On the Map

Telcos and cable companies are gaining a competitive edge with geographic information systems A few years ago, service consultants for Ameritech Cellular Services used push-pins on a wall map to record reports of poor coverage areas. Company engineers then had the daunting task of locating and solving the problem.

Today, a computerized tracking system lets customer service representatives locate callers by street intersection and allows engineers to monitor the progress of attempted solutions in real time.

"By taking full advantage of this new technology, we're not only saving time and money, we can constantly improve service to reflect real customer needs and wants," says Mike Stafford, Ameritech Cellular's manager of systems performance.

Similarly, landline-based telephone companies are using computerized mapping systems to track problem call areas. The results from a signal blockage analysis can be displayed geographically to help engineers locate trouble spots.

Carriers also can map customers by usage volume to market special services to them. By combining internal data with demographic information from outside suppliers, managers can identify areas of high growth where demand for services may exceed current capacity and plan accordingly. New services can be targeted to specific geographic areas according to average income level, age or other variables.

Companies have been using geographic information system (GIS) software since the 1970s, but it is only catching on now, says Rick Nicholson, director of Convergent Group in Denver. More powerful computer hardware, integrated database applications and graphic applications all have contributed to the growth of GIS.

"GIS was used only for [outside] plant records, but it has worked its way into just about every business function in a telecommunications company now," Nicholson says. "[Knowing] where an event, person or place is and being able to visualize it, as opposed to looking at something as text, is important.

The GIS industry itself has seen some hefty returns. According to Dataquest, GIS software sales in 1995 totaled $862 million - a number that shows every indication of growing in the coming years.

Improved operations GIS software and databases basically do two things - store information and visually depict that information via maps, says Case Van Loo of Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc.

"You can bring about very direct relations between the map and any type of database you have," Van Loo says. "Anything that has an address can be tied to a map and visualized.

Two of the most popular software platforms are MapInfo and ESRI's ArcView. Numerous companies offer highly specialized databases that operate with these platforms.

In its customer tracking application, for example, Ameritech uses CrossStreets Cellular, developed by Empower Geographics, a MapInfo strategic partner. CrossStreets' advanced locating tools help customer service representatives locate callers by street intersections, overpasses and even landmarks.

"In essence, this technology will give us two-way communication," says Stafford. "The engineer will see the complaints - where they're coming from and when - in real time. In turn, the engineers take this feedback to assess the problem and input a solution into the database immediately." Ameritech customer service consultants can then monitor this process in real time and relay the engineers' determination of the problem directly to the customer.

"MapInfo has brought us to a whole new level of customer service," says Stafford.

BellSouth Mobility DCS, one of the first personal communication services providers, uses MapInfo for real-time data storage. BellSouth Mobility's MapInfo system coordinates radio frequency engineering, systems management, demographic analysis and billing. In addition, all departments share the same information. The real-time data storage application means the data is collected and entered into the system once.

"We have reduced the amount of overhead involved in entering, sorting and reporting," says Bruce Winters, systems analyst at BellSouth Mobility. "We have a better flow of data with everybody looking at the same thing, so we have consistency.

The real-time data system allows BellSouth Mobility to track any addressable information from customer complaints to service interruptions and chart them out with MapInfo maps. The PCS provider can deal with customer service problems immediately and can compile the information for more effective service planning.

Cable TV companies also are beginning to discover that GIS technology can improve operations.

"As more cable systems complete technology upgrades, you'll see more systems using GIS," says George Salvador, director of design for Time Warner Cable's construction division. Driving the need for GIS technology will be the company's expansion from cable to telephony services.

"Part of what GIS will bring to the table is the ability to query databases with addresses, which is important for reliability in telephone networks," he says.

Although database information for Time Warner Cable's 40 divisions has not yet been integrated, about 60% of the divisions are ready to use GIS for outage detection, fleet management via global positioning, and other basic GIS functions, Salvador says.

Software sources On Target Mapping is one of several companies that provides a comprehensive line of database products for use with the MapInfo or ArcView platforms. Database applications include software for mapping area codes, calling areas, cellular coverage, land contour, wire center serving areas, local exchange carriers, PCS coverage, cable areas and utility service areas. Databases can be purchased by region or state. Quarterly or monthly updates are available.

One of On Target Mapping's more interesting database sets is its risk management series. Before deciding to put up a new tower or additional landlines, a carrier can purchase individual databases of past risk factors to make a more informed decision. On Target Mapping databases provide information on wind, toxic waste, hurricanes, hail, earthquakes, tornadoes, floods and other risk factors.

Planning is an important function of GIS applications, says John Smetanka, director of research and development for On Target Mapping PCS clients, for example, use GIS technology for site selection.

"With the PCS buildout, mapping is essential for putting a plan together," Smetanka says. PCS customers are interested in planning variables from drive time to zoning laws.

"When our clients go into zoning hearings, maps are essential to show what they need," Smetanka says. On Target Mapping can provide information from Federal Aviation Administration height restrictions to locations of existing towers.

"When you map out all the variables, sometimes there is only one or two places a tower can be built. Maps are critical to having plans approved," says Smetanka.

For wireline-based carriers, CF Design offers software that enables service representatives to locate the address of a customer experiencing a problem and track the problem back to the fiber termination point. It also provides a listing of all equipment along the line. Map details include rights-of-way.

In addition to software that streamlines carrier operations, numerous companies offer mapping technology for marketing applications.

Claritas, which specializes in GIS marketing software, has an entire division dedicated to telecommunications. Among its offerings are demographics, lifestyle segmentation, consumer purchasing behavior and attitudes, marketing software, and custom modeling for the telecom industry.

One of Claritas' most popular applications with telecom companies is its Convergence series, which combines customer data, proprietary targeting data, exclusive consumer profile databases and telecommunications applications, according to Marketing Director Nicole Mathison.

A few of the application components include boundaries and coverage; wire centers; major and basic trading areas; LATAs; cable franchises; and census, media and postal geographies. With this program, companies also can incorporate proprietary customer data and create maps and reports.

A major selling point of the Convergence series is Claritas' Prizm system, which characterizes individual neighborhoods based on a 62-cluster segmentation system. With Prizm, users can identify specific clusters of consumers with similar demographic and attitudinal profiles. This enables a company to calculate which neighborhoods are more likely to churn, which are more vulnerable to competition and which may be most interested in emerging products.

Media General Cable in Fairfax County, Va., is charting new territory with GIS programs.

"Our objective is to learn as much about Fairfax County residents as possible," says Don Mathison, senior vice president of marketing and programming for Media General. "By charting demographic information with buyer behavior, responses to questionnaires and so forth, we index probabilities to develop our marketing strategy.

Media General is interested in which customer pockets are more likely to upgrade or downgrade service and spend money on new products.

"Essentially what we've done is identify candidates who are likely [to change service]," he says. "We spend disproportionately more based on those likelihoods." The Claritas GIS solutions help Media General to choose which medium to use to reach customers, what message to direct their way and what sales strategy will work best, Mathison says.

"Before GIS, we didn't have a lot of geographical basis to anything. We would essentially market to an entire city or county. We might even go to the ZIP code level, but [we've] never got beyond that," Mathison says. "Because it is all geographically based, it becomes precision marketing. It gets us close to where we want to be, which is one-to-one marketing." Media General will probably get into high-speed data services before telephony, Mathison says, but adds, "Like everyone else, we are studying our options.

Indeed, the competitive nature of the telecommunications industry, with the recent entry of new players, makes GIS software and applications even more valuable. Several telcos designate GIS usage as highly proprietary and declined to be interviewed for this article.

"We use GIS in a lot of different ways, and we have some powerful programs and applications," says a U S West spokesman. "But because of the highly competitive nature of this business we can't share that information." Beyond competition from cable franchises will be other heavyweight competitors for traditional telcos.

"We view utilities as coming players in the telecommunications industry," says Smetanka of On Target Mapping.

"Anybody that has existing infrastructure now has the ability to compete with telcos.

And GIS platforms are helping new telecom competitors map their way to customers.

John W. Ellis IV is a freelance writer based in Oakland, Calif.

In addition to helping carriers locate markets for products, a geographic information system also can be used to create brand new products - such as map-based reference tools that can be accessed through the Internet.

One of the first GIS software packages with the ability to integrate with the Internet was MapObjects Internet Map Server from Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc. MapObjects IMS is an authoring tool that builds custom GIS and mapping applications for use over the World Wide Web.

"Our user community showed tremendous interest in bringing the power of spatial analysis and visualization to the Internet and to corporate intranets," says Bernie Szukalski, MapObjects product manager at ESRI.

One company that uses ESRI's Internet GIS technology is the Australian telco Telstra. Created using MapObjects IMS, Telstra's White Pages Directory (http://www.whitepages.com.au/) provides on-line access to 8 million residential, business and government listings in Australia through a map-based interface. The service is updated daily.

MapObjects IMS, an extension for ESRI's MapObjects product, can be used in numerous programming platforms including Visual Basic, Delphi, Visual C++ and PowerBuilder.

After a programmer creates a mapping application with MapObjects, MapObjects IMS can be used to create an Internet browser interface using standard HTML, Java, or ActiveX. According to ESRI, MapObjects IMS is compatible with industry-standard Web technology and supports standard HTML-based Web browsers.