Broadband Communities

AUG-SEP 2015

BROADBAND COMMUNITIES is the leading source of information on digital and broadband technologies for buildings and communities. Our editorial aims to accelerate the deployment of Fiber-To-The-Home and Fiber-To-The-Premises.

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AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2015 | www.broadbandcommunities.com | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | 67 Supercharge ROI With GIS Geographic information systems aren't just for network design anymore. Fiber-to-the-home deployers are using GIS to derive important insights and maximize return on investment. By Tom Brooks / Mapcom Systems H ow can you achieve a greater return on investment (ROI) from your FTTH network? One way is to use geographic information system (GIS) software – specifcally an integrated visual operations system – to combine demographic data and automated design tools. Using GIS software consolidates data and streamlines operations, improving response times for communications service providers (CSPs) and ensuring consistent service delivery. A key to increasing ROI while limiting risk is to combine tactical sales strategies with smart engineering. Both sales and engineering depend on accurate, reusable data, which GIS software can help provide. Sales and marketing teams use three steps to efciently target customers: 1. Collect demographic data. 2. Qualify locations by consulting a GIS map. 3. For any location, determine whether a drop is present and the FTTH system has enough capacity to support a potential customer. Tis process is much simpler when sales engineers can leverage existing, georeferenced plant information. Tanks to integrated, georeferenced information, sales engineers can handle what-if or on-the-fy scenarios. Accessible data generates more accurate ROI estimates and more efcient turnaround on large projects. Recycling data already collected means no wasted efort, time or resources from repeat data entry. THE ODD COUPLE Engineering and marketing – an odd couple – need to join together. Data should fow between engineering's prebuild processes and marketing's postbuild processes. Tis allows prebuild planners to evaluate service areas by performing a spatial analysis of existing customers versus noncustomers and visualizing qualifed customers in a potential build area. Using plant information stored in a GIS database allows quick generation of build estimates. Marketing teams can then move faster than their competitors to launch in areas frst or with better targeting strategies. Te beneft of joining this odd couple is more confdence in knowing how much builds will cost and their ROI. By pairing the odd couple, CSPs address the challenges that arise from duplicating or repeating eforts in multiple departments. When the odd couple works from the same GIS system, they can combine the data sets particular to their functions for greater efect. Demographic data about resident income levels and lifestyles can be overlaid with open plant capacity. Buildouts to business premises can be estimated and overlaid Data should fow between engineering's prebuild processes and marketing's postbuild processes. TECHNOLOGY

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