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Community College of Allegheny County
Pittsburgh, PA
Dear
Ron:
Please accept this assessment of the projects that you and Jay
Hoogerbrugge have been involved in for the past 5 years for the
Community College of Allegheny County
Project Size
Approximately $6 million project to upgrade the Local Area
Networks of 4 major campuses, focusing on re-cabling to a CAT 6
standard. Project goal is to complete a new high speed technical
infrastructure that would support 100 Mbps Ethernet capacity to
the desktop of all employees and students.
Project Parameters for WTCI
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Meet with teams of stakeholders and Information Technology
Services staff to redesign, modify and update the cabling
schematics which you originated in 2001 as well as the voice
and data port numbering syntax.
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Develop cable construction specifications and Request For
Proposals (RFPs).
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Design TRs and MDFs to accommodate communications gear.
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Review vendor responses, check vendor references and make
recommendations for awarding contracts.
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Conduct Project oversight activities which included daily
inspections and problem reporting; problem-solving; daily
progress reports posted electronically; capturing issues,
problems and change order requests for decision-making
purposes.
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Conduct weekly in-person meetings, capturing minutes and
action items for all parties which included
telecommunications and communications gear vendors.
Orchestrate smooth cut-overs, cable removal, and resolve any
resulting employee complaints.
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Conduct final inspections and punch-lists.
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Complete as-built drawings.
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For the one campus that is comprised of multiple facilities,
design external fiber routes; oversee conduit audit and
clean-up.
Assessment of Aforementioned Projects
The projects were very complex from several perspectives:
coordinating the work of multiple vendors, working within the
confines of difficult physical structures, and communicating in
person and electronically with diverse groups of employees. An
assessment follows.
Communication: electronic and in-person communication was
efficient, comprehensive and always focused on task. The degree
of professionalism in the face of at times, adversity was
outstanding. This in and of itself speaks highly of your firm,
since in my estimation, this is the area where most projects of
an IT nature fail. Employee comments were extremely
complimentary honing in on the “invisibility” of re-cabling
offices, classrooms, etc.
Problem-Solving: careful analysis of issues and situations gave
rise to good decision-making and offered us flexibility in
determining the best solutions.
Deliverables: there are two categories to be addressed –
concrete and intangible. Cabling schematics, as-builts, and port
syntax were as perfect as you can get. These products now form
the basis of tracking all changes in our network. That was
probably the easiest part of these projects – it was in the
intangible realm that WTCI demonstrated excellence: riding herd
on vendors, keeping the projects on track, keeping communication
and project archiving succinct and comprehensive; conducting
detailed inspections especially at the conclusion of all
locations.
The most appropriate compliment we can make is to invite you
back to participate in as many projects as fall within the
expertise of WTCI. And we have per the following: designing and
overseeing the implementation of a new cabling infrastructure
for the newly-acquired West Hills Center; conducting a wireless
survey of the 4 campuses and central administration building of
the College.
Affectively we can say that we trust your firm because you have
demonstrated honesty and integrity. It is and continues to be a
pleasure to do business with you.
Sincerely,
Christina Russell, Ph.D.
Director of Information Technology Services
References Main Page
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