Sharing data across the enterprise

Sharing data across the enterprise

Jim Thies
Intergraph Communications
150 Executive Center Drive
Greenville, South Carolina 29615

Overview
Today's utility and communication companies participate in a global and dynamic marketplace. Constantly faced with new markets, new competition, and increasing customer expectations, companies must focus on increasing customer service, providing reliable service, and maintaining or lowering costs.

E-commerce, Web hosting, B2B Internet applications, ASP's, ISP's. The global economy has given rise to a host of new opportunities. How do we take advantage of the new opportunities and maintain a competitive advantage? This paper attempts to clarify the internal processes that must come into play to implement an OSS that supports business decisions in a competitive environment.

The global communications industry has undergone significant changes and this trend is expected to continue. The modernization of the communications infrastructure will also continue to be a top priority. The on-going upgrade will present communications companies with a number of unique operational challenges in achieving its business and financial objectives while maintaining an expected quality of service to the customer. These challenges will include the complexities of controlling the construction and facility management of new high-speed technologies, while at the same time, working in a competitive environment to meet increasing demands for customer service.

The current mix of manual methods and legacy applications in support of communications facility planning, design, analysis, management and mapping are no longer adequate to keep up with the increased demand for installation and maintenance of both current and new facilities. In addition, the continued economic growth and aggressive modernization of the communications infrastructure will place increased demands on existing human resources, requiring information technology solutions and support systems to be easier to use, more automated, more tightly integrated, and more accessible across the enterprise.

Enterprise Data
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are proving valuable tools for achieving many of these business objectives. ERP systems link together the various parts of a company, enabling executives to make informed decisions, reduce costs, and bolster productivity. The business processes automated and integrated by the ERP system include finance, accounting, human resources, work management, material management and many others.

More and more companies are replacing legacy systems with pre-integrated, vendor-provided solutions. These solutions are becoming increasingly popular as corporate mergers and acquisitions result in numerous incompatible systems within a single organization.

The Geospatial Component
ERP is a method to capture the essence of non-spatial, alphanumeric applications. While an ERP system can address a company's financial business process, it does not directly support the engineering, operations, construction, dispatching, mobile computing, or maintenance processes. These processes deal with provisioning and sustaining the service delivery network, and the applications fall into a unique environment of graphics, spatial data, and complex relationships not found in the typical ERP alphanumeric environment. In this paper, the term Geospatial Resource Management (GRM) is used to designate the integrated suite of applications that address these processes and automate the provisioning and sustaining of the service delivery network.

GRM describes a new breed of solutions, including AM/FM/GIS, which are made available by the latest technology. GRM applications include design change management, dispatch, service analysis, outage analysis, mobile computing, trouble reporting, operations and maintenance, enterprise viewing, access and update. These applications are interdependent, rely upon Geospatial data, and share a common geo-facilities model.

GRM solutions provide an integrated suite of applications that allow the automated provisioning and sustaining of the service-delivery network. These applications combine the geo-facilities model data from engineering, distribution network management, and operations and maintenance with ERP data from accounting, human resources, procurement, and project management systems. The result of sharing this combined data with the entire enterprise is a GRM solution that establishes new industry standards for open facilities model management with integrated graphics. Our industry is realizing bottom-line results, including significant gains in productivity.

GRM systems provide advanced Geospatial technology to automate labor-intensive mapping, facility management and engineering analysis work tasks through computer applications. They offer the potential to become a key business strategy and Information Technology tools for modern communications companies.

Benefits of Integrated Systems
You can achieve additional business value and benefits by integrating ERP within your operational applications and systems. Often, these solutions provide you with operational excellence in one aspect of your business. By linking to ERP, sharing information and passing transactions, you may be able to improve both ERP and the GRM or other operational solutions. The combination may just be the key to competitive differentiation.

For instance, the network provisioning and maintenance function, which is so vital to the success of a communications provider, can be greatly enhanced by implementing a comprehensive Automated Mapping / Facilities Management / Geographic Information System (AM/FM/GIS) solution. Industry studies also show that if an AM/FM/GIS system is used for mapping, planning, engineering purposes and it is a common system where information can be shared among different relevant organizations, the benefit/cost ratio can be as high as four to one (B/C 4:1).

Sizeable Investment
ERP attempts to integrate all departments and functions across a company onto a single computer system (data warehouse) that can serve all those different departments' particular needs. Meta Group recently did a study looking at the ERP Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), including hardware, software, professional services, and internal staff costs. The TCO numbers include getting the software installed and the two years afterward, which is when the real costs of maintaining, upgrading and optimizing the system for your business are felt.

Among the 63 companies surveyed-including small, medium and large companies in a range of industries-the average TCO was $15 million (the highest was $300 million and lowest was $400,000). While it is hard to draw a solid number from that kind of a range of companies and ERP efforts, Meta came up with one statistic that proves that ERP is expensive no matter what kind of company is using it. The TCO for a "heads-down" user over that period was a staggering $53,320.

Many customers initially underestimate the cost and effort required to convert their data for a GIS project. The costs to convert the facilities data into the GIS is typically in excess of 50 percent, and in many cases considerably more, of the overall costs to implement a GRM system. Reducing these costs and ensuring that the correct data is populated into the GIS is a critical to the success of the GIS project.

Prepare for Success
Most of us are familiar with the costs associated in implementing these systems. If we are to forecast and recognize our return on investment, it is vitally important to define the business value one hopes to receive, such as reduction in lead times, in concrete and easily measurable terms. Some important considerations when planning to integrate systems:

"Set up regular review measures to make sure you are achieving your goals.
"Prepare for change by setting up 'Change Management' procedures.
"Ensure that all participants understand the goals.
"Ensure that the vendors you work with are willing to have a stake in the success.
"Mitigate risks up front.
"Recognize the potential impact on other departments and your customers.

Where do we start?
The utility industry is shifting toward a natural grouping of applications. The non-spatial, alphanumeric "business" applications have been integrated into Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Solutions. More and more utilities are replacing legacy systems with pre-integrated, vendor-provided ERP Solutions from companies like SAP, PeopleSoft, and J. D. Edwards. These solutions are becoming increasingly popular as mergers and acquisitions create numerous incompatible systems within a single corporation.

The Geospatial resource management solution is comprised of several integrated applications. Each application can operate as a standalone process; however, the real value comes from the benefits achieved through an integrated workflow. These Geospatial network-based applications share another common characteristic.they are highly interdependent, as indicated in the integrated workflow diagram below.

Geospatial Resource Management Workflow

Data Warehouse vs. Data Vault
One of the key benefits of an AM/FM/GIS system is the capability to be integrated with other key information technology systems (such as customer information and bill of quantity systems). This ensures that the AM/FM/GIS system is a part of the ever-changing corporate Information System.

An overview of some of the positive impacts that an integrated AM/FM/GIS will have on a communications company is illustrated in the following diagram.

The enterprise-wide AM/FM/GIS solution provides vital network information that should be accessible by any operational entity within the corporation that requires the data. This information may include a facility inventory, routing documents, right of way records, and structure locations.

By storing this information in non-proprietary format, the data may be stored in separate data vaults within the corporate data warehouse. The key word here is non-proprietary. Proprietary formats can easily become data vaults where you are locked out and the only way in is to purchase a very expensive key from the vendor.

Many of the systems available today are based on open architecture, which allows the customer to access data with off-the-shelf tools or integration through open technology. It becomes more of a challenge to find "off-the-shelf" solutions that are pre-integrated with other systems. This is largely due to the customization of business rules usually required by individual companies. It is not usually a case of one-size fits all.

A Typical Scenario
NuTel is a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier in a major metropolitan market. They have invested heavily in technology in anticipation of strengthening its market share by providing first class service to existing and prospective customers. When NuTel acquired their OSS, they were careful to select systems that were designed with an open architecture, allowing for ease of integration with complementary ERP and GRM systems.

NuTel's website allows prospective customers to apply for bundled services over the Internet. When a name is entered, the web page runs a background process that queries the customer care system for any history on the applicant. The Customer Care System contains dynamic links to the local Credit Bureau and returns a credit check on the applicant. Based upon positive results from the query, the application automatically continues with the next process.

The applicant has probably entered a service address by this time. The next process involves a search of an external Geospatial database for that address. The application returns validation that service is available for that address. Once the address is validated, the web page kicks off yet another application that retrieves data from the company's Automated Dispatch system and Network Equipment Management system. Here, the application searches for the first available qualified installation technician and first available equipment engineer. A query is also conducted against any equipment backlogs. The application returns three appointment times to the web host.

When the applicant submits the form, all credit approvals have been completed and the applicant is presented with a selection of appointment times. A selection is made and the prospective customer is presented a service agreement. If accepted, the applicant is given notification immediately that service will be available by a specific time and date.

We are well on our way to adding another satisfied customer to our base. However, the process has just begun. Information collected from the web page is automatically routed to the affected departments when the applicant accepts the service agreement. The billing information is automatically put into a queue in the Customer Care system. A work order is generated in the Network Equipment Management system and personnel are notified of assigned tasks via interoffice e-mail.

Once the network is provisioned, a service technician is dispatched to the customer site. Since the Automated Dispatch system is a two-way, map-based system, the technician is able to maintain a productive schedule. His route is plotted on a map and all the equipment necessary to complete the installation was loaded into the vehicle that morning because the warehouse is on the same system. Should any equipment fail, he can communicate directly with fellow technicians, who are already in the area, to find a spare without returning to the warehouse.

Once the installation is complete and service is on, the Network Equipment Management system automatically updates the billing system to "start the clock". This minimizes revenue leakage by eliminating traditional manual workflow processes.

Summary
Improvements in the efficiency of the work processes, from design through construction and operation, have a direct impact on customer service. Improvements in the systems that support design, construction and operations improve employee's ability to respond quicker and more accurately to customer requests. Improvements to these same systems also support the company's ability to respond to customer concerns during outages by providing information that is more accurate in a more timely manner.

Being first to market and maintaining customer satisfaction in a highly competitive market is key to maintaining market share. Automation and efficiencies, in internal procedures, are key to maintaining a healthy margin to satisfy management and shareholders. To be successful in this new economy, it is essential to select open systems and qualified solutions partners to integrate these systems.