Web - Based GIS: Front ends for enterprise

Example
This example includes functional descriptions of DDAM for GIS, customer care, billing, network management, network operations, and marketing. These DDAMs are geared toward providing comprehensive integrated service for telecommunications companies. The GIS DDAM includes geographic displays of landbase, outside plant, inside plant, and network infrastructure. Each object displayed in the DDAM has attributes that may be stored in the GIS database or obtained from an external database. Objects are displayed at different viewscales depending on how the user zooms in and out. Navigation features allow the user to quickly navigate using directional buttons and zoom in/out features. On object or region selection, a message is broadcast to all other DDAMs with the object’s parameters.

The customer care DDAM displays information about a specific customer. It receives messages updating the current customer and sends messages telling other DDAMs to update themselves depending on the type of query selected. For example, a goto address button sends a message telling other DDAMs to display a map of the address location. Information displayed about each customer includes address, services, and contact numbers. The customer DDAM may access data from external databases and displays information in a tabular form.

The billing DDAM is similar to the customer care DDAM in that it obtains information from the GIS DDAM and displays tabular data. This module can also be configured to generate summary information for a specific region. This way trends can be observed in different geographic regions. Amount, timing, and timeliness of payment can be displayed with a geographic correlation.

Network management displays information about current network elements. Pertinent information includes capacity, utilization, and alarm information. The network information can be grouped according to geographic areas and ties closely with the GIS module. Selection of a network element can trigger display of it in the GIS DDAM. In addition, the customers served by these network elements and associated circuits can be displayed. Network operations show information about the status of plant builds and the temporal availability of service. Service in an area can be displayed, showing timing and availability of network elements. As-built data and data in different states can be examined to determine the current status of the physical network.

Marketing shows the potential customer base in an area and can generate estimates of potential revenue with a geographic basis. Information can be generated for different geographic groupings. Customers and potential customers can be segregated by building, block, zip code, city or geographic region. This can give a better understanding of the potential customer base and help target marketing.

Data in a telecommunications business is inherently geographic in nature, Figure 4. One useful DDAM is navigation to the customer location. Customer location can be determined from street address, phone number, or name. The more sophisticated the system, the more accurately the customer can be located.

Figure 4. Samplecontainerapplicationshighlightingdifferentuses of the DiscreteDataAccess Modules(DDAMs). Geographicmarketanalysisintegratesinformationfromthe GIS, marketing, customercare, and billing.Circuitassignmentis drivenby customercare and incorporatesthe geographiclocationof the customerfromthat accessnode in the provisioningprocess. The average networkequipmentcost can be used to determineif specificbuildingsor areasare profitable. Engineeringdesignreviewallowsan engineerto examineas-built informationto determineif proper configurationhas been followed.

Other DDAMs are triggered by the customer message and can display information about the selected customer or customers. Another message is to display information about all customers located within a geographic region. Yet another option is to display customers affected by a specific network element or network device.

Conclusion
Integrating information from GIS—customer care, billing, network management, network operations, and marketing together into a discrete, modular, and maintainable system— makes sense for the following reasons. First, training costs are reduced. Users adapt to an HTML application easily and navigate using intuitive interfaces with point-and-click operations. Second, users are able to share information among departments without knowing the details of each department’s system. Next, a modular system reduces the cost of development of each module and reduces interdependencies of each module. Also, leveraging the modularity of DDAM systems allows a company to implement a working system much more rapidly than developing an entire system. This system can be implemented using a plug-and-play methodology, building as you go. Finally, this system provides data from enterprise-wide systems to users at all levels of an organization with little training and facilitates more efficient and quicker decision making.