Integra Telecom Reviews

Pros

Very good leadership team. Managers always willing to help employees succeed. AE's and SAE's are always in a great position to compete with competitors in the market. Customer service great, product set very good, positive environment, great sales rep training and support.

Cons

Integra struggles a bit with name recognition in the market.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to bring great products to the markets.

Pros

Nice co-workers, located in renton, in this complex there is a free workout room,

Cons

Politics mean unless you are a favorite you wont be promoted no matter how well you do your job. No recognition for good work. No stability, re-org at least once a year,

Advice to Senior Management

get your act together,

Pros

A good manager can insulate you from some of the corporate BS. Insurance and benefits are comparable to other companies (except 401k).

Cons

The company is on its third CEO this year. The best people are leaving for other opportunities. Constant fear that you will be fired regardless of effort. Opportunities with competition are higher pay and lower risk. 66% of the sales force turned over in the last six months. Company lacks direction. Budget for 2012 was called "aggressive and unlikely" by new CEO and was only a break even. Company recently had 3rd round of layoffs this year (Senior Vice Presidents this time). New business model is resulting in slower install and repair times and reduced level of customer service. The company has informed employees that the plan is to get the company profitable and sell it off because it is not sustainable. This company is in complete survivor mode. Non-sales staff has not received even a cost of living increase in over four years. 401k match was canceled a few years ago. Now they are planning to reduce sales commissions. I was a successful representative for years and have never seen anything like this before. Management can't even decide on a plan. Dudley Slater is not the current CEO (he isn't even the last CEO at this point).

Advice to Senior Management

Sell now... its already lost.

Pros

greay pay, great manager makes you feel like one of the family

Cons

none they made some changes and they only hire seasoned reps now big difference

Advice to Senior Management

keep doing what you are doing

Pros

Pretty Good Product low price leader.

Cons

No training at all. I was new to the telecom industry but not new to sales. The training focused on how to cold call, the importance of a good handshake...I was embarrassed for the company. They have tremendous turnover because their sales team with just a few exceptions has nothing beyond surface knowledge. The product, phone lines, T1, phone features are commodities and every month the prices get lower and lower.

Advice to Senior Management

Fewer feet on the street but make them true telecom experts.

Pros

The environment is very conducive to learning and knowledge sharing.
The company encourages you to participate in frequent product training.
Company is moving up-market by adopting the latest technologies and CRM tools and also by catering to higher end markets.
Management team is excellent and also very supportive.

Cons

Pay is definitely not in line with the role expectations or the industry standards.
Not very strong career growth opportunities.

Pros

Good managers, good pay, good sales reps

Cons

High turnover and the focus on what services to push completely changed. Installations were always stressful, most of them had some kind of issue. Finger pointing from provisioning and qwest whenever anything went wrong was a constant issue.

Advice to Senior Management

Have an Integra tech onsite when the loops get dropped. Find your sales team and stick with them.

Pros

Fun staff, good for people who are in telecom

Cons

Entry level position, management filtered enormous pressure on down

Pros

flexibility in work schedule, no micro-management

Cons

not enough technical training, more training is necessary to sound like you know what you're selling

Pros

good benefits, great people (some really wonderful people that you have the pleasure of working with), The people can great moments of great culture (but it is often over-ridden by the consistent paralyzing fear of being fired for not making your numbers). Excellent customer care. Often a very proactive team when you take an issue to them. Management are great people behind the mask - just forced to play the game or get fired themselves. ICB's help to make competitive pricing.

Cons

CHURN & BURN hiring philosophy. Way too much turn-over. Turn-over is expensive and causes: demoralization, paralyzing fear, poor customer image, poor community image, poor industry image. I can't imagine what is must be like to manage the training, the ramp and all of the ramifications of such outrageously high churn. Does not seem like it could possibly pencil out as any kind of a viable business plan. Poor training plan. Invest a little up front (and on-going) and you will have less churn. Very poor install quality - installations do not have to turn into melt-downs as often. This would help with referrals, repeat business, add-on business, community/industry image and morale. New management - from new CEO down is on a rampage to ramp up the churn and burn sales carnage.....does not seem to be sustainable......Good luck!~

Advice to Senior Management

Invest in your employees. Invest in training. More management by motivation and less management by fear. Do not view sales hires as disposable - do a better job of hiring and developing. Fix the broken install/provisioning process. Try to bring back the great culture that was so successful. This is a great company Integra/Eschelon that can rise up and be great again!