Stories from the Field: The Last Site Survey Ever for NetEx + OpEx
By: Sean Selbo, Carma Operations Manager
I’ve Audited Data Centers the Hard Way...
I’ve spent a lot of time in data centers doing audits the way most people still do them: with spreadsheets.
And it’s a nightmare.
If you’ve never done a spreadsheet audit yourself...let me paint the picture:
This is meticulous, physical work. You’re wedging your hand into panels to see tiny labels. You’re balancing a laptop, trying to type that label. At one point, the best solution I had for this was to work with someone else, where one of you is literally yelling the label names out so the other can type them.
And you’re trying to go fast, but you need to be cognizant that you are touching potentially live circuits that have service and revenue affecting consequences should they go down. Reducing distractions and staying completely focused is critical.
Nothing about that is ideal. A time-consuming, inaccurate audit leads to compounding costs from increased tech overtime, having to return to sites to re-audit, and not mining NetEx quickly.
NetEx Savings Are There...The Process is Broken
Carma started as a pro services company where my team was constantly out in the field, helping our customers audit their inventory and mine NetEx.
We were always incredibly thorough and saved our customers money. Because the value was always there in stranded capacity, mismatched records, unused vendor expenses, you name it.
But we knew there was a problem: Spreadsheet audits were killing our efficiency.
Even when you try to standardize a spreadsheet template for an audit, once you send it out to different sites, you’re almost guaranteed to get back completely different versions of that sheet. People interpret fields differently. They add columns. They leave notes in random cells. They name things their own way.
Not only does it take forever, but it takes tremendous effort to normalize that data into anything useful.
And data centers don’t stay still. That spreadsheet is a snapshot of a moment in time and obsolete almost instantly. Stale data means stale billing information and missing out on revenue and paying vendors for services that have been turned off.
That was the tipping point. Carma built the Field App specifically to solve the challenges we were experiencing in the field.
The Ripple Effect
When we improved our tools and processes, we found NetEx faster and dramatically reduced OpEx.
There have been times where I’ve been having to audit ten racks in a cage by myself, and it takes over a month. With the Field App, I’m at least ten times faster.
The Field App is made for rapid corrections on the spot and ensures you audit all your inventory accurately the first time. That means after your preliminary audit, you’re only focused on installs, disconnects, and maintenance going forward.
Imagine the impact of that across all your techs and all your sites.
Complete the same audit scope in a fraction of the time, with a fraction of the headcount
Inventory visibility drives decision making from remote offices
Eliminate truck rolls to recheck ports, reducing expensive travel and overtime pay
Free up labor hours tied up in “capture” mode so your field teams can be more efficient
Deliver audit findings to leadership faster
Maintain the data quality across your sites for accurate billing and expense management
For finance and operations leaders, this isn’t just an efficiency story. Faster, more accurate audits mean fewer unbilled services, tighter vendor expense reconciliation, and a direct line to recovered revenue.
Built Different
The best part of the Field App isn’t any one feature. It’s that it was built for the field, by the field.
It’s not a product that was built by people who have never been in a data center. It was created by people who have actually done the work.
That matters because getting field techs to learn more tools is a big ask.
But we made something really special. It’s intuitive, designed for the flow of how audits actually happen.
When you can save your teams hours of backbreaking work, reduce friction between other teams, prevent rework, and get better data quality out of it, that’s a win for the field and for your bottom line.
Author Bio: Sean Selbo
Sean is Carma’s Operations Manager with extensive experience in telecommunications as a network field engineer. At Carma, Sean has supported our customers with field audits, training users on the platform, and providing in-depth support to customers with his deep industry knowledge and product expertise.