative content. We intend to
launch the new website in phases with Phase I anticipated in
about 4-6 weeks. The design work is complete and what remains is finishing and finalizing the content so that we can golive. Subsequent phases will follow in the coming months including a new internal employee login site where you will find
timesheets, the company newsletter, and other internal features.
Between the logo and website you will notice a consistent color palette, look and feel that will also extend across
other mediums such as business cards, email signatures, com
(Cont. on page 2)

(Cont. from pg 1)
pany brochures, internal announcements, and even the company newsletter. While blue with a green accent will be used for
all external communication, the opposite design of green with
a blue accent will be used for internal communication. Your
NCS leadership team is thrilled about our new rebranding
efforts and were excited to finally launch these initiatives in
the coming weeks and we think you will like what you see. We
hope you are as excited as we are and please stay tuned for
more information coming soon!

By Lynn Schofstoll

By Jordan Neels

Joe is a Regional Telecom

Engineer for the Americas Region.
He works with a team of fellow
Telecom Engineers to design and
implement the installation of voice
infrastructure including Enterprise
Voice, Exchange Unified Messaging, Avaya/Nortel PBEs and voicemail systems.
Previously the Nortel PBX and Voicemail Systems Software Security Analyst, he was the sole person responsible for
the security of up to 220 Microsoft owned PBX and voicemail
systems world-wide. He notes During the 6 years that I performed this job, there was not a single successful hack into any
of the systems that I was responsible for. Prior to NCS, Joe
worked as a Senior Telecom Specialist for the Attachmate Corporation, Senior Voice Analyst for Capital One, and Senior Telecom Engineer for Tech Systems.
Joe was trained as a Field
Wireman when he entered the
U.S. Army in 73. He attended
training at the U.S. Army Signal
School and progressed to Senior
Project/Program Manager with
assignment to the U.S. Army Communications/Electronics Engineering and Installation Agency. The
most visible and prestigious assignment Joe was given was to
procure secure hand-held radio
systems for all of the agencies involved in the 87 Pan American
Games.

Working for NCS

these past 8+
years has been a
real pleasure. Its
the people in our
company that
makes the job so
pleasurable.

NCS joined the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce in

May and was one of 45 exhibitors to participate in the 2014
Business Showcase, held June 4th at the Marriott Courtyard in
downtown Bellevue. The Showcase gives Chamber businesses
the opportunity to display and market their product and service offerings. Our Sales Team, Laura McManus, Steven
Nyquist, and Dan Trimble were on hand to network with the
public and other exhibitors. Great new community exposure
for NCS!
Check out the links below to see NCS in the news
mentioned as an exhibitor!
http://www.bellevuereporter.com/business/261111931.html#
http://cm.bellevuechamber.org/events/details/2014-businessshowcase-at-bellevue-downtown-courtyard-by-marriott-1186

Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Joe now

lives in Yelm, Washington with his wife. Their 5 children have
all left the nest and vary in occupation from Director of Force
Management for The National Guard Bureau to working mother of 3 to helicopter pilot to Manager at Safeway to working at
Fred Meyer.
Joe has several hobbies that encompass the shooting
sports. He shoots a long range precision rifle at a 600 yard
range as well as a large caliber pistol, and hunts deer, elk and
small game such as grouse and rabbit. You can also find Joe in
their garden tending corn, onions, potatoes, and a variety of
green veggies. Joe quips that their biggest crop is rocks. They
grow overnight. I have rocks growing of all sizes. If anyone
wants some free rocks, hit me up. Thank you for your
dedication to NCS, Joe!

By Jordan Neels

Richard is the most recent addition to

the Tool Development team where he
helps to create some of the tools used
for Lync and Exchange management.
While his primary focus is currently
database administration and reporting,
he is also learning about PowerShell automation. Prior to this
position, Richard has filled most roles in Voice Integrated Services and was also an Operations Analyst on the IME Operations team. Before NCS, he was an apprentice tilesetter, and
worked in retail sales and bicycle/ski repair service and repair.
Being fascinated with Information Technology and
seeing the world constantly changing due to IT, Richard went to colI am
surrounded by lege at ITT Technical Institute
starting at their Everett campus
some very
and finishing at Tukwila to be a
talented and
part of it. Though Richard holds a
astoundingly
skilled people, Bachelor of Sciences degree in
Information Systems Security, his
and there is
training continues outside of the
always
classroom as he is continually
something
learning on the job.

new to learn.

Born and raised in Lynwood, Richard currently lives in

West Seattle. He has a beautiful girlfriend, an ancient cat,
and a giant dog. When at home hes been putting together a
basic metal shop accompanied by the never ending home
repair. But he also enjoys being in the great outdoors. He has
hiked Rainier and the southern Cascades, but has a special
place in his heart for the Mountain Loop Highway past Granite Falls. Richard describes himself as a voracious reader.
While he tends to stick to Sci-Fi and Fantasy, hes been
stretching out into different genres lately. His recent favorite
read is the Autobiography of Mark Twain by Samuel Clemens
because its full of some very interesting insights into Twains
character.
Thank you for your dedication to NCS, Richard!

By Lynn Schofstoll
You may have seen Jordan at the
company BBQ back in July. Jordan Neels
joined NCS as an intern in the office at the
end of June.
She is currently on summer break
from attending Eastern Washington University
in pursuit of a Bachelors degree in Technical Communication,
and part of her graduation requirement is to complete a 200hour professional internship.
The two major projects Jordan has been working on
are the new NCS website and the company newsletter. For the
website, she worked closely with Sharon Peterson, our marketing consultant. Sharon proofread each web page as it was completed, made any necessary changes, then sent it to Dan
(Trimble) for a final review. Part of this project included interviewing the executive team to write their biographies and
drafting two press releases and a style guide for all future
press releases. For the newsletter, Jordan and I met to discuss
the project, began writing articles, interviewing featured employees, and then collaborated on assembly and production of
the newsletter which you are reading now.
Jordans 200 required hours have recently been completed, but she will continue to work at NCS until midSeptember, when she returns to Cheney for her final quarter at
Eastern. Jordan has done much of the writing for this issue and
has put her education in graphic design to work helping create
Hear Heres new look! It has been a pleasure having Jordan in
the office with us this summer and we say goodbye with an
affectionate farewell as she returns to school this fall.

First and Second Quarters, 2014

Congratulations to the NCS Peer Recognition Award
nominees for First and Second Quarter, 2014! First quarter
nominees were: David Boberg, Cory Calahan, Pete Gooch, Lonnie Holbrook, Troy Lockwood, Chad Mace, John Pena, Debbie
Scott, and Candy Wilson. Alicia Cooper was our second quarter nominee.

Each nominated NCS employee receives a Peer Recognition Certificate, a $5.00 Starbucks gift card and an entry into
the grand prize drawing. Congratulations to all nominees and
thank you for your outstanding service contributions!
Grand Prize: Nominees from each quarter are put into
an NCS hat and a drawing is then held to determine the
Grand Prize winner. Recipients receive a $50 Target gift card.
The winners of the Grand Prize drawing for first and second
quarter were:
First Quarter, 2014: Debbie Scott
Second Quarter, 2014: Alicia Cooper
Congratulations, Debbie and Alicia!

Zak Janay started 6/02/14 as Exchange

Tier 3 Support. Zak has held a variety of
technical positions which include Exchange Engineer/Office 365 at Microsoft,
System Admin at CNSI, System Admin/
Lead Technology Support at Friendship
Public Charter Schools, Computer Technician/Help Desk at Mid Coast Hospital,
and Desktop Support at Husson University. He earned an Associate of Sciences degree in Computer
Technology in May 2005, then went on to gain a Bachelor of
Science degree in Computer Information Systems in May 2007,
both in which he earned a 4.0 GPA. Glad to have you on board,
Zak!

Any NCS employee can nominate another NCS employee (Management and Administrative staff are exempt) by
sending an email to lynns@ncsoffice.com with a description of
how you observed this employee going above and beyond to
help a customer, co-worker, etc. Nominations are kept on file
until the end of the quarter. The deadline for Third Quarter,
2014 nominations is September 26. Thank you to everyone
who participated in the Peer Recognition Award program and
congratulations to all who were nominated!

Paul Mitchell began 6/23 as a Sales Engineer/

Solutions Architect. Paul earned an Associates
degree from Tennessee Technical Institute in
Design Technology with an architectural, electrical and structural emphasis. He has since
held positions in numerous telecommunication
companies such as Senior Solutions Architect at
Continuant, General Manager/Primary Engineer at DialPro Northwest, Senior Account Executive/Sales Engineer at InTouch/B+C Telecom, Major Accounts Executive/Sales Engineer at Eschelon Telecom, and Director of Professional Services at Teltone Corporation. We are
glad to have you and your expertise here, Paul!

Drew Pritcher started 4/07/14 as Lync Tier

3 Support. Drew recently gained experience as Junior Program Manager at The
Masters Touch where he built, debugged,
and deployed web based, console, and
Windows forms applications among other
responsibilities. He graduated from Spokane Community College in June 2013 with
an Associate in Arts and Sciences degree as
a Radiology Technician with a 3.85 GPA. In September 2013, he
began pursuing an Associate in Arts degree in Software Development where he completed VB.NET, SQL, HTML5/CSS3, PHP,
and Web Graphics coursework with a 4.0 GPA. Welcome,
Drew!

Jordan Neels began 6/25 as an intern. Jordan

is one quarter away from completing her
Bachelors degree in Technical Communication from Eastern Washington University .
During her program she edited the YWCAs
website for graphics and content and created
a newsletter for the English Department featuring various teachers, Her projects this summer include writing content for the new website and revamping and writing for the newsletter in order to complete 200
hours. Were happy to have you, Jordan!

Laura McManus started 3/03/14 as Strategic

Account Manager. Laura brings 15 years of
sales experience combined from Vallarta Gardens Fractional Real Estate and Mayan Resorts
International Vacation Sales. Before these
positions, she was the Sales Director at Nortel
Network and an Account Executive/Account
Manager at US West Communications. Laura holds a Bachelor
of Science in Business Administration from City University.
Were glad you joined NCS, Laura!

Jeff Cagle began 6/30/14 as a Program Manager at Unify Square. Jeff has many years
experience in Program and Service Management and a B.S. degree in Computer Science
and Finance. Prior to his net new role at Unify Square, Jeff worked as a Product Planner
and Sr. Program Manager at Microsoft, and
as a Service Manager at Avanade in Seattle from 2007-2011.
Some of Jeffs notable responsibilities at Avanade included
lifecycle management of the corporate Exchange messaging,

Lync and Windows 7 services. Prior to Avanade, Jeff worked as

a Technical Consultant with Redmond Technology Partners on
a variety of Program and Technical Management projects.
Welcome, Jeff!

John Pena transferred from the Exchange Dedicated Support

to Nokia Exchange Dedicated Onboarding Team on 3/1/14.

Gregg Allen-Dunn began 8/11/14 as the

newest member of the Lync Tier 3 team.
Gregg is a recent graduate of the IT and
Communication Systems Program at Perry
Technical Institute in Yakima. Gregg comes
to NCS from his former position at Lockheed Martin in Richland, where he was
hired as a Network Engineer after graduating from Perry in
2013 with nearly a 4.0 GPA! A little over a year later, Gregg
and his wife set their sights on Western Washington. We are
glad he made the move and joined NCS. Welcome, Gregg!

Kim Pittman transferred from the Comms Team to Projects

on 4/1/14.

Rose Galaz, began 8/25/14 as our new

Human Resources Manager. Rose brings
with her a wealth of Human Resource
knowledge and experience, including Employee Relations, HR Law, Employee Benefits, as well as extensive experience in all
other Human Resource functions. She is
also bilingual in Spanish. Rose comes to
us from PCC Aerostructures, a global manufacturer of aerospace components, where she served as the HR Manager.
Prior to that, Rose was the Human Resources Manager at
Whirlwind Services, Inc., a commercial maintenance company
with over 200 multi-state employees, and brings additional
expertise from previous other positions in Human Resources.
Rose holds a PHR certification and a BA degree from California State University, Los Angeles. We are pleased to welcome
Rose to the NCS Management Team!

Employee Department Changes and Promotion

January August, 2014
Mike Arens, LRS (Lync Room System) Trial, transferred to Lync
Tier 3 effective 2/2/14.
Richard Laws transferred from VIS to the Comms Team on
3/1/14.
Troy Lockwood transferred from the Exchange Team to the
Comms Team on 3/1/14.

Jon Jansen transferred from Lync Tier 3 to LRS Trial position

on 3/3/14.

Bill Ring, Lync Tier 3 team, moved from LT3 Night Shift to
Days on 4/6/14.
Rich Lanning and Mike McKenney, Lync Team, moved to
from Day Shift to Nights 4/7/14.
Richard Laws, Comms Team, transferred to the Tooling/
Development Team on 4/15/14.
Alicia Cooper transferred from Comms to Nokia Exchange
Comms on 4/15/14.
Cory Calahan, Delegate Migration Team, transferred to
Nokia Exchange Tier 3 on 4/21/14.
Chris Anderson transferred from Lync Tier 3 to the NCS office
UC Department effective 5/1/14.
Kristina Smith moved from UC CSR to CSR PSS on 5/5/14.
Heidi Molina moved from UC CSR to CSR PSS on 5/5/14.
Jason Gentry, Mike Arens, Lync Team, moved from Day Shift
to Nights on 8/3/14.
Steve Hedrick, Response Group, moved from Day Shift to
Nights on 8/3/14.
Rich Lanning, Jennifer Winn, Mike McKenney, Lync Team,
moved from Night Shift to Days on 8/3/14.

Low Impact Exercise

While most people desire the health benefits of exercise, not all exercise can or should be performed by everyone.
For many people, health conditions or long-term injuries prevent them from taking up some of the more demanding forms
of exercise.
If you fall into one of those categories, low-impact
exercise may be what youre looking for. Designed to limit
stress on the body, low-impact exercise can still be intensive

enough to provide cardiovascular and musculoskeletal benefits. You dont need to be a mountain climber or marathoner to
obtain rewarding levels of personal fitness, but you do need
regular exercise in order to maintain your health and wellbeing. Consider the following forms of exercise as a way to
meet your fitness goals:

Mickey Pease
Danny Budiman

Elliptical trainer. This stationary exercise machine provides

a full-body cardio workout while limiting impact on joints.
Cycling. Whether stationary or in motion, pedaling a bike
burns major calories without punishing your body.
Courtesy of TRUEbenefits Wellness Newsletter

Paul Mitchell
Ed Abbe
Dustin Dobbs
Ryan Emerson
Steven Hedrick
Zak Janay
Jon Jansen
David Thompson
Ysmael Tobias

Mike Arens
Richard Laws

Heidi Molina

Chris Andersen

Jody Tangney

Lynn Hendley

Alicia Cooper

Drew Williams

Lonnie Holbrook

Ben Hayes

John Phillips
Drew Pritcher
Bill Ring

David Boberg
Mark Dawson
Robert Kallmeyer
Bridgett Stevenson

Colin Bushbaum
Jacque Fabien
Emmanuel Gonzales
Patrick Johnson
Kevin Manley

Derek Dobson
Ron Green
Troy Landgren
Steven NyQuist
David Ruchty
Lynn Schofstoll
Deborah Scott

Kevin Verdeck
Dustin Ward

Christy Cunningham
Pete Gooch
Chad Mace
Joshua McLloyd
Santono
Prajnamitra
Bill Ring
Kristina Smith

Joe Belsha

Mario Corcoran
Emmanuel Gonzales
Mike McKenney
Lynn Schofstoll
Drew Williams

Joe Belsha
David Boberg
Jacque Fabien
Christopher Frantz
Steven Hedrick
Richard Laws
John Pena
Conrad Stoliker
Terri Wells

Patrick Johnson

Mike Arens
Robert Kallmeyer

Nathan Carson
Craig Clemens
Gary Cunningham
Derek Dobson
Virginia Mellino
Brian Sacksteder
Ysmael Tobias
Candy Wilson

Jared Huff
Troy Landgren

Ed Abbe
Karen Chin
Stuart Rosadiuk

Shawnene Hersey
Mitch Mallott
Paul Settlemyer

Mickey Pease

Cory Calahan
Karen Chin
Gary Cunningham
Jason Gentry

Aaron Robertson
Deborah Scott
Dan Trimble

David Thompson
Walter Tumey

John Phillips

Jordan Neels

Laura McManus
Aaron Robertson

Colin Bushbaum
Cory Calahan
James Chan
Jon Jansen
Troy Lockwood
Victoria Mulholland
Steven NyQuist
Nathan Ostic
Mark Reilly
Teresa Simmons
Dustin Ward
Slavik Yakobchuk

Brian Sacksteder

Mitch Mallott
Todd Bailey

Jarred Heller
Heidi Molina

Chad Mace
Joshua McLloyd

Kim Pittman

Christopher Frantz

Walking. The simplest form of exercise is still one of the

best. This low-cost, low-stress workout will benefit your body
and mind without taking a toll on your body. Just make sure
your shoes are up to the distance and terrain challenges.
Swimming. Swimming is one of the most grueling exercises
out there. However, it can be done by almost anyone since its
demands on the bodys joints are practically non-existent.

Troy Lockwood

John Pena
Mario Corcoran
Rose Galaz
Terry Glanz

Kristina Smith

Kim Pittman

Conrad Stoliker
Jason Gentry

Robert Andrew
Dustin Dobbs
Daniel Lawson
Kevin Manley
Jennifer Winn

Ben Hayes
John Phillips
Bridgett Stevenson
Jody Tangney

Colin Bushbaum, Jarred Heller, John Pena,

Derek Rucker, Chad Mace

Kevin Verdeck, Cory Calahan, Dammin

Samuel, Mark Dawson

David Ruchty, Deborah

Scott, Candy Wilson

Nicole Pudwell and Mickey Pease

Company BBQ
By Jordan Neels
David Thompson, Rob Kallmeyer, Dustin Ward,
Emmanuel Gonzales, Jared Huff

Ben with three happy firemen

The corporate office was thrilled to see the

great turn out for the employee BBQ! While
guests filled their stomachs with picnic fare
including hot dogs, burgers, salads, fruit,
cookies, ice cream bars, and more, all were
invited to take an NCS hat, cinch-bag, and
data sheet featuring the new logo and general company rebranding to celebrate the
internal pre-launch of our new logo and
website. A preview of the new site was also
available for viewing on monitors in the
warehouse. Thanks to all who were able to
make it. We hope you enjoyed yourselves as
much as we enjoyed seeing all of you!

Mitch Mallott, Derek Dobson, David Boberg,

Dan Trimble, Troy Landgren

Nicole Pudwell, Jody Tangney, Victoria

Mulholland

In true NCS fashion, pictures galore were

taken. Try to find yourself!
Kevin Manley, Ron Green, Ysmael Tobias, Jerry
Newell, Ed Abbe

Kamilah Norris, Kim Pittman, Heidi Molina,

Patrick Johnson, Laura McManus

Marge Seth, Linda Michaels, John Phillips

Bridgett Stevenson, Christy Cunningham,

Shawnene Hersey

Drew Williams, Chris Andersen, Jon Jansen, Drew Pritcher

Kudos!
Some kudos have been edited for proprietary content and/or space.
Kudos for Kevin Verdeck!
From: Travis Golob
To: David Ruchty (National Communications);
Ron Green (NCS); Bridgett Stevenson (NCS)
Cc: Kevin Verdeck (National Communications)
Subject: FW: MSIT exchange contact:

Shout out to Jon Jansen and Drew Pritcher for their LRS
prep work for Satyas first EBC (Executive Briefing Center) Live event hosting the ConocoPhillips CIO and his
Leadership Team!

Hey, I just want to give a thumbs up to Kevin for

doing some amazing work here. This request
has been going back and forth between people
all day. I ended up having to remove three quarters of the thread below since it was getting
heated a bit :). I brought Kevin in on this and he
knocked it out of the park in seconds flat.

From: Bert Byerly

To: David Ruchty (National Communications); Jonathan
Clare; Sean Wilson; Ron Green (NCS); Bridgett Stevenson (NCS); Jon Jansen (National Communications)
Cc: Drew Pritcher (National Communications); Jonathan
Clare
Subject: RE: ThankYou ThankYou - LRS Enterprise Fiasco

Thanks Kevin!

Thanks for raising this David. Great to see when hard

work is acknowledged and I can tell you that these two
guys provide really strong work! Thanks Jon and Drew!
Bert Byerly | Service Manager | Voice Services | PAIX
Service Quality & Planning
------From: Paul Wissing
Subject: ThankYou ThankYou - LRS Enterprise Fiasco

Kudos for Steven Hedrick!

From: Umar Irshad (HCL Technologies Ltd)
To: Ron Green (NCS); Jonathan Clare Cc: Doug
Hite
Subject: FW: 08/04/14 Marketplace Operations
Center - One (MPOCOne ) ADD EV ACCT/UM
X56817 REDMOND TOWN B5/1372 ~KN

Jeff Goodwin and Salman Hayat have spent no less than

28hrs each over the course of a week on working to get
this solution figured out. The Redmond MSIT team:
Sean, Drew, and Jon, have spent no less than 20+ hrs of
their each individual time to help us in resolving our performance issues. Jeff and Nick from EBC in Redmond
have spent countless hours with us as well troubleshooting and testing. We could not have gotten this resolved
without everyones help in getting things turned on,
made available or enabled via MSIT, help with room logistics, you name it, we pushed those buttons to help
get to the next level of troubleshooting..

Hello Ron & Jonathan just wanted to highlight

that Steven has been extremely helpful in setting
up our LYNC call center system, he is methodical,
knows what he is talking about, recommends best
solutions and above all goes an extra mile to provide help to others to be successful in what they
are trying to achieve.

Thank You Thank You Thank You all of you and I do

mean all of you

Thanks,
Umar

Paul Wissing
Account Technology Strategist

Kudos for Troy Landgren and Santono Prajnamitra!

From: Sheri Sanders (CBRE, Inc)
To: Jonathan Clare
Cc: Troy Landgren (NCS); Erik Larsen (CBRE, Inc); John Trujillo; Jeff Roberts (CBRE, Inc)
Subject: FW: Heat up Building 92 Jack Ports
Hello, Jonathan,
Id like to pass on my appreciation for Troy Landgren and Santonos work yesterday for our high-intensity,
private, short-term project in Building 92. The clients needed extra data access in a hurry, and notified me
at about 2:45 p.m. Within a few hours, Troy arranged for a technician to go to the room and take care of
their needs. Troy and Santono provided excellent service and clear communication, and enabled the client
to meet their deadline.
Kudos to the NCS team!
Regards,
Sheri Sanders | Project Manager, CBRE

Kudos for John Phillips and Ysmael Tobias!

From: Chee Ming Tan

Subject: RE: great people - thank you
Good stuff is worth repeating :)
Totally agree with Zoran and Eliza and I can be sure that many people feel the same too.
A very BIG THANK YOU for all the help.
Regards,
Tan Chee Ming
Regional Telecom Engineer (APJ) | End User Productivity Services | Devices & Services IT
------From: Eliza Li
Subject: RE: great people - thank you
Hello Zoran,
Thank you for leading the efforts to share the appreciation to the team who made us successful in the past
year.
Towards John, Jerry and Izzy, I share the same warm feelings as Zoran has! They are the good hands that are
always backing me up for successful project deliveries. Their responsiveness, quality of work, readiness to provide me support and guidance, accommodation to challenging project timeline are always impressive and
Zoran you summarized it very well John, Jerry and Izzy made challenging projects enjoyable! Thank you!
Regards,
Eliza Li (), PMP

Cont. on pg 10

Cont. from pg 9
New FY starts and Ill leave on vacation, but I dont want to miss to thank a few folks (at least once per year) who
have worked closer with us past FY.
There are certainly more good people around, but for 3 Id like to spend a few extra words.
1 John Phillips
We worked a lot together for the NEM site activities, but not those only. He helped as well in office move projects
and replacements
John is a very reliable resource. Hes very responsive, quick and follows up.
Our life would have been much harder without John good to have him!
3- Man of the Year Ysmael Izzy Tobias
Izzy was our counterpart for most activities and were really glad to have him.
Hes a bright mind and works in many areas with a zero error rate! Furthermore hes always ahead of time, even
if the schedule is tight. You can ping him also for last minute changes and he does his best to squeeze it in. That
and much more gives you a very good feeling when you work on challenging projects.
Hes definitely a success factor in our daily business and helped us to deliver all projects in a very good manner
100% in time 100% in budget.
Thank you guys for the good collaboration the past year. Really enjoyed working with all of you and hope we can
work many more years together.
Zoran
Regional Telecom Engineer (EMEA) | Communication Services | UPS Devices & Services IT

Kudos for Heidi Molina!

From: Larry Jackson
To: Pete Sysum Cc: Heidi Molina (NCS)
Subject: Heidi is awesome!
Pete,
You probably know this, but Heidi is an extremely important asset. She knows every aspect of her area, at least the
areas my clients seem to keep needing help with. She is very pleasant to work with and gets things done! I cannot
say it any clearer, she gets it done!
Please accept this as feedback for her FY14. I know I was not requested to provide feedback, but I would not want
to let this not be heard.
Thank you,
Larry Jackson
Executive Support Technician | Client and Site Experience Microsoft IT

10

Kudos for Victoria Mulholland!

From: Luis Hernandez (IT LNM)

To: Victoria Mulholland (National Communications); Shin Kodaira; Ingrid Fernandez (Brenda Marrero and
Associates); Adam Reese; David Boberg (NCS); John Phillips (National Communications); Daniel Lawson
(NCS); Conrad Stoliker (NCS); Steven Hedrick (NCS); Ysmael Tobias (National Communications); Mike Acton
(NCS); Phil Jacobson (Qwest, Inc.)
Cc: Jason McWreath; Bremen Lee; Rajesh Geddam; Manuel Reyes-Rivera; Volker Hoepfner; Bert Byerly; Jeff
Staricka; Ron Green (NCS)
Subject: RE: San Jose, Costa Rica - Enterprise Voice Completed
VictoriaI want to express my most sincere gratitude for your high level of professionalism and commitment. In
LATAM things are not easy to achieve, relatively speaking, but with your drive, patience and tenacity we
were able to deliver on time. As a PM myself, I know it was not an easy delivery.
To the rest of the team, THANKS SO MUCH on behalf of our Costa Rica team and LATAM in general.
Regards,
Luis Manuel Hernandez | IT Manager | Microsoft LatAm New Markets

Kudos for Joe Belsha!

From: Craig Milton

To: Shin Kodaira; Volker Hoepfner; Bridgett Stevenson (NCS)
Subject: Thank you - appreciation for work done by Joe Belsha (NCS)
Hello,
I wanted to take a minute to express my appreciation for Joe Belsha with NCS. He has been working with me
to make some important phone programming changes to the phones in our GFS datacenter SOCs. His response time, knowledge of the phone systems, and expertise in this area is superb, and he has been very, very
helpful. It has been a pleasure to work with him on this and look forward to his collaboration with us on future
datacenter build projects.
Thanks,
Craig Milton, CPP, HISP
Regional Security Operations Manager | OSSC Physical Security

11

Kudos for Chris Andersen!

Kudos for Candy Wilson!
From: Stefani Clark
To: Jonathan Clare Cc: Christopher Andersen
(National Communications)
Subject: Recognition ...

From: Kunal Kaushik

To: Candy Wilson (NCS); Uday Shastry Cc: CS Communications Team; Puay Eng Peh
Subject: RE: Help with FAQ page

Jonathan,
I wanted to let you know that on several occasions
now I have had the opportunity to work 1:1 with Chris
on Lync issues. I find him personable, very detailed
and thorough, and gets to the root of issues.

Thanks a ton Candy your support is much appreciated!

I really appreciate that we have this caliber of support

in Lync T3.

Sr. Service Manager - Device Access | User & Device Access Services | IAM ISRM

Regards
Kunal Kaushik

Kudos Chris, youre awesome!!

Kudos for Ysmael Tobias!

From: Thomas Snyder [mailto:tomsny@microsoft.com]
To: Tom Foster
Cc: Jonathan Clare; Kevin Fanton; Peter Lee; K. C. Han; Bert Byerly; Wayne Mohammed; Ysmael Tobias (National
Communications); Regional Telecom Engineering
Subject: FW: EMEA - Gateway migration
Tom, thought you would like some good news.
Your Lync team has done a fantastic job with Wave 15 upgrade and EMEA is now complete!
------From: K. C. Han
Thank Jerry and Izzy. Great job!!!
------From: Eliza Li
Congratulations Izzy and the team!
------From: Chee Ming Tan
Thanks Izzy and team for completing both APJ and EMEA! Nice work! Thanks.

12

Cont. on pg 13

Cont. from pg 12
Regards
Tan Chee Ming
Regional Telecom Engineer (APJ) |Communication Services | PAIX User Experience IT
------From: Ysmael Tobias (National Communications)
To: Regional Telecom Engineering Cc: K. C. Han; Thomas Snyder; Bert Byerly; Jonathan Clare
Subject: EMEA - Gateway migration
Hello All,
The following sites and gateways have been successfully migrated to the Wave 15 mediation servers.
Testing to Port Louis was minimal since the site is not LIVE yet.
Ankara, Turkey,
Unterschleissheim , Germany ,
Istanbul, Turkey,
Kiev, Ukraine
Cape Town, South Africa
Johannesburg, South Africa
Port Louis, Maurtius
EMEA is done!!

Kudos for Virginia Mellino!

From: Bassim Hassan
To: Virginia Mellino (NCS); Ismail Al-Batreekhi (Unisys); Hesham El Amin
Cc: Microsoft Netherlands IT Team; Bridgett Stevenson (NCS)
Subject: RE: #RF3065742 - RE: RF3062666 03/10/14 Hesham El Amin (heshame) DELETE EV Acct/UM x8026
Riyadh ~tam
Many thanks, Virginia for your quick prompted response, very appreciated.
Hesham, hope all good now at your side. If any further support, please let me know any time.
Also thanks, Netherlands IT for your quick follow up here
From: Virginia Mellino (NCS)
Subject: RE: #RF3065742 - RE: RF3062666 03/10/14 Hesham El Amin (heshame) DELETE EV Acct/UM x8026
Riyadh ~tam
Hesham did confirm to me that both Lync and EV are working again.

13

Cont. from previous box

From: Bert Byerly
Hi Virginia,

Kudos for Chad Mace!

From: Sean Thornton (Randstad Sourceright)
To: Ron Green (NCS)
Subject: FW: New hires need migration

You are reading my mind. I just had an escalation

about the phone requests this morning. I agree with
you for the short term that is what should be done and
I do think we might want to consider an overall strategy for requesting this moving forward.

Hi Ron,
I just wanted to pass along how great a partner Chad
Mace has been. We have had a lot of internal movement lately and I have been pestering him about getting that staff moved to the newer mail server. He is
always quick to respond, very helpful and gives added insight whenever he can so that I get a better idea
of what to expect. A good partner is always appreciated but Chad has been exceptional in assisting me
and my team. Its very reassuring to know I have
someone to turn to for issues like this that I can trust
will get it taken care of quickly.

Thank you so much for taking this on.

Bert Byerly | Service Manager | Voice Services | PAIX Service Quality & Planning
------From: Virginia Mellino (NCS)
To: Bert Byerly
Cc: Bridgett Stevenson (NCS); Teresa Simmons
(National Communications); Robert Koester
Subject: EV Requests submitted via http://
phonerequest

Thank you!

Hi Bert,

Sean Thornton

I wanted to contact you about the EV online request

form at http://phonerequest. I know that there are
plans in the works to replace this form. We would like
to recommend that in the meantime we take this form
offline and put a redirect in its place to have the customer email EVHelp@microsoft.com. Ask them to
include users name, alias and complete location to
save time. By doing this we would really make the
customers much happier and our team much happier.
This form was developed with the old IP phone system
in mind and it just does not work for EV requests... We
are constantly hearing complaints from customers
that they could not submit a request. Or that they
filled out a request but did not get to put anything
information in the request. Then there are the customers that fill out the request for a device when they
really wanted to request an EV account.
If this is alright with you we would like to make this
change effective 2/28/14. Thank you for your consideration. If you need any other information from us to
make this happen please let me know.
Thank you,
Virginia
Microsoft Voice Integration Services

Manager, Talent Delivery | Randstad Sourceright @

Microsoft

Kudos for Virginia Mellino and Teresa Simmons!

From: Robert Koester
To: Bert Byerly; Virginia Mellino (NCS)
Cc: Bridgett Stevenson (NCS); Teresa Simmons
(National Communications)
Subject: RE: EV Requests submitted via http://
phonerequest
Thanks Bert!
Slightly off topic but I wanted to call out how much
great work Bridgett, Teresa, and Virginia have been
doing. They are demonstrating thoughtful leadership day in day out with the customer in mind!
-rk
-------

Cont. in next box

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Kudos for Mike McKenney!

From: Michelle Gregg (Linda Werner & Associates Inc)
To: Michael McKenney (NCS)
Subject: RE: Sync up for Lync audio issues.
Importance: Low
Hi,
Thank you again so much for personally coming to fix my computer. I really appreciate it! Id be happy to submit
a gold star email/ survey/ etc. on your behalf. J
Thanks so much!
Michelle
------From: Michael McKenney (NCS)
To: Michelle Gregg (Linda Werner & Associates Inc)
Subject: RE: Sync up for Lync audio issues.
Hi Michelle,
I know were not meeting til next Tuesday, but as Im back in office today, I wanted to check in and make sure
everything was at least in a state that was workable for you until then. Ill be here all day, so please let me
know if theres anything I can do- thanks!
Mike McKenney
Lync Operations Tier-3 Support

Kudos for Patrick Johnson!

From: Berit Benson
To: Mickey Pease (NCS); David Ruchty (National Communications) Cc: Gary Price
Subject: Patrick Johnson
Greetings Gentlemen,
I wanted to take a few moments to let you know how impressed I am with Patricks help and dedication to getting my Telco issue resolved. My team runs the MSN Internet Access business and as part of that we need to validate our service using modems and analog lines.
Due to an MS move, we had to relocate our dial line in Bravern 1 to a new office. Since the move, the line has
been intermittently failing. Patrick has been rebuilding the configuration and resetting the system multiple times
in an attempt to stabilize it. It now appears that we will need to update this line to a CenturyLink FBL/POTS line.
What I appreciate about Patrick is that he is committed to finding a solution that will work for us. He tried multiple times to get the existing system to work, and when that failed; he presented us with the CenturyLink option
and gave me the contact information for the person who can get this ordered for us.
I understand that systems get old and hardware starts to fail. Patrick thanked my co-worker and myself for our
patience as we work through this. I explained to Patrick that I dont get upset when things are not working as
long as people are actively engaged in finding a solution. Patrick has been nothing BUT responsive and concerned about getting us up and running.
You have a good team member in Patrick and he is a great representative for your organization.
Thank you,
Berit

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