Now the challenge is to spot what the following two pictures have to do with Jump!
Here’s a hint. She works in a library. She is famous for many things, not least of all is her creativity. She has exhibited at Te Papa! She features regularly in local and international media. She has the enviable position of Digital Inclusion Coordinator | Kaikōtuitui, Mātau Matihiko in her North Island Library. Now, wouldn’t just every library love to have one of those!
She says: I just wanted to share that I love Skinny JUMP modem time because I love reusing the boxes and the packaging! Our last delivery was in September and I used the boxes and the packing paper to help fill a brand-new garden bed that I was creating on my driveway. I am now eagerly considering a new garden box to stuff my latest round of Skinny JUMP boxes and packing paper into!
She is the one and only Leala Faleseuga!!
Watch out sustainable awards – here she comes – reduce, reuse , recycle!!
I received an email from a partner yesterday who had just completed a mini stock-take and discovered 3 modems listed on their GSheet that they no longer had. He thought this was probably because Profile Forms had not been completed by some staff members when the modems were issued.
So this led him to ask was: “what is the impact of us not completing the profile form?” He wanted a compelling reason to explain to staff issuing modems why this is important. Fair enough, I thought.
Sure, we ask for a lot of demographic information – this is used in our annual report to programme funders, providing evidence that the modems are reaching the target groups. But that is not the most important thing.
We ask for the address where the modem is going to be used, so that we can avoid issuing more than one modem to the same household. But that is not the most important thing either.
We also use the address information to provide summary reports by town and region to provide evidence that Jump is reaching the most digitally disadvantaged communities. But that is not the most important thing either.
We ask customers to tell us who is helping them set up their Jump modems. We think the support provided by libraries and local community partners is absolutely critical to the ongoing success of Jump, and this helps provide the evidence. But this is not the most important thing either.
We ask customers if they have school-aged children and therefore qualify for free internet connections with programmes like Ciena. But that is not the most important thing either.
We ask for the phone contact details of the customer and their explicit approval for any follow up calls to get feedback on how Jump is helping them. But that is not the most important thing either.
OK, enough, I hear you cry! What then is the most compelling reason for completing a Skinny Jump Profile Modem??
Quite simply, so that we know when to send you more modems!
We (DIAA) manage the modem supply process for Jump, and for probably rather obvious reasons, we do not have access to Skinny’s customer database. So we rely on the Profile Form to update us on the modems being issued. We closely monitor all partners’ stock levels and each week, prioritise deliveries to those with low stock. So if partners issue a modem without completing a Profile Form, we think you still have this modem, and you move down the re-order priorities.
We strongly recommend that all partners periodically do a stock check and confirm that the number of modems they actually have aligns with the number in cell E2 (Actual Stock on hand) of your Jump GSheet.
If there is a mismatch please send a schedule of the IMEI numbers of the modems you are holding to jump@diaa.nz and we will update your GSheet accordingly.
The good news for the partner who raised this issue was that when his Gsheet was corrected, it immediately flagged the need for a new order, which we have actioned.
Tim Edmonds, one of our Digi-Coaches based at Kapiti District Libraries, has given us a timely reminder that GPT doesn’t have all the answers to life, certainly when it comes to data analytics!
We have been trying to present our Jump stats by local and regional authority area, but have been struggling to find a look up table that groups NZ towns and cities into these regions. I thought this would be an excellent job for Chat GPT. Chat GPT helpfully identified StatsNZ as a source of data (something I sort of already knew), and directed me to some stats tables that might have been useful if I had the skills to navigate them, but after numerous frustrating attempts I failed to get the output I needed.
So with nearly 50 Digi-Coaches now working in libraries in Northland, Waikato, Central North Island, Wellington and the Top of the South Island, I threw out this challenge to them and Tim came up with the goods, in less than an hour, he said.
His solution was not to use Chat GPT, nor Claude, nor Gemini, nor Co-Pilot, but a proprietary tool called ArcGIS Pro, something he was familiar with as an Insights Data Analyst in a previous life.
So what are the results? Here’s a taster. Probably not a lot of surprises. We are planning to develop this a bit further – we are missing 10% of all issues in smaller towns and this also doesn’t include the online orders (another 10%). So with Tim’s help, we plan to add these to the pot and also do a sort by TLAs (Councils).
This message is for all ‘avid followers’, not actually ‘fashion’ in this case but Jump Partner GSheets. I know these are not everyone’s cup of tea, but they do play a critical role in our efforts to ensure a smooth flow of modems.
I know that at least one of you is such an avid follower of Jump GSheets that if her one is not updated with any new modem issues by the time she arrives at work each day, she is firing off an email, wondering if there has been a mistake.
Now that was the day (nearly a year ago) when there was an Alistair, who made a point of starting his day at 5am by updating everyone’s Gsheet (transferring the Profile Form data to partner Gsheets). We thought we might have an AI replacement for Alistair by now, but sadly not. Instead we have Tori (Talented, Outstanding, Resourceful and Industrious), who is not an AI engine but a very talented and competent student. Unfortunately, she still at school, and can only work for us on Saturdays.
So this means the Jump Profile data only gets transferred to partner GSheets on Saturdays. But all is well, this is in time to shuffle order priorities for the next week’s orders, which are processed every Thursday.
As I have mentioned before, the most common question from partners is “when am I getting more modems?”. I thought it might be helpful to share the current order processing list with partners, so that you have some idea about when to expect further supplies.
The following modem orders have been sent today to CEVA for processing. This means that you can expect these to be delivered next week. Orders for another 100 partners have still pending, so if you are not on this list, then further supplies are at least two weeks away.
With Christmas coming soon, I’ll have a go at connecting this information to individual partner Gsheets, so that this “in processing” data is displayed dynamically.
Jylesza is one of our fabulous new Digi-Coaches who are emerging in many of our Jump partner organisations. She is based at Elma Turner Nelson Public Library.
All our Digi-Coaches are trained to become Jump Specialists, so they can hit the ground running when they start their work placements. On her first day, Jylesza got a hug from a customer, as an expression of appreciation for the help she had provided. Maybe our long-term Jump partners have just got so used to getting hugs from their Jump customers that they don’t see it as ‘news’ any more!
Jylesza as well as some other partners have also asked for clarification about the ‘rules’ around Jump partners issuing modems to customers who live outside the partner’s area or region. For example, it could be someone who has tried to sign up for Jump at their local partner, but discovered they have no modems, so they ‘shop around’ to find a partner with stock, or they could simply be moving to a new area.
It goes without saying that they must satisfy the Jump coverage check for the location where they intend to use the modem, but there are no rules that restrict where they can sign up. A bit like McDonalds, you can get a Big Mac from any outlet, not just the one in your own community.
Where the uncertainty sometime arises is for library partners, who have territorial rules about who can sign up for a library card and borrow books.
Jump, however is different. While we often use the library analogy for Jump, where you get something for free and when you don’t need it anymore, you return it, but we don’t restrict where people can sign up.
One thing we do discourage is for partners who have run out of stock to direct customers to other Jump partners unless they know the other partner has stock and is happy to accept referrals. We prefer that you use your waiting list (below the blue line in your GSheet). This also helps us boost the number of modems in your next shipment.
So, thank you Jylesza for asking the question and congratulations on your first customer hug!
Our hats off to Martha Manaena at REAP Wairarapa for bringing to our notice an interesting anomoly. She was trying to issue a new Jump modem and discovered it had the same IMEI number as one she had issued some time ago. To make matters worse, the modem had no Broadband sticker!
After a quick look in the box, she discovered the wayward broadband sticker attached to the inside of the box as many others have done during the last six months – this happens when the modems are thrust into the box too forcefully and the transparent broadband sticker decides to attach itself to the side of the box – remember, I raised this issue some months ago.
But modems with the same IMEI number??? This was news to me until I put on my thinking cap. Of course there would be modems with the same IMEI number. We have been using refurbished modems for the last 6 months and of course, a refurbished modem will have the same IMEI number as one that has been previously issued. The IMEI number is assigned by the manufacturer and relates to the modem hardware, not the Skinny internet connection.
There’s always a ‘good news’ side to the story. The IMEI number is something that we (DIAA) use to monitor modem supplies, but this is not relevant to Skinny – they rely on the Broadband number and Verification code, the two bits of information on the troublesome transparent sticker that sometime detaches itself.
So well done, Martha, for being the first person to notice this apparent anomoly, or at least the first person to raise it with me!
I am well overdue for a blog post on this topic. This is now the second most frequently asked question by Jump partners. What is the most frequently asked question you might wonder (scroll to the bottom to find the answer).
Back to the main topic of this post – some partners have been waiting for more than four weeks to get a return courier bag. The good news is that there is no great mystery here – it is simply a workload issue. Our goal is to get these to you so they are off your hands within 10 days of lodging a Modem Returns form, but that has been impossible over the last four weeks.
Our DIAA team has been a tiny bit preoccupied during the last month launching three new Digi-Coach programmes in the Waikato, Northland and last week in The Top of the South Island. Next week we are in the Central North Island and a week later in Wellington. With five new Digi-Coach cohorts in operation, that means 50 new Jump Specialists become available in libraries and community organisations throughout these regions five days a week for the 12-week work placements. Take a look at the stunning impact videos featuring Digi-Coaches in the Wellington region during the pilot programme earlier this year.
BUT, I digress. The really good news for return courier bags is that all partners should receive their bags this week. We had 50 on the courier yesterday and we are expecting the remaining 30 or 40 to be out the door this week. We have a new cunning plan to keep on top of this in the future and avoid such a huge backlog.
This has also impacted updates to your Gsheets for delinked modems. Normally these updates happen at least weekly, but they have suffered the same fate as the return bags. This is not such a problem, as partners receive a direct email notification from the Skinny team whenever a modem is delinked and reset for re-issue. So you don’t have to wait until your GSheets are updated before you issue delinked modems. They (your Gsheets) will catch up eventually, as this impacts your stock levels.
And the answer to the most common question is ‘When am I getting more modems? The answer to this question is much more complicated and varies week by week. But as some partners will have noticed, we have now exhausted supplies of the refurbished Smart modems and the latest shipment of over 700 modems was mainly the new Futura modems. The backlog of orders has reduced to 1600, which is the best it has been for most of this year.
From courier bags to modem supplies, the road ahead is looking brighter.
Further to my post earlier today, I have been advised by Skinny that the provisioning issue raised by some partners has been sorted and that all the new Futura modems received this week shouldnow be correctly provisioned.
If Cadbury chocolate fish still existed, a box would be winging its way to the Jump teams in Ashburton and Otara Libraries for alerting me to this issue.
My cautionary “should” means to take care when issuing these new modems. Remember the proof of the pudding is in the eating. So please let me know if you discover anything unusual.
60 Jump partners were the first to receive the new Futura modems this week. But as these partners are discovering, the modems appear to have been provisioned for Standard Skinny, not Jump.
Now we don’t know how widespread this is and whether all 732 modems are affected, but it would be prudent to hit ‘pause’ in issuing these. My rule of thumb is that when more than one partner reports a problem, we pause sign-ups until the problem is understood and resolved.
Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa 