Great Plains Communications Speeds Project Delivery and Scales Growth

The Challenge

In recent years Great Plains Communications has dramatically expanded its share of the residential market for fiber internet, phone and TV services. Since laying new cable represents the company’s critical capital investment, it is vital to accurately map and manage construction projects. Two metrics determine the potential revenue the company can generate: Fiber in the ground, and the number of homes passed.

To lay miles of new fiber connections daily across the Midwest in the U.S., Great Plains Communications (GPC) manages thousands of construction projects. Reporting from the field using pen and paper was slow, inefficient, and inaccurate.

Colin Lodl, Director of Fiber to the Home and New Market Development, adds, “Every mile of fiber adds to the company value. We wanted to know the status of construction projects so we could keep sales teams informed. However, it was taking longer than we wanted to acquire as-built data in the mapping system.”

In addition to the operational drag of non-digital processes and non-centralized information, construction itself might be delayed by unexpected obstacles such as drains or buried cables. Capturing accurate data to the company’s mapping system is essential, as it can affect the number of homes passed and the installation of network access points. “We asked ourselves how we could do better, and better understand when we could turn a project from construction to revenue,” says Colin Lodl. “We embarked on an ambitious digital transformation project to replace countless spreadsheets with real-time as-built data, complete with invoicing.”

The Solution

The team focused its search on the ability to track construction progress, integrated with existing mapping capabilities. With projects ranging in value from thousands to several million dollars, the company wanted a system able to handle a very wide range of project types.

Attracted by its integrated processes, from engineering design and construction through to project management and finance, Great Plains Communications selected Vitruvi Construction Management Software. Vitruvi software delivers construction management and control capabilities fully integrated with existing mapping systems, and streamlines the data flow from fieldwork right through to revenue opportunity. 

Great Plains Communications aimed to deploy Vitruvi software with the least possible reconfiguration. However, with a wide variety in scope and size of cable-laying projects, the company took advantage of Vitruvi’s flexibility. 

Rick Fitchhorn, Senior GIS/Mapping Manager, remarks, “In any digital transformation, it’s vital to think about the ease of adoption. Rather than adapting the software to fit our processes, we took advantage of embedded best practices within Vitruvi to streamline information flow. Vitruvi provided expert support to help us accelerate our deployment and ensure low-friction onboarding of users and contractors.” 

Today, 50 users at Great Plains Communications rely on Vitruvi software as their sole source of construction management data, replacing a mass of spreadsheets, emails, and more with clear dashboards and simple reports.

The Results

Gaining Real-Time, Reliable Information

Even as the Vitruvi deployment evolves, Great Plains Communications benefits from improved information flow. On-site digital data is captured using the Vitruvi mobile app - no more paper! - which connects with the central solution, providing immediate insight into progress and performance. 

Rick Fitchhorn comments, “Great Plains Communications is a sizeable company, working in 13 states. So even something like keeping track of a reel of fiber can be surprisingly complicated. Having information available in real-time from Vitruvi shows us where the cable was put in the ground and how inventory was consumed, which gives us the ability to understand what we are building and report on status.” 

In addition, Vitruvi helps solve the as-built challenge. As Colin Lodl explains,

“With Vitruvi software we now have real-time, reliable information. We can see exactly what work is planned for each day, the completions we expect, and what we can hand over to the sales team to generate revenue.” 

Vitruvi Construction Management Software also gives insight into metrics that were previously very difficult, or even impossible to obtain, including what the company calls the “velocity of a contractor.” Great Plains Communications engages contractors to lay the fiber, and naturally wants to keep track of performance. Allowing for the complexity and layout of the site, the team can monitor progress. 

Colin Lodl says, “With Vitruvi we can compare efficiency and velocity. If we have a contract for 20,000 homes passed, shared between three contractors, Vitruvi software shows us who offers the most value. For Great Plains Communications, faster rollout means we tie up capital for a shorter period, and are able to generate revenue more quickly.”

In the office, Vitruvi enables direct information flow into operations management. Changes made in the field can be recorded with touch-and-drag on a mobile screen, work orders updated, approvals completed and more. With Vitruvi solutions in place, Great Plains Communications accesses near real-time reporting, moves completed projects to revenue more quickly, and gains a clear picture of homes-passed - the essential metric for FTTH projects. Colin Lodl concludes,

“As Great Plains Communications grows its residential share, our digital transformation is helpings us oil our fiber-to-homes machine. Further, Vitruvi helps us explore new possibilities and extend to new opportunities. With open APIs that allow us to plug in other solutions, Vitruvi is a real gamechanger for us.”