The QuEST Forum Leadership Summit took place in Dallas a few weeks ago and the summit officially kicks off the new year for TL 9000 and QuEST Forum business. A great deal was discussed and the networking at this year’s summit was very productive.
Reports were provided by each of the working committee chairs, Executive Board initiative(s) chairs, regional chairs and QuEST Forum CEO, Fraser Pajak. BIZPHYX Senior Vice President Bob Clancy taught new Board members during the Executive Board Training session.
Great progress was made in 2013 and the Board is looking for even greater accomplishments in 2014, especially in different industry sectors by bringing in new members, addressing regional needs and broadening the scope of influence of both TL 9000 and QuEST Forum in the global ICT domain.
New Initiatives
Two new initiatives that were discussed at the Leadership Summit were Sustainability and Cell Tower Safety. QuEST Forum is looking at its role in driving sustainability in the ICT supply chain. Also discussed was how QuEST Forum can work with cell tower companies to improve performance and safety. In light of recent cell tower accidents (employees), safety has become a critical topic on the wireless side of our industry.
These are two pressing topics for discussion in ICT and we’re encouraged to see how QuEST Forum will address both sustainability and cell tower safety going forward in 2014 and in the years to come.
Small Business Membership Continues To Grow
Sue Clancy presented a very encouraging update on Small Business to the QuEST Forum Executive Board. Small business is now 33% of the membership of QuEST Forum, after adding 12 new members in 2013.
How important is Small Business to QuEST Forum? Small Business contributed $50,000 in sponsorships in 2013 and increased attendance to our monthly lecture series by 27%. That’s how!
Small Business is alive and well in QuEST Forum and Sue Clancy will continue to lead this effort in 2014. For more information on small business membership or engagement, please contact sclancy@bizphyx.com.
New Sector Engagement Through a New QuEST Forum Board
QuEST Forum also welcomed new board member John Greene in 2014. John Green is the Chief Engineer for Great Plains Communications. Great Plains is Quest Forum’s first Tier 3 Service Provider to serve on the Executive Board, which begins a long overdue and critical dialogue with rural Telcos many of which, are members of the NTCA: The National Rural Broadband Association. BIZPHYX has been a member of the NTCA for many years.
John’s enthusiasm and insight into the Tier 2 and Tier 3 service providers has already generated excitement with regard to this new sector. He was instrumental in arranging Fraser Pajak’s speaking engagement at the NTCA’s October “Telco Vision” event, helping to formally introduce QuEST Forum and TL 9000 to a new audience. John participated in two different panel discussions during this 3-day conference.
As Chief Engineer with Great Plains Communications, John is highly respected by regional Telcos and is an incredible addition to the QuEST Forum Executive Board. Great Plains Communications is a diversified telecommunications company providing local and nationwide long-distance telephone service to 77 Nebraska communities, and digital cable television service to 41 Nebraska communities. Based in Blair, Nebraska, Great Plains is the largest Nebraska-owned telecommunications provider.
We’re all looking forward to working with John Greene in bringing a knowledge of TL 9000 to rural telecom! Please click on the blue links above for more information about John, Great Plains and the NTCA.
New Revisions: TL 9000 Requirements Handbook R5.5
As many of you are aware, new TL 9000 Requirements Handbook R5.5 is upon us. As of Feb 10, 2014 it is available for use by organizations for audit purposes. Organizations can still be audited to the 5.0 version of the Requirements Handbook until Jan 1, 2015. On or after January 1, 2015, all audits must be conducted to the 5.5 version. For information on the changes between the two revisions, please listen to a podcast tutorial here on our blog, on our website or in I-Tunes.
This podcast is presented by BIZPHYX SVP, Bob Clancy. There is a new requirement called Product Security, so be sure to listen!
BIZPHYX Makes The 340 Club
BIZPHYX was also recognized for achieving participation in the QuEST Forum 340 Club. The 340 Club is for those members of QuEST Forum that exhibit exceptional membership participation in forum activities through their employee’s investment of time and efforts in multiple work groups, sub teams and regions along with generous event sponsorships. This is the third straight year BIZPHYX has been recognized for our contributions to QuEST Forum!
BIZPHYX CEO, Sue Clancy was recognized for her role as an Executive Contributor to the Executive Board in 2013. As an Executive Contributor, Sue has led the efforts of the Small Business Group and will continue in that role in 2014. Sue was also reappointed to her role as Executive Contributor for the 2014 term. Please visit our Flickr page for all photos and releases.
The ICT landscape continues to evolve into the cloud, M2M and into public utility grids and so will TL 9000. Data and network Security, as well as safety and sustainability will be front and center, so stay tuned, it’s going to be a very interesting year!
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