BT believes in using technology to maximise efficiency, reduce costs and continually improve and update its network. In support of this, the company has recently announced its intention to move 7,500 staff to home-working by March 2000, reducing London based desks to less than 3,000 by March 2003. BT also aims to achieve a paperless office as part of its corporate strategy to increase efficiency and address environmental issues. 

A key example of how the company puts these two objectives into practice is demonstrated by BT Radio Structures, who have recently deployed an information management solution from Cimage.

Striving for the paperless office.

The towers support a range of radio antennas and equipment used by BT and mobile operators (MOLOs) such as Cellnet, Vodafone, One2One and Orange. Each tower has a unique configuration that is carefully documented and used by engineers, planners and suppliers to manage the network. Prior to implementing the new system, BT had accumulated around 150,000 drawings and microfilms, all containing essential information about the towers. In all, 4,000 square metres of Central London office space was being taken up to simply store this information, with ten full-time staff charged with copying, posting and distributing information when it was changed or requested by staff.

To store information in this way was clearly inefficient. BT needed to find a way to capture the disseminated information and make it available in one system for its 200 locally based staff to access remotely. After careful evaluation, BT chose an information management solution from Cimage. 

The new Cimage system has enabled BT to dramatically reduce the amount of paper generated and distributed, helping in the goal to achieve ISO14001 environmental certification, and to reduce costs by freeing up the office space previously used to store this information.

"We're aiming as close as possible to the model of the paperless office," said Rob Dunn, manager, Radio Structures Design & Integrity. "The amount of paper we used to generate and store was not just excessive, but also made life difficult for us. The new system has helped us to reduce errors and ensure that we can now provide information in seconds rather than days." Additionally, the use of the system has enabled BT to cope with the exponential growth in demand for access by third parties including the MOLOs to BT's Towers. 

Making information accessible, anytime, anywhere

As part of the solution, Cimage captured all of the engineering drawings and related information and put it into an Information Management System. BT controls the read, write and access permissions on the files to ensure security is maintained. Up-to-date information, such as the latest drawings, health and safety information and photographs can now be accessed electronically via the BT Intranet from any location at any time. This increases efficiency and reduces the costs of couriers and repeat visits to site, previously required as a result of incomplete or incorrect data.

"It is crucial to the work we do that all engineers, wherever they are, can get the most up-to-date information on all towers," said Dunn. "Incorrect information causes delays and repeat visits to site, all of which have a negative impact on our efficiency and increase costs." 

As an industry leader, BT also needs to maintain records for HSE and Oftel audits. Cimage provides a full audit trail online so audits are faster and do not interrupt the mission critical work being done by engineers and managers.

An easy to use system encourages rapid adoption

As the Cimage system is intuitive to use and requires little training, BT is anticipating rapid adoption by its users. Due to its ease of use BT is now developing a facility to enable mobile operators (MOLOs) and suppliers access to tower information online via the BT Intranet and a Web browser. Firewall technology will enable BT to provide specifically chosen information to customers and suppliers securely, whilst preventing them from accessing other, more confidential information.

Improved business decisions

BT uses the Cimage system to manage and use the information that engineers and contractors have compiled about the BT network to aid decision making within the business. Knowledge is retained as information is now stored solely in the Cimage system and not in employees' personal filing cabinets or in their heads. This also ensures that knowledge isn't lost when employees move on. 

"Using the Cimage system, BT can exploit the knowledge within its organisation, using it to make better, informed business decisions that benefit both its employees and customers. It is an excellent example of the benefits that business intelligence can bring," said Ian MacKenzie, managing director at Cimage.

Further efficiency for the future

Future plans include the roll out of the system to all of their customers, suppliers and fabricator contractors, to further increase the efficiency of the supply chain. 

"We were looking for a turnkey solution which, once in place, would meet all of our business drivers and revolutionise our business processes," Dunn continued. "The Cimage system will enable us to improve our knowledge retention and provide up-to-date information to our users, customers and supply chain instantly online, increasing our efficiency and reducing costs. In terms of customer service, it rarely gets better than this."