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Summary of Work History for Johnny Crippen at Sprint

Overview Johnny started his career with Gulf States-United Telephone Company in Athens Texas on October 19, 1972 as an Installer Repairman. He previously gained experience in various telephony related fields while working for a telephone contractor in Athens, Tally Communications. There he initially performed various drafting, engineering and outside plant activities and later installed residential telephones.

Gulf States-United Telephone Company joined the United Telecom (United Telecommunications of Kansas City) group on Feb. 8, 1967. Previously the company was known as Gulf States Telephone Company. Gulf States-United Telephone Company later became United Telecom of Texas, then merged and became included in the United Telecom Midwest Group. Later the name was changed to Sprint and in 2006 became a part of the Sprint spin off named Embarq.

Installer Repairman – In this position, Johnny installed and performed maintenance on residential telephones. Initially, this was rotary dial black telephones which the company owned and leased to individuals. As such, they were heavy duty devices which lasted for many years. Phones were rarely replaced in those days, they were repaired. In fact, district manager approval was required to replace a phone. Some components were carried which could be replaced, like ringers and cords and dials. They were hard wired to a connecting block, long before the advent of modular plug in connectors. This position required a great deal of physical activity including climbing telephone poles. There was no buried cable during this period. There were lots of “party lines” in which up to eight customers shared a line. Any subscriber would be required to listen before dialing to ensure there was not already a conversation in progress. As Johnny gained proficiency in residential telephone he was introduced to Business systems such as PBX and KEY Systems. All training was on the job, during this period.

Engineering Aide – It was discovered Johnny had drafting experience and as there was a lot of outside plant construction and expansion going on, he was recruited to help out. This position was responsible for Routine Work Order generation of Outside Plant installation and rearrangement of aerial cable.

Combinationman – This was Johnny’s favorite period and the position he most enjoyed. It entailed the installation and repair of Complex Business Systems. During this time he attended numerous technical training classes in order to be able to work on Key Systems, PBX’s, Data Couplers, Modems, and various pieces of equipment associated with private lines. During this period there were many technology changes. Analog equipment was beginning to be replaced by electronic components and then digital voice emerged. Johnny and Tim Powell installed a first for Gulf States-United Telephone Company, an all electronic PBX, called a PABX (Private Automatic Branch Exchange) in the First National Bank of Athens.

Plant Staff Facilities Foreman – On November 22, 1976, Johnny accepted his first promotion into the Headquarters office, located in Tyler Texas. Soon afterward he, and his wife Connie, relocated to Tyler and bought a home there. In this position, he was responsible for staff support of field personnel for Outside Plant (cable) facilities, I & R (Installation and Repair), and Complex Business Systems. During this time Johnny participated in Company sponsored speeches to Schools, clubs and civic organizations. He also assisted in General Office Accounting and Tariff special projects, Labor/Union contract negotiations and was a Supervisor Identification Program (SIP) Assessor. The SIP program was a week activity in which candidates for promotion to management were assessed to determine their potential as a manager.

I & R Administrator - On November 25, 1977, Johnny was given another promotion. It was essentially the same responsibilities as the previous position as a result of a company title restructure and salary increase.

General I & R and Service Center Supervisor – In August of 1979, Johnny was given another promotion. It was essentially the same responsibilities as the previous position as a result of a company title restructure and salary increase. During this period, promotions normally resulted in a title change.

PBX Maintenance Supervisor – In May of 1980, Johnny was given another promotion. It was essentially the same responsibilities as the previous position however the I&R responsibilities were split into another position, leaving Crippen with a focus on PBX and PABX Systems.

Customer Service Manager – In November of 1981, Johnny was promoted to District Customer Service Manager. In this position, Crippen was responsible for the Overton Texas district which included 5 supervisors and 44 craft personnel to include I&R, Construction & Drafting, COE and Business Office activities. While in this position, Crippen made national television when ABC’s 20/20 came to town to air a show which centered on a local drug bust. The center of attention was the local Police Chief, who was a friend of Crippen’s and attended the same church. Crippen was the sound engineer at the church and assisted the 20/20 crew in interfacing to the church sound equipment. During the filming, the camera man stopped briefly on Crippen and his wife.

COE Engineer – After a stint as a manager, Johnny wanted to move back into a more technical area. As a Central Office Engineer, he was responsible for scheduling and supervising COE Work Orders to include Central Office additions rearrangements and changes. He was also responsible for engineering and installation support for COE 4-TEL Central Office Test equipment and various special projects including Work Order generation for COE line additions and PBX systems.

Technical Consultant – In this Marketing Staff position, Johnny was responsible for Product Management, Engineering, Sales/Sales support, Trade Show coordination, installation and training support and technical support for all business Complex CPE Products and services. There were numerous products in the portfolio. Some of Johnny’s favorites were the Mitel PABX, TIE Key Systems, Valcom Paging Systems and Rixon modems. During this period, the personal computer was introduced. Crippen was an early adopter and developed applications to automate the engineering and pricing of systems using an Apple IIe Computer and an early operating system called CPM and spreadsheet application called VisiCalc. Previously, only one or two systems could be engineered, due to the manual effort required. A configuration would be created using a vendor partlist and engineering documentation. Installation hours and components would be added, manually totaled using a calculator and then passed to a secretary to be typed up into a proposal. The VisiCalc application allowed the partlist, engineering rules and installation and tax costs to be automatically calculated and printed out. This allowed the quantity of engineered systems to be increased from 2 a day to over a dozen. It also made a reconfiguration very easy should the customer like to see costs on a modified system.

Soon the PC was launched with the DOS Operation System and supported a more sophisticated spreadsheet called Lotus 123. Johnny quickly migrated the configuration capability to the new platform. He went on to develop an automated quote system, which he wrote in Basic Programming Language, which allowed non technical personnel like sales create quotes by just answering text based questions. He then talked his director into providing a desktop PC for each of the sales personnel across Texas.

Systems Engineer – As the corporation grew, there was much reorganization and consolidation. The Texas Corporate office was closed and United Telephone of Texas was merged into a group called Sprint United Telephone Midwest. Johnny was relocated to the Kansas City area and purchased a home in Overland Park. In this position, Johnny was responsible for Engineering support for Sales personnel to generate system Configurations for Complex CPE Products to include PBX, KEY, VOICE MAIL, PAGING and auxiliary peripheral systems such as Cost Accounting. He also, developed pricing and financial data to determine sales price and margin. Crippen initiated a Project Management Control Plan to assist in the installation of complex business systems. He also developed PC based automation and support for sales and engineering. Johnny also implemented an automated ordering system for Northern Telecom PABX’s by coordinating the interface of the system which engineers utilized to create systems (Meridian Configurator) and the local IT and Supply Chain Management system. Using EDI a purchase order could be ordered automatically by the Sales Engineer. Previously, a fax was required to be sent to Northern Telecom which was labor intensive, often misread and required rekeying.

Manager Technical Automation – In taking this position, Crippen moved from the Sprint United Telephone Midwest Group to the Corporate Headquarters Office which was located closer to the heart of Kansas City in a small community called Westwood. This was a Sprint LTD BMO Marketing position. LTD was the Local Telephone Division and BMO was Business Marketing Organization. This group was separate from the Sprint Long Distance and Wireless divisions. In this corporate position, Crippen provided the development, implementation and support of configuration systems to engineering and sales support that differentiate Sprint from competition. The primary area of focus was engineering workflow automation. This included deployment and integration of vendor autoquote applications, development of a material database, design and maintenance of an engineering website, and collaboration with product management to support new and existing products.

Manager - Pre Sales Engineering - LTD BMO Marketing position to provide Project Management for the development of the LTD BMO Product Management Process as well as continue with all duties previously assigned as Manager - Technical Automation.

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SR Product Manager - Provide leadership for mission critical Marketing process and System requirements as well as provide management of “Non Managed” products. “Non Managed” products include 100+ vendors which are not directly dedicated to a full time resource. Responsible for the implementation of a vendor service process called “Shared Support”. Responsible for developing reports to drive accurate, detailed Product Reporting. Develop and maintain a List of Products & Services Eligible for Compensation, as well as Portfolio Sales. Coordinate Implementation of a database called MPF (Master Parts File) for CPE (Customer Provided Equipment) Product Management. Support CPE Product Management for Intranet Content Management, Wisdom content management applications, and web hosting Content Management. Develop the BMG-PACE® website and maintain the CPE Product Management content on this site. Provide Nortel Norstar Key System Pricing support by managing the ongoing maintenance of this Key System pricing application.

I was transitioned from LTD to GMG in late 2003. This required a tremendous amount of flexibility and a steep learning curve to understand the new organization and culture. During the first half of 2004, I managed CSM. Circuit Switched Manager (CSM) Web is Sprint's network management product for voice services. The product includes features for the management, monitoring and manipulation of a customer's inbound Toll Free and FONCARDSM services. CSM Web reporting features include five summary reports for Near Real Time Call Detail Records (NRTCDR) and six summaries for Operational Measurements (trunk traffic statistics). CSM was an 8+ year old application with 3+ generational updates. It's load capacity was exceeded and there were non-standard software design and controls. This caused severe customer impact and placed Sprint with a competitive weakness. During this timeframe, I was able to implement short term IS fixes, processes and monitoring which significantly improved performance and reduced customer repair calls. I also developed a $1.2M business case which was originally accepted for implementation, however was later deselected due to another transformation mid 2004 which caused a refocus of resources.

Program Manager - (2004 to 2007) Wireless Division Sprint Nextel, Overland Park, KS. Participated in the development of a new Sprint initiative to promote consultative selling called Sprint Mobile Business Assessment. Implement Business Mobility Solution Set creating $10M customer pipeline by EOY 2004. Lead “Catalyst” phase of SBS Solution Evolution and provide best practice learning’s to organization for Business Mobility Solutions (e.g., best practice recommendations on compensation plans, pilots, GTM, development, positioning, training, tools, etc.) Create a scalable, transferable Mobility Solutions Model, guided by industry benchmarks, to change the way solutions are managed and sold.

Provided Product Development for the Billing Analytics offer in the Sprint Mobility Management product portfolio. This portfolio also included a Wireless Device Management and Device Security Component. Johnny accepted voluntary separation during a reduction which occurred in early 2007. Previously he lead the effort to launch a new offer called Mobile Lifecycle Management under the Sprint Mobility Management umbrella. This offer would allow wireless customers to completely outsource their wireless spend activities domestically and globally as well as Wireline Telecom expenses.

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