It is also used for analysis, visualizing ticket relationships and evaluating problem trends. Core users are technical engineers and others who need geographically related information rather than textual reports. For technical problems, the CSR asks the customer for the nearest address, intersection, or landmark where the problem occurred and enters that into the ticket. The application obtains the latitude and longitude of the location by calling a geocoder and storing the data with the ticket in the database. Maps are multi-layered with state borders, market boundaries, major highways, antenna sites and other information to provide additional reference and perspective.
Engineers can see at a glance if a pattern is developing and where problems are occurring.
This system could help us determine if we need to install another cell site or evaluate customer usage. When latitude and longitude are not available, the application allows the user to view the information in a more traditional manner by bringing up browsers and graphs. The NMC has the ability to route technical tickets to engineers located throughout the coverage area, either at switch sites or at a main office in their region. When they log in, the systems knows the region in which they are working. Not as often as one might imagine, said Winters.