Messages in FedEx ITD Retiree Breakfast Club group.
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Page 22 of 70. |
Gary Phillips2/17/2014
Jum Moore. Managing Dir Telecomm/Net Eng.
Jim Bentley2/17/2014
Lol, my "old" boss!! Haha
George Moore2/17/2014
Yep, that be Jim, one of you fathers of "DADS".
Carl Wayne Hardeman2/17/2014
and a better than average racquetball player
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/18/2014
a. This is James B. Moore ( aka Jim Moore)
b. What did he do?
Jim was hired by Charlie Brandon and he built the Radio Engineering Group; later became MD of Network Engr, then over Network Ops. He was the main instigator in getting FedEx to procure a private radio network for dispatching. His group procured the licenses, selected the sites, rolled out the equipment, maintained it; started a BERT group to help support it, then was the champion to push DADS into the field. He also helped train Dispatchers on how to efficiently use the wireless network. He built a maintenance organization inside the company & later pushed the formation of an external company that FedEx could utilize to roll out 42,000 DADS terminals(Cetacea Sound). As the MD of Network Engineering he was in the middle of a direction change. After Zapmail there was a desire to utilize a Satellite system for the field locations. He strongly pushed a solution proposed by Roy Beard & Denise Wood, to utilize T-1 Multiplexers and build an internal network using the call centers as nodes in the network. It allowed bandwidth to be efficiently utilized and made the network cheaper and more flexible. It probably wouldn't have happened without his hard headedness and pushing to do something new.
As a side note, when UPS attempted to reproduce what Jim's group had created in the radio realm, they tried 2 times and failed, finally outsourcing a cellular solution to McGraw Cellular.
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/17/2014
Carl's comment on Jim being good at racquetball brought back this memory.
Jim was playing a match, I think at the Racquet Club. Someone came up to him that he knew a little about at FedEX who was also an MD. The guy wanted to play Jim in a match, so Jim said ok. When they went onto the court, this person didn't have any safety goggles. Jim asked him about it, and he had forgotten them. Jim went immediately to the shop out front, bought him a pair of goggles and told him to put them on...he said one swipe of his racquet could take his eyeball out of the socket.
Jim finished the match..don't know who won, but Jim said he learned how to beat him by aggravating him with shots he couldn't handle...Jim was mental...
The person he met that day was Dennis Jones who would later become his boss
Gary Phillips2/17/2014
Tom Snyder and I were responsible for the implementation of INET (the T1 backbone network) working for Roy and Denise.
Dennis Jones wasn't a bad tennis player either.
Nancy Hinds2/17/2014
James B - Jim Bob - Boss Man...The BEST - a good guy - wanted everybody to work hard as crap - but wanted us to have a good time. A great sense of humor and a right sharp dude. He rocked.
Subject: FedEx Trivia Quiz 2/17/14:
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/17/2014
FedEx Trivia Quiz 2/17/14:What were these?
over 1200 were purchased for use at FedEX at about $2000 each
Deby Abbott Jolley2/17/2014
Is that a Wang terminal?
Marcie Littles Moss2/17/2014
Not the one I used, haha.
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/17/2014
This is the ISC terminal. 19" color screen.
Three or four of these terminals were connected to a DEC minicomputer and used by the Dispatchers.
While working on the prototype of DADS, I was looking to be efficient and asked a person who always came by to check on the project...'Why the color and the high cost and did he want me to look at some lower cost solutions?'
He said, 'No Jimmy...we want to sell this project...and remember 'It's the icing that sells the cake'
the person was Jim Barksdale, and it was his first memorable quote I received.
I even think that Richard Dunn started a collection of his quotes.
Nancy Hinds2/18/2014
I keep em - that would be your "Quotable Quotes" . Many folks over many years
Nancy Hinds2/18/2014
I thought those were Disp monitors but they did not look exactly are large as a refrigerator so I was not sure.
Subject: FedEx Trivia Question 2/18/14:
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/18/2014
FedEx Trivia Question 2/18/14:a. What was the first International destination country FedEx delivered to?b. How did we get packages into that country?
Charlie Derrick2/18/2014
a. Canada, b. Via Air Canada connection in Cleveland.
Gary Phillips2/18/2014
Elbonia. That's where the Retirement Service Center is set up. Got in by donkey.
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/18/2014
Charlie is correct.
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/18/2014
Gary isn't correct about Elbonia...Even Elbonia has higher standards....
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/18/2014
FedEx serviced it's Canadian customers thru Air Canada who also collected the money from customers....at least until we got the rights to fly into another country.
Story, goes, in one year, early on, Air Canada was having financial trouble, and not paying money owed to FedEx. FWS flew to Air Canada headquarters and flew back with the money. That collection made the difference in employees getting a profit sharing check that year.
Chuck Siegfried2/19/2014
I actually flew on the first plane to deliver those packages to Canada but we were diverted to Chicago to off load onto a Air Canada plane. The Canadian govenrment at the last minute didn't want US based employees off loading in Canada.
Subject: FedEx Trivia Quiz 2/19/14:
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/19/2014
FedEx Trivia Quiz 2/19/14:In 2003, this scene was described:
Very early on a Saturday morning, scores of children in pajamas were waiting in front of their houses, with their parents as a FedEx truck, stopped at each of their homes and delivered them a package. Would have made a great commercial.
Over 1/4 Million deliveries made that morning.
What was the delivery???
Larry Tieman2/19/2014
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (first Harry Potter book). I was in Pierre SD on a bike ride and stopped in the station to see how many books they had. Three.
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/20/2014
Larry's memory remains sharp..and he is correct.
Larry Tieman2/20/2014
Except that it was the 5th Harry Potter book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/20/2014
http://www.fedex.com/cgi-bin/content.cgi?template=de_english_pr&content=about%2Fpressreleases%2Femea%2Fpr062003&cc=de_english
Subject: Happy Birthday to Dr. Ron J. Ponder who is 71 today!
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/21/2014
Happy Birthday to Dr. Ron J. Ponder who is 71 today!
Don Rose2/21/2014
Happy Birthday Ron.
Subject: Congratulations to Chuck Masters & Ann Glisan who just got married!
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/23/2014
Congratulations to Chuck Masters & Ann Glisan who just got married!
Don Rose2/23/2014
I thought they were already married.
Peter Dangerfield2/23/2014
Congratulations Ann and Chuck.
Chris Apalodimas2/23/2014
Ann & Chuck congratulations!
Denis Charles Mattingly2/23/2014
Congratulations to the both of you!!!
David Warren2/25/2014
Congrats you two.....
Subject: Chuck & Ann
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/23/2014
Chuck & Ann
Subject: FedEx Trivia Quiz 1/25/14
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/25/2014
FedEx Trivia Quiz 1/25/14Sometime in the 90's FedEx was growing it's express volume and UPS had entered the express market. FedEx had about 51% of the volume & UPS had about 48%. No matter what UPS tried the percentages were staying the same year to year.
Then UPS decided on a radical strategy. They targeted FedEx's top 10 clients.An example was JC Penny:
FedEx had all their Express business which was worth $10M.; UPS had the ground business worth $90M.What type offer did UPS make to JC Penny and other top FedEx customers??
Liz Ciulla Carrozza2/25/2014
Ship O/N for same price as 2 day?
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/25/2014
Winn Stephenson: Move the targeted company's express packages for free with a bundling deal
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/25/2014
In the JC Penny example:
FedEx bid $10M for the next years express volume,
UPS bid $90M to handle all the ground and express volume
Essentially for one year, UPS would handle the express packages for free.
This meant that FedEx, to get the business, would have had to bid $0 to get the express business.
all this was done by UPS, just to get their percentages up; as I remember, it didn't do too much for them doing this.
Liz Ciulla Carrozza2/25/2014
For many, it's always been a bidding war between FedEx and UPS, seesaw back and forth. Gone is the day when price wasn't the biggest consideration.
Subject: FedEx Trivia Quiz 2/26/14: In 2005 Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. Deliveries & normal operations ...
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/26/2014
FedEx Trivia Quiz 2/26/14:
In 2005 Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. Deliveries & normal operations weren't possible for months.a. What did UPS do with it's employees on the coast?
b. What did FedEx do with it's employees?
Deby Abbott Jolley2/26/2014
FedEx set up a hotline support group to make sure that all employees were ok - and made sure they found out about every single one.
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/26/2014
As relayed to us employees in the early days of Katrina.
Initially UPS told employees they were furloughed and would be called back when the facilities opened again. Walmart, as written in internet articles, cut off their employees also.
FedEx announced their employees affected would be paid for 60 days and benefits would continue while infrastructure was rebuilt.
--------------
Three weeks after Katrina, UPS announced that the UPS employees would be paid two weeks, and those affected would be given 30 day medical coverage while they reopened their facilities.
FedEx initially donated $1M to the American Red Cross for relief efforts, and threw in another 1/2 million in shipping services to the Red Cross.
UPS donated $1.25 million.
---------
The FedEx Radio group and Field Services group quickly got communications and towers working and made those communications services available to relief workers. It was a major help to the region.
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/27/2014
Tidbits: many many fedex express & ground tractor trailers came thru memphis and were loaded with food, ice and supplies and made trips to the region.
There were many volunteers from FedEx to go help in the region...but they found out the government had instituted a certification process to be able to enter the region, just no one knew about it.
FedEx executive management was more than willing to help it's employees and the region, FWS commented that was part of great value in Federal Express in helping others.
The relief workers, I think borrowed every satellite phone that fedex possessed, which were probably around 5 or 6
Subject: FedEX Trivia 2/27/14 In the late 1990's new aircraft that was ordered came standard with this option ...
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/27/2014
FedEX Trivia 2/27/14
In the late 1990's new aircraft that was ordered came standard with this option.
LHSD IT guys took a laptop and let the pilot finish his documentation in the air before landing, it tied into the diagnostics.
When the plane landed, maintenance people were at the Ramp to repair anything needed with the parts.
What was this new option called on the aircraft?
Liz Ciulla Carrozza2/27/2014
Jacque Haas would probably know this!
Larry Tieman2/27/2014
ACARS
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/28/2014
Danielle Harnisch2/28/2014
Gate link
George Moore2/28/2014
AS I remember it, ACARS was and is controlled from a panel built in or added into the aircraft but the laptops only communicated with the gate link system and not ACARS.
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/28/2014
Subject: Buddy Williamson added to FedEx Legends bio page
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/27/2014
Chuck Siegfried2/27/2014
is that Brad Pitt or Buddy Williamson. I can't tell them apart anymore. lol.. good seeing you Buddy.
Angela Maynard2/27/2014
It is good to see you old friend!
Drew Perkins2/28/2014
Hey Buddy, Great to see you again!
Subject: Flt 705
Jimmy Glenn Burk2/28/2014
Flt 705Like the Kennedy assasination, World Trade bombing & shuttle disaster, I remember exactly where I was when this happened.Interesting write up on that event.
Flt 705
Linda Cook Thorn2/28/2014
This was a scary time! I had the book that was originally written about this and the author had signed it, however I let a friend--coworker---- borrow it and it was never returned to me. I would love to have it back!
Don Rose2/28/2014
So do I Jimmy, so do I.
Subject: Deby Abbott Jolley > FedEx ITD Retiree Breakfast Club
Deby Abbott Jolley2/28/2014
Liz Ciulla Carrozza3/1/2014
And for good reason!
Subject: Steve Walton wrote(FedExLegends Guestbook Page):
Jimmy Glenn Burk3/1/2014
Steve Walton wrote(FedExLegends Guestbook Page):25162
When I saw Richard Merkel's name, I had to say Hi. I'm sure Richie and Mark B. fondly remember "Buckwheat".
Subject: Blog from Gail Bermel; FedEx retiree and former Personnel Rep.
Jimmy Glenn Burk3/1/2014
Blog from Gail Bermel; FedEx retiree and former Personnel Rep.
Martha Lanier Moore3/1/2014
Hi Gail! It wasn't until I read the entire blog that I realized whose blog it was. Hope you are well....sure looks like you are!
Shirley Lovelace Williams3/1/2014
Gail, love your blog.
Jimmy Glenn Burk3/1/2014
Gail Bermel was the Personnel rep to probably thousands of people in ITD. She seemed to help everyone out.
Subject: FedEx trivia Quiz:
Jimmy Glenn Burk3/3/2014
FedEx trivia Quiz:In the 2000's there were 14 major call centers in the states and some small ones consisting of over 5000 call center agents.Where are the call center agents today?
Angela Maynard3/3/2014
at home
Danielle Harnisch3/3/2014
canada
Gary Phillips3/3/2014
Elbonia
Danielle Harnisch3/3/2014
India lol
Jimmy Glenn Burk3/4/2014
Angie is correct, The majority of call center agents work from home. Many calls for internal support are being outsourced to India, but not customer calls.
Gary Phillips3/4/2014
Nothing but retiree health is handled in Elbonia?
Melissa Leech Ziemer3/4/2014
Not only home, but sadly Mexico & Guatemala--many with heavy accents.
Jimmy Glenn Burk3/4/2014
In the past, I've been on technology & advisory boards, and heard many stories how companies outsourced IT, that it always eventually failed, and then they had to bring stuff back with fewer staff to support things.
And I have talked with many support groups for personal purchases in the caribbean, mexico, india and who knows where.
I was pleasantly surprised with support from Dell. I replaced an 8 year old gateway computer with a Dell w/23 inch monitor. The monitor flaked out within a week.
I called...it was an agent from India. Had to go thru voice response and 2 agents, but all spoke good english. They couldn't exactly recognize some letters but always repeated it back as 'b' as in boy etc.
They had me provide info, do a diagnostic, apologized for a bad monitor, and put in an order for a new one, shipped it fedex ground, told me they would call me back the day after it was delivered to make sure that one worked. they then asked would I speak to their supervisor; he spoke perfect english and wanted to know that the agent did his job, that I could understand him well, and to again say they were sorry.
the day after delivery they called back to confirm everything was working ok.
this is the first time out of a dozen outsourced type calls, that I had a good experience.
Terrie Hoerning3/4/2014
I am glad you had a good experience. I call the billing department at Xfinity (cable vision) and had a hard time with understanding what was being said so I asked for a supervisor. I had the same issue and nothing was resolved. I gave up on that avenue and called back and talked to new service... It was all the difference in the world and my issue was resolved. I do miss the customer service most companies provided in the past.
Jimmy Glenn Burk3/4/2014
don't get me started on Comcast...............very poor service generally
Subject: FedEx Trivia Quiz 3/3/14?
Jimmy Glenn Burk3/3/2014
FedEx Trivia Quiz 3/3/14?How many miles of conveyor belts are in the FedEx SuperHub?a. 12
b. 33
c. 42
d. 57
Gary Phillips3/3/2014
B
Jimmy Glenn Burk3/3/2014
Answer is C: 42 miles which can handle 500,000 pkgs per hour
Irma Voyles3/4/2014
42
Gary Phillips3/4/2014
No, Irma Voyles, 'c'
Subject: David & Joanie Pike; David was instrumental in modernizing the FedEx call center's technology, devel ...
Jimmy Glenn Burk3/3/2014
David & Joanie Pike; David was instrumental in modernizing the FedEx call center's technology, developing the customer service workstation & implementing ANI for the call centers; he now is the Enterprise Architect Director for Ohio State University
Charles Morgan3/4/2014
What a flashback! David and I worked on the integration of ANI into the call centers using the Rockwell ACDs back in 1991!
Jimmy Glenn Burk3/4/2014
David left FedEx and was a Director at NCR, then a Director of Ecommerce at Nationwide Insurance before heading into university land.
Chuck Siegfried3/4/2014
yep i still talk tro David on occasion
Subject: FedEx Trivia Quiz 3/4/14:
Jimmy Glenn Burk3/4/2014
FedEx Trivia Quiz 3/4/14:At the end of the 90's there were about 5500 FedEx pilots.About what percentage flew Domestic flights & what percentage International flights?
Jimmy Glenn Burk3/5/2014
Answer: around 1998 it was about 50/50; there were far fewer International flights than domestic, but being longer it took at least 5 crews for each aircraft per month to staff Intl flights. I would think that ratio has changed since FedEx does so much USPS business during the day now.
Subject: FedEx Trivia Quiz 3/5/14 May have done some of these before, What are any of these names, projects o ...
Jimmy Glenn Burk3/5/2014
FedEx Trivia Quiz 3/5/14
May have done some of these before,
What are any of these names, projects or acronyms?a. AGFS
b. CSSD
c. DGO
d. ITD
e. CARGO
f. GENESIS
g. COSMOS Squared
h. Z COMM
i. LHSD
j. MSDS
Liz Ciulla Carrozza3/5/2014
Worked on or in a b d f & i.
David Hunt3/5/2014
a>Air Ground Freight Service
c> Domestic Ground Operations
d>Information and Telecommunications Division
i>Line Haul Systems Development
j>Mass Scanning and Dimensioning System
Molly Hale Moss3/5/2014
B. Central Support Services Division F. Global Enterprise Network for Entry of Shipment Information at the Source
Debora Williams Waller3/5/2014
Line Haul Systems Development
Jimmy Glenn Burk3/6/2014
the other answers
a. AGFS Air Ground Freight Systems
e. CARGO -mapping software system to plan deliveries for DGO
g. COSMOS Squared- proactive part of COSMOS which was to look at scans as they come in and alert operations if packages went the wrong route, never completely finished
h. Z COMM - a special exec committee that FWS put together around 1996-7 to ensure that the company continued to look at strategic objectives, not only cost; out of this came DIAMOND which consisted on several components, Genesis, lasers on new Enhanced SuperTrackers, 2D labels, Purple lights etc
Subject: Question Perk: When the FDX corporation was formed, FedEx Services was formed and everyone in that o ...
Jimmy Glenn Burk3/6/2014
Question Perk:
When the FDX corporation was formed, FedEx Services was formed and everyone in that org lost the perk of jumpseat. I think we kept the interline discounts, but can't remember. The corporation stated that only 1% of the employees had ever used jumpseat.
Did anyone ever use jumpseat? and where did you go if you did?
Mike Farrah3/6/2014
Jump seated many times, mostly to Philly to drive home to South Jersey. But the most memorable was with my wife, you may know her, on our honeymoon in 1999 to D.C. and back.
Subject: Appreciation From the day I started at FedEx in 1980, there seemed to be an appreciation of everyone ...
Jimmy Glenn Burk3/6/2014
Appreciation
From the day I started at FedEx in 1980, there seemed to be an appreciation of everyone who worked at FedEx of other people's job. There was competition and sometimes jealousy of other groups like ITD that got attention, but still management portrayed everyone was part of the wheel.
Especially couriers who were always portrayed as the front line interface to our customers.
Pilots were also portrayed as playing a key role as well as operations folks.
No one seemed to be portrayed as most important, all jobs were important.
In one senior meeting a question was asked to FWS, 'Why do the pilots seem to have more problems blending in with that philosophy?' (This was after the Flying Tigers merger)
FWS' answer was pretty good:
He said he had tried to get the pilots into the spirit of being part of the company and many did. But, he said everyone needs to realize that they live by different rules than other employees. First they are under more pressure. They have to annually pass a physical, if they don't, they can't fly and have lost much of their pay. Pilots go by a seniority system, just part of the history of that career path. And they do fly odd hours and are responsible for tens or hundreds of millions of dollars worth of aircraft. And it is a life/death situation they are in versus a job on the ground.
Rebecca Felts3/8/2014
Jimmy I think once FedEx split the company into separating Operating companies that philosophy died. The "Operate Independently, Complete Collectively" statement really caused a shift and problems that still exist today throughout the company.
Subject: This how we roll at FedEx
Marsha Terry Rider3/6/2014
This how we roll at FedEx
Liz Ciulla Carrozza3/7/2014
Proud of our people.
Subject: FedEx Question 3/7/14: What was a Perk, benefit, or thing you liked about FedEx in your first years ...
Jimmy Glenn Burk3/7/2014
FedEx Question 3/7/14:
What was a Perk, benefit, or thing you liked about FedEx in your first years there, and also is that same thing you liked still at the Company?I had a 3 year old and an infant in my first years, and I was impressed that the company did Easter egg hunts, Christmas parties, & Libertyland family events especially geared to families. I don't think those type events exist now.
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