INDICIUM Software, Inc. :: Workflow & Document Management

Document Management Cuts Costs and Provides Security for
Large Communications Company

Company Profile

The client is a leading provider of cable services, and one of the world’s foremost communications companies, delivering digital services, high-speed internet, broadband phone service, and innovative programming.

Business Situation

With customers in 39 states and the District of Columbia, the company’s cable network literally crisscrosses the country. The network’s vast array of equipment is tracked and maintained by a huge force of field technicians.

The company’s Midwest location serves as a hub for the Chicago metro area and is responsible for the system of cables, routers and other equipment necessary to provide cable services to the region. Some 200 field technicians rely on the information contained in approximately 20,000 network maps which diagram the wires and routes in the region. A full-function CAD program was used to access the maps, whether for updating or simple viewing. This was quite costly, since the majority of users were not performing updates.

At the beginning of each day, the field technicians would use the CAD software to attempt to find the current version of the map(s) they required for that day’s work. After finding each map, they would print it and take it with them onsite. Anyone could access any map, and anyone accessing the same map would not be aware that someone else was using it.

At the end of the day, the paper maps with the technician’s notes/corrections written on them were to be returned. The engineering department‘s Design Group would add the notes back into the electronic file. At times however, the files were either not returned in a timely manner, or were never updated in the electronic file. This meant that eventually the electronic file became out of date, and a team had to be dispatched to survey and redraw the map, resulting in time delays and additional costs.

A New Day

The company worked with a firm specializing in work process automation to design and implement the Map Management System (MMS), with INDICIUM DM at its core.

INDICIUM DM’s out-of-the-box functionality enabled a custom solution without the cost of customized support:

	Using Indicium DM’s built-in multi-level security, the MMS allows authorized access/printing of the maps via a low-cost viewer for the majority of system users.
	Update capability is limited to those users who are authorized to make design changes and users are notified if they attempt to check out a map has already been checked out for revision.
	Version control allows the review of historical system design/architectural changes, i.e. “before and after” views.
	System maintenance and disaster backup is greatly simplified.