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as these actions are proven out, other states will notice and quickly follow. With the criticality of internet in
the modern world, this focal point
will predominantly increase as customers continue to expect more and regulators are paying attention to those expectations.
• Customers expect more: Post pandemic, the number of people working from home daily has increased tremendously. Reliance on and expectations related to your service
has never been greater or had more scrutiny. Outages can have a huge adverse impact on customer satisfaction and in the modern world, negative news spreads quickly on social media. Reputational damage
and lost customers can have a hugely negative impact on revenues and in an increasingly competitive environment, negative events are making it easier for customers to make a change if you give them a reason to.
The financial equations and implications here can get large very quickly.
With per ticket locate prices ranging from $10-$50/ticket depending
on geography and ticket volumes, telecommunications companies that are leveraging third parties have large budgets attached to the completion
of this work. The pressures outlined above have all been combining at the same time and in the past few years are commonly resulting in budgets for these locating services increasing year over year in ranges between 20-30%. Depending on the size of your organization, your budgets in this
area are easily in the six, seven, eight, or even nine figure zone, and a 20 - 30% increase at these dollar levels is likely getting the finance and senior management team’s attention.
As a telecommunications company, what can you do?
Good news! There are things you can do to take back control and manage this. There are three main things that telecommunications companies should be looking at to counteract these new realities. The essence of each of these is about getting smarter in the way you are leveraging data to better control and manage these budgets moving forward while ensuring you are providing a better experience for your customers.
1. Increase vendor management visibility: Focus on increasing visibility into the status and performance of your third-party locating companies to better understand the work being performed. If you are relying on your third-party locating company’s reports, or logging into One Call Center websites, it is likely very challenging to find the analytics you need. Modern ticket management systems like KorTerra can provide a single pane of glass view into the status of tickets so you can confidently confirm that work being done is as you would expect, and you can begin identifying areas where work can perhaps be managed differently to reduce costs. Dashboards can provide an understanding of on-time percentage (OTP), completed on-time percentage (COTP), third-party locator individual performance, cleared in office, cleared in field, late tickets based on geography, ticket cycle time, damages heat maps, etc. This information can help inform other strategies you may want to
lean into such as how you can reduce damages, how you can ensure you are being billed appropriately for work performed, and how you can better control your locating budgets based on work performed data.
2. Implement ticket screening: What the data from the ticket completion process typically points to is an opportunity for tickets to potentially
be screened prior to them going to
your third-party locators. For every ticket screened, as we mentioned above, there could be savings anywhere from $10-$50 per ticket. Most organizations we work with at KorTerra in the telecommunications arena are seeing ticket screening rates ranging between 30%-67%. Take that ratio, multiply it by your number of tickets, and multiply by your per ticket rate to estimate your savings potential. The number is likely very large and attractive to consider.
3. Invest in damage prevention: With the costs of damages rising and the implications of major line strikes growing, particularly with major assets like transport fibers, ring fibers, and heads ends, it’s time to start taking this seriously. As you see what’s possible with basic math problems in the first and second areas mentioned above, take some of those monies saved and allocate them to damage prevention. Whether that means hiring staff to screen tickets in a more dynamic way, oversee your third parties and the outcomes they are
delivering for you, or creating your own locating or damage investigation teams, you’ll be amazed at the progress you can make in ensuring a better customer experience while protecting your reputation and saving money. The ROI on these investments has proven to
be incredibly successful with some of KorTerra’s largest telecommunications clients with organizations regularly saving anywhere from tens of thousands to tens of millions depending on their size and scale.
Recap
The telecommunications industry is faced with a great opportunity and great challenge in the future. With the incredible investment that is occurring across the sector, now is the time to assess “Are we really doing damage prevention correctly, and what are the implications if we don’t?” Whether
it be the rising costs of locating, the increasing ticket volumes, the rapid acceleration of project tickets, the increasing costs of damages, competitive pressures, customer expectations,
and regulatory scrutiny, one thing is clear: there are a myriad of reasons to begin getting serious about damage prevention at your organization. At KorTerra, we are always happy to talk with you about your approaches and provide guidance on how some of your peers have achieved outcomes that are likely worth your consideration. Reach out to our teams to learn more, as we’d be interested in consulting with you and your firm on these topics.
About KorTerra, Inc.
KorTerra is the leading provider of damage prevention software, protecting billions of dollars in underground infrastructure. For over 30 years, the leading stakeholders in gas distribution, pipeline operation, telecommunications, electric distribution, contract locating, and city, county, and state governments have trusted KorTerra as their damage prevention solution. KorTerra helps mitigate risk and ensure the safety of field personnel by providing secure software platforms for processing 811 locate tickets, tracking and reporting asset damages, meeting regulatory compliance, and more.
Explore additional solutions at korterra.com and follow KorTerra on LinkedIn.
Media Contact:
Paige Nygaard KorTerra, Inc.
952.368.1911 marketing@korterra.com
2024, Issue 2 West Virginia 811 • 7