Background
A large customer with a multi-landing undersea cable system in the Atlantic Ocean employs Global Broadband Solutions (GBS) for its complete Wet Plant Administration (WPA). This particular Submarine Fiber Optic Cable (SFOC) system carries critical services for the carrier whose name will remain confidential due to the nature of the issue.
THE CHALLENGE
A key 2230 km long undersea cable for a carrier provides a critical connection between several key landing stations. Electrical current fluctuations reported by the cable’s Power Feed Equipment (PFE) indicated the presence of a cable fault. A call was made to the GBS WPA Account Manager who immediately put the GBS Emergency Services team on alert. Power fluctuations on the line were putting the system traffic at risk of failure.
System Engineers calculated an approximate location for the cable fault, but in order to determine the precise location, the original Route Position List (RPL) and charts were required. Upon further investigation, it was apparent that the original seabed scans and imagery from the Marine Route Survey (MRS) were needed immediately along with the Emergency Methods of Procedure (MOPs).
THE SOLUTION
A team of SFOC and IT experts at GBS developed and launched a proprietary patent pending service called “SCDMSTM” - the Submarine Cable Document Management system.
SCDMSTM is built specifically to manage all of the documentation required to design, build, maintain, repair and sell undersea cable systems; this includes CAD drawings, plans, images, video and other unique file types that other Document Management (DM) systems are not able to upload.
Fortunately, the GBS WPA customer encountering the cable emergency had already employed SCDMSTM for all cable system documentation. Thousands of pages had been instantly organized into categorized folders and were able to be searched with the powerful SCDMSTM tool, which produces immediate layered search results.
The GBS customer was able to produce the RPL, MRS and MOPs with a few mouse clicks and share them in near real-time to contractors, engineers and experts thousands of miles away.
If your cable library looks like this, it's costing you time and money.
The RPL and charts for this location were found using SCDMSTM in under 5 minutes."
THE RESULTS
The Cable repair was completed efficiently and quickly, and cable traffic was returned to the newly repaired cable.
All records, daily reports, updated RPLs, MRS and MOPs were uploaded into SCDMSTM to maintain accurate continuity of all operations affecting this cable system.
- AT THE FINGERTIPS: The RPL and charts for this location were found using SCDMSTM in under 5 minutes. This means that the waiting experts, vessel and crew which had been retained could start work almost immediately, rather than be paid to wait at port for the critical documents.
- SYSTEM DESIGN: The specific cable system documents stored in SCDMSTM provided engineers with the original system design and up-to-date drawings. The exact location of the fault was determined using the downloaded MRS files. Compiled bathymetry, accurate records and document sharing enabled rapid collaborative decision making. The vessel was cleared to move to the site location.
- FAULT LOCATION: In less than 20 minutes, the aggregate data produced enabled experts to determine the slope of the seabed where the cable fault was occurring, as well as how the seabed was impacting the cable at the point of contact.
- SUPPLIERS: The GBS WPA Emergency Services Team used data stored on SCDMSTM to locate contact information for repair companies and vessels. The records contained the pre-negotiated rates for these suppliers, eliminating the need to re-negotiate or rely on the supplier for the adjusted pricing. The customer had confidence in the GBS repair team as all information was ready almost instantaneously and able to be securely shared with decision makers.
- SPARES: Documents detailing spares inventory were pulled up from SCDMSTM and able to be reviewed to determine available spare cable or repair kits, as well as plan for spares replacement post-repair.
- REROUTING: To minimize cable traffic interruption, all cable traffic was re-routed according to a carefully designed plan. Once the re-routing was complete, the repair process commenced.
- REINFORCED: Based on testing, the ship continued to recover cable and locate the shunt fault, making all required reports. The repair solution was then decided and the cable was spliced in a predetermined area. As mitigation against future faults, changes were made to the cable at the cable repair fault area and it was placed back into operation.
Because the documents were so quickly produced and shared in record time the repair schedule was consolidated and service was restored faster than expected.
SIMPLE, SECURE SCDMSTM
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SCDMS MANAGES IT ALL
I've watched employees search through email, dig through file boxes wondering what is on years-old DVDs, and waste hours struggling with outdated, un-secured document management software programs - - these hardly qualify as "systems."
With a single click, SCDMS changes everything. Say goodbye to Paper and start saving time and money.
- Bruce Morris, Senior Program Manager, SCDMS Business Development
