On the front lines

The people on the front lines are usually the last to adopt new technology. Years after the invention of the automobile, the U.S. Cavalry finally started trading in their horses for cars.

This is no accident. With any new technology, bugs need to be worked out, and people on the front lines have too much work to do to mess around with problems. But all things eventually change no matter how deeply rooted they are, and BellSouth, after pushing the latest technology into every other nook and cranny, has started to push high-tech to its front line: the technicians. In an exclusive interview with Telephony, BellSouth officials explain how the carrier's new TechPlus mobile computing platform simplifies network access, provides advanced computing capabilities-and saves precious time for those on the front lines.

Technicians go high-tech During the next few months, customers in BellSouth's territory will start to notice that technicians are carrying shiny new laptops when they come to fix a fuzzy dial tone or install a second line for that new Christmas computer. BellSouth has spent approximately $163 million in developing its new platform during the last two years.

TechPlus will replace the Craft access system, which was used to retrieve information about customers, lines and tests from legacy systems. All the information that technicians previously received line by line on the four-inch screen of a Craft access terminal (CAT) over a phone line will now come over the air at almost three times the speed of a Windows-based notebook computer.

But there is more to the TechPlus system than just a notebook computer. The system-the first of its kind being used by a regional Bell operating company-consists of a network capable of accessing all the legacy systems that since the 1980s have only been accessible from the field using a CAT over a slow and dated network.

TechPlus "represents a major transformation in the tools for our front lines," says William Smith, vice president of network strategic planning at BellSouth. "Many people tend to forget what is on the front lines."

BellSouth's reason for developing and switching to TechPlus is simple: time and money, Smith says. Distribution of jobs is inherently easier and faster for technicians using the system.

Previously with the CAT system, a technician would get his first job assignment by plugging into a line at a technician center, or workstation, strategically placed around BellSouth's territory. After completing that assignment, the technician needed to find a dial tone (usually inside the customer premises or at a switch box), dial the number, close out the job and retrieve a new one.

With TechPlus, all tasks that were formerly performed in this way can be done wirelessly, which dramatically saves time, according to Bill Horgen, a technician with BellSouth. Between not having to find a line to plug into-a process that can become quite tedious-and the increased download speed, technicians save close to 40 minutes a day.

TechPlus saves time with normal tasks such as switching out lines because, unlike the old system that let technicians see only four lines at a time, the new system enables them to see up to 30, says Horgen. By bulking up the number of viewable lines, they can find the easiest pair to switch to without having to repeat tasks. TechPlus also allows technicians to multitask queries. For instance, a technician can search for open pairs and check the history of a problem at the same time.

The nuts and bolts The laptop that BellSouth technicians use to talk to the system is a ruggedized PC made by Itronix Corp. It can withstand freezing temperatures and falls-the latter clearly an important feature in a road-worthy notebook computer.

Inside the laptop, however, things are not that different from a commercial laptop. It has a Pentium II processor and an eight- or 10-inch screen. It also has a full-sized keyboard, which is quite a step forward from the CAT that had a mini keyboard measuring about four inches across. A touch-sensitive screen lets technicians avoid using a pointing device to navigate through windows.

The laptops connect to the system over the BellSouth wireless mobile data network via Mobitex. BellSouth acquired the radio network when it purchased RAM Mobile Data in March 1998. Before TechPlus was developed, the network was used primarily for two-way paging.

The Mobitex system is fairly slow at about 8000 b/s, and most people have not found a use for it since the advent of bandwidth-heavy network applications, according to Ira Brodsky, president of DataComm Research. But because the amount of data being transmitted is small-usually less than 300 bytes-it shouldn't hinder TechPlus technicians. There is also about a 7-second latency over the airwaves, which is common when dealing with a radio signal.

In the air, the data is encoded with a 128-bit key for security before it touches down at one of two data centers on one of 15 Windows NT-based machines running RS Express, off-the-shelf middleware from NetTech Corp.

Using a wireless system gave BellSouth greater security because the RBOC's data is mixed with all the other information that flies through the air, says David Jean, director of information technology. And the powerful encoding key adds even more security.

After the request hits the NT boxes, the system switches to IP and the middleware machines shuffle the request off to one of two Sun E 10000s running custom software developed by BellSouth IT and Andersen Consulting. "This system is all about brokering jobs," Jean says. "We are grossly over-engineering it." As it stands, TechPlus can access all current legacy systems, including LMOS, Mapper, LFACS, MTR, BSW, MLT and Cosmos.

But it will be a unique challenge to make TechPlus handle the necessary transaction load, Jean says. The process will consist mostly of load balancing. When fully implemented, the system will have to handle about 58,000 transactions per day. Some 15,000 technicians will use the network for everything from getting work orders to running tests.

Straight from the source During the two-year development process, executives and engineers at BellSouth worked closely with technicians in hopes of creating a tool that works the way its users want it to work.

"Being able to talk to technicians is great," says Gloria Perkins, director of installation and maintenance for the network operations solutions group. "It appears that our company is beginning to realize the needs of their staff."

BellSouth conducted quite a few trials during the two years of developing this system. After engineers and executives devised a way for the laptops to talk to the servers, they realized that technicians needed an effective interface. "I would love to be able to say I know everything that a technician needs," Jean says. "But we don't know everything they need to have."

BellSouth implemented two systems to give the IT department insight into exactly what a mobile technician requires from a laptop. The carrier deployed the first during the initial stages of making the software for the laptop with Andersen Consulting. Programmers would ride in the trucks with the technicians to get a better feel for what the technicians needed while on the road.

Besides pulling programmers out of their cubes and putting them in trucks, the carrier started an intensive feedback program that technicians were required to participate in during the pilot program. Technicians would report any problems about the machine to a help desk, which would then figure out how to fix them.

According to Jean, constantly checking with the people who were actually using the system helped create software with which the technicians were comfortable. If data needed to be higher because the technicians needed that information first, the interface was changed. "We wanted it to be user-friendly because many technicians have never used computers before," Jean says.

Now that BellSouth has finished developing the first phase of the system, it is moving forward with getting it into the hands of technicians. To date, 1843 technicians have made it through the two-day training program and have started using the system in all nine states in BellSouth's territory.

Training on the TechPlus system has been fairly smooth, Perkins says. Technicians are already familiar with the testing, so they only need to be trained on the interface, which is much easier to understand than the CAT system they are currently using. For instance, on the old system, technicians had to memorize codes or flip through a book to make requests on the CAT. The Windows interface has all the codes listed, making human error less likely.

Because BellSouth obviously cannot stop operations to train an entire work force on a new system, implementation may seem slow. But the company wants the TechPlus transition to go as smoothly as possible so it is training technicians a few at a time.

The real test of any new system is whether the people using it on the front lines have found it helpful. With TechPlus, the answer is an overwhelming yes.

Steve Lancaster, a technician with BellSouth for the last 25 years, seems to love his new laptop. "Years ago, you depended on people at the workstation-now you're independent," he says.

TechPlus allows technicians to stay in one area rather than move all over town for jobs. It does this by determining the location of jobs and grouping them based on proximity. These "bulk" jobs save a lot of time by allowing a technician such as Lancaster to stay in the same area for an entire day rather than fight traffic through downtown Atlanta.

The greatest addition to the system, according to Lancaster, is that technicians are not dependent on finding dial tone. At times, technicians would have to climb poles to get dial tone, tap into the line and get their next job while hanging on.

Although Lancaster seems to have adapted well to the new system, some of the older technicians are not as excited about the new equipment as BellSouth would hope. "A lot of veterans shy away from new technology, but the younger guys don't get as intimidated by it-they tend to embrace it," Lancaster says.

That big blue sky Even though the transition to TechPlus seems to be going better than anybody could expect, BellSouth is still trying to push the system forward by adding new features and looking for ways to market the system to other companies.

The company has added test set capabilities to the laptop, which increased the height of the machine by about 1/8 inch. Combining test capabilities in a single unit may put an end to technicians carrying six or seven different pieces of equipment to a site. This new feature is currently in test phases.

Looking farther into the future, Smith says, "this is a key front-end to bringing in an entirely new dispatch system." An explanation of exactly what that new dispatch system will be was not available at press time.

BellSouth officials also say that the carrier is marketing the system to other RBOCs and plans to sell it to other companies outside of the telecom industry. The system would be of value to any company with dispatch needs, Smith says.

But with all the benefits of saving time and money aside, one of BellSouth's most basic hopes is that TechPlus will improve the image that technicians convey to their customers. "It dispels the stigma that telcos don't know anything about high-tech," Smith says. "Customers look at the technicians using the TechPlus system and they gain confidence in the company."