The backbone of telecommunications
Every day, millions of people rely on the services provided by Crown Castle. As the largest provider of shared communications infrastructure in the U.S., it forms the backbone of the country's mobile phone and mobile data networks. From chatting with friends to running a business or making an emergency call, Crown Castle gives users the connectivity they need to go about their lives easily and effectively.
Facilities owned and operated by Crown Castle include more than 40,000 phone masts, 115,000 small cells (on air or under contract) and approximately 85,000 route miles of fibre which supports small cells and related solutions. All of this is managed through dedicated Network Operations Centres (NOC). Crown Castle customers range from local municipalities to international mobile phone and network providers—all of which depend on fast, efficient and highly reliable levels of service, especially as they look to embrace new advances such as 5G, edge computing and Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS).
The business is split into two main areas: the Tower operations looks after communication assets and related infrastructure, while the Network operations handles fibre and small cell networks.
Enhancing the customer experience
The Network NOC is responsible for monitoring everything that happens on the Crown Castle wireless and fibre optic networks. Its national support team notifies and supports customers in the event of planned maintenance events, outages or other incidents and responds to and addresses faults or other issues as they arise. Speed and efficiency of service are critical requirements, but these were hampered by slow, manual processes.
"When a customer reported an issue, our team had to use multiple systems to understand details of their service, then also had to identify what the potential problem could be", says Sheldon Jordan, VP, Network Operations at Crown Castle. "The previous system was costly in terms of time and resources".
It was with the aim of addressing these issues that Crown Castle wanted to enhance and expand its journey with ServiceNow.
An enterprise-grade solution
Crown Castle began its ServiceNow implementation in 2017, operating ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM) to handle core ITIL management across all parts of the business.
By 2019 it had added ServiceNow Customer Service Management (CSM), followed quickly by the introduction of Field Service Management (FSM) to handle preventative maintenance and break-fix issues for the Crown Castle Network operations.
"The Network side at Crown Castle has grown strongly through acquisition, but the software we were using was very specific to previous use cases", explains Catey Gosnell, Operations Systems Program Manager at Crown Castle. "We required an enterprise-grade solution that would allow us to scale with our needs. FSM offered the flexibility, reliability and support we were looking for".
Two years later, ServiceNow Telecommunications Service Management (TSM) was deployed, adding industry-specific functionalities that enabled Crown Castle to further strengthen its customer experience.
Streamlined, automated processes
Before introducing ServiceNow, manual call-management processes and ticket assignments led to lost staff time and delays in resolving issues. With ServiceNow FSM, Catey notes that being able to access new data streams and automate key parts of the process has delivered a streamlined, more efficient end-to-end experience.
"We'd call technicians who were on holiday, but we didn't know because it was just a manual effort", she adds. "Being able to manage those things in ServiceNow, as we can today, improves the experience for both our customers and our employees. We can dispatch more efficiently so we can service everyone across the process more efficiently too"
With field engineers able to track and update incidents remotely via the mobile platform, customers now receive accurate, up-to-the-minute information about job statuses and progress.
"We created a smart map using our portal page, so it would be available to our customers in real time, via mobile app, on the portal or in the desktop version", says Catey.
Improved support, improved experience
The improved processes also led to improvements in customer support and the wider customer experience. Support agents no longer spend much of their day identifying customer challenges and triaging problems. Now, they can use their time more productively in the support process.
Crown Castle's eBonding allows participating customers to share data and raise queries or tickets from their own systems.
"When we implemented ServiceNow with our eBonding component, the call volume into the NOC was reduced", notes Sheldon. "So instead of being on the phone taking information, teammates are actually fixing problems".
He continues: "There will always be cases where we rely on a customer calling in, and in these instances, we want to make that as efficient as possible. eBonding removes that path of picking up the phone and having to verbally communicate; customers can create a ticket with a few clicks and all that information comes to us directly. Overall, thanks to ServiceNow, each agent can save 10–15 minutes per incident through that automation effort".
For Catey, the standard capabilities of TSM are key contributors to Crown Castle's evolving customer service.
"We're moving towards taking advantage of the out-of-the-box functionality and enhancements that ServiceNow supplies", she says. "The ability to integrate and automate easily is huge and with ServiceNow, you don't have to start from scratch. That combination makes the jobs of our agents and field technicians easier, which allows us to service customers more efficiently and provide a better overall experience".
A million-dollar benefit
While better-supported customers and more efficient agents are already excellent outcomes for Crown Castle, the benefits also extend into impressive financial savings.
Transitioning legacy systems to ServiceNow led to significant initial cost savings as Crown Castle was able to bring previously outsourced tasks back in house while ensuring a seamless user experience.
"We could let go of a lot of high costs, particularly in code development", Sheldon recalls. "By using ServiceNow as a base and layering on top of that, we saved nearly $1 million in the first 12 months alone".
Sheldon also notes that while the Network side of Crown Castle has grown steadily during its ServiceNow journey, key staffing requirements have not had to increase at the same rate.
"Our wireless node operation has grown by 10–15% year on year, but we haven't had to grow our headcount by nearly that much", he says. "With ServiceNow, we're able to do more with the same, using our resources more effectively to manage the growth we're seeing in the business".
Setting the business apart
With customer feedback trending upwards and significant costs saved, the impact that the ServiceNow platform has on the Network operations at Crown Castle has been substantial. The operations teams are now consistently receiving positive customer feedback scores, enabling them to close the gap between customer expectations and Crown Castle's capability with support from ServiceNow.
"I've used other software, but I've never been able to accomplish so much with such a small team as we have with ServiceNow", says Catey.
As a result, Crown Castle is now in the process of extending ServiceNow to other parts of the business, most notably the Tower operations—and Sheldon is looking forward to more positive outcomes.
"Customers that are served using ServiceNow are the happiest customers Crown Castle has", he concludes. "Anything they need, we can accomplish in a pretty short timeframe. That's how we're looking to drive loyalty and set ourselves apart".