Telecommunications

The telecommunications functional area was last assessed in October 2002. There were no open items from the 2002 review.

Our self-assessment team identified areas of opportunity for enhanced performance and will address those areas in the following report.

Departmental Overview

Laboratory Mission

The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center is the lead Department of Energy (DOE) laboratory for electron-based high energy physics. It is dedicated to research in elementary particle physics, accelerator physics and in allied fields that can make use of its synchrotron radiation facilities—including biology, chemistry, geology, materials science and environmental engineering. Operated on behalf of the DOE by Stanford University, SLAC is a national user facility serving universities, industry and other research institutions throughout the world. Its mission can be summarized as follows:

The Telephone Services functional area manages telephone services as a corporate resource to improve the quality of its services, to add value to scientific programs and customer services, and as a tool to improve work processes. Telephone service will be made available to the community, the public, industrial partners, and others, as appropriate. The focus this year was on expanding the telephone system to enable continued growth, supporting the opening of the SLAC Guest House with new telephones and cabling, providing more users with improved features such as message waiting lamp phones, and improving system reliability.

Identification of Self-Assessment Report Staff

Names, titles, affiliations of participants

This report represents the results of the telecommunications functional area self-assessment, an ongoing process begun as part of the Business Management Oversight pilot established by DOE in March 1995 and continued by executive order as part of DOE performance-based management. Assessment material was collected over the past year, followed by a process of validation of findings, analysis and report writing. The telecommunications functional area self-assessment is based on and measured against performance activities currently agreed to between SLAC and DOE/OAK in order to address customer satisfaction, cost efficiency, and contract compliance.

The SLAC telephone system includes a 4,920-port digital electronic switching system and a cable plant that is adequate to the system but is stretched and old. The cable plant is based on twisted pair copper technology with surge protectors, both within and between buildings. The switch is capable of supporting advanced and digital technologies such as Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). The system includes direct inward dial service, voice mail, government and public network access, paging access and video conferencing. The system supports a majority of mass-market, single-line instruments (4160 ports) and some proprietary multi-line instruments (408 ports) to provide secretarial type functions. The remaining 352 ports are used for trunks. The system provides alarm circuits, emergency communications, and back up power capability.

In June 2002, we entered into a maintenance-only contract with Nextira, based on a fixed monthly cost for the life of the contract. This contract covers an initial period of two years, with three one-year renewal options. We have currently exercised the first of the one-year renewal options.

The system is managed in partnership with Telecommunications Staff and user representatives called Area Telecommunications Office Motivators (ATOMs). ATOMs were appointed by group leaders in 1987 to represent a group or geographical area of from 15-200 phones and/or users. They interface with the Telecommunications staff using user-driven on-line tools developed by Telecommunications to activate services and identify order status. Lead-times to complete requests for changes are from one to four weeks, depending on type of request.

SLAC has month-to-month agreements with other telecommunications service providers for traffic carrier services, radio and paging services, and cellular phone service, which are renewed on a fiscal year basis. These vendors include SBC, for local calling and network access, ISDN and measured business lines; PowerNetGlobal, AT&T and FTS2001, for long distance calling; Verizon, for wide area paging service; Motorola and GE Erickson, for mobile radio services; and AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless, for cellular phone service. Carrier services are based on current CPUC tariff and federal government rates and paging and radio services using a negotiated rate structure.

We have supported a high volume of movement this year as user groups continue to reorganize within existing space on the site. Key projects requiring new cabling and installation of telephones in remodeled areas included the development of the Kavli Institute, LCLS, and GLAST, including the GLAST clean room. In spite of the heavy workload, we have performed extremely well in regards to both order timeliness and user expectations.

We have implemented the Emergency Services Access function on our PBX. This software enables us to send real-time notification of 911 calls to the SLAC Main Gate. Security personnel now verify the nature of on-site emergencies and are better prepared to direct the responding emergency personnel to the correct location. We have continued to work with telephone ATOM’s to correctly identify locations for telephones and to improve the accuracy of associated databases and the SLAC directory.

We are currently in Phase 2 of a three phase project to convert all wireless radios, mobile and base stations to communicate at the new mandated narrowband frequencies. We have completed a pilot project converting a single, repeated wireless network. We are currently expanding the pilot to include the Accelerator Linac, SLD, and PEP tunnel areas. During the coming year, we expect to complete installation and testing of the wireless networks, and replace and program non-compatible radios, mobile and base stations.

While providing members of the SLAC community the services they need to function effectively, we have also sought to manage services so as to control costs. During the past year, we have saved the lab approximately $517,000. A significant portion of this savings comes from the conversion of a leased telephone system to a maintenance-only contract on the SLAC-owned system. We have identified opportunities to scale back projects by substituting cost-effective alternatives and carefully managed services contracts to minimize costs while providing improved services. We have continued to use low-priced service contracts from AT&T Wireless for the majority of our mobile users, whose usage is so low that they do not benefit from package plans with included minutes. We have audited and disconnected telephone services that are no longer required. We have recovered and reused cabling to minimize wiring costs.

The SLAC PBX has a recent version of software and CPU, and old-style as well as updated port cabinet hardware components. The cost to upgrade the PBX by removing the remaining old-style cabinets and installing all updated cabinets is roughly $600,000, as compared to $2.5 to 3 million to install a new system from a different vendor. In the interest of conserving money, SLAC plans to continue using the old port cabinets as long as possible to avoid the upgrade or replacement cost, until the age of the cabinets presents serious potential problems such as increased probability of outages, user demand for certain phone features such as call-waiting lights, or lack of spare parts. Any needed growth in the PBX system capacity in the mean time is being accomplished using the updated type of cabinets. The system currently has about 2,800 line ports in the older cabinets, and about 1,200 line ports in the updated cabinets. There is a slow migration of user phones to the newer cabinets as more users gradually request message-waiting lights on their phones. The approach is designed to avoid costs while providing good service levels. During 2005, the upgrade issue will be reviewed but it is not likely that the general upgrade will be needed in 2005.

Network services (DSL, local, long-distance, and international phone calling) are currently being scrutinized and evaluated. The current network vendors have provided unsolicited discount proposals. The long-distance and international calling rates have been kept at low levels without going to the expense of using a competitive RFP process. The local and DSL rates are currently being examined with consideration of using a specialized term contract with SBC. A term contract could reduce the current costs for local and DSL by at least 20% or about $1,500 per month or more. The SBC term contract issue will be decided in the 2005 time frame.

The lower-cost commercial reservation-less audio conferencing service has been put into service, and the rates for conference calling have been reduced from about 21 cents per minute to about 14 cents per minute. The expansion of the DOE’s low-cost ESNet conference ports has also reduced the number of conference calls being made using the commercial service. These combined have produced an overall savings of several thousand dollars each month as more conferences are moved to ESNet and the commercial prices have been reduced. For example, in May 2004 the commercial cost was $5,500 and in May 2005 it was $1,180.

Services: We have had no outages of the telephone or voicemail systems. System availability was 100 percent.

We had one planned, weekend-long, power outage in the computer building. The length of this outage exceeded the capacity of our UPS systems. We arranged for a backup generator to power the telephone systems during this outage, to ensure that there would be no disruption to telecommunications services.

We have made no major changes to our trunking or service providers during the past year. We have continued to monitor performance and service levels on our SBC and FTS2001 ISDN PRI’s. We have had no service outages of significant duration.

Telephone Orders Meet Customer Needs: Telephone orders are submitted by ATOMs or users through a Web interface to the SLAC Phone Request System (SPRS), an order tracking system based on the commercial Remedy application. This system allows us to collect objective data on the elapsed time from when an order is submitted, until it is finally closed, including notification of the user and updating of all related databases.

In addition to the data collected from the SLAC Phone Request System, we used the services of a consultant from outside our department to request anonymous feedback from the ATOMs through a short survey. We requested responses to five questions, which were the same as questions used in our fiscal year 2002 and 2003 surveys. Twenty-six out of seventy-five ATOM's chose to participate in the survey.

For analysis purposes, we divide the orders into two types: software and hardware.

The following table shows selected measurements for software orders. The times for order closure are adjusted to exclude weekends, so “days” are actually “business days.”

# of Days	Cumulative Percent
0	22.4%
1	41.3%
2	62.5%
3	78.8%
4	87.4%
5	92.1%
More	100%

The following graph shows the number of software orders completed in a specific number of days with the green bars and labels on the left axis. The cumulative percentage of orders completed within a given time period are shown by the blue line and labels on the right axis.

Ninety-two percent of software orders are completed within one week. In 2003, ninety-six percent of software orders were completed within one week. In 2002, 2001, and 2000, the percentages of orders completed in one week were eighty-six percent, ninety-three percent, and eighty-six percent of orders, respectively. There was a 17 percent increase in software orders processed in 2004 compared to 2003. There was a 2 percent decrease in orders compared to 2002. However, there was a 40 percent increase in software orders processed in 2004 compared to 2001, and a 71 percent increase compared to 2000. We originally considered that completing eighty-five percent of software orders in one week was a reasonable target for this goal. We have exceeded that goal by a significant percentage, while also completing significantly more orders with no increase in personnel. This represents “Outstanding” performance in this area.

Our goal is to complete most hardware orders within one month. Some orders can stay in the system for much longer for reasons that are largely beyond our control. Examples include waiting for access to tunnels and waiting for users to complete construction or install conduit. In addition, we have a single technician available to handle both hardware orders and repairs. Because repairs generally receive higher priority than new orders, work on hardware orders can be delayed for several days while other problems are resolved. For these reasons, we believe it is realistic to expect hardware orders to take somewhat longer than other types.

The following table shows selected measurements for hardware orders. The times to order closure are adjusted to exclude weekends. So “days” are actually “business days” and the rows of the table show orders closed in one week, two weeks, and so forth, through one month.

# of Days	Cumulative Percent
5	24.9%
10	53.9%
15	71.9%
20	86.8%
22	92%
More	99.9%

The following graph shows the number of hardware orders completed in a specific number of days, charted with bars, using the right axis. The blue line shows the cumulative percentage of orders completed, with percentages on the left axis.

Ninety-two percent of hardware orders were completed within one month. This is comparable to 2003, when ninety-three percent of hardware orders were completed within one month. It is significantly more than in 2002, when eighty percent of hardware orders were completed within one month, as well as 2001, when eighty-six percent of hardware orders were completed within four weeks, and 2000, when sixty-one percent of hardware orders were completed within thirty days. The median time to complete hardware orders has dropped from 21 days in 2000, to 12 days in 2001, to 10 days in 2002. The median time to close orders was up slightly to 15 days in 2003, due to the timing of orders for the SLAC Guest House. The median time to complete hardware orders dropped again in 2004, to nine days.

As with software orders, the number of hardware orders has generally increased over recent years. Hardware orders in 2004 were down 12 percent and 21 percent, respectively, over those processed in 2003 and 2002. However, they were up 30 percent over those processed in 2001 and 10 percent over those processed in 2000. In addition to several large relocation projects, we have experienced an increase in the number of hardware orders to provide message waiting lamp phones to users requesting them.

ATOMs were asked to indicate whether they agreed with the statement "Software orders are completed in a reasonable length of time." They were given a five-point scale (strongly disagree, disagree, acceptable, agree, and strongly agree). One hundred percent of ATOMs rated performance as acceptable or better. This is the same result achieved in 2003. It is an improvement over the ninety-six percent of ATOMs who rated performance at this level in 2002, and the ninety percent of ATOMs who did so in 2001.

ATOMs were also asked to indicate whether they agreed with the statement "Hardware orders are completed in a reasonable length of time." Ninety-six percent of ATOM’s rated performance as acceptable or better. This is a significant improvement over the eighty-nine percent of ATOMs rated performance at this level in 2003, the eighty-seven percent of ATOM’s who did so in 2002, and the sixty-five percent of ATOMs who did so in 2001.

The customer satisfaction with completion of both hardware and software orders is “Outstanding”.

Telephone Repairs Meet Customer Needs: Any person at SLAC can request a telephone repair either by using a Web-based form in the SLAC Phone Request System (SPRS) described above, or by leaving a voice message on the phone repair line. We have seen a gradual increase in the number of requests received through SPRS to about half our total number of repair requests. Currently, the system administrator and technician are entering the remaining telephone requests into SPRS for tracking purposes.

Due to the difficulties involved in obtaining a representative sample of all telephone users at SLAC, we relied upon the ATOMs to provide subjective feedback on behalf of all their users through the survey described above.

# of Days	Cumulative Percent
0	88%
1	93.1%
2	94.6%
3	96.4%
4	96.8%
5	97.2%
More	100.1%

The chart below shows the number of repairs completed in a given number of days, using the green bars and right axis. The blue line, with labels along the left axis, shows the cumulative percent of orders completed.

The data collected indicate that ninety-three percent of repairs are completed in one day or less. This is comparable to the ninety-five percent of repairs completed in one day or less in 2003. It is significantly more than the eighty-two percent of orders completed in one day or less in 2002, the eighty-five percent of repairs completed in one day or less in 2001, and the forty-six percent of repairs completed in one day or less in 2000.

ATOMs were asked to indicate whether they agreed with the statement "Repairs are completed in a timely fashion." They were given a five-point scale (strongly disagree, disagree, acceptable, agree, and strongly agree). One hundred percent of the ATOMs rated performance as acceptable or better, which reflects the same rating as 2003 and 2002, but shows improvement over the eighty-five percent approval in 2001.

Both of these measures demonstrate an “Outstanding” performance in completing repairs.

It is the responsibility of each person in the emergency organization to determine what communications’ resources they need to fulfill their responsibilities. Beyond the role of the Emergency Communications Manager in restoring telecommunications services and allocating alternate resources in an actual emergency, we provide services to the emergency organization in the same manner as we do to other users. That is we help users clarify their actual communications needs, provide information about available alternatives, provide services where appropriate, and refer users to other resources for products and services we do not provide.

During the past year, tests of the emergency communications systems were conducted seven times. SLAC’s Emergency Coordinator continues to indicate that his primary concern in regards to the emergency communications tests is to test the wireless system on a regular basis. The responsibility for running these tests continue to be done by The SLAC’s Wireless Communications Analyst. Following each test, users verbally communicate the quality of the tests results to Wireless Communications Analyst indicating any unit problems which may require repairs. No problems with emergency wireless equipment were reported.

In addition, during the past year, preventive maintenance (frequency, SWR, audio levels and modulation were checked) was done by SLAC’s wireless communications analyst on all emergency wireless equipment. The wireless analyst conducted additional tests to ensure each emergency wireless portable/base station/mobile transmit frequency, output power level, and receiver sensitivity was within specification. During this past year, no emergency wireless equipment had to be repaired.

The Emergency Coordinator indicated the current emergency communication system continues to meet the user’s needs. There is also support for continuing the wireless tests and preventative maintenance. We plan to continue support for the wireless tests and preventative maintenance for this area.

Our assessment team found the telecommunications functional area to be in compliance with laws, regulations and, terms and conditions of the current DOE contract. The telecommunications functional area assessment team found no fraud, waste, or abuse issues.