Chorus is part of Telecom New Zealand, the country’s largest publicly listed company. It is responsible for building and maintaining Telecom's local telecommunications access network.

Chorus was mandated by the New Zealand government to deliver increased broadband speeds to at least 80% of households by 2011. Crucially, the contract was subject to hefty financial penalties if delivery timeframes were not met.

Realising it would require a massive increase in productivity to meet the deadline (and avoid contract penalties) Chorus turned to iToolsOnline for help.

The Project

Chorus is installing 3,600 cabinets and 2,500 kilometres of fibre optic cable across New Zealand to enable the delivery of broadband speeds of between 10Mbps and 20Mbps to over 80 percent of New Zealanders by the end of 2011.

The Fibre-to-Node project involves a 200-strong team of solution specialists, field service engineers and executive managers - all working together to ensure the successful delivery of the largest infrastructure project New Zealand has ever seen.

The Issues Chorus Faced

• Current speed of implementation meant it would miss the project deadline and incur penalties.

• Document management was proving to be a huge burden on the project team.

• The level of reporting provided by the service providers was failing to give Chorus the information it needed.

• Cabinet implementation was taking place on an ad-hoc basis.

• Reporting and administrative costs were too high.

• Untimely and inaccurate communication between Chorus and its service providers was causing contract disagreements.

The Solution

Following a formal review process, Chorus selected iTools’ solution to streamline the process of scheduling, delivering and reporting on the project.

The Pavire solution was phased in over a 3-month period to over 150 non-technical people by way of road-shows, team training sessions and power-user short courses.

Rapid utilisation of the iTools solution was achieved due to the tool’s ease-of-use combined with the immediate benefits realised by Chorus and its service providers.

The Benefits

• Productivity Gains – prior to iTools, Chorus implemented approximately 90 cabinets per year. Now, with the same sized team, they implement approx 1,200 per year!

• Cost Savings – productivity improvements reduced the need to employ 12 additional project staff, saving approximately $1m per annum.

• Improved Supplier Performance - iTools improved the communication processes with the various service providers and 3rd parties as everyone is now using the same system and all have visibility of the same information.

• Reduced Overheads - there have been major reductions in administration and management overheads with all documentation now held online and all parties having access to the same information.

• Processes Efficiencies – the implementation of cabinets is now operating in a highly systemized way.

About Chorus

Chorus’ network consists of 150,000km of copper and fibre-optic cable, 670 telephone exchanges and 8,800 cabinets. A range of telecommunications providers use this network to deliver phone and Internet services to New Zealanders.

Chorus’ 2,500 field service technicians make around one million visits to New Zealand homes and businesses each year, doing everything from installing new phone or broadband lines, through to repairing lines and wiring maintenance.