Liking updates and articles on LinkedIn is an important tactic for Telecom Pros.
What’s Your One Takeaway from MWC19?
Mobile World Congress just finished andTelecom Pros are returning to work.
Over 100,000 Telecom Pros attended the Mobile Industry’s biggest annual party.
I’m curious what you thought, regardless whether or not you attended MWC.
I’m excited for 2019 and all the possibilities it brings!
Continue reading “What’s Your One Takeaway from MWC19?”What Happens When You comment?
This video is for you if you’re using LinkedIn to build your reputation and grow your career in Telecoms.
When you comment on an article, the author is notified, and the article will also be shown to your LinkedIn connections.
That’s a big deal already! It helps the author of the article by adding your connections to his or her audience.
And your comment will be seen by that same, larger audience.
I try to follow these guidelines when I comment:
- Always add value.
- Be respectful and courteous.
- Write to stimulate more engagement.
- Be specific about what triggered my comment.
- If I have a question, be specific about that, too.
With a large audience, I feel like each time I comment is a bit like a performance. So many people right in my niche will be watching.
How I comment can help, or hurt, my reputation.
What are your guidelines for commenting?
👉 If you like this, please comment, share and follow me on LinkedIn Russell Lundberg
How have you handled trolls?
A recent update attracted a comment which was completely off-topic. In other words, I was trolled.
I thought the message inappropriate.
My first idea was to write my own comment discouraging trolling.
I’d voice my support for free speech, my disgust of censorship, and my rationale to the off-topic commenter.
After writing the comment, I changed my mind.
Continue reading “How have you handled trolls?”Do you Tag in your updates?
When you tag someone, LinkedIn shares your update in the feed of that person’s connections. So your audience grows.
LinkedIn also messages the tagged person. For example, “Russell Lundberg tagged you in a post.”
To tag, type “@“ sign, then begin typing their name exactly as it appears in their profile. Select the correct name from the popup menu. If you always add value, are respectful, and write to drive engagement, tagging is a big win for everyone.
Pro Tip: if the person’s name doesn’t appear in the popup, try using 2 “@“ signs. Or after typing their name, also type something else from their profile, such as the company. Thanks to …….ANDY FOOTE……. for this suggestion.
👉 If you like this, please comment, share, and follow me, Russell Lundberg, on LinkedIn for more updates, insights, tips, tricks, and tactics to love a career in Telecoms.
Who’s going to #MWC19?
Mobile World Congress is the preeminent annual event in #Mobile Telecoms, with almost 110,000 attendees expected this year.
We are so easily distracted by the shiny and new. Industry press is full of articles about cutting-edge technologies:
#5G #IoT #mmWave #MIMO #NetworkSlicing #CBRS #blockchain #eSIM #ORAN #URLLC #MEC #kitchensink
I threw in that last one just for fun.
But let me ask you: How many of you have ever actually worked on or even seen any of that kit?
More likely, the work you’ve done in the past will continue to be required in the future.
So enjoy the new.
But don’t let it distract from developing your core, basic #Telecoms skills.
👉 If you like this, please comment, share, and follow me on LinkedIn for more updates, insights, tips, tricks, and tactics to love a career in #TelecomTribe #TelecomPros
Note to self: ambient noise interferes with auto-captioning #AI.
Sequential Numbering
Ever been in a meeting or a conference call reviewing an Excel workbook? If the Row numbers are not shown on your printout, it can be hard to find exactly what the speaker is referring to.
That’s much easier when the first column is a sequential number. Having each row identifiable by a unique number makes it easier for everyone in a meeting or a conference call to know exactly which row of data is being discussed. Simply refer to the sequential number.
Continue reading “Sequential Numbering”Dashboard Automation with GETPIVOTDATA
Do you use Excel Pivot Tables? If you do, then you know that Pivot Tables are a great way to categorize, sum, and average a table with many rows of numbers. If you aren’t yet using them, you really should. This article assumes you already use Pivot Tables comfortably.
But more importantly, Pivot Tables are very important for automating your reports. This may seem obvious, but to automate your reports, you must eliminate the manual steps. Duh!
The #1 Excel Telecom Trick for automation is to use Pivot tables and the GETPIVOTDATA() function.
GETPIVOTDATA() allows you to place Pivot Table data anywhere in your report. Once you see it in action it will make complete sense to you. Continue reading “Dashboard Automation with GETPIVOTDATA”
Excel Telecom Tricks – Dynamic Named Ranges
Dynamic Named Ranges are unquestionably one of the most important tricks for automating Excel Telecom Dashboards and recurring reports. Dynamic Named Ranges (DNR) are exactly what the name implies: an Excel named range whose size can change automatically.
It’s hard to imagine a real-world example of a recurring report which does not benefit from Dynamic Named Ranges (DNR). DNR makes many complex things simpler, and some otherwise impossible things possible. You’ll see huge benefits if you begin using DNR in your reports after reading this article.
I’ve already written many Excel Telecom Tricks. If you’ve followed along and applied these tricks, your Dashboards and reports should already have improved dramatically. You should be well along to complete Excel Automation.
This trick might be the key piece you are missing. Why do you need a DNR? Here are some typical use cases.
- Adjust the Print Area
- Expand Pivot Table source data
- Allow user input to influes your models
- Extend a chart series
In this article, I’ll illustrate the first 2 use cases to show you exactly how to create DNR. I’ve written another article automatically extending a chart series. Continue reading “Excel Telecom Tricks – Dynamic Named Ranges”
Excel Telecom Tricks – Error Correction
It happens all the time: equipment in a Telecoms network stops reporting traffic statistics. It’s often a problem, though not always the one you think.
The problem can be caused by a failing component somewhere along the data delivery path. You might think that’s the problem.
More likely, the device is under excessive load, and it stopped reporting stats to dedicate all its processing power to providing service.
Of course, it is up to you to figure out which it is. Fault Management systems might help by alerting you to the failing component. But if the issue is excessive load, the solution lies on a different path.
Many telecoms components are designed to provide service as their number one priority over all others. When that priority is threatened, low-priority tasks are discontinued. From the perspective of the equipment, we say it’s designed to shed low-priority load when under stress.
Stress is often caused by an anomalously high load, or by a capacity shortfall. An anomalous load could be triggered by a natural disaster, weather, a civil disturbance, or anything where large numbers of people begin using the network at the same time.
A capacity shortfall means you best start preparing a Capital budget request to fund a capacity augment.
But those aren’t the problems I wanted to discuss. I want to discuss how you can design your Excel Dashboards and recurring reports to handle errors and data dropouts. The types of data dropouts I described above happen all the time. Having an Error Correction strategy built-in will save you tons of time and avoid long explanations. Continue reading “Excel Telecom Tricks – Error Correction”