How to Start Scaling Your Fiber Business

Whenever I meet other people from our industry, there is one predominant topic. The challenge facing fiber optic companies today: scaling difficulties. Either on the level of fiber companies or construction companies, we all share the same issue.

The past years taught us that increasing the rollout volume from 1k to 10k homes passed is easy. Yet, many companies fail at 100k HP, unable to meet demand. An increase from 10k to 100k is far more exhausting than 10 times the effort.

Both fiber and construction firms went bankrupt, unable to find a solution. Many more will follow.

In my 15-year fiber expansion career, I have tried to solve a key problem: how to scale your fiber business.

There are many angles that one can think of to find a way to scale. This episode is about the need for better digital tools. It is also about why digital transformation is more than a buzzword. Why choosing the right tools matters. The wrong choices can lead to a "digitized bad process."

For those afraid of picking a costly, flawed IT solution, I have two ideas. They cost nothing and can be set up in hours. They offer 80% of the benefits of expensive, professional tools.

Simple Yet Effective Tools to Kickstart Your Digital Journey

Implementing IT tools needs most of the time three things.

1. IT skills within your company

2. money

3. a lot of time

So, I had spent almost a year with one question: What is the cheapest, simplest way to control your fiber rollout? We are using a solution that costs less than 100 Euro per month. It will scale a construction business from well under 1m Euro last year to more m Euro this year. It can be zero if you start your journey.

You must document and track your daily rollout. This is vital for both a construction and a fiber company. It's important for legal requirements. For the construction companies, it is their revenue source. For the fiber company, it is its source of CAPEX use. One aims to make as much as possible; the other aims to reduce its costs as much as possible.

What we have done is set up a simple table in a Google Sheets document. We prefer Google Sheets over Excel. Every Google Sheet is my default cloud-based document. AI-powered automations are easier for beginners to put in place than Excel. Excel also works on a typical Teams SharePoint. But I wanted to have the easiest solution, and this is by a good margin the Google Sheets doc.

The table has the columns to track daily rollout performance. You have an ID for identification. You have a geolocation. The column indicates how many meters builders constructed in each category, and so on. The detail may vary by case and depends on your performance catalog. Your catalog has 3 standard items and 3 extras. You need 3+3 categories with all the info to generate or confirm invoices.

How do I input the daily rollout metrics?

For that one, I also experimented a lot in the past months. The simplest and quite nice solution is a tool called "Fillout." It is a form tool that can also be 1:1 linked to your Google Sheet. You create the input form once. Then, share the link. All your project leaders, supervisors, and subcontractors can fill out their daily reports. Of course, if your subcontractor does that, your supervisor needs to control it. But that's normal.

The big advantage is that, after a field measurement, you have all your daily production in a database. The technician performs the measurements in the traditional analog way with a measureing wheel. Later, we replace the analog method with a GPS tool. But it is more complex and requires trust in GPS tools. This one at hand is the extremest simplest, but still an 80% effective solution.

Since the bottleneck is not the measureing wheel, but the way to structure the analog data, we came up with this solution. As I already mentioned, the low costs are low and it's easy to install. If you would ask me, I could set it up in a day and it replaces manual processes with minimal disruption.

Validating invoices is a mess for construction and fiber firms. Yet, since we implemented this one, it has allowed us quick wins by reducing errors and stress. We cut our invoicing time in half and improved quality. Of course, the old process management saying remains: shit in, shit out.

The second example is about invoices we receive. Of course, an ERP, DMS, or Business Central would be more professional. If you're about to start or haven't managed any IT, this is a good chance to catch up.

We have redirected all emailed invoices to a Trello board. There we have lists like "inbox," "in validation," and "done." The categories and steps are very simple to adjust. Thus, you can do what you want.

A new invoice triggers a Zapier automation on the board. Zapier helps you connect websites, apps, and databases. You don't need an API or any coding knowledge.

Our automations can do almost anything. For me, it's a great tool for automating back-office work. I currently use it to let ChatGPT pre-analyze the invoices.

Also, the first example with fill-out and Google Sheets (you can also use a nocode database like airtable ) is cheap. You have, within a day, "something" that works. With automation now included, they depend on you to set it up in the correct manner. But if they are working once, they will work forever. Can work without heavy IT, like using Excel for data.

You can also set your banking software to do the transfer automatically. But that is not what we are using at this moment.

If you want to have access to any of the templates that I use, here is a good way to start,

Advanced Tools for Businesses Ready to Scale

A daily mess for project managers and back-office staff in construction is scheduling. You must do it correctly. For fiber rollout projects, we lack a forecast and the right info.

Fiber projects face daily challenges. These include: standstill construction, and a lack of permits, materials, and teams. Too many or too few are a problem.

To solve this, I made a "polygon slicer" with the guys from singulariT. This tool can create construction schedules per team on a daily basis. The team provides all info, like the address and material needs. You can imagine it as a rolling forecast that updates every month.

Permits can be pre-filled. We can optimize the material forecast, and so on. It saves time in back-office work. It also boosts project managers' efficiency. It automates complex tasks to manage more projects at once.

The biggest challenge is that you need the right planning files. Planning file formats usually vary by project. Only a few fiber companies make sure all files have the same format and descriptions. The Polygon Slicer is a more advanced tool like the two i showed you before. Thus, the effort you need to put in before you can start is a bit higher.

You need someone on your team who can edit a QGIS file. This is harder than installing a good sheet file. Almost anyone can do that. But, if you have those, you have all the project's key forecasts and resource plans. They are prepared for the rest of it. If set up once, you can update those forecasts whenever you want to. This makes it much easier in daily business.

The last tool I want to show you is Bauleiter Günther. A premium tool that combines all previous steps into a single AI solution. Complete digital management from measurement to invoicing. Use data to make decisions. Fix common field and back-office mistakes. With Augmented Reality, on-site teams get real-time instructions, quality control, and task automation.

AI is now as easy to use as, or easier than, the old solutions. But, it is harder to install Bauleiter Günther for all your teams, subcontractors, and clients. Also, the pricing is much higher.

If your construction firm has over $20-30m in revenue, try BLG. But even, if your revenue is above that range, install the first two tools now. If you don't have them. It's more important to start now and improve as you go, instead of waiting too long.

Why Digital Transformation Is More Than Just Tools

We spent sime time to discuesss various levels of IT tooling. Most IT pros are probably crying now. How can someone use such unprofessional tools? But, 99% of the fiber construction and fiber companies have none of what I mentioned in their portfolios.

Yet, a digital transformation has many dimensions:

• Tools and processes.

• Organizational mindset.

• IT skills within the company.

• Start small and build up

• level 1 and 2 are simple, low-cost ways to bring immediate benefits.

• For more advanced needs, Stufe 3 and 4 offer greater scalability.

Digital transformation is not a one-size-fits-all. Whether you’re starting or scaling, each tool offers a custom solution based on your company’s needs.

Just start: Take the first step by choosing a simple tool, then scale up with them.

Here you find a list of the important links

• Airtable (no code database)

• Fillout (for the "App")

• Zapier (for automatisations)

• Polygon Slicer (automated forecast tool)

• Bauleiter Günther

Any questions left? just book a free consultation

Summary (deutsch)

Problem #1 Skalierung:

• Glasfaserunternehmen kämpfen mit Skalierungsproblemen, insbesondere beim Ausbau von 10.000 auf 100.000 Haushalte.

• Viele Unternehmen scheitern aufgrund ineffizienter Prozesse und unzureichender Digitalisierung.

• Der Artikel beschreibt, wie digitale Tools helfen können, diese Herausforderungen zu meistern.

Einfache und effektive Tools für den Einstieg in die Digitalisierung:

• Digitale Transformation benötigt IT-Kenntnisse, Geld und Zeit, kann aber auch mit einfachen Tools beginnen.

• Beispiel: Google Sheets zur Dokumentation des täglichen Glasfaserausbaus.

• „Fillout“ als Formular-Tool, um tägliche Berichte automatisiert in Google Sheets zu übertragen.

• Diese kostengünstige Lösung reduziert manuelle Prozesse und steigert die Effizienz.

Rechnungsvalidierung und Automatisierung:

• Trello und Zapier helfen, eingehende Rechnungen zu organisieren und den Bearbeitungsprozess zu automatisieren.

• Diese Tools sind einfach zu implementieren und benötigen keine Programmierkenntnisse.

• Automatisierungen können Back-Office-Arbeiten erheblich erleichtern und Fehler minimieren.

Erweiterte Tools für größere Unternehmen:

• Der „Polygon Slicer“ erstellt Baupläne und Ressourcenprognosen für den Glasfaserausbau, spart Zeit und optimiert die Planung.

• Notwendig: Ein QGIS-Planungsfile und jemand im Team, der diese Dateien bearbeiten kann.

• Diese Lösung eignet sich besonders für größere Unternehmen mit fortgeschrittenen Anforderungen.

Bauleiter Günther – Premiumlösung:

• KI-gestütztes Tool, das den gesamten Prozess von der Messung bis zur Rechnungsstellung digitalisiert.

• Ermöglicht Augmented Reality für Bauleiter, um Anweisungen in Echtzeit zu geben und die Qualität zu kontrollieren.

• Eignet sich besonders für Unternehmen mit einem Umsatz von über 20-30 Millionen Euro.

Warum digitale Transformation mehr als nur Tools ist:

• Digitalisierung umfasst Werkzeuge, Prozesse, organisatorische Denkweisen und IT-Kompetenzen.

• Unternehmen sollten klein anfangen und dann zu fortschrittlicheren Lösungen übergehen.

• Digitalisierung ist individuell und keine Einheitslösung; es gibt verschiedene Stufen, je nach den Bedürfnissen des Unternehmens.