Download PDF
Bharti Infratel Ltd. Utilizes Business Analytics to Improve Efficiency and Reduce Costs
Technology Category
- Functional Applications - Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS)
Applicable Industries
- Cement
- Construction & Infrastructure
Applicable Functions
- Maintenance
- Sales & Marketing
Use Cases
- Construction Management
- Infrastructure Inspection
The Challenge
Bharti Infratel Ltd., a leading communications passive infrastructure provider, was facing a significant challenge in managing and maintaining its over 30,000 communication towers across India. The cost of tower infrastructure management and maintenance was consuming 60 to 70 percent of the operating budget for communications service providers. To keep rates low and expand service into more areas, providers sold off their passive infrastructure to third-party companies that now rent tower space back for a much lower rate. However, Bharti Infratel needed to keep their operating costs low as well. The company wanted to apply business analytics to spot inefficiencies, but with 16 TB of data and growing, it needed a solution that could handle high volumes and still run smoothly. Furthermore, the company had no way to identify how many low-tenancy towers it had overall due to business analytics systems being in silos across the business.
About The Customer
Bharti Infratel Ltd. is one of the world's largest communications passive infrastructure providers. The company was created in July 2007 when it was spun off from Airtel, one of India's largest communications service providers. Airtel decided to stop directly managing towers and other infrastructure, leading to the creation of Bharti Infratel. Today, the company manages more than 30,000 towers across India, in 11 business circles spanning 18 Indian states. The company pioneered the concept of communications tower sharing in India, and it continues to lead in this area.
The Solution
Bharti Infratel implemented a company-wide business analytics system, utilizing IBM® Cognos® 10, IBM InfoSphere® DataStage®, IBM DB2® 9, IBM Power® 750 Express, and IBM AIX® 5. This new system provided the company with insight into how many towers overall had room for rent, enabling the sales and marketing team to target specific customers with special marketing pitches. The system also identified current or potential customers who might want to move in. This improved insight into tenancy helped the company raise revenues, lower energy costs, and assist communications service providers in extending or strengthening service in areas that needed it most. Additionally, the system provided first-time insight into market share, including specific areas where Bharti Infratel was leading or lagging behind its competitors.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Related Case Studies.
![](/files/casestudy/System-800xA-at-Indian-Cement-Plants.jpg)
Case Study
System 800xA at Indian Cement Plants
Chettinad Cement recognized that further efficiencies could be achieved in its cement manufacturing process. It looked to investing in comprehensive operational and control technologies to manage and derive productivity and energy efficiency gains from the assets on Line 2, their second plant in India.
![](/files/casestudy/IoT-System-for-Tunnel-Construction.png)
Case Study
IoT System for Tunnel Construction
The Zenitaka Corporation ('Zenitaka') has two major business areas: its architectural business focuses on structures such as government buildings, office buildings, and commercial facilities, while its civil engineering business is targeted at structures such as tunnels, bridges and dams. Within these areas, there presented two issues that have always persisted in regard to the construction of mountain tunnels. These issues are 'improving safety" and "reducing energy consumption". Mountain tunnels construction requires a massive amount of electricity. This is because there are many kinds of electrical equipment being used day and night, including construction machinery, construction lighting, and ventilating fan. Despite this, the amount of power consumption is generally not tightly managed. In many cases, the exact amount of power consumption is only ascertained when the bill from the power company becomes available. Sometimes, corporations install demand-monitoring equipment to help curb the maximum power demanded. However, even in these cases, the devices only allow the total volume of power consumption to be ascertained, or they may issue warnings to prevent the contracted volume of power from being exceeded. In order to tackle the issue of reducing power consumption, it was first necessary to obtain an accurate breakdown of how much power was being used in each particular area. In other words, we needed to be able to visualize the amount of power being consumed. Safety, was also not being managed very rigorously. Even now, tunnel construction sites often use a 'name label' system for managing entry into the work site. Specifically, red labels with white reverse sides that bear the workers' names on both sides are displayed at the tunnel work site entrance. The workers themselves then flip the name label to the appropriate side when entering or exiting from the work site to indicate whether or not they are working inside the tunnel at any given time. If a worker forgets to flip his or her name label when entering or exiting from the tunnel, management cannot be performed effectively. In order to tackle the challenges mentioned above, Zenitaka decided to build a system that could improve the safety of tunnel construction as well as reduce the amount of power consumed. In other words, this new system would facilitate a clear picture of which workers were working in each location at the mountain tunnel construction site, as well as which processes were being carried out at those respective locations at any given time. The system would maintain the safety of all workers while also carefully controlling the electrical equipment to reduce unnecessary power consumption. Having decided on the concept, our next concern was whether there existed any kind of robust hardware that would not break down at the construction work site, that could move freely in response to changes in the working environment, and that could accurately detect workers and vehicles using radio frequency identification (RFID). Given that this system would involve many components that were new to Zenitaka, we decided to enlist the cooperation of E.I.Sol Co., Ltd. ('E.I.Sol') as our joint development partner, as they had provided us with a highly practical proposal.
![](/files/casestudy/Splunk-Partnership-Ties-Together-Big-Data---IoT-Services.png)
Case Study
Splunk Partnership Ties Together Big Data & IoT Services
Splunk was faced with the need to meet emerging customer demands for interfacing IoT projects to its suite of services. The company required an IoT partner that would be able to easily and quickly integrate with its Splunk Enterprise platform, rather than allocating development resources and time to building out an IoT interface and application platform.
![](/files/casestudy/Bridge-monitoring-in-Hamburg-Port.png)
Case Study
Bridge monitoring in Hamburg Port
Kattwyk Bridge is used for both rail and road transport, and it has played an important role in the Port of Hamburg since 1973. However, the increasing pressure from traffic requires a monitoring solution. The goal of the project is to assess in real-time the bridge's status and dynamic responses to traffic and lift processes.
![](/files/casestudy/Bellas-Landscaping.png)
Case Study
Bellas Landscaping
Leading landscaping firm serving central Illinois streamlines operations with Samsara’s real-time fleet tracking solution: • 30+ vehicle fleet includes International Terrastar dump trucks and flatbeds, medium- and light-duty pickups from Ford and Chevrolet. Winter fleet includes of snow plows and salters.