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You Can Avoid Windshield Time With Remote Alarm Monitoring

Windshield time is one of the hidden expenses of operating remote sites, and it will nibble away at your company's profitability. "Windshield time" is all the unproductive time that your technicians spend in the car traveling to and from remote sites. If your company operates in a large rural service area, or a busy urban center with heavy traffic, your windshield time can add up to hours.

Heavy-duty windshield time can get expensive: you're paying your highly-paid technicians for sitting in a car for hours. This greatly and unnecessarily raises personnel costs. And the time it takes for technicians to get on site is time that your revenue-generating equipment stays down. And what if it takes a snowcat or even a helicopter to get to a site?

windshield time

You don't have to put up with windshield time or its costs. Here are 11 ways DPS Telecom remote control and monitoring systems can minimize, or eliminate, technician visits to remote sites:

  1. Proactive monitoring can avoid outages.

    High-quality remote monitoring and control systems can alert you to potential trouble long before it becomes a reality, preventing network outages and repair trips to remote sites.

  2. Remote operation of equipment and relays.

    When a problem can be solved by turning a switch - for example, to turn on a backup generator - why should anyone have to drive miles to operate it? The T/Mon LNX Network Alarm Management System, the NetGuardian 832A, and many other DPS Telecom products support remote operation of on-site equipment.

  3. Site visibility ensures that the right people, with the right tools, go to the site:

    If you don't know what the problem is, how can you be sure you're prepared to correct it? Technicians often travel to remote sites to diagnose the problem - and then have to return to the central office for the correct tools or a specialized technician. All DPS Telecom remote monitoring equipment presents detailed notifications of alarm conditions, ensuring you'll know what's really happening at your remote sites.

  4. Pager notification keeps technicians where they belong - in the field.

    There's no reason for your technicians to go from a repair job to a central office for instructions to another repair job. Pager notification of alarms, supported by T/Mon LNX and the NetGuardian, keeps technicians informed while they're in the field.

  5. Dispatch route planning with T/GrafX.

    T/GrafX software displays alarms on a physical map of all your physical locations. You can immediately see which sites have problems, right down to the level of site, rack, device, and alarm point level. You'll see exactly where the alarms are and the fastest way to get to them.

  6. Turnup and troubleshoot sites from your NOC.

    T/Mon LNX's remote site access features let you verify connections between T/Mon LNX and your RTUs directly from your NOC, eliminating windshield time associated with turnup, troubleshooting, and acceptance testing.

  7. Remote provisioning of masters and remotes.

    DPS Telecom cost-effective equipment supports many applications for provisioning via LAN.

  8. Remote loading of firmware.

    Firmware updates can be sent to your DPS Telecom equipment remotely via LAN.

  9. Built-in debug features on remotes.

    If there is a communications problem between your remotes and your master, you shouldn't have to travel to the remote site to diagnose the problem. T/Mon LNX and DPS Telecom remotes have built-in debug features, allowing you to inspect communication traffic at the touch of a button.

  10. Reach-through ports to serial equipment.

    The NetGuardian features reach-through ports to up to eight serial devices. You can access and control remote site devices without leaving the NOC.

  11. Remote tech support.

    With DPS Telecom remotes, you don't have to travel to the remote site to diagnose equipment problems. With T/Access, our technical support staff can reach through to your equipment remotely for accurate diagnosis and repair.

A quality network alarm monitoring system will give you detailed information about alarm events, ensuring that you'll really know what the problem is and you can send the right person with the right tools to do the job.

How much detailed information are you getting from your current monitoring system? Are you confident that, if a repair is required, you can always send a fully prepared technician?