Author: 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.

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.

Contact us to request your free consultation and EpochField demonstration today.

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.

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.

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.

Contact us to request your free consultation and EpochField demonstration today.