ArcGIS and Telecommunication Fulfillment & Operations
The unique activities, challenges, and solutions for telecommunication network fulfillment and operations.
The operational side of a telecommunications business represents the daily tasks that need to be done to keep a telecom network running smoothly and customers happy. There are a lot of activities on this side of the business, but in this StoryMap let's break the topic into 2 buckets; fulfillment and operations. These topics are general, but in short, fulfillment looks at the overall service orchestration from when a customer identifies the need for service all the way down to turning up that service. Operations simply refers to the general operational management of the business, day to day. In both cases there are many systems involved in the support of some unique workflows, some of which can benefit from spatially enabled tools. Let's take a moment to look at the activities, challenges, and ArcGIS related solutions that can be used to support operators on the fulfillment and operational side of their business.
The Activities
There are many activities that happen across the enterprise of a telecommunication organization. Within these activities there are many details that can benefit from the ArcGIS system. The reason? Many aspects of the telecom enterprise happen somewhere, in geographic space. With location underpinning a telecom operator's infrastructure, product, and operational requirements, the ArcGIS system solution is in an ideal position to help support many of these activities.
ArcGIS for the Telecommunications Domain
Of course, there is too much to chew on in one sitting, so for this discussion we will focus on the operational side of a telecom operator's business. How can the ArcGIS system help? Let's explore the high level details of these activities, highlight some the challenges that an operator may have around these activities, and finally, let's look at the ArcGIS ecosystem to see what environments, tools, and apps can be used to support each of the activities.
As-Built Corrections and Map Notes
In brownfield and greenfield deployments, network changes are inevitable. These changes communicated by build partners and subcontractors need to be updated in an operators' system of record. An important part of network operations and maintenance is the need to keep the details around the as-built network up to date. There is always a consistent backlog of network as-builts that need to be updated into the system of record because of the continuing growth and evolution of a telecommunication network.
The Activity
What are "As-builts"? It means, what was actually built in the real world versus what was "planned" for or "designed" for. So, you can imagine in the world of telecom, planning and engineering departments will design something, give it to construction crews, and they go out to the field and try to implement the design. This could be for new network or changes to existing network. In either case, what is exactly planned isn't always what is implemented. And so, what typically happens is that the field crew will do work and document their "as-builts". The as-builts, in turn, get sent back to the operator's engineering and planning department for validation and submission into their formal system of record for the network.
The Challenge
The challenge starts with how these as-builts or changes to the network are documented. The operational field staff, either from an operator or from a subcontractor point of view, will go out and make changes using whatever documentation tools they have available. This means that the tools used to document the as-builts are different/disconnected from what the operator leverages for planning and engineering. So, simple changes take time getting back into the system of record because it has to be validated and then translated into a format that aligns with the network system of record. If there are many updates to the network, you can imagine the backlog of work that needs to be translated from field documentation into the network system of record. This is slow, time consuming, and the backlog can have downstream effects to other operational activities. In the end, the changes to the network need to be conveyed in an accurate and timely fashion back to the operator. This isn't always the case.
The Solution
To support the "as-built" and "map corrections" activity, a single solution is needed. One that:
- Provides internal and external stakeholders access to network information
- Allows network information to be updated in a controlled workflow
- Allows changes to automatically update the master system of record upon validation.
The ArcGIS ecosystem is a great way to support this workflow in that it provides tools to distribute, update, validate, and formalize as-built changes becuase of the geographic nature of the network. Tools such as:
- ArcGIS Field Maps
- ArcGIS Survey123
deployed with
- ArcGIS Online or
- ArcGIS Enterprise
are great for entering red line changes directly into the network system of record. Coupled with the ArcGIS Utility Network, the entire office-field-office red-line and map notes workflow can be managed and controlled with business logic enforced across all devices and business units allowing for real-time changes in the field to be reflected instantly and with no intermediate need to redesign or reimport!
Service Qualification and Provisioning
Service qualification and provisioning corresponds to the initiatives, activities, and tasks needed to help "sell" telecommunication products and services. It is as easy as thinking of network data communication as a commodity. Pipes can carry water and gas. Cables can carry electricity and data. The ability to carry data for connectivity purposes is the fundamental service an operator is offering and so, once a network is built and operational, it is time to monetize this commodity. Sales and marketing teams will work to advertise the network and the services that are available to the general public for consumption. Where you need service will determine whether you can get service or not, and the type of service that can be delivered. Location, in this activity is very important.
The Activity
As mentioned, service qualification is an important activity inside a telecom operator's business. It is basically the first step in providing a customer with service. Business or commercial markets, it doesn't matter. Requesting telecommunication service depends on where you are located. We have all been through this before. Enter a location or address into a web form to see what kind of services one can receive. Voila! Service qualification.
The provisioning side of things happens on the tail end of the the service inquiry process, but still related to the location in finding the closest network access point, hooking up the business or residence, and then turning on the service to start the billing process!
The Challenge
Quite often, the challenge that operators have is bringing together the right data and the right tools to enable serviceability apps with the accuracy needed to identify whether or not a customer can get service. Operators need accurate addressing data. Operators need access to network information. Operators need to have integrated workflows to support a service. If a customer chooses to move forward with service, how does this information make its way down to the system of record for provisioning? In summary, operators need data, tools, apps, and workflows to support the serviceability process, and this all starts with location.
The Solution
The ArcGIS system is ideally positioned to help with the service qualification and provisioning process. Understanding if service is available based on location is a geographic question that is easily solved using the ArcGIS system combining addressing data and network data into a solution and workflow that supports the various results of the serviceability question. ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise represent the foundational system components to help manage addressing and network data while tools like:
- ArcGIS Experience Builder
- ArcGIS Survey123
- ArcGIS Dashboards
- ArcGIS Field Maps
are used to pull together service qualification apps and workflows to support network inquiries for service.
Check out the Service Qualification solution from Esri's ArcGIS Solutions page to learn more, use, and/or extended the possibilities of the solution:
NOC Monitoring
NOC is an acronym for Network Operations Center. The NOC is the hub where telecom operators will monitor important KPIs (Key Process Indicators) regarding the various elements of the network. Being on the operational side of things, this relates to the "monitoring" of fixed line or wireless network deployments. NOC monitoring gives telecom operators the opportunity to easily drive insight on the real-time or near-real time elements of the network and quickly respond to scenarios that need action or attention.
The Activity
As mentioned, NOC monitoring refers to the monitoring of specific KPIs related to fixed line or wireless network assets. Operators want to have as current a view as possible on important metrics about the network and supporting assets to make sure that the overall ecosystem is operating as smoothly and efficiently as possible. Having an up-to-date view of the network also gives operators the ability to stay ahead of any incidents that can cause an interruption to service. This allows them to be proactive and respond to incidents before complaints start flooding customer support.
The Challenge
As you can imagine, bringing together network metrics from a variety of disparate systems into a single, common operating picture is difficult to do. Operators have many systems with their own proprietary view into the network. Quite often there is no real common denominator that allows them to aggregate information in a fashion that highlights location in the real world. In the end, a traditional NOC can be overwhelming in terms of the UIs present that one needs to keep tabs on AND if the KPIs and metrics are not tied to the geography of an asset, taking action on parts of the network can be difficult to do because NOC teams must dive into a particular system outside of their monitoring feeds to figure out exactly the root cause of the issue and where to troubleshoot it.
The Solution
An enterprise GIS is the ideal system aggregator becuase it can tie metrics from a variety of disparate systems and data repositories with the geography of the asset to see exactly what is the problem and where. Yup. Geography! The combination of ArcGIS Enterprise, ArcGIS Online, and ArcGIS Dashboards is an excellent way to aggregate metrics from a variety of OSS and BSS systems and tie those metrics to a map view that highlights the location of assets, asset attributes, and other important KPIs that an operator would want to monitor. This gives an operator a wholistic view of many dependent items, operating together in a footprint that highlights the network in the physical environment.
Damage Assessment
Damage to the network is inevitable. The damage could be the result of mother nature or self-inflicted. The list of variables that can impact/damage the network is long. In any case, when there is direct damage to the network or to infrastructure that affects the network, how is the damage identified, assessed, and acted on?
The Activity
The damage assessment activity is applicable to all domains across the utilities space. In all cases, incidents of outages, potentially related to direct damage to physical assets, need to be identified and rectified as quickly as possible. The telecommunications space is no different. Whenever there is a service interruption to communications connectivity, operators will work to troubleshoot the service interruption by narrowing down the root cause of the impacted network. Once they are able to do this, they will identify the equipment of concern, open a service ticket to investigate the equipment, and then determine if a truck roll is needed to go to the field to do some hands on troubleshooting. Once the problem is rectified, and the service is back up running, the trouble ticket is then closed and on to the next one . . .
The Challenge
The challenge that most operators face is the ability to pass network asset details, including equipment location and equipment details into the same ticketing system that manages the operational workforce attending a field service call. Essentially, having visibility of the network alongside the dispatch details inside of a ticketing system/damage management application is not always easy to come by. These two types of systems typically operate independent of each other. One system is used to manage the entire service ticket and damage assessment workflow while the other system is used to document the details of the physical network. When troubleshooting an issue, operators want to have both elements in the same view, but limitations turn this into a swivel chair workflow making it difficult and time consuming to solve an issue quickly.
The Solution
Why not leverage the ArcGIS system of tools to combine the information from a ticketing system and the engineering plant system into a single, cohesive view for damage assessment and remediation? The ArcGIS ecosystem of spatial tools and applications can give operators the flexibility to build damage assessment solutions in an on-premise or SaaS environment. Tools like:
- ArcGIS Experience Builder
- ArcGIS Workforce
- ArcGIS Dashboards
deployed on top of ArcGIS Enterprise or ArcGIS Online, can be used to build a Damage Assessment Center solution that combines the network, service tickets, and the operational workforce, together, into a single solution to help manage and respond to impacts of service!
Check out the Outage Damage Assessment Solution on the ArcGIS Solutions page to get started:
There are many, many activities that happen on the operational side of the business for a telecom operator. Looking closely at these activities, one might be surprised to see the relationship of tasks and how GIS can be used to help streamline and support such tasks. Some of these tasks are simple, others, well . . . more complicated. What is clear is that an enterprise GIS system is no longer a nice to have element of the telecom enterprise. No. GIS has become an essential part of an operator's OSS and BSS toolkit. Integrating geography into the collection of operational workflows critical to the smooth and streamlined operation of a telecommunication network is more important than perhaps ever before!
About Esri Canada
Founded in 1984, Esri Canada provides geographic information system (GIS) solutions that empower people in business, government and education to make informed and timely decisions by leveraging the power of mapping and spatial analytics. These solutions enable organizations to better manage their resources, plan their future and collaborate within and beyond their organization. Esri Canada’s products and services help advance successful digital transformation. The company serves 12,000 organizations from 16 offices across Canada and is based in Toronto. In 2019, Esri Canada achieved Platinum Club status with the Canada's Best Managed Companies program by retaining its Best Managed designation for seven consecutive years or more. More information can be found at esri.ca .
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