Tower construction crews in the wireless communications industry today encounter numerous challenges related to safety and closeout paperwork. That’s exactly what Sean Kramer, CEO of Pathwave, discovered when studying this sector. In fact, he found that 65 percent of transactions in the supply chain are not digitized.
“From the time that the jobs are issued, too much static documents and paperwork flows back and forth between stakeholders,” Kramer said. “There are a lot of disparate systems, and it is difficult to manage the process from start to finish.”
To address this problem, Kramer co-founded Pathwave with Mike Roseberry, CTO, and Shawn Sellnow, COO, in 2016, bringing together software and telecom experts with a proven track record to address the needs of the industry. Pathwave’s goal is to connect the field to the back offices with automated safety paperwork, job documents, and closeout packages in a paper-free process.
In addition to Pathwave’s Software Division, Pathwave began its own Construction Division, a microwave tower construction company, headed up by Sellnow. With a staff of 35, it became Pathwave’s living laboratory for building its mobile application and expanding software platform. VIKOR acquired Pathwave’s Construction Division last July, enabling Pathwave’s Software Division to continue focused efforts on a purpose-built tool for the telecom industry, helping contractors, carriers, and site owners connect the field to the back office.
The Differentiator
The Pathwave mobile and web applications are purpose-built. Kramer didn’t want to build just another piece of project management software. He wanted Pathwave to be built from the ground up and customize the software for tower technicians in the field.
“We built this application for the people doing the work in the field,” Kramer said. “Our goal was to have a single tool, that’s built to serve their needs.” By automating paperwork in the field, Pathwave ensures that no form is missed, and clicking through the forms takes much less time.
Safety First
Owning a tower construction company gave Pathwave a vested interest in creating an application that would keep its workers safe, beginning with a thorough safety check and tracking of crew certifications. The application prompts crews to complete the appropriate safety documentation for each job and provides real-time visibility to the back office.
“There are things that we do that are really going to revolutionize the telecom industry and how it looks at safety,” Kramer said. “Through geofencing, the form establishes that the crew is actually on the tower site when they are completing the job hazard analysis (JHA) and Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) forms. Some crews have been known to do safety paperwork before or after the job and off site.”
The JHA forms are also customized based on individual customer requirements and the type of work, whether it is civil, climbing or using a lift. The JHA has triggers that require additional forms to be completed. “We don’t want them answering guy wire questions when they are on a monopole,” Kramer said. “Everything is there to ensure compliance with safety regulations.”
Nailing the Closeout
Other insights Pathwave gained from owning a tower construction company included determining the cost of sending a construction crew to a site, the cost of sending personnel back if a closeout photo was missed and how long it takes to produce a closeout package.
“It was taking our Construction Division seven to ten days, and sometimes longer to assemble a closeout package and then another 60 to 90 days before we saw payment,” Kramer said. “I don’t even know how companies can survive on that. It was a real eye opener for us.”
Kramer decided that had to change. Pathwave created a real-time environment where the teams would assemble all of the photos from the completed job, labeled and organized to each carrier preference — all before they left the site.
The closeout package can be changed to meet the needs of the customer, whether it is a carrier, turf vendor or general contractor. “We are very flexible. If the customer’s needs change, we are able to deliver that need and have all the stakeholders involved in that decision all the way through the pipeline,” Kramer said.
Connectivity
In the future, Pathwave plans to increase the connectivity between the disparate systems of the stakeholders in the tower industry. Field crews will be connected all the way up to the carriers, including the stakeholders in between. Already, Pathwave has completed several integrations, including a drone provider, linking inside its dashboard directly to the carrier for sharing tower site audits. It is through this type of connectivity that the tower industry will become more profitable, and its tower climbers will stay safe while utilizing the advanced technology that the industry is built on.
For more information or to contact Pathwave, please visit https://www.pathwave.
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
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