Better As-Builts, Faster: A TrueNet Case Study

How TrueNet replaced paper as-built documentation with geo-located, time-stamped field data and photos that compress a 6-9 month compliance process into less than a month.

TrueNet Communications is a national OSP engineering contractor and a 1Finity Company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. Founded in 1985, they provide infrastructure planning, engineering, construction, and fielding services across North America. Their fielding division puts boots on the ground to collect, verify, and validate field data for utilities and broadband providers.

This case study is about Carl Gross, a project manager in TrueNet’s fielding division, and the as-built compliance process he built from the ground up using Katapult Pro’s mobile assessments. We also spoke with Michael Daniels, the senior project manager overseeing the division.

When a rural broadband network gets built, it doesn’t stop at construction. In order to meet funding milestones, the build has to be documented, verified, and validated against the original design. The post-construction conditions need to match what the provider proposed.

That documentation process is called an as-built, and for federally funded rural broadband projects, it is not optional. Compliance documentation is tied directly to funding. If you cannot prove it was built correctly, the funding is at risk.

Carl has been in the communications industry for more than 50 years and has spent the last seven-plus at TrueNet. He has seen enough processes come and go to know what works and what does not.

Before he reconfigured the workflow, his team ran as-builts the way the client asked, and the way much of the industry has historically done it: paper. Field crews went out with printed copies of the design, marked up what they found, brought the paperwork back to the office, and someone manually entered everything into a system. Photos were taken separately and had to be associated with locations after the fact.

The process was slow. A four-step compliance validation could take nine to twelve months from start to finish, with each step averaging two to three months. And the data quality was questionable at best.

“They’d try to come back to the office and figure out where that picture was from.”

Carl Gross, Project Manager, TrueNet Communications

Photo defensibility was scarce. Of the documentation going through the old process, maybe 5% was photo-validated. The rest relied on manual markups and assumptions. And then there was the fieldwork itself. Crews managing paper forms on clipboards in wind, rain, and mud.

A good day under the old process meant covering less than a mile. The data was slow to collect, slow to process, and difficult to trust. For a compliance process where accuracy is directly tied to funding, that is a real problem.

Carl recognized that Katapult Pro’s mobile assessments, originally built for the upfront pole data collection, could be configured for something different: as-built compliance documentation on federally funded broadband projects. He and his team built the process from scratch.

The workflow starts the same way it always did: the customer provides a design showing how the network was supposed to be built. But from there, Carl changed everything. His team creates a map in Katapult Pro for the area, then sends fielding crews out with mobile devices instead of paper. Fielders walk the route, mark where infrastructure is actually located, and photo-document each point. Every photo is automatically geo-located and time-stamped at the point where it was taken. No manual association. No guessing which photo goes with which pole. The data is attached to the location the moment it is captured.

“With Katapult, we definitely know where it is because we can see the time stamp. There’s no question.”

Michael Daniels, Senior Project Manager, TrueNet Communications

From there, Carl kept building. He designed custom compliance packages for each customer, with KMZ files using custom icons and color coding tailored to each provider’s specific funding requirements. Different customers have different standards and different compliance milestones, so Carl’s team builds packages that match exactly what each customer needs to see.

The review process changed just as much. Instead of waiting for paper to come back, get entered, and get manually compiled, Carl’s team can now watch fielding progress on the Katapult Pro map as data syncs from the field. As crews finish sections, the office team begins validating immediately, clicking on each location and seeing the photo, the timestamp, and the coordinates right there.

“I can go on Katapult and physically see where they’re moving and how they’re progressing.”

Carl Gross

The old process was sequential: field, return, enter, compile, review. The new process is parallel: field crews collect while the office reviews what has already been submitted.

Carl did not wait for a perfect process before running the first project. He built and adjusted the models as they went, figuring out what worked while the fielders were already in the field. The first three steps of the four-step compliance process, which previously took six to nine months, took less than a month.

“Instead of taking six to nine months, it took us a little less than a month to completely turn around and have their packages validated.”

Carl Gross

Every location in the as-built documentation now has a geo-located, time-stamped photo attached to it, up from roughly 5% under the old process. The data is defensible. When a customer or auditor needs to verify that a piece of infrastructure exists where the records say it does, the evidence is right there: a photo, taken at that location, on that date.

Field productivity changed just as dramatically.

“A good day for a fielder used to be 20 to 30 poles. Now a two-person team is doing 200 poles in open areas, averaging at least five miles a day per fielder.”

Carl Gross

As the data came in, Carl started noticing something else. The actual construction did not always match the design. Terminals and drop heads were on different poles than the design indicated, which changed how service was being routed.

“The design says this is how it was built in the field. We get out there. That’s not how it’s built in the field.”

Carl Gross

What started as a compliance documentation exercise became a quality check on the accuracy of the customer’s network records. Carl’s team was not just validating that the build happened. They were giving the customer a corrected baseline they can actually trust going forward. When a maintenance crew gets dispatched two years from now, they will be working from a baseline that reflects what is actually in the field. When the next round of upgrades needs to be designed, the starting point is real, not assumed.

If your team is running as-built documentation on paper, or waiting months for compliance packages that are hard to defend when questions come up, you know where the gaps are. The photos do not match the locations. The timelines keep stretching. And the data you are submitting does not always hold up to conflicting opinions.

Carl’s team was dealing with the same thing. He didn’t wait for someone to hand him a better process. He saw that the tools were ready, configured them for a use case they were not originally designed for, and proved it worked on the first run. His customers get defensible documentation instead of paper markups.

“Your team has been fantastic with helping us develop new tools, working with us on training. We have a problem, we reach out, and we get an answer. No matter how crazy it is.”

Carl Gross

Watching a 50-year industry veteran push a platform into emerging territory by configuring a new tool, and then delivering results like these on the first project? It was incredible to hear. 

If your team is managing similar work and you are curious what mobile assessments could look like for as-built compliance, we would love to show you.

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