NAAP: Infrastructure lifecycle management

“It’s like a telecom industry specific ERP,” says NAAP Global Solutions’ Don van Splunteren, urging carriers and towercos to take a look at the new functionality of their infrastructure lifecycle management solution. NAAP has leveraged being part of the same investment group as 42 year old tower manufacturer Neptuno, and from the lessons learned from gathering and analysing data from over 5,000 cell sites in South and Central America and the Caribbean.

TowerXchange: Where does NAAP Global Solutions fit in the telecoms infrastructure ecosystem?

NAAP Global Solutions was launched eight years ago and focuses exclusively on the telecom sector. We help customers deal with the vast amounts of information coming from sites, towers, access control systems, generators and all other equipment on cell sites. We provide modular infrastructure lifecycle management software and services to help carriers, towercos and regulators manage operational business processes, increasing efficiency, lowering opex and enhancing business intelligence.

We are able to leverage over four decades of tower manufacturing and site installation experience of Neptuno, which is a different company in the same group as NAAP Global Solutions.

Our solution is available under software as a service (SAAS) or license.

We provide an integrated solution to manage many infrastructure-related processes - not just O&M, but also compliance with regulations and company policies, and lease management. Our full suite of lease management functionality supports property owners and tenants with billing, reporting and forecasting - everything you need for revenue and cost management.

We also provide 3D laser scanning of sites, which is especially relevant when towercos buy new towers. Capturing a site in 3D not only helps you understand what sites look like, understand their capacity, and how many antennas are on there, but it also provides a baseline information set to start managing the infrastructure from there on.

Finally, NAAP Global Solutions also provides an inventory and barcoding service, helping tower operators physically label and inventory their assets, see which parts on a shared site are theirs, which again is invaluable baseline management information.

TowerXchange: Who are your target customers and how do their requirements differ?

We provide solutions and services for carriers, towercos and regulators.

The tower sharing model is only around 15 years old, and the independent towerco sector has only been at scale for around 10 years, so this is a newer segment to us. Our initial customer base was solely carriers, but for the last three years we’ve evolved to serve towercos as carriers divest towers to large towercos and subcontract BTS to large and smaller regional towercos.

carriers want more detail about active equipment than towercos, whereas towercos use our operational tools to manage maintenance regimes, genset performance and refuelling, and of course to know what tenants have installed, which is key to revenue assurance

The biggest difference in requirements is that carriers want more detail about active equipment than towercos, whereas towercos use our operational tools to manage maintenance regimes, genset performance and refuelling, and of course to know what tenants have installed, which is key to revenue assurance.

We’ve also seen a number of regulators come to us to help them improve the visibility of network performance and ultimately QoS.

TowerXchange: Our readers’ first question is always ‘how proven is the solution?’ So please tell us about some of your client deployments to date - I understand you have an extensive client base in Latin America?

NAAP Global Solutions is focused on South and Central America and the Caribbean, where we work with three of the seven largest carriers in the region, plus many smaller carriers, as well as towercos and regulators.

Each client uses NAAP in a different way that best serves their needs, and we provide integration services with other information and asset identification systems.

Our systems gather data from over 5,000 cell sites currently in New Zealand, Venezuela, Haiti, Bolivia, Guatemala, the French West Indies, Dutch Antilles, The Dominican Republic, Mexico and Puerto Rico. Given our experience supporting networks in under-developed regions of the Caribbean, we’re interested in opportunities in Africa too.

TowerXchange: What are the compelling events that prompt clients to consider investing in infrastructure lifecycle management solutions?

There are three compelling events that bring prospects to NAAP Global Solutions.

The first is M&A. When an operator, towerco or portfolio of tower assets is being acquired, one often finds that not all the tools and information are in place to operate efficiently. When you’re buying a new network you want to know what you’re buying, and you often don’t know what is on each cell site. So operators of recently acquired networks will often call us to help them understand the current status of sites, towers and gensets. By implementing a telecoms infrastructure asset lifecycle management system, our services team can inventory sites with or without 3D laser scans, generating a baseline data set onto which we can overlay business processes to ensure that information is kept up to date and that insights are acted upon. For example, we recently undertook a survey of over 400 sites in the Caribbean for Digicel.

The second compelling event is a network modernisation - the rollout of a new technology overlay, or even a greenfield rollout. For example, LTE requires a level of engineering to determine where the antennas go, equipment installation and cable placement. This is typically undertaken by an OEM vendor, who are also our partners, and often require up to seven different surveys (such as electrical, site mapping, tower mapping, RF audits, shelter mapping).  With 3D Laser Technology, we bring the number of site surveys needed to two or three at the most, generating immediate savings. Sometimes it’s the carrier and sometimes it’s the vendor who comes to NAAP for pre-rollout 3D laser scan of the sites, enabling engineers to use virtual data in NAAP to plan ahead - without ever climbing the tower!

The third compelling event that prompts investment in infrastructure lifecycle management is when new management comes in and wants to get things in order. Our platform can help them get things under control operationally and financially, for example understanding the value and depreciation of the network, where to target capex investment, reduce opex spending, and the returns on that investment.

TowerXchange: Given the trend toward co-location, and the addition of new technologies, new antennas and new equipment to towers and shelters, what is the typical divergence between carriers’ asset registers and what is actually on sites?

It’s surprising that in many cases the tower operator has little or no accurate information. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of information, but little or no accurate information, which can be even worse!

Network modernisation happens so fast that if you use 30 or 40 Excel sheets owned by different people, both permanent staff and contractors, you soon find you have an inaccurate data set.

I’ve asked the CTOs of some of the largest carriers in Latin America, “if I were to ask 3 guys of your team for a site list, will they be identical?” Even something as simple as a standard site list is tough to generate unless you have a single data set, and a platform from which you can access and modify data on the fly. Most carriers still don’t have a system in place to manage information dynamically and at the speed needed to keep up to date.

Many carriers remain focused on generating revenue, they don’t see cost of not having accurate information. It’s tough to create a compelling business case - how much would you save with up to date site list based on which you could manage day to day processes? Creating new revenues may be sexier, but cost savings are more controllable and sustainable.

The reality is that in most cases the management teams who make the strategic decisions don’t often go to cell sites. The NAAP platform in combination with 3D laser scanning allows the sites to come to you, and to make more intelligent decisions than allowing your subcontractors to make site modification decisions on the fly.

TowerXchange: Is there an opportunity for effective inventory tracking and asset lifecycle management to accelerate the surveying and evaluation of cell sites for those selling towers, adding to their value?

I think this is a great opportunity; carriers and towercos alike should inventory their assets, and in some cases even roll out new technologies, before selling in order to maximise value. When you divest towers, employees, vendors and subcontractors often change, and when they are gone, their information goes with them on their laptops and spreadsheets. The resultant operational inefficiency can make a big dent in site level profitability and may prove to be very costly

TowerXchange: How do users information requirements vary between management, finance, purchasing, installation and O&M field crews?

As our platform is modular, there is a dedicated module for each function. It’s all the same information of course, just viewed through a different prism - finance, leasing, field workforce, NOC, asset management, inventory, spares management - different users have access to different processes, but we maintain synergy because it’s all based on the same data. Security restricts financial or other specific information to authorised users only of course.

The current strategy for many operators, where each function has their own Excel spreadsheet, has its limitations. It’s a 2D matrix, there’s no data synergy, and too many orphaned files. A platform like ours creates business intelligence value, and shares custom reports across different functions.

TowerXchange: What are the typical information flows between the field and the NOC?

Our platform also integrates with third party access control, diesel, electrical, temperature and other monitoring systems - we didn’t want to create another RMS, rather we extract information from these systems. We’ve worked with several RMS companies such as Inala, Kentrox (Westell) and CMS Circuit Management Systems to provide an integrated solution.

the NAAP platform, in combination with 3D laser scanning, allows the sites to come to you, and to make more intelligent decisions than allowing your subcontractors to make site modification decisions on the fly

The NAAP platform also provides a Service Order/Task Management module that allows the NOC and other operational departments to create and automate trouble tickets.

By integrating with access control systems we can issue site access permits, see who accessed a site and integrate with video over IP.

TowerXchange: What is the business case for investing in 3D laser scanning a cell site?

Some towercos do more in-depth due diligence than others, but they all do a site visit to survey the asset, because tower mapping is key to revenue assurance.

3D laser scanning doesn’t require tower climbing - tower climbers are very expensive in the US and are in high demand. A tower climb site survey can take a few hours, depending on scope of work and level of detail required. While 3D scanning takes a similar time, it yields human error free data- an exportable CAD of the real tower as well as a 3D model of the site which can be reused for additional surveys - without having to re-visit the site.

while 3D scanning might be slightly more expensive initially, re-use and accuracy of data will save money in the long run. Some of our customers have realised up to 40% savings on site re-visits. For example, you can make quicker decisions on where to site generator for a new client, or how to save space for LTE equipment

The real difference comes later when you need to know site layout, perhaps to re-cable a genset, and you don’t have to go back. So while 3D scanning might be slightly more expensive initially, re-use and accuracy of data will save money in the long run. Some of our customers have realised up to 40% savings on site re-visits. For example, you can make quicker decisions on where to site a generator for a new client, or how to save space for LTE equipment.

TowerXchange: Finally, please sum up how you would differentiate NAAP Global Solutions from competitive site management and asset lifecycle management tools.

On the one hand there are smaller asset management and lifecycle management solutions, and on the other hand there are big ERP vendors with inventory modules that don’t come close to the functionality and level of detail we can provide for telecoms. We understand the nuances of azimuths and tilts, and we have a built in tool that estimates tower loading. So if a tenant on a tower needs to add LTE and needs a structural analysis, NAAP can provide a quick understanding of tower loading.

Our other differentiators include our laser scanning and barcoding services. Also, we provide SAAS as well as license sale options. Some clients consume NAAP from our data center, they only need a web client to log on, while others don’t like information being in the cloud, so we offer an on-premise license.

NAAP offers professional services to help with implementation and change management. We’ll do a gap analysis between your current state and where you want to be, selecting modules and customising our solution to your required processes, then training users on the new processes. NAAP offers a high level of customisation and integration - we’re small enough to be agile, but large enough to manage different versions and integrations. We have successful integrated with SAP and other widely known systems.

While our competitors are focused purely on the software platform, we come from the telecommunications industry, which means we know how to operate the network. We have lived first hand the pain of an installation crew stranded on the field because of innacurate site information - we’re a pureplay telecom company that decided to package our know-how into a software platform and make it available to others.