SpectraSite Reduces Processing Time by 77% with New Site Proposal and Approval Solution

Background

Ultimus Client: SpectraSite
Industry: Telecommunications
Solution: New Site Proposal and Approval

SpectraSite Communications, Inc. provides outsourced antenna sites to the wireless communications and broadcast industries in the United States. Its business includes the ownership, licensing, and leasing of antenna sites on towers. The company is based in Cary, North Carolina. SpectraSite Communications, Inc. is a subsidiary of American Tower Corp.

Goal: Automate manual process, reduce processing time, and improve efficiency.

Because such a large portion of SpectraSite’s business is managing towers and antennae, the company is heavily involved in real estate management. They must track many assets, assess rent or charges, and manage and perform maintenance. As is customary in real estate, there is a significant amount of paperwork and routing of forms necessary to complete business.

For example, SpectraSite’s in-building antennae approval process required two letters of interest from carriers, a site review, information collection, and then sending a proposal to appropriate parties for approval. Since an original signature is required on all documentation, this process was taking approximately 60 days to complete. Other challenges with the process included:

• Large volume of paper- A tremendous amount of paperwork needed to be completed manually to manage, maintain, and track the company’s vast network of towers and antennae.
• Manual routing- The documentation, originating from many different sources, was then routed to appropriate parties for review and approval.  This manual routing was accomplished through paper-based means such as mail and fax.
• Long approval processing time- Since original signatures were required on all documentation and the routing was done via mail or fax, the processing was taking 60 days to complete.
• Lack of efficiency- In a dynamic industry such as telecommunications, speed and responsiveness are key. This antiquated process was not in line with the company’s strategic goals.

Ultimus' Approach

Using the Ultimus BPM Suite, documentation and corresponding signatures are now captured electronically and automatically routed to appropriate parties in the chain of approval.  Their pilot application for in-building antennae equipment experienced a reduction in approval processing time from 45-60 days to 10-14 days.  

The development team at SpectraSite has access to the entire process library and can make modifications accordingly, testing each revised workflow for additional enhancements.  In addition, Ultimus’ process modeling functionality allows SpectraSite to identify outdated steps or redundancies on the front end, thus streamlining processes before they are automated.

Implementation

With Ultimus, SpectraSite did not need programmers to write code, allowing for a rapid and efficient implementation. Ultimus fit right into their existing architecture and provided three weeks of on-site consulting and six training courses to ensure smooth installation and rollout. 

SpectraSite has seen very positive results right from the beginning and has garnered business improvements that are impressive and measurable.  Rollout and integration continue to be relatively painless due to Ultimus training and support, and SpectraSite has more than 80 processes developed or currently in development.

About Ultimus

Ultimus has automated more business processes than any other Business Process Management (BPM) vendor worldwide. Ultimus Adaptive BPM Suite has enabled companies to accelerate their performance goals at every stage of corporate growth. Ultimus’ award-winning technology seamlessly adapts to people, systems and change. Utilized by more than 2,000 customers worldwide, Ultimus provides solutions to organizations such as Pfizer, ProHealth, Bausch & Lomb, Northrup Grumman, DHL, Microsoft, Daimler, Perdue Farms, Chevron, and Tulane University. Ultimus is headquartered in North America, and has additional offices in Latin America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Australia.