BellSouth

Electronic-document system sharpens company's edge in telecom field

By Jim Battey, InfoWorld Magazine

Deregulation has opened up the playing field in the telecommunications arena, so big players such as BellSouth have to come up with ways to reduce costs and increase efficiency if they want to stay competitive.

A team led by Robert Rust, BellSouth Telecommunications' information technologies network and procurement project manager, was charged with the task of slashing costs, and the challenge at hand was clear. "We had to get leaner, meaner, and reduce our overhead," Rust says.

With the full implementation of its Web-enabled Corporate Documentation and information Access (CDIA) system in early 1997, BellSouth is realizing an initial savings of tens of millions of dollars, which earns it a spot in the top 10 of the InfoWorld 100 for the second year in a row.

THE PAPER PURGE. CDIA is a subsystem of BellSouth's electronic-document management project that arose from the dire need to convert mountains of paper documentation into a manageable and useful online environment. CDIA is used by about 40,000 employees and works in concert with the aptly named Bells, a document-delivery mechanism that also operates as an electronic library system.

"We used to have document binders by the thousands that were in various states of currency, which led to a lot of inconsistencies," says Mike Harfield, interconnection services specialist at BellSouth. "Now we don't have paper anymore."

Rust, who splits his time between BellSouth's headquarters in Atlanta and an office in Birmingham, Ala., estimates that the company's paper documentation used to cost about $13 million per year. By moving to CDIA, BellSouth got rid of its document-

publishing operation, eliminated a document-warehousing facility, and cut out document-distribution costs.

Big savings are also being realized by reducing suppliers' documentation costs. In the past, a major vendor's documentation costs would account for a large chunk of change in a budget proposal. Now BellSouth requests a single electronic copy of the

documentation from the vendor that it can efficiently disperse itself via the CDIA/Bells system.

SIMPLICITY SAVES. The simplicity of the system also lets BellSouth, which has more than 80,000 employees and serves nine southeastern states, more easily outsource certain corporate job functions.

Making the CDIA/Bells project a reality was truly a team effort. Sandra Ellison, an applications manager at BellSouth, was involved with the development and implementation of the system and continues to be involved with adding documents to it.

Ellison says it took a lot of planning and hard work to get the system up and running, but it was worth it. "The end-users love it," Ellison says. "In fact, they want more documentation than what we have to offer."

STAY FLEXIBLE. One of the keys to the success of the project was the team's decision to go with Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), a nonproprietary document format that supports a wide range of page layouts.

"SGML strips documents of their formatting, reducing words to data," Rust explains. "This allows tremendous flexibility, makes the data repeatable, and enables hyperlinking to documents both within the intranet and to external Web sites. It is an stablished standard that has been around for years that lets the system be independent of hardware and software."

And that's another key. Rust says that IT professionals need to be flexible in their planning and allow for the rapid technological changes that are taking place on the Internet these days.

"We were way ahead of the technology curve," Rust says. "We went out to get the products and, in some cases, the technology hadn't gotten there yet."

Yet another benefit of BellSouth's CDIA is that it complies with ISO 9000 standards. ISO 9000 certification is essential in the telecommunications field.

FIXES AT YOUR FINGERTIPS. "Let's say a telephone customer has a question about installing a new circuit," Harfield says. "A technician can access current documentation online. In addition, the technician can hyperlink to specific details, look up codes, or get phone numbers."

The team chose Interleaf's Avalanche Hammer and FastTag to convert documents to SGML, ArborText's Adept Editor to edit them, and IDM Document Services, a product from FileNet, as the document management and delivery tool.

From the client perspective, the team's chief goal was a simple system. Netscape Navigator serves as the main Web browser.

"If you can create a system that anybody can come in and use, it allows you to outsource more easily," Rust says. Increased outsourcing reduces costs, making BellSouth that much more competitive.

Ahead of the curve:

¨ The Challenge Reduce corporate overhead and provide end-users with a simple and seamless electronic-document delivery system.

¨ The Solution Convert documents to Standard Generalized Markup Language and implement the Web-enabled Corporate Documentation and Information Access/Bells system.

¨ The Benefits Cost savings due to the elimination of paper document publishing, warehousing, and distribution; and providing employees with a vast online source of current documentation.

¨ Key to success Going with open standards, Web-enabling the system, and making it simple for the end-user.

¨ Advice Base your system on established standards to make it hardware and software independent, and be willing to make changes as new technology becomes available.