Honest answers only!!
13 replies (most recent on top)
@@tpt+1oPCsrlJ Agreed with this statement. Crown Castle use to be a top tier client for an A&E firm. Over the past five years, supply chain and the lack of proper Crown Management has eroded this relationship. Where cost of labor has gone up 20% over the past year and a half, we have been brought into conversations where supply chain is asking for nearly 50% price reductions on services. They state this is a partnership as "volume" will be there...but there are no guarantees. There is no doubt Crown will lose several high performing A&E's and be replaced with oversea's CAD shops. This is not a true partnership and many of these firms have better opportunities within other industry segments.
I worked with dozens of customers, vendors and munis and without fail, honest to god without fail, the first thing I heard from any of them was You people act like you're the only one that matters, like no one has anything else to do. I watched and heard more than a few Crown employees bear that out. Way too many of the people are in sales, project management and collections for all the wrong reasons. No customer service experience, no people skills , no logic.
It really was disturbing watching it. The people we deal with don't want to see power points or have eight thousand meetings, they want to get their jobs done and go home.
@bfo+1oPCsrlJ - YES! - take the PMP, it will open so many (non-purple) doors. Best wishes to you, it is not a fun exam!
It's averaging 240 days from plans to feet on ground to begin install. This is Permitting, Utilities, lining up calendars, and getting money to do the work. Lately, the money is running dry which is delaying 2022 installs to 2024.
Permit delays due to back and forth with the drawings because Crown and the a and e firms can’t follow simple directions. Crown has a horrible reputation with the munis. Demanding, entitled, sloppy…
PD seems to think municipalities or utilities only work with Crown and have unlimited resources to help us hit our number. If a 3rd party takes 100 days to get a permit. It’s not going to take 20 days now because you forecasted it that way and GA wrote a letter to the Mayor
@urn+1oPCsrlJ Permitting isn't submitting to the JX's, the A&E companies are... at least that's how it is in fiber. And you have no way of controlling anything, you're just along for the ride.
@rqj+1oPCsrlJ, permitting was brought in house. Where the he-l have you been the past 3 years?
@bfo+1oPCsrlJ Permitting needs to be brought in house rather than relying on A&E partners. You can't build relationships with jurisdictions via third parties, and you have no leverage when you need to expedite something. And who knows if the A&E is lying about when they actually submit. It's a total joke. Engineering also needs to do better at QC'ing their drawings to make sure they are A) approvable and B) constructable. And just like the first guy that responded said, once we get redlines it takes forever to get them fixed and then Permitting has to beg the JX to put them at the top of the pile. If I were at a JX, I'd tell Crown to pound sand.
I'm a Crown PM for Network and there is no way! 9.5K is our best bet in 2023! JB better lower that moon shot down to 15K or hire some new folks that know how to permit!
Permitting has ben the long pole in the tent since I started in '17 and we have done NOTHING to help expedite it! We have a PI team that has no clue what we do and our leaders put the butt kissers that don't know how to do anything to help write standards and update processes.
I'm hoping to align a severance in November to spin into a new job in 2024. Hopefully, talk my boss into paying for me to take the PMP in the next 6-8 weeks.
I have worked at a vendor for years and we loved working with Crown Castle in the past! All of the macro work has been priced lower and lower while the level of detail has increased. The skill and knowledge level of our point of contacts there (AES & PM) has eroded over the years as well, and now there not as nice as they used to be either.
Small cells has never been good, but is also declining. My boss told me last week not to accept any more small cell work from Crown.
Not sure what y'all are going to do when your costs go up, and vendors don't want to do your work. Now, you don't have the staff or skill to do it, so best of luck there! It's going to be a slippery slope for Small Cells, I personally think your SCUed there! I miss working with the old Crown, where I felt like a partner!!
Permitting. When they started the TMO project 4 years everything was engineered and permitted all at once. Even before TMO even finalized the pole locations. Once the pole locations were finalized, a good portion had to be re-engineered because TMO moved the pole locations. Then we had to re-permit and go through the process all over again.
Even if the pole locations weren’t moved, we still had to re-permit because the original approved permits from 4 years ago have since expired. The previous guy was correct. We didn’t know what we were doing.
I work for a NE utility company and deal with your folks often. Super nice people, but don't seem to know much about anything. I make the same comments time after time and it never gets fixed, I just keep redlining the same things. Now, I just review them slower and slower because I don't have time.
I have never seen a company so disorganized. They act like everything is urgent, but when I make a correction or need more information it takes forever and I have to remind folks 3 times they owe me information for me to process their requests. I do NOT get paid to manage your PMs and CMs. In my office your know as Clown Hassle!
I personally don't know how you get anything built!