Background
A national fiber network provider was managing a 1,600-mile broadband construction project across multiple regions. The company, known for delivering high-quality connectivity to healthcare, education, and enterprise clients, took over the project – already a year behind schedule. However, the permitting process—critical to outside plant (OSP) construction—was fragmented, manual, and inconsistent. Each Right-of-Way (ROW) manager tracked permits in separate Excel files, with no standardization, no reporting, and no visibility. The result: missed deadlines, unrecovered municipal deposits, and mounting frustration across teams.
At a Glance
What Mattered Most
Replace fragmented, spreadsheet-based permitting processes with a centralized digital solution—enabling real-time tracking, improve financial recovery, and accelerate broadband deployment.
What We Noticed
ROW managers maintained detailed records but stored them in isolated spreadsheets or relied on memory. The process required oversight, structured workflows, and documentation.
What Changed
standardized across
all regions
from spreadsheets
CFO within 30 days
(Engineering, Design, Construction, Finance)
Challenge
The permitting process was a bottleneck and source of frustration of engineers, ROW Managers, and Construction Managers. With over 1,400 permits to manage, the organization lacked a centralized system to track status, cost, municipality. Each ROW Manager followed a different process, and the absence of enterprise-wide reporting made it challenging to attain a high-level view. Operations leadership had no visibility into permit status, and project managers couldn’t forecast or plan effectively. The reactive, spreadsheet-based approach was not only inefficient—it was costly.
Solution
RW King developed a proof-of-concept tracker that was used during the high-profile project. Then collaborated with the client’s IT department to build a custom SharePoint-based ROW application. The final solution transformed ROW permitting from a fragmented task into a strategic asset.
- Led multiple design workshops with key stakeholders across all regions
- Standardized a 14-step ROW process across all regions
- Consolidated over a 12+ unique Excel workbooks into a single data asset
- Integrated milestone tracking, status updates, and alerts Enabled real-time enterprise reporting through SQL Server and SSRS integration
- Enabled real-time enterprise reporting through SQL Server and SSRS integration
- Led change management to ensure effective training, coaching, and lower adoption risk
Outcome
The new system revolutionized how ROWs were managed—turning a reactive process into a proactive, strategic function. In addition to optimized planning and tracking, the organization now captured historical data on their municipal partners and could engage them strategically, prepared to address their unique attributes. Within 30 days of implementation, the organization identified over $200,000 in refundable deposits that had previously gone unnoticed, bring immediate ROI to the project.
- Unified 12+ unique ROW workflows into a single enterprise-wide application
- Enabled real-time tracking of 1,000+ permits across multiple regions
- Improved financial stewardship by recovering $200K in municipal deposits
- Drove accountability as each permit had a clear owner
- Operational transparency with a single source of truth for permit status and potential risks
- Improved municipal relationships through consistent and proactive engagement
We identified over $200K of unrecovered bonds company wide. We would
have missed theme without the application
Conclusion
This engagement transformed a critical but chaotic permitting process into a streamlined, strategic asset. By digitizing workflows, aligning teams, and enabling real-time visibility, the company embedded predictability into its broadband activities and improved financial control. The solution not only delivered immediate ROI—it laid the foundation for broader operational transformations.
