In the world of campus telecommunications networks, there are a number of obstacles to creating efficiency and accuracy in daily operations: it can often be a challenge to track and view the physical/logical paths, manage cross-connects, understand capacity, and other network specific attributes. And the data frequently resides in multiple systems, such as CAD, spreadsheets, and custom databases. Understanding who or what has been disconnected as a result of a cut or network event can also be unclear. A lot of times we hear that campus technicians have to field-verify everything because they don’t trust their records or can’t access the data easily. Troubleshooting can be a problem as well – data often lacks context, is difficult to access, or might even be inaccurate due to competing sources.
What opportunities arrive for Campuses with a Visual Operations Support System?
A Visual Operations Support System helps mitigate many of those challenges mentioned above and creates efficiencies. Mapcom’s M4 system, which can be thought of as a CAD/GIS hybrid, consolidates all your network data into an intelligent management platform that’s easy to maintain. It fits into network managers’ processes to allow them to keep information up-to-date so your teams have confidence they need to troubleshoot effectively. With this type of system, they can do more engineering from their desk rather than field-verifying untrusted data regarding facilities. Through a visual operations support system, A-to-Z tracing is depicted with the context of relevant data and helps with network design and management. Understanding fiber and conduit capacity is also very helpful during day-to-day operations.
How do we move to a Visual Operations Support System for our Campus Network?
Most institutions are on a fiscal year budget that determines when the best time to consider adding is or enhancing their operational support systems. When making the decision, it’s important to consider levels of integration and involve necessary stakeholder departments like facilities, space management, emergency management, networking, and telecommunications. These departments can benefit from a visual operations system as it enhances their ability to work and communicate together. Also, be sure to look for configurability! When you have a more configurable solution, your downtime will be shorter, it’s less costly to maintain as you grow, and the entire process will be more collaborative and less disruptive.
How can Mapcom help?
Here at Mapcom Systems, we recognize that every campus is unique, and as such, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. That’s why we don’t sell “products,” we sell solutions, tailored to the unique needs of each and every client through a consultative sales process. Whether you have single-need requests or a comprehensive network management overhaul, we can work through needs-assessments and learn how we can best help add simplicity, efficiency, and automation to your campus network management.
__________________________
To register for the upcoming M4 Campus Webinar [April 24, 2:00PM EDT], click here.
As always, if you have questions, comments, or would like a demo of M4 tailored to campus networks, please don’t hesitate to email marketing@mapcom.com, or submit a demo request at https://www.mapcom.com/request-a-demo/