Field Service Management Software Blog

How the Esri Utility Network Transforms Utility Data Management

Posted on May 30, 2024June 13, 2025 by Epoch Solutions Group

EpochSync Pro Facilitates Migrating Data to this Powerful Network

As utilities grapple with escalating challenges in a complex and dynamic environment, many are looking to solutions like the Esri ArcGIS Utility Network to simplify data management while ensuring integrity, even across massive data sets.

“Throughout our 15-year relationship with Esri—and now as an Esri Gold Partner—we’ve worked together to identify and solve utilities’ needs, especially by integrating Esri technology with our own suite of solutions,” noted James Street, Epoch Solutions Group CEO. “With the need to manage and integrate data becoming both more challenging and more critical for utilities, we see great value in helping our customers leverage powerful tools like the Esri Utility Network.”

We recently tapped Esri Product Manager Saranya Kesavan to share insights on how the company’s next-generation ArcGIS Utility Network is helping to improve data management amidst transformative change.

New Challenges Make Data Management Vital

Grid modernization has become a high priority across the utility industry, especially as electricity demand rises in response to the shift to clean energy, increased electric vehicle adoption, and a rise in data center power usage to support cloud-based applications. The increase in electricity demand is redefining the power load and tasking utilities with improving energy supply and reliability, according to Kesavan.

“It’s all placing a lot more demand on the grid,” she said. At the same time, climate change is fueling more frequent and severe storms, resulting in more power outages that require utilities to respond quickly and efficiently and maintain high customer satisfaction.

“Challenges like these make a utility’s network more mission-critical than ever, while making data management essential yet more difficult,” Street pointed out. As utilities strive to improve this function, many are moving to the Esri ArcGIS Utility Network.

Setting the Foundation

The ArcGIS Utility Network serves as a system of record that captures data on all utility assets in detail, ensuring that any applications built on the platform can readily access the data required. According to Kesavan, Esri’s network management solution as it is today has evolved over the last 20 years in lockstep with technology advancements.

“Esri’s initial geometric network was robust at the time, but the technology and the industry have changed significantly,” she said. The then-current technology which the network was built on presented inherent limitations, particularly at a time when utilities often maintained data in multiple, disparate applications that didn’t provide a holistic view or enable access to timely, accurate information.

“For example, field crews often lacked real-time information about changing conditions, especially data from downstream applications like their outage management system,” she explained.

As both the technology and the industry’s needs evolved, the Esri network did too. “We considered how utilities are now organizing their data, the workloads they’re managing, and how to future-proof the model,” Kesavan said. With the retirement of Geometric Network, Esri created a next-gen utility network on the ArcGIS Pro mapping and visualization platform.

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Integrity, Scalability, and Productivity Top the List

Esri built its new ArcGIS Utility Network to address three common and interrelated needs of today’s utilities: data integrity, network scalability, and network management productivity.

“By using a services-oriented network, utilities can spend less time on tasks like controlling who can access and edit data, improving productivity without sacrificing data integrity or security,” Kesavan said. At the user level, the network restricts data access based on login credentials, while at the network level, rules fire off dynamically as data is edited, triggering error messages that reduce the odds of inputting bad data.

“The network rules can control what type of transformer can connect with what type of conductor,” she explained. “The goal is to ensure the Utility Network is robust and stable, and that it identifies any workflows with potential to corrupt the organization’s data set.” With data volumes growing rapidly within most utilities, the highly scalable network is designed to reduce the strains of day-end processing, ensuring data is clean, up to date, and pushed out to every downstream application, even when large volumes are involved.

The Esri ArcGIS Utility Network also facilitates moving from manual workflows to automated workflows that speed and streamline work, improve accuracy, and leverage the value of digitized data. “For example, rather than draw up a rough sketch of a field installation and send it to GIS team, field crews can capture that information digitally,” Kesavan said.

Managing data in a dynamic environment demands that the utility’s staff has a clear, accurate view of what’s happening in the field at all times. Esri’s Utility Network aims to provide that view through a highly detailed network model and built-in visualization tools that remove visual clutter while keeping data within reach. “Each user can choose the level of detail they need to see,” she said, while authorization measures ensure data security.

Additionally, end users and system administrators can utilize dashboards with embedded awareness of the utility network topology and associations. “Utilities are customizing these dashboards to gain a better understanding of what’s happening in their network at any given time, through a single system of record,” Kesavan explained. The more applications integrated, the more holistic the view. “That enables utilities to identify trends, gather insights, develop mitigation plans to solve problems, and work proactively to prevent them.”

Solving the Dilemma of Getting Data Into the Network

One of the impediments to using the Esri Utility Network is the challenge of migrating data from GE Smallworld Version Managed Data Stores and other GIS databases that store utility transmission and distribution GIS data. Since the data models involved vary significantly, it isn’t always easy to port the data over.

“As more utilities look to leverage the Esri Utility Network for map-based applications like emergency operations management, outage management, and streetlight management, we recognized that the data migration need was becoming more pressing,” Street said.

That’s why Epoch Solutions Group developed EpochSync Pro, a GIS data migration software tool that simplifies the migration of GE Smallworld data to Esri. EpochSync Pro helps utilities harness the full power of the Esri ArcGIS Utility Network by providing a seamless way to synchronize data bidirectionally and accurately between Smallworld Version Managed Data Stores and Esri ArcGIS Enterprise Geodatabases, even for large data volumes. “We specifically wrote this tool in the ArcGIS Pro SDK to fully leverage the value of the network and the ArcGIS functionality on behalf of our utility customers,” Street said.

EpochSync Pro is part of the Epoch Solutions Group suite of solutions, helping utilities leverage the power of GIS data to transform field operations. Contact Epoch Solutions Group to schedule a demo of EpochSync Pro, or contact Esri to schedule a demo of the Esri ArcGIS Utility Network.

BC Hydro Successfully Leverages the Power of GIS Technology from Multiple Providers

Posted on February 21, 2024June 18, 2025 by Epoch Solutions Group

Electric utilities face unprecedented challenges in today’s dynamic and quickly evolving energy landscape. Navigating the complexities of adapting to changing regulations and standards, exceeding higher consumer expectations, upgrading legacy IT systems and aging infrastructure, addressing technology constraints, meeting the ever-increasing demand for energy, confronting extreme weather patterns and moving away from fossil fuel sources, all while delivering reliable and affordable electric service, present utilities with an array of hurdles.

In response to these daunting obstacles, utilities are investing in grid modernization, transitioning to renewable energy sources, focusing on effectively navigating regulatory pressures, and engaging with customers in new ways.

For BC Hydro, generating and delivering electricity to 95% of the population of British Columbia, Canada, involves 30 hydroelectric plants and a network of more than 80,000 kilometers of power lines that transport power across a varied terrain. Ensuring reliable service to more than five million customers in this demanding environment requires ready access to robust GIS data.

Since the utility’s GIS information for transmission and distribution resided in GE Smallworld, the organization sought more tools to work with that data effectively.

Contact an Epoch Sales Consultant today ⟶

5 Trends That Will Impact Utilities in 2024

Posted on December 21, 2023June 18, 2025 by Epoch Solutions Group

The environment that utilities operate in is more complex and volatile than ever, with significant forces impacting the ability to plan effectively and meet every stakeholder’s needs. James Street, CEO of Epoch Solutions Group, reviews the five trends he believes will have a major influence on utilities in the coming year.

1. Climate risks and electrification are stressing the grid.

More frequent and severe storms have become the norm and are expected to continue for the foreseeable future. While hurricanes have always been a concern, convective storms, extreme heat, and wildfires are also on the rise, placing more pressure on the grid.

For example, a McKinsey report forecasts that by 2030, Minnesota will see a 75 percent rise in extreme heat days and Colorado will see a 29 percent increase in severe thunderstorm frequency. Almost 90 percent of the western US could experience as many as 30 high Fire Weather Index days annually. And persistent droughts are making it tougher for thermal and hydroelectric utilities to ensure reliable power. With much of the industry’s infrastructure assets well beyond their intended lifespan, extreme weather also becomes more difficult to respond to, resulting in more temperature-induced power line losses and longer power interruptions.

The electrification trend and rising data center power use are likewise stressing the grid in ways we couldn’t foresee just a decade ago. As consumers and businesses adopt electric vehicles and favor electric heat pumps, electricity demand is escalating. And as AI, blockchain, and cloud computing become more prevalent, they’re driving up data center power consumption.

With seasonal load profiles changing and electricity demand rising, utilities face greater pressure to ensure grid reliability and performance. In this disruptive environment, field asset management and vegetation management become more difficult yet more critical, demanding digitized, flexible platforms that enable utility staff to complete these tasks efficiently and accurately.

2. Grid planning is becoming more complex.

A dynamic and volatile environment will continue to complicate holistic grid planning that’s designed to manage growth, improve reliability, and enhance resilience. For example, dispersed and aging infrastructures, outdated technology, changing regulations, and evolving risks all make it more difficult to plan and manage field assets effectively. That includes assessing and monitoring asset health and risk, managing vegetation risk, and deploying field resources optimally, both for proactive, scheduled work and emergency situations.

The increase in bidirectionality is only adding to grid planning complexity. Millions of devices at the edge—including solar panels, electric vehicles, and smart thermostats—are now participating in power generation and impacting grid behavior. This trend will make it more vital, though more complicated, to model and manage utility assets in the context of rising risks, changing customer behaviors, and aging assets. Enhanced modeling and asset management solutions will prove increasingly critical, especially to help field crews work optimally during regular operations and mutual assistance scenarios. With access to real-time information about live and offline assets, utilities can improve asset management planning by empowering field crews with accurate data and enhanced situational awareness.

3. New government policies are posing new requirements for utilities.

While government policy always has the potential to impact utility operations, two of the latest rules from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will likely require utilities to meet new requirements for ensuring gird reliability. One such rule directs the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to develop a standard around transmission system planning for extreme heat and cold weather conditions. Another requires power transmission providers to report on their policies and processes for conducting extreme weather vulnerability assessments and identifying strategies to mitigate these risks.

In addition, several energy policies aim to advance smart grid technology that has the potential to help electricity distributors reduce costs, improve reliability, and meet the challenge of balancing supply and demand. Though there are significant benefits to be realized, developing and implementing smart grid technology will require major capital investments. Many utilities are already moving ahead with smart grid systems that employ two-way communication and intelligent devices, aided by various US Department of Energy grant programs.

Contact an Epoch Sales Consultant today ⟶

4. Government investment is facilitating the clean energy transition, but risks and challenges will remain.

Renewable energy adoption is increasing rapidly, now accounting for about one-fifth of US total power. With world leaders agreeing to new climate goals at the recent COP28 summit, that figure is set to rise significantly.

Governments worldwide are providing financial incentives to ease the energy transition for power companies, with the US alone committing billions through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The IRA extends and modifies key tax credits for renewable energy investment and production, funds the acceleration of new energy infrastructure siting, and incentivizes carbon capture, while the IIJA is funding infrastructure modernizations that support clean energy expansion and improve resilience.

Despite such financial assistance, along with the opportunity that the clean energy transition offers come a host of challenges for utilities. Renewable energy sources can be intermittent, yet consumers and businesses demand stable, reliable power. New energy sources take time to scale, but power demand is rising dramatically. The ability to plan effectively during this critical transition will require enhanced systems and better access to data that can help utilities make informed decisions about deploying and optimizing assets amidst change and unpredictability.

5. The digital technology transformation is helping utilities tackle emerging challenges.

Many utilities are finding that the transformation to digital technologies can help them meet new challenges, address emerging requirements, and adapt to continued change. In particular, they’re shifting away from legacy systems to more flexible and integrated platforms that support new ways of working.

The move to cloud-based solutions, GIS-based applications, and digitized field service workflows, along with the integration of disparate systems and data sources, is helping leading utilities leverage data and technology to transform their operations and meet new challenges head-on. In modernizing their technology infrastructure and applications, utilities are prioritizing use cases that demonstrate the greatest tangible value.

For example, a geospatial software platform that syncs asset data in real-time across disparate systems, applications, and devices can yield high ROI by giving operations and field teams the visibility and situational awareness to work more efficiently and safely. These digitized platforms also provide access to the data needed to prevent the disastrous consequences of unmanaged vegetation impacting power lines brought down by extreme weather, as well as inspect and manage joint use assets like poles, wires, and circuits to reduce costs and avoid redundancies.

Why Utilities Are Partnering with Epoch Solutions Group

Leading utilities recognize the value of partnering with a solutions provider that can help them meet new requirements and challenges at a time of great change and uncertainty. For many utilities, that partner is Epoch Solutions Group.

Our EpochField solution leverages geospatial technology to help utilities improve field asset management, reduce costs, and minimize breakdowns and outages. This geospatial workforce management platform is empowering utilities across the US to meet reliability requirements, enhance safety, ensure power availability, and maintain compliance in a volatile environment.

Schedule an EpochField demo to see how this solution can help you meet emerging challenges.

Future-Proofing Our Grid: Tackling Challenges and Embracing Change

Posted on July 30, 2023October 6, 2023 by Epoch Solutions Group

Our nation’s electrical grid is a crucial resource, providing safe energy across the country. While it has been reliable for a long time, it is now facing mounting pressure from various sources, threatening its stability. Utilities and regulatory agencies are being forced to respond and act to proactively address these challenges, which include reducing carbon emissions and addressing issues related to global climate change. Additionally, there’s a growing need to decentralize energy to reduce reliance on a single power source due to the increasing demands of our population and product usage, which strains available resources.

The increasing frequency of extreme weather events, such as polar vortexes and powerful hurricanes, poses significant difficulties for utilities in planning and anticipating outages. As power outages continue to increase, digital-first consumers and businesses who demand real-time information about power restoration are affected. GIS asset management tools play a vital role in enabling deep situational awareness and quick response.

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Better Utility Asset Management Starts with These Best Practices

Posted on June 30, 2023June 18, 2025 by Epoch Solutions Group

A rapidly evolving regulatory landscape, higher service expectations, dispersed and aging infrastructures, technology constraints, and the shift to renewable energy sources all combine to make it more challenging than ever to deliver service reliably, safely, and profitably. This environment also makes proper asset management more difficult, yet more vital to accomplish.

Asset management helps utilities maximize value while optimizing the resources for necessary repairs and upgrades, replacing the traditional run-to-failure approach. Proactive asset management enables utilities to minimize breakdowns and outages, ensuring continued service delivery, and extending asset life.

By taking a best practices approach to asset management and leveraging digitized asset management solutions, gas and electric utilities can overcome today’s considerable operational obstacles. The following best practices provide a great start.

Define Success

Your utility asset management program should be guided by clear, thoughtful objectives. Most utilities implement an asset management program to reduce costs, improve productivity, minimize the risk of an unplanned outage, and/or extend the life and usefulness of their valuable field assets. Your specific business objectives will drive the key performance indicators (KPIs) you use to track progress against.

Evaluate Processes

Obtain a baseline of your current asset management processes and practices, focusing on what’s working vs what isn’t. Review all asset management standard operating procedures (SOPs), looking for gaps or obsolete procedures that need updating.

Take Inventory

Proper asset management demands an accurate, detailed inventory of every field asset, including its location, size, manufacturer, model, lot number, material composition, installation date, inspection history, maintenance and repair history, current condition, and projected remaining useful life. From there, you can rank the criticality of each asset using an objective scoring method, based on criteria such as how much the network relies on that asset and its importance to service delivery, along with factors like failure types, probabilities, consequences, and costs. The results will inform how you plan and prioritize asset maintenance, repair, and replacement, enabling you to invest in operational improvements with the greatest ROI.

Create a Plan

To deliver the optimal service at the optimal cost, utilities need to acquire, operate, maintain, and upgrade or replace field assets as effectively as possible. And that demands a comprehensive, continually updated asset management plan. The plan should document all your field assets, how you’ll schedule and track their maintenance and repair, how you’ll manage and track budgeted vs actual asset management expenses, risks and mitigation measures for each asset, clear roles and responsibilities, and an asset management lifecycle strategy.

Contact an Epoch Sales Consultant today ⟶

Integrate Your Systems

Disparate legacy systems are common in the utility industry, but they make it tough to manage field assets proactively and strategically. Because they often store data in different formats and don’t share it seamlessly, it’s difficult to gain visibility into accurate, real-time information to direct repair and maintenance efforts. And without that information at their fingertips, field crews waste time contacting operations for the necessary details.

A solution that utilizes geospatial software can improve integration by syncing asset data in real-time across systems, applications, and devices, equipping operations teams and field staff with the visibility and situational awareness they need on the job. Platforms that integrate field asset data into critical GIS solutions, as well as mission-critical business applications from providers like SAP and Oracle, prove most effective.

What to Look for in a Digitized Field Asset Management Platform

To unlock the value of proactive asset management, many utilities are adopting geospatial technologies that digitally capture and track asset data, optimize asset performance, improve compliance, and boost efficiencies. By combining automated workflows and map-centric interfaces—and sharing data across back-office servers, cloud-based applications, and mobile apps—a digitized field asset management platform helps the operations team dispatch, schedule and deploy field crews efficiently and gives field crews the situational awareness to complete their work quickly, accurately, and safely.

Before investing in a digitized utility asset management platform, consider which features and functionalities will most help you streamline work, improve efficiency and productivity, and reduce costs. Most utilities find the following essential:

A single platform that drives field asset maintenance, repair, and tracking
Ease of configuration to match their specific needs
Scalability to any size or type of utility
Dynamic, interactive maps that provide a full view of field assets and supporting details
Intuitive functionality that speeds and simplifies customized workflow and work order creation
Flexibility to develop maintenance schedules based on skills, proximity, availability, training and certification requirements, and other criteria
Access to real-time data online and offline to support remote locations
Enterprise data integration for easy access to asset and resource data across the technology ecosystem and data sharing across systems, applications, personnel, and locations

Why More Utilities are Choosing EpochField

For many gas and electric utilities, the field asset management platform of choice is EpochField from Epoch Solutions Group.

EpochField leverages geospatial technology to help utilities improve field asset management and maintenance, reduce costs, and minimize breakdowns and outages. Our digitized asset and field management solution provides operations teams with real-time situational awareness to optimize how they deploy field crews to inspect and repair utility field assets and manage vegetation. Utilities that use EpochField are positioned to deliver the service today’s customers demand, while ensuring safety, maintaining compliance, and gaining full asset traceability.

Download our detailed Guide to Deploying an Effective Asset Management Strategy. Or contact Epoch Solutions Group to learn how EpochField can transform how your utility manages your valuable field assets.

Best Practices for Improving Utility Asset Management: A Guide to Deploying an Effective Asset Management Strategy

Posted on June 30, 2023September 21, 2023 by Epoch Solutions Group

It’s never been a more challenging time to run a thriving, profitable utility company. From rapidly evolving regulations and escalating consumer service expectations to aging infrastructures and disparate legacy systems, utilities face significant operational obstacles in their quest to deliver power reliably, safely, and profitably. These challenges make proper asset management more vital than ever, yet more difficult to accomplish.

This guide is designed to help. It reviews the industry trends that are placing greater pressure on utility operations, the ways in which asset management solutions can help overcome those challenges and support a utility’s most critical business goals, the best practices that can help your organization manage assets more effectively, and how a digitized solution can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your utility asset management efforts.

Download the Guide to Learn:

Trends and regulations impacting asset management for utility companies today
The vital role that asset management has on a utility’s operating expenses and capital expenditures
A five-step best practices approach to utility asset management
How a digitized field asset management platform can help streamline work, improve efficiency and productivity, and reduce operating costs

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Improving Telecom Workflows for Better Customer Service: A Guide to Enhancing the Customer Experience Through Better Field Force Automation

Posted on June 7, 2023June 7, 2023 by Epoch Solutions Group

It’s well-documented that higher customer satisfaction directly impacts customer loyalty and retention—and that ultimately boosts customer lifetime value and profitability. In a highly competitive industry like telecommunications, the ability to deliver exceptional customer service can reduce the odds of consumers or businesses switching providers and drive down customer acquisition costs.

Yet, telecom providers face a host of challenges when it comes to delivering the service experience their customers expect, from regulatory obstacles to labor constraints to rising costs. With subscriber volume and data usage increasing exponentially, it’s not uncommon for customers to suffer through long on-hold times or experience delays and difficulties in getting their service issues resolved satisfactorily.

Download the Guide to Learn:

Trends impacting telecom customer service
Challenges that telecom providers face in delivering the service experience today’s consumers and businesses demand
Five telecom workflows that can improve customer service through automation
Use cases that illustrate the impact that telecom asset management software can have on customer service

Download the White Paper

To Migrate GE Smallworld Data to Esri, Utilities like BC Hydro Turn to EpochSync

Posted on June 2, 2023June 18, 2025 by Epoch Solutions Group

Many utilities struggle to utilize their GIS data effectively across the enterprise, especially when that data resides within GE Smallworld. With more utilities looking to leverage the power of Esri’s ArcGIS Utility Network to gain more functionality—especially for huge datasets—the ability to migrate Smallworld data to the Esri platform is becoming a must.

So when BC Hydro faced limitations in the tools it could use to work with its transmission and distribution GIS information effectively, the company knew it was essential to make its Smallworld data accessible on Esri.

As IT Advisor Evan Schwab noted, “Other business groups in the company, like our power generation group, were using Esri for GIS data. While we currently have two GIS systems, we’re looking to develop new capabilities on the Esri platform going forward.”

Contact an Epoch Sales Consultant today ⟶

Eager to gain ready access to the GIS data required to provide reliable service to more than 50 million customers, BC Hydro turned to Epoch Solutions Group’s EpochSync automated data migration tool. This scalable solution synchronizes data between Smallworld Version Managed Data Stores and Esri ArcGIS Enterprise Geodatabases, enabling even the largest utilities to easily migrate Smallworld data to an Esri geodatabase.

Once the initial synchronization is done, EpochSync only needs to perform periodic data synchronizations, ensuring just the incremental data changes are synchronized. And through a .NET-based user interface and Smallworld Magik components, EpochSync makes it easy to develop flexible mappings that support data syncing between different data models, empowering a utility’s staff to create those mappings to extract data with minimal training.

At BC Hydro, EpochSync provides a “set it and forget it” solution that runs nightly and is easy for internal staff to configure and maintain. Now, this British Columbia-based utility can use tools like ArcGIS Story Maps to develop distribution planning maps and share GIS data with external groups to provide much-needed situational awareness when major events happen.

Read the BC Hydro case study to discover all the business benefits that EpochSync provides for leading utilities.

Overcoming the Challenges of Managing Utility Joint Use Assets

Posted on April 13, 2023June 18, 2025 by Epoch Solutions Group

The modern world is changing rapidly, and the technologies and infrastructure that support it must evolve alongside it. This is especially true for utility companies, whose infrastructure must keep pace with changing demands and new technology. One area that has become increasingly important for utilities in recent years is joint use asset management.

Joint use assets refer to the infrastructure components that multiple utility companies share, such as poles, wires, and conduits. They offer a range of benefits for utility companies, including cost savings, increased flexibility, and reduced infrastructure duplication. However, managing joint use assets comes with a unique set of challenges that can significantly impact the efficiency and reliability of the utility network. This article reviews the challenges of joint use assets—including overloaded poles, double poles, unauthorized attachments, conflicting needs, and regulatory compliance issues—and offers viable solutions.

Overloaded and Double Poles: Inventory is Key

Overloaded poles are a common problem with joint use assets, and they occur when too many companies attach their equipment to a single pole, exceeding its weight-bearing capacity. This can cause the pole to lean or even fall, leading to power outages, property damage, and safety hazards. Overloaded poles also make it difficult to perform maintenance and repair tasks, as it can be difficult to identify which company is responsible for the excess weight on the pole.

Conducting regular inspections and assessments of the poles helps identify any signs of overload, allowing utility companies to proactively address an issue before it leads to a safety hazard or outage. Additionally, utility companies can work together to develop load-sharing agreements to ensure that the weight on each pole is evenly distributed among the companies using the infrastructure.

Double poles are another issue that arises when a utility operates joint use assets. Double poles occur when new poles are installed next to existing poles rather than replacing them, resulting in two or more poles serving the same purpose. Aside from the fact that double poles can be unsightly, they pose a safety hazard and make it difficult to access and maintain the equipment, increasing the risk of power outages and other issues.

One solution to this common joint use asset problem is to conduct a comprehensive inventory of all existing poles and infrastructure to identify where double poles exist, enabling utility companies to prioritize which poles to remove or replace first. Utility companies also can work together to develop joint programs to replace double poles with a single pole that meets the needs of all companies involved.

Contact an Epoch Sales Consultant today ⟶

Policies, Collaboration, and Training Are Essential

Unauthorized attachments are another significant problem for joint use assets. Attaching equipment to joint use assets without proper authorization or approval can create safety hazards, reliability issues, and regulatory compliance problems. Unauthorized attachments can also interfere with the equipment of other utility companies, leading to service disruptions and other problems.

One effective way to reduce or eliminate unauthorized attachments is to develop and enforce clear policies and procedures for attaching equipment to joint use assets, including guidelines for when equipment can be attached, who can approve the attachment, and what equipment is allowed. Utility companies also can use advanced analytics and monitoring tools to identify unauthorized attachments and proactively address them before they become a problem.

Managing joint use assets can also present broader challenges. Conflicting needs are a common problem when multiple companies use the same infrastructure. For example, one company may need to access a pole to install new equipment, while another company may need to perform maintenance on the same pole at the same time. Managing these competing objectives can be a complex and time-consuming process, often requiring significant coordination and communication between the companies involved.

To resolve conflicting needs for joint use assets, utility companies should develop collaboration tools and processes that allow multiple providers to work together more effectively. These tools can include shared communication channels, such as online portals or chat groups, where companies can coordinate their activities and schedules. Additionally, utilities can develop joint work plans that identify which tasks need to be completed and when, allowing them to better coordinate and schedule their activities.

Regulatory compliance is another area that utility companies must contend with when managing joint use assets. Utilities must comply with a range of regulations and standards, including safety standards, environmental regulations, and industry-specific guidelines, and failure to comply can result in fines, legal liabilities, and damage to the company’s reputation.

To ensure joint assets are managed in a way that complies with applicable regulations, each utility company should develop its own robust compliance program that includes regular audits and assessments to identify any areas of non-compliance. The program also should include training for employees and contractors to ensure they understand the regulations and standards that apply to joint use assets. Additionally, utility companies can work together to develop joint compliance programs that ensure all companies using the infrastructure are meeting the relevant regulations and standards.

How an Asset Management Platform Can Help

Despite these challenges, joint use assets continue to be an essential part of the utility industry. Given the clear benefits of shared infrastructure, utility companies are finding innovative ways to address the difficulties associated with managing joint use assets.

One way that leading utility companies are successfully managing joint use assets is through the use of an asset management platform like EpochField. With EpochField, utility companies can gain visibility into the condition of joint use assets, such as overloaded and double use poles, along with the real-time situational awareness to manage unauthorized access, ensure safe and reliable power delivery, and meet the regulatory mandates governing the industry.

Highly configurable to meet each utility company’s unique operational requirements, EpochField offers these and other advanced features:

Mobile offline collection and viewing of asset data for field personnel who are often working in remote locales, without an Internet connection
High-performance digital maps that display geospatial data holistically and dynamically update as the system processes new data
Configurable work order forms that are produced automatically based on field mapping data

Discover how the EpochField platform can transform your utility’s joint use asset management. Schedule a demo today.

Is Your Field Solution Configurable to Meet Your Telecom Operation Needs?

Posted on March 15, 2023June 18, 2025 by Epoch Solutions Group

The technology environment that powers telecom field operations has never been more complex. Legacy systems must work alongside and connect with a growing number of other systems and applications, within a distributed network environment, often involving a mix of cloud-based, on-site, and mobile solutions.

Telecom field operations are also challenged by many pressures—from customers’ escalating demands for fast and reliable service, to aging equipment and network infrastructure assets and evolving regulatory requirements. In this environment, it’s critical that you can deploy your field crews effectively and accurately across a wide service area, so they can maintain your assets and infrastructure efficiently.

To overcome these challenges, telecom providers increasingly rely on GPS-based field workforce management solutions that digitize field operations, reduce manual touchpoints by automating workflows, boost field productivity, and allow teams to provide first-issue resolution to service requests. Capitalizing on these advantages requires not only choosing the right solution and partner, but configuring the platform to meet your telecom’s specific requirements and suit the way you work.

Leveraging the Power of Geospatial Technology and Digitization

Whether they’re installing or maintaining cable, poles, or cell towers, or resolving customer service-related issues, telecom field technicians and the dispatchers who schedule them need accurate, real-time information about field asset location and condition. That’s where robust telecom asset management software makes the difference.

Today’s digitized platforms capitalize on the power of geospatial technology to deliver real-time data on field crews and assets—enabling telecom providers to speed and streamline critical workflows, provide first-issue resolution, and boost productivity.

To deliver these benefits, field workforce management solutions need to capture, sync, and share field operations data in real time and provide an accurate view of conditions on the ground. Within an increasingly complicated telecom network environment, these platforms must be able to process and access field asset data across multiple systems, applications, and devices throughout the enterprise—from back-office servers to cloud-based applications and mobile devices.

It Starts with the Right Digitized Field Operations Platform

The telecom industry’s unique operational demands require infrastructure solutions that are flexible and configurable to the requirements of each enterprise. Before standardizing on a field workforce digitization platform, you need assurance it can evolve as your telecom business does—whether you’re adding or upgrading assets or expanding your service area.

The essential foundation is a field workforce management solution that’s purpose-built for the telecom industry and able to be configured to the way you work. When selecting a telecom-specific field workforce management solution, features like these should be high on the list of criteria:

A solution that digitizes both asset data and field crew data
A platform that integrates and communicates with your entire application stack and all your databases, including business process and CRM applications from third parties like Esri, SAP, and Oracle
Automation of all the workflows associated with field workforce management—from assigning and dispatching crews, to creating work orders, scheduling maintenance, and more
Real-time, two-way data synchronization between the field team’s mobile devices and the company’s back-end systems and cloud-based applications, with a mobile app that’s compatible with Android, Windows, and iOS devices
A GIS-based solution that leverages field mapping data for fast, efficient deployment of field crews and other resources
A holistic, digitized map view of the field service area, automatically updated as work is completed and crews are deployed to the next job
An interface that streamlines and simplifies the work, with dashboards that provide an accurate view of the service area and drag-and-drop features for assigning crews

Contact an Epoch Sales Consultant today ⟶

Configuring A Platform That Supports How Your Telecom Crews Work

Beyond a feature-rich platform purpose-built for the telecom industry, you need the ability to configure the solution to support how your company works. Since no two telecom providers operate the same way, configurability is paramount to a successful experience.

Configurability features like these are essential when choosing a digitized field workforce management platform:

Workflow builder. A flexible workflow builder application makes it easy to build, view, edit, and configure the work forms that field crews use on their mobile devices. The best platforms support creating intelligent work forms with appropriate fields and validation rules for data entry and values.
Optimized scheduling/routing. A configurable field workforce management platform makes it easy to set parameters and rules for how crews are scheduled, dispatched, and routed for high efficiency—for example, accounting for a unplanned sick day or a scheduled vacation day. It’s equally essential to have the ability to segment scheduling by user or by user roles and groups you define, with automated notifications by text or email. The use of Python scripts allows automation of these tasks to be configured in ways that best suit each telecom provider’s requirements.
Queue mechanisms. A well-designed field workforce management platform will incorporate queue mechanisms for handling long-term processing tasks. For example, creating work orders for telecom field crews requires tracing a fiber optic cable to identify all fibers in need of inspection and/or replacement.

Supporting Your Digitized Platform

Standardizing on a field workforce platform that can be configured to meet your needs today as well as keep up with your evolving needs is vital. Yet it’s equally important to consider the service and support that will back up your chosen solution.

Look for a partner that provides ready access to technical experts with the engineering knowledge and industry-specific experience it takes to support a telecom field workforce management solution effectively. You should expect advice and insights on ways to evolve and configure your platform to keep up with your changing needs.

Your selected vendor also should be fully staffed with engineers, project managers, and other specialists who will work with your team to configure the platform’s features and functionality to suit how you operate. That’s especially critical when it comes to architecting workflows that improve field crew productivity and efficiency. Your platform partner can help bring together the various stakeholders you need input from on the front end, conducting pre-design workshops that ensure your platform is configured to achieve your desired outcomes.

How Epoch Solutions Group Can Help

Making the transition from handling field workforce management tasks manually to digitally transforming the process might sound daunting. But platforms like EpochField make the move smooth and easy.

The EpochField interface is intuitive to use, simplifying the transition for your field crews and operations staff. And with the highly experienced Epoch Solutions Group technical team as your partner, you can be assured your EpochField platform will be implemented in the configuration your telecom company needs to optimize your resources, expedite response times, and deliver the reliable service your customers expect.

Discover how the EpochField platform can transform your telecom field workforce management. Schedule a demo today!

Guide to Improving Telecom Workflows for Better Customer Service

5 Ways Automation is Transforming Telecom Field Operations Workflows

Posted on March 2, 2023June 18, 2025 by Epoch Solutions Group

With demand for mobile data services skyrocketing in the last several years, telecommunications providers are devoting significant resources to expand their network capacity and ensure fast, reliable connectivity for customers. Achieving these vital goals depends on effective and efficient telecom field operations workflows.

Telecommunications companies can no longer rely on manual, labor-intensive, inefficient processes to manage critical tasks like scheduling work crews, dispatching teams to where they are most needed, or deciding how to best manage vegetation to avoid fall-in and grow-in risks. To improve how they install, maintain, and repair equipment and infrastructure in the field and optimize field technician deployment, leading telecom companies are turning to geospatial software specifically designed and built to improve telecom field operations.

Geospatial and digitization technology has the power to transform telecom operations by automating field operations workflows—improving field-to-office communication, reducing manual touchpoints, increasing field crew efficiency and productivity, and improving the customer experience. These solutions also make critical infrastructure data easily accessible for real-time reporting, analysis, and decision making.

Here are five telecom field operations workflows that geospatial and digitization technologies can greatly improve through automation.

1. Scheduling Field Crews

It can be challenging for telecom companies to schedule huge teams of field personnel across large geographic areas. Navigating obstacles like difficult landscapes, large data volumes, and remote regions can make the scheduling task especially tough. Yet an effective field operation demands efficient field crew scheduling.

By using a GIS solution that digitizes and synchs field data across disparate applications, telecom back-office teams can gain greater control in managing field staff scheduling, while streamlining the process by eliminating manual steps. Map-based geospatial software for telecommunications makes it easy to visualize both scheduled work and work to be scheduled in real time, for a more proactive approach to scheduling. And by mapping the telecom infrastructure, these solutions facilitate more informed crew scheduling decisions based on situational awareness of on-the-ground conditions, while accounting for factors like an employee’s upcoming time off or other unavailable time blocks.

2. Assigning and Dispatching Field Crews

Making the best decisions about where to assign and deploy telecom work crews is essential to an effective field operation, but it’s highly dependent on a significant volume of data, often residing across different systems. That makes the task of assigning and dispatching field crews an ideal case for automation.

A robust telecom field workforce management solution can ensure all the data that’s relevant to effective assignments and dispatching is captured and stored in a single database for easy access by back-office teams. Using a visual map-based dashboard, these telecom teams can see where field work crews, equipment, and other resources are currently located and make informed decisions about where to deploy those resources next. The most advanced solutions can even generate automatic dispatch instructions. As technologies like AI become more widely used, field workforce management platforms will begin to leverage historical data to develop predictive models that further improve how telecom companies assign and dispatch field crews.

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3. Scheduling Proactive Maintenance

To ensure optimal uptime and access for customers, telecom providers need the ability to identify the field assets in most need of service based on their condition and maintenance history. With easy access to that information, back-office teams can assign field crews to the critical task of infrastructure maintenance, optimally and efficiently.

Automating this workflow with GIS mapping technology gives telecom providers the power to trace and track infrastructure asset condition throughout its lifecycle while also tracking field crew and equipment location in real time—all through a single, map-based interface. These advanced field workforce management tools enable back-office teams to assess the inspection, maintenance, and repair records of each asset on the map, then assign and dispatch field crews accordingly, at the touch of a screen.

4. Creating Work Orders

Today’s consumers increasingly expect first-issue resolution from every company they do business with, achieving a satisfactory resolution after their initial service inquiry. To meet that expectation, field crews need accurate work orders that enable them to get the job done quickly and efficiently on behalf of the telecom’s customers. But when this workflow is handled manually, errors and delays are likely to occur—reducing field crews’ productivity and preventing telecom companies from providing the exceptional service experience and first-issue resolution that customers demand.

Advanced geospatial field force management solutions automate and improve how telecom companies create work orders for their field crews. Accurate work orders are generated from the results of network tracing operations; then those work orders are immediately accessible for back-office teams and field crews to view and process. The most robust solutions even include route optimization capabilities, equipping field crews with the fastest route to the next assignment.

5. Managing Vegetation

Unless it’s controlled and managed properly, vegetation can become overgrown and encroach on telecommunications field equipment, especially cell tower sites. To keep vegetation from interrupting mobile service to customers, damaging property, or endangering lives, telecom companies need accurate data on the state of vegetation near every field asset. But that data often originates from many different sources (including aerial images and field crew documentation) and typically exists in a mix of both manual and digital formats.

Today’s field force management solutions make it easier for telecom companies to plan how to manage vegetation by collecting and providing access to accurate, real-time data on the state of vegetation around their valuable field assets and infrastructure. With a dynamic view of how vegetation is growing across large geographic areas, telecom providers can employ the most effective vegetation management practices to reduce fall-in and grow-in risks and stay compliant with federal, state, and local regulations.

With a robust field management solution like EpochField that utilizes geospatial technology, your telecommunications company can easily automate your most important telecom field operations workflows while making it easy for your field workforce to use. EpochField transforms how your telecom field crews and back-office teams work—enabling you to improve efficiency and productivity, reduce operational costs, and deliver the fast, reliable connectivity and service your customers demand.

Schedule an EpochField demonstration to learn how we can deliver these benefits for your telecom company.

Digitize Telecom Field Operations for First-Issue Resolution, Every Time

Posted on February 16, 2023June 18, 2025 by Epoch Solutions Group

Customer service is a challenging proposition for telecommunications companies. Managing the service work performed by field crews involves directing a large and dispersed workforce, tracking and managing equipment, personnel, and technological assets, and ensuring that the customer experience you provide leaves a positive impression of your employees, service offering, and company overall.

Consider also that the service requirements of consumers have never been higher. Today, customers are used to getting first-issue resolution from the brands they frequent, whereby their problems are resolved immediately, during the initial service inquiry. Addressing customer concerns during these pivotal interactions takes informed field crews, and that requires them to have easy, broad access to operational data. Not to mention that many customers expect their access to be proactively managed and outages to be virtually eliminated when it comes to their Internet access.

Here’s why first-issue resolution is so important to a telecom’s business model, and how implementing an enterprise-wide digitization platform for workforce management can translate into better, more informed service experiences.

Customers Hate to Wait

According to HubSpot Research, 33% of customers “are most frustrated by having to wait for service and 33% are most frustrated by having to repeat themselves to multiple support reps.” When a customer interacts with a field worker, they expect that person to have access to all the information they need to do their job. They do not want to have repeat the problems they have experienced or find out the service technician doesn’t have the equipment they need to fix the issue. Today’s consumer is accustomed to the kind of real-time data access delivered by the likes of Amazon and Uber.

Implementing an enterprise-grade telecom asset management platform allows back-office administrators and field crews to have access to all the data they need to do their jobs well. This is because these enterprise-wide solutions enable integration across systems, applications, and users, allowing field data to be disseminated and synched across the environment in real time.

With operational data dynamically updating for everyone, they can easily pinpoint when and where outages have occurred, which customers are impacted, and which field crews are located in proximity to the site in question. This data can then guide decision making so service is expedited, and issues are resolved quickly – often with just a single service interaction.

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Information Drives Customer Confidence, Grows Relationships

Research conducted by Qualtrics XM Institute shows that “compared to after a 1-2- star experience, after a 5-star experience consumers are 3.6x more likely to recommend, 3.3x more likely to trust, and 2.6x more likely to purchase more.”

However, the telecommunications industry is highly competitive, with customers constantly being wooed by a long list of providers. As a telecom, your service model must deliver a 5-star experience for customers at every touchpoint – or they are likely to seek services elsewhere.

With the real-time data access enabled by platform-grade telecom asset management solutions, your teams can keep customers informed on the progress of field service work once it is ordered. Accordingly, customers always know when field crews will arrive on-site, what issues are being addressed, and when service will be restored. The ability to track your progress puts customers at ease as they feel heard, informed, and valued, a paradigm that instills confidence in your brand.

More Data Means Fewer Service Requests

With the deep data visibility enabled through digitization, your teams can coordinate more effectively and take a more proactive stance as well in addressing network maintenance, repairs, and upgrades. As a result, your company can more effectively run predictive models on network performance and troubleshoot many potential problems before they occur.

Ultimately, the best service experience you can provide for customers is one of reliability. And the best way to deliver service uptime is by preventing issues in the first place. With an enterprise-grade workforce management platform in place, your teams are well supported with the universal data access they need to prevent network issues – and better meet customer needs for first-issue resolution when problems occur.

When service calls are needed on their end, and the data your field team needs to complete the work successfully and on time, your customers are happier, and your internal teams can remain focused on what they do best: improving network performance and driving innovation to keep customers engaged and loyal to your brand for the long term.

See how an enterprise-grade telecom workforce asset management platform can unlock data, transform your service model, and grow customer relationships.

Managing Utility Field Service Digital Transformation into the Next Decade: Featuring Industry Expert Peter Kelly-Detwiler

Posted on February 2, 2023June 18, 2025 by Epoch Solutions Group

It’s evident that the utility industry will undergo a significant digital transformation over the next 10 years. How will the convergence of new technologies, new energy sources, and an increasingly complex distribution grid affect utilities in the coming years? And how can you assure your field services teams are prepared to work as safely and efficiently as possible in this rapidly evolving environment?

This was the focus of our recent webinar, Managing Utility Field Service Digital Transformation into the Next Decade. This exclusive conversation, hosted by Epoch Solutions Group founder and CEO James Street, featured Peter Kelly-Detwiler, an acclaimed thought leader in the energy industry and a highly sought speaker, author, and consultant. Peter regularly advises energy industry leaders on the latest trends and how these developments will impact their organizations.

Insights on a Future Filled with Change

During this interactive webinar, Peter and James discussed the tremendous changes on the horizon for the utility industry, how these shifts will affect the work of field services teams, and the tools and technologies that field crews will need in order to operate safely and effectively.

A key topic was the projected impact of the industry’s move toward the “three Ds”— decarbonization, digitalization, and decentralization—three trends that will make the distribution grid increasingly dynamic and complex.

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For example, Peter and James reviewed how escalating climate risks are creating greater pressure to improve vegetation management and facilitate the work of out-of-state crews during the increasingly frequent and prolonged weather-related outages. They discussed the ways in which the continued move to solar and other renewable energy sources—along with the rapid adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and the evolution to vehicle-to-grid (V2G) EVs—will make the grid more data intensive and more challenging to manage. And they outlined how these transitions will impact field crews working in low-voltage environments, creating a need for technologies that provide better situational awareness and a more accurate picture of the facts on the ground by integrating local system modeling and real-time updates.

Get More Insights

This engaging webinar offered a glimpse into the future of the distribution grid and what the utility field crews of tomorrow will need in order to complete their jobs efficiently, effectively, and safely. We invite you to download the webinar recording for insights on the trends that are already beginning to impact your utility field crews.

Schedule a demo to learn how the EpochField mobile workforce management solution can help.

7 Ways to Transform Your Telecom with GIS Field Management Technology

Posted on January 25, 2023June 18, 2025 by Ciara Tobin

For telecommunications companies, effectively managing assets, documenting those activities, and scheduling any necessary maintenance or damage response are all essential to promoting operational efficiencies and service uptime. Having real-time data on how personnel, equipment, and infrastructure are performing across the service area allows telecom field crews and back-office teams to streamline the scheduling of routine maintenance, inspections, and service calls, and enables the swift response times consumers expect when outages occur.

To unlock the high levels of situational awareness telecom companies need today, they are increasingly investing in advanced GIS mapping solutions that capture and process field asset data digitally, in real time. With this critical infrastructure data at their fingertips, field operations teams can quickly assess conditions on the ground and make more informed scheduling, dispatching, and planning decisions accordingly, meeting the ever-rising expectations of their customers.

So, how can telecom companies leverage GIS asset management technologies to improve their operations, reduce outages, and deliver exceptional service to their customers? Here are a few pivotal use cases for GIS mapping solutions that speak to the benefits of the technology.

1. Using Data to Drive Maintenance and Repair Decisions

GIS mapping technology allows telecoms to automatically trace and track the history and condition of infrastructure assets throughout their lifecycles. With this technology, internal teams can also track the exact whereabouts of field crews, equipment, and vehicles in real time – and view all this field data through one holistic, digital map-based interface. Using intuitive navigation tools, these interactive dashboards allow back-office teams to drill down into inspection, maintenance, and repair records for infrastructure assets displayed on the map, determine which assets are in most need of servicing, and – with touch-screen simplicity – automatically generate field crew assignments, work orders, and dispatching instructions. Automating Workflows

With the right telecom asset management platform, companies can automate many manual processes impacting their productivity. For example, an advanced, enterprise-grade solution can automatically trace and track where field crews and equipment are located as they move from place to place. Intuitive, touch-screen interfaces allow field data to be displayed dynamically, in real-time and in detail, on interactive digital maps that populate via GIS software and are operated with touch-screen simplicity.

When selecting a telecom management software solution, look for features that allows teams to schedule and dispatch crews automatically, segmented by user, user roles, and groups – and that automatically notify crews of their assignments by text and email, including where and when to report for service calls, what equipment is needed, and the optimum routes to get there.

2. Leveraging Data to Expedite Field Crew Scheduling

Modern GIS mapping solutions drive scheduling across the entire service area as well, allowing back-office teams to automate the many processes and workflows involved in field operations management. Because field data is seamlessly integrated across a telecom’s enterprise, field crew scheduling can be conducted based on a breadth of information, including which crew members are available at any given time, what their skillsets are, and their proximity to infrastructure assets in need of attention. Once field work is scheduled, the work orders are immediately accessible for viewing and processing by all stakeholders, from back-office teams to crews out in the field. The most advanced solutions on the market also include route optimization tools that automatically provide field workers with the fastest route to get to their next assignments, which is particularly important when managing unplanned work.

3. Reducing Manual Touchpoints – And the Associated Human Errors

Field data collection today is still typically handled through a hybrid model whereby information is captured through both digital and manual processes. For back-office scheduling and dispatching teams, that often means scanning and keying in data from hand-written field crew notes and schematics and combining it with digital photos, video footage, online communications, and other data sources. This labor-intensive data collection process slows operational productivity, hampers decision-making processes, and is prone to human error. With an advanced GIS mapping solution in place, telecommunications companies can take advantage of integrated workflow automation technology to digitally collect, process, store, and synch field data across systems and applications. As a result, they can dramatically reduce the manual labor involved in data collection – and eliminate opportunities for clerical errors.

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4. Establishing a Comprehensive, Centralized Data Repository

Crews need real-time access to field data to get their work done properly once on site. When data access is limited – or when field data is outdated altogether – crews must pause what they are doing and check in with the home office by phone or email to clarify their next steps. Using an advanced GIS mapping solution allows all stakeholders, from frontline field crews to back-office schedulers and dispatchers, to be working off the same page, with data on infrastructure assets synched in real time across all the systems, applications, and devices they use. In turn, field crews arrive on site with full visibility into what needs to be done so they can conduct routine work more efficiently and strategically address any unplanned issues as well.

5. Leveraging Mobile Devices in the Field

Field crews are comprised of a mix of full-time, part-time, and contracted workers, each with their own smartphones, tablets, and other computing devices. And they are employed by telecoms in the thousands. To keep field crews seamlessly connected and communicating with back-office teams, the most advanced GIS mapping solutions on the market come with a mobile app that is easily downloaded and operated from any Windows, Android, or iOS-based device. Empowering field crews with the ability to conduct and report on their work via their own smartphones equips all employees with the data they need to nimbly and intelligently respond to conditions in the field, collaborate and troubleshoot more effectively, provide first time resolution, and better ensure that infrastructure assets are performing optimally.

6. Improving Customer Experiences

Today’s digital-first consumers and businesses have come to expect broad real-time data access for virtually any service they use – from Amazon deliveries to Uber ridesharing and restaurant wait times – and they expect the same kind of experience from a telecommunications provider. The deep situational awareness enabled by GIS asset management tools allows telecom employees that interact with the public – from contact center agents to field crew teams – to keep customers informed on exactly when workers will arrive, what type of work is being performed, and how quickly services will be completed.

7. Saving Time, Labor, and Costs

Without the deep data access and visibility enabled by GIS mapping technologies, telecommunications companies may find their crews crisscrossing the vast service areas they manage to address issues that pop up unexpectedly in a scattershot manner. By contrast, having geospatial data universally accessible allows telecom employees to move from a reactive posture to a more proactive stance, in which they can identify and mitigate infrastructure issues and risks before costly outages occur. As a result, an investment in GIS asset management technology helps telecommunications companies operate more efficiently and strategically, cut their response times, save time and labor, and deliver better outcomes for the communities they serve.

3 Ways to Enhance Your Telecom Team’s Service Proposition

Posted on January 18, 2023June 18, 2025 by Ciara Tobin

For telecommunications companies today, the ability to operate more efficiently is imperative to sustainable growth and success going forward. Rising costs due to inflation and the complexities involved in deploying new telecommunications GIS and networking technologies are making it increasingly challenging for providers to ensure the reliable, affordable service and prompt issue resolution customers expect.

Additionally, the sheer expanse of telecommunications networks and the vast, hybrid workforce required to keep infrastructure and equipment up and running offer prime opportunities to use effective digital solutions. While companies industry-wide recognize the need to modernize their telecom software solutions, as noted by EY, their “ability to transform through new technologies is hampered by complexity in various forms. Human factors are also limiting progress.”

To meet their operational challenges, telecommunications companies must invest in digitization and telecom automation technologies to aide in workforce management. While these technologies hold promise to streamline and accelerate critical workflows, there are many telecom asset management software solutions available, from dedicated point tools that address specific processes to enterprise-wide platforms that integrate the infrastructure and drive workflows across the continuum.

Here are three reasons to embrace a holistic, platform-level approach to telecommunications lifecycle management. Read on to see how investing in the right asset management software solution can increase productivity for improved uptime, faster, more informed service interactions, and better customer experiences overall.

Unlocking Data

Investing in an enterprise-grade, digitized workforce management platform can help telecommunications companies speed response times to service requests. With the right solution in place, operations data can be captured, synched, and shared in real time, providing agents, field crews, customers, and other stakeholders with the ongoing, 360-degree view of network operations needed to promptly address issues and troubleshoot potential problems before they occur.

The most advanced telecom asset management software solutions on the market allow data to be stored, processed, and accessed across all systems and applications – from the thousands of mobile devices field workers carry with them to back-office servers and solutions deployed in the cloud. Universal real-time access to operations data allows telecommunications companies to make more informed, strategic decisions at the macro level – and to keep customers updated on the progress of their individual service requests as work is being performed.

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Automating Workflows

Embracing Innovation

An advanced platform-level digitization and telecom automation solution should also serve the needs of your customers for years to come. Accordingly, it should allow you to expand and upgrade the network with new features and applications that will improve uptime and enhance service experiences as a result.

The platform you select should tie systems and applications together into one, holistic technological ecosystem, including all software and hardware assets you have deployed, from mobile field apps to GIS and CRM applications driving your business. The platform should also be highly flexible, configurable, and extensible by design, so you can scale your operations according to fluctuating demands while deploying new AI, machine learning, and other data-intensive applications that continue to transform the industry.

The ability to migrate applications, data, and workflows from on-premise servers to cloud resources is essential as well as this paradigm will allow your IT staff to work at velocity as they implement new features and applications in service to customers. And the ability to operate the solution’s mobile companion app offline will allow field workers to seamlessly capture and record data for real-time dissemination across all systems and applications once Internet connections are restored.

Beyond Technology

To ensure that you deliver on your customers’ expectations now and in the future takes more than just the right technologies. It also requires your company to align with partners who understand well your service challenges and can help you construct a technological roadmap to advance your goals and vision.

To that end, be sure you are partnering with a technology provider that will work with you to design a comprehensive plan for your future infrastructure – and that offers the development, deployment, service, and support resources needed to deploy new technologies as they are brought to market.

At Epoch Solutions Group, we offer the technology, service, and support resources you need to achieve just that. Our EpochField enterprise-grade telecom asset management platform digitizes field data to deliver real-time situational awareness across the network while automating critical manual processes to ease staff members’ workloads and accelerate service response times for customers. And it is available as both an on-premise or SaaS solution.

Our training, implementation, and support teams are there for you every step of the way, from the design and development phases of a project through the platform’s roll-out and beyond. And because our track record in the industry extends back decades, we bring to your implementation a deep understanding of the technological, operational, and customer service challenges you face today – and proven best practices you can easily adopt now to improve experiences and outcomes down the road.