Dear Suncadia Owners,
As we approach our third anniversary year of operations at Suncadia, there is much upon which to reflect; to paraphrase: some good, some bad, and some ugly. I’ve been privileged to get to know many of you personally, and I look forward to getting to know more of you. The Atlas team will be redoubling its efforts to build relationships, attend more owner sponsored events and BBQ’s, and seek your comments, suggestions, and ideas for product enhancements.
Atlas is a small, locally owned and operated company comprised of 15 dedicated people who care deeply about what we do, and want to have a positive impact on those we serve. I’m occasionally caught off guard by a customer who thinks we are a large national company with hundreds of employees. We currently service thousands of customers in Seattle and Suncadia in three divisions of our company. Our hearts, homes, and our livelihood are centric to Seattle and Suncadia.
I get animated and enthusiastic when I get to talk to someone about Suncadia. We believe in continuous improvement, and we think it is important to talk openly about the things we’ve done right, the things we’ve done wrong and fixed, and as those of you that know me well know, I like to talk about the things that didn’t go as expected – from these come the valuable lessons learned. So, in our first official Suncadia blog since 2009, here is a retrospective of some of the good, the bad, and the ugly.
In April of 2009, we took over the Suncadia network from a defunct company based in Portland. Passive fiber optic systems were the state of the art in 2003 when Suncadia’s system was designed. Since then high defintion TV and high bandwidth internet needs, coupled with plummeting costs for electrical components, lifted active networks to the new state of the art. There was both good and ugly to be managed when we took over the system. When our predecessor failed, their creditors removed much of the electronic infrastructure, leaving significant aspects of the system inoperable. Fortunately much of what was removed was already obsolete. We rolled up our sleeves and dug into the puzzle that is the Suncadia network, and several of the Atlas team members made Suncadia our homes for about 4 months as we got our heads, hands, and hearts wrapped around implementing solutions. The adages about new projects proved true: “twice as much and twice as long.” We found ways to keep the essential systems functioning, while we created and implemented new ones, keeping the existing passive network operating while constructing new active networks, and getting a new state of the art VOIP based telephone system up and running.
There were some “ugly” moments too. It’s easy to forget that a company is made up of individuals, and that our customers are individuals, each with thoughts, concerns, and needs. One of our strongest advantages as a small company should be our ability to truly know who our customers are, call you by name, know and understand your expectations and deliver on our promises. We haven’t always met our own expectations in this regard, and one of our goals is to enhance the quality of the interactions between the owners and the Atlas team. Good communication occurs at many levels, from the personal one on one, to being more accessible by attending owner events, to larger conversations, as well as frequent newsletters, blog posts, and better clarity on our website. These are goals we’ve set for ourselves, with the intent to achieve clearer expectations in how we deliver service, how soon we can deliver service, and clearly defined agreements.
We’re all familiar with Murphy’s Law, “anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”, but learned about Finagle’s corollary which is “anything that can go wrong will go wrong and at the worst possible moment.” The mountain environment is tough on electronics, equipment, fiber optic cable, and people. We could write a book on the wacky things we’ve seen, but here are a few examples: frozen fiber optic splice cans (they’re supposed to seal water tight), rodentia chewing through armored jacketed cables (how do they do that?), mice building nests in fiber optic splice trays, a frog that electrocuted itself by crawling across the terminals of a critical electronic circuit board, taking down the system, the one fiber cable vault we needed to access was full of water, with a failed drain, that was connected by thousands of feet of conduit to other vaults draining into it, turning a small project into a huge one (ever seen Kyle with mud rings up to his neck?), contractors cutting through our fiber cables (please stop that!), homeowners cutting through their own fiber cables (please stop that too!), copper thieves cutting our primary fiber cables only to discover there is no copper inside fiber cables, vaults buried under ten feet of snow plow compacted ice (do you know what a Pulaski is?), getting our van stuck in snow banks (Shaun… watch those garage doors!), cold wind and rain compounding the difficulty of fusion splicing fiber, pulling 1.3 miles of fiber in the heart of December to light up service for one home in Nelson Preserve, integrating our central billing system with our systems in Suncadia (we know you all love our billing system… ok, maybe not), and one that makes me grin broadly at the self restraint, seeing a helpful owner standing over a vault, advising a frozen Kyle, huddled at the bottom fusion splicing fiber optic cables.
The Atlas team has had its challenges and made some mistakes, but we’ve also done some tremendous good work. We brought fiber optic broadband connectivity to Suncadia when everyone told us it could not be done, we stabilized most of the network and have sorted out most of the kinks in the outlying areas; we brought active Ethernet technology to the network and will, over time, upgrade every home; we’ve helped Verizon Wireless light up its new cell tower in Suncadia to improve cell service; we brought high speed internet to the lodge and Swiftwater Winery; and we’ve made a lot of new friends. We’re very thankful to be a part of the Suncadia community and look forward to many more years to come.
Here are some changes we’ve launched for 2012.
-We’re increasing our reserve materials inventory for the deployment of new homes to reduce average deployment time from 12 weeks to under 4 weeks. Suncadia has assisted by getting us involved far earlier in the home construction process so that we’re included in the build and not an afterthought.
-Improved communications through better tools, improved information on our website, and better outreach to owners. We plan to do more of this.
-A renewed effort to find ways to bring Seattle television channels to Suncadia legally. It is a complex matter but we think we may have identified solutions.
-Working closely with Hansell Mitzel Homes regarding first deployments of smart technology and thermostats to help owners manage their homes remotely.
-Coming this Spring we will offer a high definition security camera system for owners, capable of video capture, storage, and motion triggered text/email alerts.
-Additional conversion of the upgrades of the legacy infrastructure to the new active Ethernet system. We plan to upgrade about 30 more homes this summer.
We are truly excited about 2012, the changes we’ve made at Atlas, the improvements we’ve made to the network and technology, and the ongoing support of Suncadia and the community.
Cheers,
Ryan
Ecobee, our preferred smart thermostat manufacturer, has just released a new iPhone and iPod touch applications for the Ecobee smart thermostat. The new application, which is free of charge, further distinguishes the Ecobee smart thermostat from other programmable thermostats on the market.
Aaron Robin joins Atlas Networks as the new Junior Technician in Suncadia. He brings six years of experience as an Information Systems Technician in the United States Navy. Aaron lived in Hawaii and on the USS MOMSEN at the Everett Naval Station during his time of service. While there he performed administration and maintenance on computer systems onboard naval vessels and land-based sites. Initially working at a computer help desk, he provided excellent customer service and became an expert at troubleshooting. Aaron moved on to be trained in software administration, hardware maintenance and eventually worked as the Communications Supervisor in charge of five radio connections over HF, VHF and UHF. 
Detection System combined with the Ecobee smart thermostat will display a warning on the Ecobee smart thermostat console, email you, email Atlas Networks (or someone else) as well as display a warning on the web portal interface of potential damaging water intrusion in your home or business. Up to six locations within the home or business can be monitored (requires cabling to each sensor). The sensor will not alarm due to condensation or high humidity. An optional under-carpet sensor may be placed under carpet or raised flooring to detect the first appearance of leaking water. Optionally, the WaterBug Leak Detection System can be configured to provide a standalone solution (without the Ecobee smart thermostat) offering an alarm bell or signal light when leaking water is detected. 
