Competition has become the distinguishing factor in the broadband market. Communications Service Providers (CSPs) are experiencing an exponential increase in demand for broadband and wireless services. Every day, more people with smartphones, tablets and other devices crave rich media content such as photos, audio and video -- and require more connectivity at faster speeds. This growth is being fed by federal stimulus programs: In the U.S., $7.2B has been set aside for various broadband expansion initiatives. Similar programs are in place in Australia, New Zealand, and Europe -- with more expected in developing nations.

Yet, while demand increases, the competitive landscape also is changing. With broadband expansion and Triple Play, everyone is a competitor. Telephone and cable companies offer voice, data, and TV. Utilities are leveraging existing infrastructure to offer additional services, and their market position will only get stronger with the increased roll out of advanced smart grid communications networks.

Today, a CSP must have advanced technology to support the planning, construction, sales, marketing, and operation of communications networks and stay competitive in this dynamic market. An enterprise GIS can help provide the necessary technology to help CSPs stay agile and ahead of their competition.

Enterprise GIS allows a CSP to efficiently track network asset information in a centralized data store, plan and analyze new construction, push data into the field, and make better decisions through improved operational awareness. Non-GIS systems like CAD typically store information in proprietary file formats in different locations that are accessible only by proprietary systems. As a result, these closed systems make it difficult to obtain the information needed to make decisions fast -- and stay competitive.

CSPs Large and Small Must Adopt Big Ideas
When used in a high-technology reference, the phrase enterprise GIS denotes 2 concepts:
1. The GIS technology itself must be able to support an enterprise deployment; those not fully positioned to work at the enterprise level will do only part of the job.
2. The organization must be willing to adopt an enterprise mindset across business processes and workflows.

It’s also critical that prior to committing to a specific GIS tool that will serve the entire organization, you must be sure that the solution you choose can meet 7 cornerstones of enterprise GIS:

1. Centralized data store in an open relational database management system (RDBMS). A surprising number of communications companies are still documenting their network with file-based technology, storing information in multiple formats such as CAD drawings, spreadsheets, Visio diagrams and paper -- all scattered across the internal network. Worse, vital information about the network and assets is stored in human memory and will disappear when those valued employees leave or retire.

A centralized asset and network repository that is complete and up-to-date is necessary for the CSP to be able to analyze how the spatial location of its network relates to a prospective customer and respond competitively. An enterprise GIS gives the CSP a single version of the truth -- a single store for all asset and network data managed by a single application for all view, query, edit, analyze, manage, and plan workflows.

2. Multiple Simultaneous Editors. An enterprise GIS allows multiple simultaneous editors without locking the database from editing for other users. No check-in and check-out is required, so workflows are optimized and backlog is reduced.

3. Configurable. Many non-enterprise systems require extensive customizations to alter the data model or add functionality; these proprietary software alterations can significantly increase the total cost of ownership and limit the CSP’s ability to respond to changing technology. An enterprise GIS is highly configurable, using graphical user interface (GUI)-driven workflows to add, remove, or alter functionality. Modeling a new communications technology can be as simple as installing a new card at an open document format when using a flexible data model configurable with a GUI.

4. Customization via standard development environments. Many non-enterprise GISs rely on proprietary languages that very few coders use. When a customization is required, the widely accepted, IT-standard development languages used by an enterprise GIS allow the CSP to utilize a non-specialized development vendor and avoid long waiting times and premium pricing.

5. Strong integration framework based on open IT standards. True enterprise systems seamlessly integrate with other business systems and effectively support planning, provisioning, fulfillment and service assurance while reducing total cost of ownership and maintenance. Only leading technologies based on open IT standards will allow such full integration and sustainable effectiveness.

6. Federated. To make competitive management and workflow decisions, the CSP must be able to access communications network information where and when needed: in a central management office, in the field while searching for buried assets on site, on the road supporting sales and marketing efforts, or in the boardroom planning a future system expansion. Enterprise GIS as it stands today is the only technology that allows access by authorized personnel to the CSP’s single version of the truth -- the centralized asset and network data store -- via desktop, mobile and web portals. They can efficiently and effectively view, query, analyze, and edit wherever they are, knowing they have the most accurate reflection of the real world.

7. Data interoperability. Granted, not all CSP network data belongs in a GIS, so the GIS database must be able to seamlessly share data with, and import data from, other systems as needed. Enterprise GIS can manage dozens of different data types simultaneously without need for conversion, allowing a “consensus” approach to answer questions that simply cannot be addressed with information in a single, silo system.

Shifting Your Mindset
To fully realize the potential of an enterprise GIS, a CSP must be willing to establish the GIS as a central resource for workflows involving data maintenance, analysis and reporting, planning, engineering, decision support, and operational awareness.

Data maintenance, analysis, and reporting are all interrelated. Effective analysis and reporting rely on accurate asset and network data that result from efficient data maintenance performed in the GIS. Fortunately, enterprise GIS is designed with configurable business rules, flexible data models, and seamless multi-user access, so most data integrity and network maintenance tasks occur “on the fly”. Tasks such as creating thematic maps, traces, circuit planning, reports, and schematics all are performed on the CSP’s single version of the truth.

Read how 3 organizations have recently realized operating benefits by implementing once such GIS system to manage their communications networks. 

1. RCN Telecom Services, LLC is a competitive broadband service provider delivering all-digital and high-definition video, high-speed Internet, and premium voice services to more than 500,000 subscribers across 6 markets. Its fiber networks had been documented through various systems, including CAD maps, stick drawings, splice diagrams, and splice sheets. "For all the service territories, there must have been hundreds, even thousands, of CAD documents," recalled Chris Augustine, RCN Network Engineering Manager.

RCN looked for better solution: a GIS-based solution that could tell network personnel where the fiber was physically located, how much fiber was available, and how many nodes there were for any hubsite -- information necessary to streamline asset management and customer service. It chose the Telvent enterprise GIS, in large part because it is based on the industry-leading Esri ArcGIS® platform, and found it to be less complicated for managing and creating fiber facilities data than other GIS products. Now, each RCN service territory uses a common and centralized network infrastructure with a single database with updated, accurate information available to everyone.

"We can locate fiber assets from our office," reported Augustine. "We don't have to spend the time and labor to visit the field to identify and confirm assets. The enterprise GIS model is easily configured out of the box, so we can do much of it ourselves. The segregated tracing allows us to monitor two different networks, separately, in one system. In addition, we can easily track customers and equipment affected by an outage anywhere along our network, from the MegaPop to the customer."

Augustine summarized: "The biggest advantage we have found in this system is having a consistent database that tells us where our network is and how it is connected. It gives us the ability to put that information in the hands of everyone who needs it within RCN."

2. The City of Peoria, Arizona, is a dynamic desert city of more than 150,000 residents. The city's traffic engineering division oversees the operation of a fiber telecommunications network that had been documented with various types of CAD drawings, spreadsheets, word processing documents, and even hand-drawn sketches. Often, information updates were based on human memory. To add to its complexity, most of the network was located underground for weather-related and regulatory reasons. As the city grew, it realized it needed to improve operations and system troubleshooting.

"We had a growing fiber infrastructure and all of our information was on different types of media, such as drawings and as-builts. We were looking to capture all of this information and document it in one central location," explained Ron Amaya, traffic engineer for the city. "We can see long-term benefits: increased accuracy due to one centralized database and elimination of hard copies."

Referring to the city's underground facilities, Amaya explained, "Knowing where those conduits are located can prevent potential bottlenecks. This tool has helped us know which types of conduits and sizes are out there and exactly where they are located." He added they now "have one big picture instead of numerous smaller pictures... It has helped us achieve efficiencies that were not previously possible."

3. The Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) is Oregon's largest customer-owned utility, providing electricity to more than 86,000 homes, business, and schools in Eugene. EWEB's enterprise GIS stores fiber optic network information previously held in various types of CAD drawings, spreadsheets, word processing files, and paper documents. Tracing a single fiber circuit might have required reference to several repositories of data and drawings prior to the implementation -- a process subject to significant error. Now, fiber engineers can clarify a circuit question in seconds with the application's Fiber Trace tools while leveraging autogenerated schematics of splicing diagrams.

Improved decision support is one of the most valuable benefits the CSP can realize with enterprise GIS implementation, helping answer key questions about the network, the geography, the customer, and the competition:
Where is the network?
What is its capacity?
Where should the next mile of fiber be built?
How many homes that could provide revenue are being passed?
What does the competition offer in that area?
Where is the biggest growth occurring or the greatest customer loss expected?
Where is that fault that needs field crew attention, and is it in an area of recurring faults?
Does the customer service rep know what services can be offered to a potential customer, and when?

Geospatial databases, the core of an enterprise GIS, can readily answer these business questions. Adding demographic data to serviceability analysis lends a higher degree of revenue confidence to expansion decisions. Integration with remote fiber testing (RFT) systems allows real-time fault detection. Dispatchers know exactly where to send the crew and what fibers should be spliced first to restore the most important customers. If repairs are lengthy, analyze if other available diverse routes through system tracing and analysis tools with confidence -- you are looking at the most accurate and up-to-date network model available.

The benefits of improved decision support are so significant that some CSPs are now creating Geomarketing departments. Their task: Put the vast amount of spatial and network data in the GIS to work to grow revenue. The ability to use enterprise GIS to combine usage data, call traffic, and network locations with external data such as demographics and market trends makes this practical and rewarding for the CSP looking for competitive advantage.

Planning and engineering can be managed with a GIS-based planning tool to cut down on redundancy and errors associated with inefficient workflows. GIS-based design tools work within the GIS simultaneously building a construction sketch and a list of materials, equipment, and labor costs while you sketch. Furthermore, engineering tools can be embedded for radio network planning, coax RF analysis, and design assistance to allow fast, accurate estimate generation within a single system. Customer service reps have up-to-date proposed design information so they can tell a customer in real time when service can be ready.

The growth in fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) work also lends to the business case. Automated layout tools and simple design workflows can produce fast initial cost estimates for the bid process, which is followed by detailed engineering work as needed. As-builts from the field are synched with GIS design through the federated architecture, because the crew can take the job to the field in a mobile GIS application. When the job is done, the GIS is seamlessly updated with the click of a button. There's no need for re-digitizing or manually entering network changes via redundant processes that introduce data errors.

Operational awareness benefits hinge on 2 features: integration and data sharing. Integration with other operational support system (OSS) components such as provisioning, fulfillment, and service assurance must be based on the most complete, accurate and up-to-date information. With the centralized data store provided by enterprise GIS, data accuracy is not a problem -- unlike CAD and other silo systems that are notorious for inaccurate data that undermine these systems. And, enterprise GIS facilitates this integration using open IT standards, lowering the overall total cost of ownership.

Dissemination of the rich information stored in the GIS to other business units pays dividends. Marketing and sales is armed with the best network location information to create the most effective customer retention and acquisition campaigns -- beating the competition. Those managing network planning activities can count on the GIS to be accurately updated as soon as the job is done. Dashboards deployed via web applications get the right amount of data to executive and supervisors with no need for specialized software.

No Silos = Better Business
The exponential increase in demand for broadband, the dynamic competitive landscape and intense competition call for advanced enterprise systems. An enterprise GIS gives the CSP the right information to make decisions quickly and confidently. The foundations of enterprise technology: a centralized data store; multiple simultaneous editors; flexibility and configurability; standard customization environments; open integration framework; desktop, web, mobile and cloud deployment options; rich data interoperability -- make that possible.

Yet enterprise systems are more than just technology. A CSP must be willing to make the GIS central to business processes and workflows. The synergy of enterprise technology and enterprise mind set will yield benefits in data maintenance, analysis and reporting, planning, engineering, decision support, and operational awareness workflows -- and a distinct competitive advantage.

Danny Petrecca is Director of Product Management for Enterprise GIS at Telvent. He has 13 years of experience in the geospatial industry; 10 of those years have been at Telvent. For more information, visit www.telvent.com.

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