Electronics Weekly
Founded in 2018, it grew to over 50 engineers by 2021 and now has 229 engineers alongside 60 back-office and support staff nation.
Increasingly burdened by relying on paper forms, spreadsheets, and email, the company sought a system to integrate administration and work control.
“We didn’t have a great start with our first attempt at automation, having selected a system that ultimately proved unsuitable for the complexities of managing telecoms work,” said GL operations director James Gildea. “Fortunately, we abandoned implementation fairly quickly.”
Instead, the company adopted Depotnet.
“We were concerned that moving to a new system would be a challenge – people don’t like change,” said Gildea. “However, Depotnet is so intuitive that everyone adapted to it immediately.”
The new tool included progressive safety assurance, with a mobile app that guides in-site operators step-by-step through safety procedures.
“We’re now achieving 99% engineer accreditation in job role compliance,” said Gildea.
If the scope of work or material requirements differ from initial estimates, engineers can report issues directly from the site – backed by photos and videos if necessary. “Nothing is hidden, and nothing gets lost,” Gildea said.
GL Telecoms designs, installs, upgrades and maintains fibre optic network telecommunications infrastructure throughout the UK. It has provided high-speed data access to over 800,000 homes.
