{"id":752252,"date":"2025-05-13T18:03:51","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T01:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcuser&#038;p=752252"},"modified":"2025-05-13T18:03:52","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T01:03:52","slug":"maintaining-cell-towers-with-a-community-mindset","status":"publish","type":"arcuser","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/maintaining-cell-towers-with-a-community-mindset","title":{"rendered":"Maintaining Cell Towers with a Community Mindset"},"author":5752,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[24972],"tags":[163382,472171,492502,486382,277272],"arcuser_issues":[492012],"class_list":["post-752252","arcuser","type-arcuser","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faces-of-gis","tag-arcgis-online","tag-arcgis-survey123","tag-cell-towers","tag-esri-community","tag-telecom","arcuser_issues-spring-2025"],"acf":{"short_description":"Matt Edrich, product manager for FieldSync, shares how being part of a GIS community allows him to work more efficiently and effectively.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Cell towers have a way of announcing themselves against the natural landscape. Whether surging upward in an open field or a stand of trees, they\u2019re hard to miss on a clear day. At night, flashing beacons warn low-flying aircraft of their presence. The average cell phone tower stands between 50 and 200\u00a0feet (roughly 15 to 60 meters), with some soaring hundreds of feet higher. Maintaining them is a demanding job that requires not only attention to detail, but also the guts to harness up and climb these huge structures.\r\n\r\nMatt Edrich knows this all too well. He\u2019s the product manager for\u00a0FieldSync, a data acquisition and analytics technology company, who climbs cell towers as part of his job. But while the wind-whipping experience of inspecting towers from bottom to top is a cherished part of the work, most of what Edrich does revolves around developing the next generation of geospatial tools and workflows for others to use while gathering streams of field data."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":752272,"image_position":"right","orientation":"vertical","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"\u201cAt FieldSync, we\u2019re doing a lot of maintenance and conditioning reporting on telecom assets, mapping out cell phone towers for engineering purposes, and then sourcing parts to maintain all that infrastructure,\u201d Edrich said.\r\n\r\nGiven the size of cell tower sites plus the amount of information that needs gathering, traditional maintenance and conditioning reporting can easily take a team four to six hours of climbing, scribbling notes, and taking photos. That process, combined with sometimes hours of travel time between towers, can mean completing more than one site a day is often not in the cards.\r\n\r\nWith the help of geospatial technology used to collect and process this data\u2014such as ArcGIS Survey123\u2014that\u2019s changing. But just as integral to Edrich\u2019s process has been his involvement in Esri Community, which enables him to bounce ideas off other GIS professionals and develop more efficient workflows for cell tower maintenance."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<h2>Transforming Telecom Data<\/h2>\r\nEdrich is constantly working to use GIS technology\u2014including drones and devices that run ArcGIS Survey123 in the field\u2014to change the way the company understands and maintains its structural assets. His goal has been to create a single workflow that starts with drone imagery, rather than data solely captured by climbers. This data is collected in ArcGIS Survey123 reports.\r\n\r\nStreamlining this workflow has enabled Edrich to cut down on the time it takes to complete site reporting by about\r\n75 percent.\r\n\r\n\u201cUsing this process, I was able to complete a 500-foot-tall tower in 90 minutes, which is unheard of,\u201d said Edrich. \u201cThat kind of efficiency gain is not at all [common] in the industry.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe vastly reduced site-reporting time frame has allowed Edrich, along with other FieldSync staff, to use their time more efficiently and productively. Clients opting for climber-powered reporting over drone-enhanced services are still coming around to these kinds of efficiencies, as well as a degree of informed decision-making that was previously out of reach.\r\n\r\n\u201cYou can have your data talk to itself and inform what your field technicians are doing and what they should do in the next five minutes because of what was done last month, which is not a thing in this little sector of telecom right now,\u201d said Edrich. \u201cWe consistently hear from our customers that we\u2019re changing what their expectations are for data on their towers, which is entirely possible because of ArcGIS Survey123. And the things you can do with ArcGIS Survey123, at least for us, were unlocked by Esri Community.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":752282,"image_position":"left","orientation":"vertical","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<h2>Finding Support and Camaraderie in Community<\/h2>\r\nDuring the years Edrich has been involved with Esri Community, he has relied on the group-powered resource for a variety of needs.\r\n\r\n\u201cAlmost everything I do right now is in ArcGIS Survey123,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m looking in Esri Community to see if I\u2019m doing things the best or the most controllable way.\u201d\r\n\r\nEdrich relishes discovering he\u2019s not the only user trying to solve a particular challenge or track down a piece of information in Esri\u2019s expansive product documentation. Often, another user has already located some needed information or solved a tricky issue and shared their findings in Esri Community, saving him significant time and effort.\r\n\r\n\u201cYou kind of realize you\u2019re at the edge of a sandbox,\" Edrich noted. \"We can refine what we have now and consider other Esri products that can support this capacity or find workarounds that are not in this particular ArcGIS Survey123 software.\u201d\r\n\r\nEdrich\u2019s experience collaborating with other ArcGIS users on Esri Community has led him to advocate for new capabilities through the\u00a0ArcGIS Ideas Exchange. It\u2019s also led him to encourage others who might not be taking advantage of this resource to get involved.\r\n\r\n\u201cJust do it. As simple as that is to say, you learn the most by engaging with your peers and being honest about what you\u2019ve tried and where your shortcomings are. I feel like a lot of people have this idea that they\u2019re going to get roasted because they don\u2019t know the answer to some question. That\u2019s never been the case,\u201d said Edrich. \u201cIt can help you expand your critical thinking process for how to solve problems.\u201d"}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Maintaining Cell Towers with a Community Mindset | Spring 2025 | ArcUser<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Matt Edrich, product manager for FieldSync, shares how being part of a GIS community allows him to work more efficiently and effectively.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/maintaining-cell-towers-with-a-community-mindset\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Maintaining Cell Towers with a Community Mindset | Spring 2025 | ArcUser\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Matt Edrich, product manager for FieldSync, shares how being part of a GIS community allows him to work more efficiently and effectively.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/maintaining-cell-towers-with-a-community-mindset\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Esri\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-14T01:03:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2025\/05\/arcuser-banner-maintaining-wide.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Maintaining Cell Towers with a Community Mindset | Spring 2025 | ArcUser\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Matt Edrich, product manager for FieldSync, shares how being part of a GIS community allows him to work more efficiently and effectively.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2025\/05\/arcuser-banner-maintaining-wide.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Esri\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"WebPage\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/maintaining-cell-towers-with-a-community-mindset\",\n\t            \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/maintaining-cell-towers-with-a-community-mindset\",\n\t            \"name\": \"Maintaining Cell Towers with a Community Mindset | Spring 2025 | ArcUser\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"datePublished\": \"2025-05-14T01:03:51+00:00\",\n\t            \"dateModified\": \"2025-05-14T01:03:52+00:00\",\n\t            \"description\": \"Matt Edrich, product manager for FieldSync, shares how being part of a GIS community allows him to work more efficiently and effectively.\",\n\t            \"breadcrumb\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/maintaining-cell-towers-with-a-community-mindset#breadcrumb\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t            \"potentialAction\": [\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"ReadAction\",\n\t                    \"target\": [\n\t                        \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/maintaining-cell-towers-with-a-community-mindset\"\n\t                    ]\n\t                }\n\t            ]\n\t        },\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"BreadcrumbList\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/maintaining-cell-towers-with-a-community-mindset#breadcrumb\",\n\t            \"itemListElement\": [\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t                    \"position\": 1,\n\t                    \"name\": \"Home\",\n\t                    \"item\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\"\n\t                },\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t                    \"position\": 2,\n\t                    \"name\": \"Maintaining Cell Towers with a Community Mindset\"\n\t                }\n\t            ]\n\t        },\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"WebSite\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website\",\n\t            \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/\",\n\t            \"name\": \"Esri\",\n\t            \"description\": \"Esri Newsroom\",\n\t            \"potentialAction\": [\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"SearchAction\",\n\t                    \"target\": {\n\t                        \"@type\": \"EntryPoint\",\n\t                        \"urlTemplate\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}\"\n\t                    },\n\t                    \"query-input\": {\n\t                        \"@type\": \"PropertyValueSpecification\",\n\t                        \"valueRequired\": true,\n\t                        \"valueName\": \"search_term_string\"\n\t                    }\n\t                }\n\t            ],\n\t            \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\"\n\t        },\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Person\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/41c803b2ea8734c36f9c4e9586d1449d\",\n\t            \"name\": \"Amy Ambard\",\n\t            \"image\": {\n\t                \"@type\": \"ImageObject\",\n\t                \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\n\t                \"url\": \"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f356480172f8ad0bc8d72b855e84171c52f1944c7c7779f3e425d73bf3efa3c7?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\n\t                \"contentUrl\": \"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f356480172f8ad0bc8d72b855e84171c52f1944c7c7779f3e425d73bf3efa3c7?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\n\t                \"caption\": \"Amy Ambard\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"url\": \"\"\n\t        }\n\t    ]\n\t}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Maintaining Cell Towers with a Community Mindset | Spring 2025 | ArcUser","description":"Matt Edrich, product manager for FieldSync, shares how being part of a GIS community allows him to work more efficiently and effectively.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/maintaining-cell-towers-with-a-community-mindset","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Maintaining Cell Towers with a Community Mindset | Spring 2025 | ArcUser","og_description":"Matt Edrich, product manager for FieldSync, shares how being part of a GIS community allows him to work more efficiently and effectively.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/maintaining-cell-towers-with-a-community-mindset","og_site_name":"Esri","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/","article_modified_time":"2025-05-14T01:03:52+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2025\/05\/arcuser-banner-maintaining-wide.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Maintaining Cell Towers with a Community Mindset | Spring 2025 | ArcUser","twitter_description":"Matt Edrich, product manager for FieldSync, shares how being part of a GIS community allows him to work more efficiently and effectively.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2025\/05\/arcuser-banner-maintaining-wide.jpg","twitter_site":"@Esri","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/maintaining-cell-towers-with-a-community-mindset","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/maintaining-cell-towers-with-a-community-mindset","name":"Maintaining Cell Towers with a Community Mindset | Spring 2025 | ArcUser","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-05-14T01:03:51+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-14T01:03:52+00:00","description":"Matt Edrich, product manager for FieldSync, shares how being part of a GIS community allows him to work more efficiently and effectively.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/maintaining-cell-towers-with-a-community-mindset#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/maintaining-cell-towers-with-a-community-mindset"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/maintaining-cell-towers-with-a-community-mindset#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Maintaining Cell Towers with a Community Mindset"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/","name":"Esri","description":"Esri Newsroom","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/41c803b2ea8734c36f9c4e9586d1449d","name":"Amy Ambard","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f356480172f8ad0bc8d72b855e84171c52f1944c7c7779f3e425d73bf3efa3c7?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f356480172f8ad0bc8d72b855e84171c52f1944c7c7779f3e425d73bf3efa3c7?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Amy Ambard"},"url":""}]}},"sort_order":"15","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/arcuser\/752252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/arcuser"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/arcuser"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/arcuser\/752252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752252"},{"taxonomy":"arcuser_issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/arcuser_issues?post=752252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}