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Local Network Management System an experience in AM/FM project implementation in Telekom Malaysia
Ir Lai Hook Kian
Head of LNMS Project Team, Telekom Malaysia
9’hFloor, Bangunan Telekom Brickfields,
Jalan Tun Sambanthan
50470 Kuala Lumpur
Ir Lai Hook Kian
Head of LNMS Project Team, Telekom Malaysia
9’hFloor, Bangunan Telekom Brickfields,
Jalan Tun Sambanthan
50470 Kuala Lumpur
Abstract
The paper will highlight the applications, the justifications for a complete roll-out of the AM/FM system in Telekom Malaysia, a telecommunication operator in Malaysia with four millions subscribers base, as part of the corporate IT plan to meet competitions now and the years ahead. In addition, it will highlight implementation strategy for the fast country-wide deployment, the benefits now realized with the AM/FM application. The justification for an in-house data conversion program will also be discussed.
Introduction
Telekom Malaysia is the main telecommunicationcompany in Malaysia. The company provides all types of telecommunication services to its growing customer base of about four million. The network facilities has been expanding at a very fast pace since the introduction of competition in the telecommunication industry in Malaysia. As a result of this expansion, it is becoming more difficult to cope with planning and managing the growing customer access network through the conventional method of manual drafting and paper records. Over the years, with movement of personnel and offices, the quality and completeness of paper record has deteriorated significantly. It is increasingly difficult for engineer to obtain quality paper record for planning as well as maintenance of the network, thus delaying Telekom Malaysia capability to response to market demand.
Realizing the importance of response time to market demand in the competitive environment, both in new network requirement as well as maintenance of existing, Telekom Malaysia embarked on an ambitious program of computerization to overhaul the method of planning and management of customer access network. The project LNMS was thus initiated in 1990, for a field trial of using AM/FM technology to replace manual planning and management of customer access network.
After a long pilot project, lasting from 1990 to 1995, a decision was made to implement the system nation wide in May 1995. An intemationaltender was called in October 1995. Since then, the project has progress at a very fast pace, completing stage 1 of implementation in 7 regional offices, and it is now at the second stage of nation wide roll-out to 7 more regional offices with 5 remote sites.
LNMS Objectives
The overall mission of LNMS project is to plan, develop an implement an interactive computer graphic mapping and facility management for the Customer Access Network. The following are the major objectives of LNMS:
The LNMS project is to be implemented in two phases, i.e:
Phase 1
Pilot implementation at 2 exchange areas. The purpose of the pilot implementation is to fully test the developed application system and to gauge the extent of conversion requirements
Phase 2
National roll-out after completion of Phase I will be phased by Regions to more than 500 exchange areas covering an approximately 330,000 sq. km. of land. The roll-out involves extensive effort to convert over 40,000 physical maps and transform local network planning, development and management function into LNMS.
The implementation of Phase 2 is staggered over 2 stages. Stage 1 involves 7 planning sites whereas Stage 2 involve a further 7 planning sites with 5 remotes site connection.
Phase 1 Implementation
In October 1991, Phase 1 commenced. The scope of work for Phase 1 comprises the development of applications and data conversion of two pilot exchange areas, with about 20,000 ECP each. The project was completed in 1994. Implementation of Phase 1 has provided a valuable experience to the project team. Amongst others, important lessons learned from the implementation are:
Phase 2 Implementation
Critical Success Factors
Other than having a strong project team, two factors were identified as critical to the successful implementation of LNMS Phase 2 project. They are :
The management in approving the implementation of Phase 2, has requested the project team to implement the roll-out in the shortest possible timeframe. The company must benefit from the investment as soon as possible. From the experience of Phase 1 implementation, the project team begin to formulate the implementation strategy for Phase 2. The following was decided:
The major benefit of integrating production of new network with in-house conversion areas follow:
LNMS Phase 2 contains about 70% of Phase 1 application functionalities. The development of the software with full testing took about a year to complete. Major functional modules included in LNMS Phase 2 LNMS’Sareas follow:
Stage 1 of implementation involving 7 Customer Access Network Planning site has been implemented, and new network are planned using the system. Data conversion process has started, and about 30°/0of the network has been converted. The network will be fully converted by end of 1998. Stage 2 of implementation involving 7 main sites and 5 remote site has commenced and by June 1998, all sites will plan through the system. Data conversion for stage 2 is expected to complete by December 2001.
Management Support
To obtain the support of top management, many presentations and briefings were held at the start of the LNMS Phase 2 implementation. Top management from the chief executive to management personnel from human resource, finance and network planning were invited. The project team highlighted various benefit of the system and importance of the system to the company and managed to gain the full hearted support of top management.
Project Implementation Committee
Project steering committee, chaired by the Senior Vice President of network services, oversees the overall implementation of the project. A user committee was setup to review application functionalitiesto ensure that all users will accept the system eventually.
Implementing at Site
The introduction of AM/FM system to regional planning offices requires careful planning and execution of plan. It is important to convince planners who are used to old system, to migrate to new ways of planning. As such, involving users in every stage of the project is extremely important. User must understand the project, its benefit and the impact to them. As such, in implementing the system at each site, the project teams has drawn up the following program:
Production Process Flow
To implement the strategy of production with in-house data conversion, the following process flow has been designed.
The process flow will allow planners to start using LNMS as soon as the Iandbase conversion is completed. However, to make it effective, planners will need proper Organisation structure to support LNMS production process
Organisation Structure
To implement of LNMS production process, the following organization structure was created.
Data Conversion
Data conversion involves the conversion of two basic data: graphic and non-graphic (textual). In order to achieve continuity both type of data are ‘link’and integrated. Therefore, the content of the database is the model of the real network.
The model comprises of- Landbase; Detail Duct and Cable Network; Fundamental Duct and Cable Network and Duct Space Record.
The following describe the steps involved in LNMS Conversion:
Prior to any conversion process, management information tool which comprises of Man-hour and Document Control System will be established:
Before any new schemes can be converted in the system, inventory of available maps and plans against data requirements for affected existing network is required. A source data matrix will be produced in this process which identifies and list the master and supporting source of information for each attribute. Using this matrix, the process of data gathering can be streamline. Searching of information will limit to the available source documents only.
During preparation process, non-availabledata will be identified. If data required fall under critical data for designing of new scheme, field survey will be done for affected area only. Otherwise a default value will be written to indicate the need to update at the latter stage.
Conversion
The first step of LNMS conversion is to start with the creation of a land database. The landbase will be used on]y as graphic presentation basically for the network facility locational referencing. Attributes associated to the Iandbase, such as street name, land use, ownership, etc will be captured in the selected environment during detail cable path conversion process.
The Malaysia map have been compiled on the standard Malaysia Rectified Skew Orthomorphic (RSO) Projection system.
The following describes the steps used in conversion:
Scan existing landbase
The land source documents gather in pre-conversionphase will be scanned. Once completed, the raster data will undergo further processes i.e:
Overview procedures for each network model are described below
Conclusions
The LNMS will yield a number of benefits to Telekom Malaysia. Firstly, it revolutionizes network recording. It provides the foundation for improving the quality, accuracy, uniformity and readability of Outside Plant records. It provides computer aided map and drawing functionality and capacity as well as the automatic production of reports on the network activities. Secondly, it enables automatic planning and design. It provides ability to perform automated engineering analysis. It provides more accurate, consistent and easily maintained plant location records at reduce operating expense. Thirdly, it provides improve project control & monitoring. It streamlines work order process with computer-based system. It automatically tracks and updates graphic and non-graphic records and it generates highly accurate and responsive engineering records. Lastly, it provides effective management of information. It provides a central database for Customer Access Network information and easy access to existing plant data and modeling tools for market analysis network engineering design and subscribers projection.
In conclusion, in response to the rapidly growing customers access network in the increasingly competitive environment, LNMS can provide a useful and efficient tool for planning, maintenance and management of the large and complex local network.
The salient features of the LNMS are the mechanization of the database and planning activities. By integrating and automate many of the functions related to planning, and streamlining the present work, LNMS can offer much benefit in producing plan as well as cost savings.
However, like any newly introduced information systems, the users (Perancangan CAN staff) must be mobilized and motivated to adapt to and adopt the new work environment in order that the full potentials of the LNMS can be truly realized.
Acknowledgement
I wish to express my thanks to Mr Tan Yong Teck and Madame Norliza Jaafar for their contribution and ideas in preparing this paper.
The paper will highlight the applications, the justifications for a complete roll-out of the AM/FM system in Telekom Malaysia, a telecommunication operator in Malaysia with four millions subscribers base, as part of the corporate IT plan to meet competitions now and the years ahead. In addition, it will highlight implementation strategy for the fast country-wide deployment, the benefits now realized with the AM/FM application. The justification for an in-house data conversion program will also be discussed.
Introduction
Telekom Malaysia is the main telecommunicationcompany in Malaysia. The company provides all types of telecommunication services to its growing customer base of about four million. The network facilities has been expanding at a very fast pace since the introduction of competition in the telecommunication industry in Malaysia. As a result of this expansion, it is becoming more difficult to cope with planning and managing the growing customer access network through the conventional method of manual drafting and paper records. Over the years, with movement of personnel and offices, the quality and completeness of paper record has deteriorated significantly. It is increasingly difficult for engineer to obtain quality paper record for planning as well as maintenance of the network, thus delaying Telekom Malaysia capability to response to market demand.
Realizing the importance of response time to market demand in the competitive environment, both in new network requirement as well as maintenance of existing, Telekom Malaysia embarked on an ambitious program of computerization to overhaul the method of planning and management of customer access network. The project LNMS was thus initiated in 1990, for a field trial of using AM/FM technology to replace manual planning and management of customer access network.
After a long pilot project, lasting from 1990 to 1995, a decision was made to implement the system nation wide in May 1995. An intemationaltender was called in October 1995. Since then, the project has progress at a very fast pace, completing stage 1 of implementation in 7 regional offices, and it is now at the second stage of nation wide roll-out to 7 more regional offices with 5 remote sites.
LNMS Objectives
The overall mission of LNMS project is to plan, develop an implement an interactive computer graphic mapping and facility management for the Customer Access Network. The following are the major objectives of LNMS:
- Increase Productivity
- planners are assure of immediate access to the database for detailed maps/network drawings and associated data regardless where it is located;
- the availability of applications for planning/design and network analysis
- Improve grade of service to customers
- allows planners to evaluate various design models with cost implication in a shortest time
- the availability of accurate information speed up decision making process
- enable automated transfer of information to Project Management System for fast implementation of project
- enable automated transfer of data for completed project to service provisioning system for fast provisioning
- Better utilization of resources
- facilitate the automation of network analysis functions to analyze and monitor network growth
- interfaces to other departmental database will ensure co-ordinated approach in planning resources
- Efficient management of information
- accurate and current information are easily accessed
The LNMS project is to be implemented in two phases, i.e:
Phase 1
Pilot implementation at 2 exchange areas. The purpose of the pilot implementation is to fully test the developed application system and to gauge the extent of conversion requirements
Phase 2
National roll-out after completion of Phase I will be phased by Regions to more than 500 exchange areas covering an approximately 330,000 sq. km. of land. The roll-out involves extensive effort to convert over 40,000 physical maps and transform local network planning, development and management function into LNMS.
The implementation of Phase 2 is staggered over 2 stages. Stage 1 involves 7 planning sites whereas Stage 2 involve a further 7 planning sites with 5 remotes site connection.
Phase 1 Implementation
In October 1991, Phase 1 commenced. The scope of work for Phase 1 comprises the development of applications and data conversion of two pilot exchange areas, with about 20,000 ECP each. The project was completed in 1994. Implementation of Phase 1 has provided a valuable experience to the project team. Amongst others, important lessons learned from the implementation are:
- the project will not succeed without the management support as every stage of implementation;
- user must be involved continuously, and commitment from supervisory staff must be obtained throughout the project;
- source document preparation is a very major effort as some document are lost over the years, and remaining document are not updated properly. It is also noted that a lot document are sketch map;
- duct space record is mostly non-existent, or totally out of date;
- data conversion is a very tedious and time consuming process, require planning to the very detail. It will be a long wait for the planners if data conversion were to be completed before planner start using the system;
- due to the fast pace of development, amount of backlog created is tremendous;
- generally, younger employee tend to absorb the technology faster than older ones;
- as the implementation of Phase 1 involved learning of technology application, it has taken a long time to implement. As a result, user enthusiasm could not be maintained;
- dedicated personnel are required to maintain the converted data. This will cater for network changes carried out by Network Operation and Maintenance group as well as new development areas to be captured in the system.
Phase 2 Implementation
Critical Success Factors
Other than having a strong project team, two factors were identified as critical to the successful implementation of LNMS Phase 2 project. They are :
- Management support;
- User involvement and commitment.
The management in approving the implementation of Phase 2, has requested the project team to implement the roll-out in the shortest possible timeframe. The company must benefit from the investment as soon as possible. From the experience of Phase 1 implementation, the project team begin to formulate the implementation strategy for Phase 2. The following was decided:
- To obtain top level management support for the project;
- To involve user heavily in every step of the project;
- Implementation of Phase 2 will be divided into 2 stages, each stage will consist of 7 main planning sites;
- The application scope shall be reduced and functions streamlined, and functions which were not utilized eliminated. Cable schematics will be migrated from pure schematic drawing environment to geobase environment to prevent duplication of data in different environment;
- The setting up of Local Network Management Center (LNMC) to take care of updating data from network changes and new developmentareas as well as data conversion activities;
- The platform for the system shall be migrated from Unix based to Window NT based. This will allow Telekom Malaysia to benefit from the fast pace of technological advancement in INTEL based machines;
- Network planners shall be allowed to use the application system for planning activities as soon as all landbase data are created. This will eliminate backlog and bring benefit to planners without full data conversion;
- Landbase conversion shall be carried out at central project site with contract staff. Completed Iandbase will be transferred to site for planning of new network and conversion of old network;
- Data conversion shall be carried out in-house, after studying the quality of source document and the manpower requirements to update all source document for turnkey data conversion. This conversion process will run concurrently with the planning process at site. Contract staff will be employed to supplement manpower required for the conversion.
The major benefit of integrating production of new network with in-house conversion areas follow:
- immediate benefit to planners who will be able to use the system for planning new network as soon as the landbase has been converted. This will keep the momentum and enthusiasm going for all those involved in the project as result will be seen much earlier than the normal sequential implementation of data conversion before production;
- major cost reduction to conversion, estimated at more than 50’?40, comparing to turnkey conversion by data conversion vendor;
- self paced conversion process, allowing regional offices to veri~ their plans without severely affecting their normal work.;
- eliminate backlog for conversion as all new network will be captured in the system.;
- eliminate potential contract management issues and disputes with data conversion vendors due to plant records quality;
- quality of converted data may not meet the requirement of users. This can be due to inexperience data conversion personnel and poor quality planning at the start of conversion. Thus, a stringent quality plan must be in place and enforced to ensure the conversion team delivers the expected quality. This plan must be reviewed as the conversion proceed, based on the result obtain through study of data conversion process;
- the conversion process may dragon forever, not meeting the target completion date as in-house conversion can tolerate delay in delivery of source document in term of target date and quality. The project team must institute strict project control measures and continuously monitor the progress. The involvement of top management to ensure commitment of end users is extremely critical.
- the system may not be able to cope with the workload of planning as planner will take longer time to plan in the initial stage. Urgent planning requirement may be done manually, thus creating backlog to the data conversion. In order to reduce the impact during transition period, two months grace period is given to planners before they are required to fully utilize the system. Planners must be educated to schedule their work in advance, so that the supporting LNMC operator can convert existing network before planning on the network commences.
- someplanners may continue with manual planning, giving various excuses. To tackle this problem, the project team must be persistent in engaging the regional management and planners so that eventually, they will be convinced to plan through the system. The project team must provide full support to overcome any problems which planners may face along the way. However, it may be necessary at times to involve the top management directive, if all effort has failed or not effective.
LNMS Phase 2 contains about 70% of Phase 1 application functionalities. The development of the software with full testing took about a year to complete. Major functional modules included in LNMS Phase 2 LNMS’Sareas follow:
- Iandbase creation and maintenance;
- demand forecasting;
- Planning and design of copper, fiber RILL network, including creation, editing and modification of network elements, schematics for internal wiring for high rise building;
- Engineering analysis functions including cable balancing, loop makeup;
- Workprint environment;
- Bill of Quantity for scheme implementation;
- Interface to service provisioning system and project management system;
- Management information on network project implementation status and network statistics.
Stage 1 of implementation involving 7 Customer Access Network Planning site has been implemented, and new network are planned using the system. Data conversion process has started, and about 30°/0of the network has been converted. The network will be fully converted by end of 1998. Stage 2 of implementation involving 7 main sites and 5 remote site has commenced and by June 1998, all sites will plan through the system. Data conversion for stage 2 is expected to complete by December 2001.
Management Support
To obtain the support of top management, many presentations and briefings were held at the start of the LNMS Phase 2 implementation. Top management from the chief executive to management personnel from human resource, finance and network planning were invited. The project team highlighted various benefit of the system and importance of the system to the company and managed to gain the full hearted support of top management.
Project Implementation Committee
Project steering committee, chaired by the Senior Vice President of network services, oversees the overall implementation of the project. A user committee was setup to review application functionalitiesto ensure that all users will accept the system eventually.
Implementing at Site
The introduction of AM/FM system to regional planning offices requires careful planning and execution of plan. It is important to convince planners who are used to old system, to migrate to new ways of planning. As such, involving users in every stage of the project is extremely important. User must understand the project, its benefit and the impact to them. As such, in implementing the system at each site, the project teams has drawn up the following program:
- Source document preparation briefing and workshop, to train local staff on the documentation collection and preparation process. Teams are formed for documentation collection, scrubbing and field verification. The document preparation process starts immediately after the workshop;
- Site preparation and system installation.
- Pre Production discussion to introduce LNMS to local management and planners of Customer Access Network. This discussion initiated formation of LNMS organization structure at site. It is held one month before the production workshop;
- User training to train about 30% of planners before production start;
- Production workshop to prepare the local LNMS organization for the production. This workshop will prepare activities and schedule for the LNMS organization on a month to month basis;
- On site training for LNMC operator and contract staffi
- After the training, landbase data will be updated for those areas not converted during initial conversion. This activities will be carried out by LNMC operator and contract staffi
- On-site production support is provided for a period of two months, to ensure smooth transition to LNMS from manual system.
Production Process Flow
To implement the strategy of production with in-house data conversion, the following process flow has been designed.
The process flow will allow planners to start using LNMS as soon as the Iandbase conversion is completed. However, to make it effective, planners will need proper Organisation structure to support LNMS production process
Organisation Structure
To implement of LNMS production process, the following organization structure was created.
Data Conversion
Data conversion involves the conversion of two basic data: graphic and non-graphic (textual). In order to achieve continuity both type of data are ‘link’and integrated. Therefore, the content of the database is the model of the real network.
The model comprises of- Landbase; Detail Duct and Cable Network; Fundamental Duct and Cable Network and Duct Space Record.
The following describe the steps involved in LNMS Conversion:
- Pre-Conversion activities
- Acquire and obtain digital landbase map from land survey department
- Acquire and purchase land cadastral map from local land authority
- Search, gather and make copy of available survey map. If not available, prepare survey map
- Search, gather and make copy existing E/S and D/S schematic cable plan
- Update existing fundamental plan
- Duct space verification
Prior to any conversion process, management information tool which comprises of Man-hour and Document Control System will be established:
- to record and control the expenditure of production resources
- to log and track the movement of maps and plans through conversion process.
Before any new schemes can be converted in the system, inventory of available maps and plans against data requirements for affected existing network is required. A source data matrix will be produced in this process which identifies and list the master and supporting source of information for each attribute. Using this matrix, the process of data gathering can be streamline. Searching of information will limit to the available source documents only.
During preparation process, non-availabledata will be identified. If data required fall under critical data for designing of new scheme, field survey will be done for affected area only. Otherwise a default value will be written to indicate the need to update at the latter stage.
Conversion
The first step of LNMS conversion is to start with the creation of a land database. The landbase will be used on]y as graphic presentation basically for the network facility locational referencing. Attributes associated to the Iandbase, such as street name, land use, ownership, etc will be captured in the selected environment during detail cable path conversion process.
The Malaysia map have been compiled on the standard Malaysia Rectified Skew Orthomorphic (RSO) Projection system.
The following describes the steps used in conversion:
Scan existing landbase
The land source documents gather in pre-conversionphase will be scanned. Once completed, the raster data will undergo further processes i.e:
- establish at least 4 control points on survey map for warping purposes
- warping of the raster data to its co-ordinate
- raster editing basically drawing cleanup through speckle removal and hole fill functions
- vectorization of landbase by heads-up digitizing (as and when required)
Overview procedures for each network model are described below
Conclusions
The LNMS will yield a number of benefits to Telekom Malaysia. Firstly, it revolutionizes network recording. It provides the foundation for improving the quality, accuracy, uniformity and readability of Outside Plant records. It provides computer aided map and drawing functionality and capacity as well as the automatic production of reports on the network activities. Secondly, it enables automatic planning and design. It provides ability to perform automated engineering analysis. It provides more accurate, consistent and easily maintained plant location records at reduce operating expense. Thirdly, it provides improve project control & monitoring. It streamlines work order process with computer-based system. It automatically tracks and updates graphic and non-graphic records and it generates highly accurate and responsive engineering records. Lastly, it provides effective management of information. It provides a central database for Customer Access Network information and easy access to existing plant data and modeling tools for market analysis network engineering design and subscribers projection.
In conclusion, in response to the rapidly growing customers access network in the increasingly competitive environment, LNMS can provide a useful and efficient tool for planning, maintenance and management of the large and complex local network.
The salient features of the LNMS are the mechanization of the database and planning activities. By integrating and automate many of the functions related to planning, and streamlining the present work, LNMS can offer much benefit in producing plan as well as cost savings.
However, like any newly introduced information systems, the users (Perancangan CAN staff) must be mobilized and motivated to adapt to and adopt the new work environment in order that the full potentials of the LNMS can be truly realized.
Acknowledgement
I wish to express my thanks to Mr Tan Yong Teck and Madame Norliza Jaafar for their contribution and ideas in preparing this paper.