Telephonyonline.com's May 2009 series article on Green Telecom quoted, "If a large wireless provider with a fleet of 1000 trucks was able to eliminate three truck rolls a week that would represent a savings of 3.3 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions."

Within the telecom industry where tens of thousands of trucks roll per week, companies developing methods and processes to reduce vehicle dispatches can positively impact the reduction of fuel consumption and harmful emissions. Concert Technologies, deploying thousands of truck rolls per year while fielding national and global rollouts of multi-service technologies to thousands of locations, claims to set the standard for technology rollout companies in fuel savings and emissions reduction.

According to company Executive Vice President Tom Suder, Concert Technologies has employed multi-site technology deployments for over 14 years and over the last several years has mastered multi-service deployments of different technologies using the fewest truck rolls of all rollout companies, staying within a 40-mile distance of rural customer sites reducing fuel consumption and harmful emissions. "Our approach with the Local Multi-Service Deployment Method ensures and protects the environment and in turn makes 'Concert Close' to its customers. Limiting the need for unnecessary transportation is the key to Concert Technologies' contribution to protecting the environment."

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In this interview, Suder discusses the Information Transport Systems (ITS) industry's environmental approach and his company's new environmental program, called "Concert Close." This initiative changes the methodology by which nationwide and international multi-site projects are delivered now and in the future, and specifically how this approach reduces gas and energy consumption as well as the industry's carbon emissions footprint. 

Why do you feel spending your time and resources on green initiatives is important to your company and the Information Transport Systems industry?

Suder:

Everyone is aware of diminishing natural resources and the impact of carbon emissions on the environment. The U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics discovered that the typical 20-gallon-tank work van averaging 18 miles/gallon burns on average nearly 692 gallons of fuel per year and emits 9.29 grams per mile of carbon monoxide. Concert Technologies sets the example for Nationwide Technology Rollout companies and the ITS industry in general by demonstrating how our rollout methods can reduce the cost and consumption of fuel as well as harmful emissions on the environment.

From the perspective of your company with 20-plus years of experience in the Information Transport Systems industry, how does the industry, in general, dispatch jobs for international and national rollouts?

Suder:
Jobs are dispatched after considering a number of factors:

1. Factor #1
   Typically, technology rollout companies dispatch technicians to jobsites by searching for the closest resource in the vicinity of where the work is to be performed. Most companies, however, do not have qualified and professional field technicians within 40 miles of all remote and rural areas. Problems arise because often the closest resource is anywhere from 75 to 200 miles or more from the site.
   
   The typical rollout company's prime objectives are to get resources to the job site and to complete the work in an effort to serve the customer. Little additional effort is spent considering the environment by setting limited distance thresholds for local resources, and even less effort is made on establishing methodologies to acquire additional, experienced resources should a mileage requirement not be met.
    
2. Factor #2
   More often than not, the solution provider (a typical rollout company customer) does not consolidate different technologies into as few deployments as possible, thus causing multiple technology dispatches of separate or multiple vendors to the site(s).
   
   
3. Factor #3
   A typical technology rollout company dispatches individual resources (technicians) from different local businesses driving separate vehicles for each type of technology required, regardless of the distance necessary to travel to each site. A simple example might be a site that needs to have a demarc extension (inside or structured cabling) and a router installed. The technology rollout company will often contract one business to do the cabling and another, driving a separate vehicle, to install the router.

Result
There could be a number of other factors driving a technology rollout company's reasons, but the overall result remains that by ignoring the consolidation of multi-service, multi-site rollouts, a demand for transportation is created that consumes gas and energy and contributes to the increased carbon footprint generated by our industry.
 

What should Technology Rollout Companies in the ITS industry do to avoid making these mistakes?

Suder:
As for the ITS industry as a whole, we must look at the transportation issues on a nationwide, multi-site rollout scale starting from the perspective of how we "spec-in" requirements (consolidating technologies into fewer deployments) at the solution provider level to include working with rollout companies that have a measurable means to obtain experienced and professional local resources in close proximity to each site.

All technology rollout companies should have a web-based software application that calculates the closest resource to a site. A big question for multi-site rollouts is: What distance is considered close to rural jobsites? Concert Technologies feels it is setting the industry standard by performing 90% of our services within 40 miles or less of every rural site within the United States. Our experience has been that few other rollout companies can meet that standard.

Other questions are:

• What if you do not have someone within the 40-mile radius in a rural area?
• Does the rollout company have processes in place to search for experienced and professional resources ‘on-the-fly' or utilize the next closest available resource to that specific site?

The fact is most rollout companies are not going to build a program to satisfy these questions and, regardless of the impact on the environmental, in an effort to serve the customer, are going to send any technician no matter the distance required to travel.

What has your company, Concert Technologies, done in response to these observations?

Suder:
Concert Technologies employs what we call the "Local Multi-Service Deployment Method." This deployment method utilizes local resources close to a site that specialize in providing multiple services. In turn, the Local Multi-Service Deployment Method minimizes the amount of resources deployed, reduces truck rolls, consumes less fuel, emits less carbon monoxide, causes less scheduling conflicts, and provides more convenience to the end user.

Can you put that in perspective compared to the industry as a whole?

Suder:
On the whole, a typical technology rollout company receives a job in a rural location from a solution provider and turns to the first available technician, regardless of their distance from the job, which may be 75, 100, 150 or 200 miles away. If multiple skills are needed to complete the job, little effort is made by the rollout company to combine qualified technicians into a single vehicle. Instead, multiple vendors driving multiple vehicles with a technician for each required skill are dispatched from any distance, typically much greater than 40 miles in rural areas.

Concert Technologies' distance threshold is a 40 mile or less distance from the each customer site in rural and 20 miles or less in urban areas. We work hard to utilize our existing partners or find additional technicians within this radius. In addition, if the job requires the installation of a variety of technologies, technicians with multiple skills are consolidated into a single truck roll, in other words, a single vehicle carries all technicians to the jobsite and back.

20 miles sounds reasonable for orders within urban areas, but why would your company care about distances to rural installations?

Suder:
For over a decade Concert Technologies has been performing installations in both urban and rural areas nationally and internationally. Our environmental sense of responsibility extends to both.

More recently, however, government initiatives to extend broadband to the most rural areas of the nation causes us to reaffirm our company's environmental policies. The hope of this initiative is to provide the educational and business opportunities offered by the Internet to our country's most remote places. In anticipation of the need for an ITS company with the capabilities and experience, as well as a progressive environmental methodology to perform the service and protect the environment, Concert Technologies stands ready.

How have IP-based technologies played a part in reducing the gas consumption and carbon footprint?

Suder:
When managed and technically supported properly by the technology rollout company, IP-based equipment has provided a reasonably easy field installation due to the general "Plug and Play" design. "Plug and Play" design allows for a variety of equipment types (i.e., edge equipment, security cameras, Wi-Fi access points, LAN and WAN) to be installed fairly easily. The ease of installation requires fewer local resources (technicians) with specific equipment expertise, in turn reducing truck rolls for nationwide deployments.  

Are others in the industry aware of the need to become "green?"

Suder:
Yes, and it is a concern to everyone. The reality is that while ITS companies have plans to move to greener solutions, a demand for environmental responsibility in the ITS industry has not been emphasized yet. When that demand arrives, everyone will be looking for better ways to serve the customer while protecting the environment. Concert Technologies believes we are setting the example for others in the industry to follow when delivering multi-site technology rollouts across large geographic areas and into remote locations.

As the industry leader in green technology rollouts, what do you hope to accomplish in the future for green ITS industry?

Suder:
Awareness of the issue is the first step. The next step is raising the bar. The industry in general needs a solution that consolidates technology and equipment requirements into as few deployments as possible. Concert Technologies, with a measurable standard for dispatching transportation to sites of 40 miles or less in rural areas and 20 miles or less for urban areas, strives to be the thought leader and set an example for other technology rollout companies as well as the industry as a whole.

Concert Technologies' methodology makes sense for the ITS industry and serves as a model for sustainable environmental care and business viability. The graphs below show Concert Technologies' fuel consumption and emissions footprint as compared to the industry in general.

In urban and suburban areas, finding qualified technicians near a jobsite is not difficult. The challenge comes when a job must be performed in rural areas. This fuel graph shows Concert Technologies fuel consumption when a single vehicle is used to perform a job at 40 miles or less (80 miles round trip), our standard for rural  jobs. In contrast, typical technology rollout companies without the extensive partnerships have no distance threshold and must contract technicians from 75, 100, 150 to 200 mile distances (150, 200, 300, and 400 miles roundtrip). Rollout companies that contract at these distances simply to get the job done consume much more fuel. Concert Technologies meets our self-imposed 40-mile standard 90% of the time.

Equally as revealing is the graph of emissions expended by technology rollout companies for a single truck roll traveling longer distances as compared to Concert Technologies 40 miles threshold:

As stated, when multiple services are added, Concert Technologies continues to deploy a single vehicle carrying a single technician or multiple technicians, while the great majority of the industry deploys multiple vehicles, contracting multiple technicians driving separate vehicles for the job. The fuel for just two truck rolls to a single jobsite causes an enormous impact on energy consumption.

Likewise, when a typical technology rollout company deploys 2 vehicles, the emissions expended escalate rapidly as compared with Concert Technologies single truck roll.

As I stated, Concert Technologies works to reduce vehicles traveling to jobsites by consolidating skilled technicians into a single vehicle. The amount of fuel consumed and emissions expended becomes staggering to the environment for other companies that use two or more vehicles to complete a single job.

How can Concert Technologies consistently find certified professional partners within 40 miles of each job?

Suder:
First of all, Concert Technologies has been building business partners in the technology rollout industry since 1995. While we place the bar fairly high to become a partner, we work very hard to maintain a trust relationship when we find them or more commonly when they find us.

Additionally, one of Concert Technologies’ customers is the United States Postal Service, which, as you know, reaches all corners of the United States with over 35,000 locations. Our decade relationship and 30,000 post office facilities under our belt for USPS is a testament to our ability to serve world-class customers in the most remote places. Concert Technologies has consistently employed our Local Multi-service Deployment Method in serving the USPS and other large organizations providing faster service and protecting the environment while burning less fuel and carbon monoxide.

How can other companies model their environmental programs on Concert Technologies?

Suder:
Companies wishing to reduce the impact their companies have on the environment should model their in-house and subcontracted job assignments on Concert Technologies’ Concert Orchestrated Processing System (COPS) software. Our custom-built software determines the customer’s location, the skills necessary to complete the job based on the phone survey, qualified available contractors within 40 miles of the customer rural location, and the time necessary to complete the job. Without COPS, companies can still perform a phone survey, research the customer’s location in Google Maps or Mapquest, and research qualified contractors within 40 miles of the jobsite from a phone book or online. Measuring distance instead of calling the first available contractor will reduce the environmental impact tremendously.

All industries are seeking means to serve customers quickly and efficiently. At a point in time when environmental awareness and responsibility are reaching a high level of awareness, the ability to take care of customers becomes more challenging. The ITS industry, like all industries, will soon be focused upon for compliance to environmental friendliness. The incentive to hire environmentally friendly companies puts even more pressure on all businesses, including technology rollout companies, to reshape themselves to meet these future demands.

Concert Technologies has forged the trail for others in the ITS industry to follow and provided solution providers with a responsible alternative for technology rollouts by keeping "Concert Close."

Learn more about the "Concert Close" Green IT Deployment Program