The address management challenges
Address management is one of those things that quickly get messy during fiber optic telco network rollouts (and beyond). Between different stakeholders using different conventions and the addresses themselves changing with new construction or municipal changes, it can be difficult to know for certain which physical location corresponds to which connection in your network.
Add to this the problem of street addresses not always being unique and it’s easy to see how confusion can easily seep into the network data and cause inefficiency down the road. Incidents, maintenance, and new orders with bad data can mean field contractors get sent to the wrong address and have to make multiple trips.
Accuracy in the database
Network owners who are faced with too many inaccuracies in their network address management want solutions that can minimize confusion and make their network operations more efficient and less costly. The answer in this case is automation that can streamline the address management process and ensure every single address can be clearly and uniquely identified. That way, there is no confusion about the exact physical location of any address and its relation to the fiber connection.
The solution?
The Gridsz ADDRESS module processes address information from multiple sources and applies sophisticated logic to the data to determine an exact location for every connection in the network, regardless of status. It then assigns a unique ID to each address. This unique ID remains the same across all systems and throughout all types of communication with stakeholders. It stays the same from planned connections all the way to activated connections, and even if any part of the address changes, whether street name, city, house number, or X/Y coordinates .
Keeping track of address changes
Ensuring the accuracy of addresses in the fiber network is not once and done. If addresses change at any point, the database also needs to be updated. To keep proper control over that process, including communications, network owners want insight into which changes have been made to each address and why.
They need to be able to give clarity to every stakeholder in the chain about the exact locations of the connections and avoid unnecessary confusion because an address changed. Having an audit log of addresses both before and after changes is important. Not only that, but for ensuring accuracy, it is also essential to be able to monitor changes to the address data, perform checks, and search through change histories so that any errors can be quickly detected and corrected.
The solution?
Gridsz ADDRESS keeps a comprehensive history of every change made to every address in the network, and it’s accessible through both the user interface and API connection. It even keeps track of which activity generated which address update to which connection, making it simple to trace every change back to its source. All while maintaining each connection’s unique identification to prevent confusion about the location. Trust us when we say it’s comprehensive!
Keeping control of address changes
Audit logs are important, but ensuring true address accuracy means going beyond keeping address change histories. Network owners also want control over what gets changed, when it gets changed, and by whom. Avoiding errors and confusion in the first place is preferable to correcting the issues they cause after the fact.
The problem is: sometimes it’s useful to fully automate updates and sometimes it’s not. If, for example, an address changes while an order is still open, delaying that update would help avoid confusion about where field contractors need to be to finish the work. And depending on the source, address import files sometimes contain incorrect data, so someone needs to check them before they are uploaded to the address management system.
The solution?
Gridsz ADDRESS gives network owners complete control over how address changes get updated, whether that is full automation without any need for manual actions or delayed with automatic prompting for checks and approvals. Import rules can be fully configured to individual needs. No active connection or open ticket at the address? Fully automate. Address split? Hold for manual checks. Whatever way you want to keep control over what does and doesn’t get automated, Gridsz can control the process for you.
