ESB Networks: Fiber Broadband Safety Installation Tracking System

Introduction

When you're managing 5,000 simultaneous installations across a national infrastructure, spreadsheets aren't a workflow—they're a liability. Internet providers need electrical lines made safe before installing fiber. External vendors need work assignments. Area managers need visibility. Finance needs payment validation. And everyone needs to know what's happening, where, and when—without seeing what they shouldn't. When coordination happens through email and phone calls, at scale, nothing works. Projects stall, vendors sit idle, installations delay, and nobody can report on what's actually getting done.

Client Background

ESB Networks, as Ireland's national electricity distribution system operator, doesn't just maintain the electrical grid—they enable critical national infrastructure projects. When Ireland's telecommunications providers began aggressive fiber broadband rollout to homes and businesses nationwide, they encountered a fundamental requirement: electrical lines must be made safe before fiber installation work can proceed.

This created a massive coordination challenge. Internet service providers (ISPs) would submit purchase orders covering thousands of homes requiring safety installations. ESB Networks needed to assess each location, assign work across regional teams, coordinate with external contractors when internal capacity was insufficient, track installation completion, notify ISPs that work was complete, and then reverse the entire process to remove safety equipment after fiber installation finished.

With purchase orders arriving in batches of 5,000 homes, manual coordination was impossible. The process involved multiple internal ESB teams, external vendor networks, ISP stakeholders, and critical dependencies at every stage. Without systematic tracking and automation, this national infrastructure initiative faced significant delays and operational chaos.

The Challenge

ESB Networks confronted a complex, multi-stakeholder coordination problem operating at unprecedented scale:

Volume & Complexity:

• Purchase orders arriving in batches of 5,000+ homes simultaneously
• Each home requiring two separate work phases: safety installation, then safety removal
• Thousands of concurrent projects at different stages
• Manual tracking impossible at this scale
• Risk of installations falling through cracks or getting forgotten

Multi-Stage Process Coordination:

The complete workflow involved 8+ distinct stages:

1. Purchase order receipt and validation
2. Address verification against ESB records
3. Regional assignment (North, South, East, West)
4. Area manager work planning
5. Internal vs. external contractor decision
6. Vendor assignment (if external)
7. ISP notification of completion
8. Entire process repeated for safety removal

Each stage required different stakeholders, different decisions, and different information—with no systematic handoffs.

Stakeholder Visibility & Privacy Challenges:

Different parties needed access to different information:

• Internal ESB Managers: Needed visibility across all regions and vendors
• Area Managers: Required visibility only to their geographic region
• External Vendors: Should see only their assigned work (not competitors' assignments)
• ISP Partners: Needed installation status but not internal ESB operations
• Finance Team: Required completion validation for payment processing

GDPR and business confidentiality meant one-size-fits-all access was impossible.

Address Validation & Data Quality:

• ISP-provided addresses didn't always match ESB internal records
• Required manual triage to verify and correct addresses
• Mismatched addresses would send crews to wrong locations
• No systematic way to flag and resolve address discrepancies
• Data quality issues multiplied across thousands of homes

Resource Allocation Complexity:

• Area managers needed to assess internal capacity for each batch
• Decision required: perform work internally or hire external contractor?
• If external, which vendor had capacity and appropriate geographic coverage?
• No systematic process for vendor selection and assignment
• Resource bottlenecks invisible until work was already delayed

Vendor Management:

• Multiple external contractors performing work across regions
• Each vendor needed work assignments with purchase order numbers (for payment)
• Vendors shouldn't see each other's work assignments (competitive information)
• No mechanism to track vendor workload or performance
• Payment authorization dependent on verified completion

ISP Coordination:

• ISPs needed to know when safety work completed (enabling their fiber installation)
• ISPs then needed to notify ESB when their work finished (triggering safety removal)
• No systematic communication channel between ESB and ISP operations
• Delays in notification meant safety equipment left unnecessarily long
• Manual coordination via phone/email didn't scale

Status Tracking Chaos:

• No centralized view of where each installation was in the process
• Managers couldn't identify bottlenecks or stuck projects
• No reporting capability for senior leadership or ISP partners
• Impossible to forecast completion timelines or resource needs
• Finance couldn't reconcile work completed vs. work billed

SharePoint Scale Limitations:

• Single SharePoint list couldn't handle thousands of items without performance issues
• View threshold limits (5,000 items) would block access
• Permission management nightmare with one list for all stakeholders
• Required solution architecture designed for scale and permissions isolation

Goals

ESB Networks required an enterprise-grade coordination platform managing complex, multi-party workflows at national scale:

Primary Objectives:

Process Automation & Orchestration:

• Automate handoffs between all 8+ workflow stages
• Eliminate manual status tracking and update notifications
• Enable parallel processing of thousands of installations
• Reduce cycle time from purchase order to completion
• Support both installation and removal workflows systematically

Multi-Party Visibility & Privacy:

• Provide role-appropriate visibility to all stakeholders
• Isolate vendor views (competitive confidentiality)
• Segregate ISP visibility from internal operations
• Enable area manager regional access without cross-region visibility
• Maintain GDPR compliance for customer address information
• Give senior management comprehensive oversight

Address Validation & Data Quality:

• Systematic process for verifying ISP-provided addresses against ESB records
• Flag mismatches requiring manual triage
• Prevent work assignments to incorrect locations
• Build confidence in data accuracy before crew dispatch

Resource Optimization:

• Support area manager decision-making: internal vs. external work
• Enable vendor manager to assign work based on capacity and geography
• Track workload distribution across internal teams and external vendors
• Identify resource bottlenecks before they cause delays

Comprehensive Reporting:

• Real-time dashboards for operational management
• Power BI reporting for executive oversight and ISP partners
• Track installations completed, in-progress, and pending
• Monitor cycle times and identify process bottlenecks
• Support financial reconciliation and payment validation

Scale & Performance:

• Handle 5,000+ concurrent projects without performance degradation
• Architect solution avoiding SharePoint list threshold limitations
• Support archival of completed projects maintaining reporting history
• Design for sustained high-volume operations

Payment & Financial Controls:

• Ensure all completed work tracked with purchase order numbers
• Enable finance validation before vendor payment
• Support audit trail for all work performed and costs incurred

Strategy & Approach

Our strategy centered on designing a distributed list architecture with intelligent automation orchestrating across boundaries:

Design Philosophy: Distributed Lists, Centralized Intelligence

Rather than fighting SharePoint's scale limitations with a single massive list, we designed a multi-list architecture where each stakeholder group had their own optimized list, connected through Power Automate orchestration:

• Master Internal List: Central coordination for ESB operations
• Vendor-Specific Lists: Isolated lists per vendor (competitive confidentiality)
• ISP Partner List: External visibility for telecommunications providers
• Archive List: Completed projects moved quarterly (performance management)

This architecture solved both scale and permissions challenges elegantly.

Automated Status Progression & Notification

We built comprehensive Power Automate flows executing at every workflow transition:

• Status updates triggered automatic progression to next stage
• Notifications sent to appropriate stakeholders at each handoff
• Cross-list synchronization maintained data consistency
• All stakeholders informed proactively without manual communication

Role-Based Access Control Architecture

Permissions designed around organizational roles and information needs:

• Internal Managers: Access to master list, all regions visible
• Area Managers: Filtered views showing only their region
• Vendor Managers: Access to assign work to vendor-specific lists
• External Vendors: Access only to their specific vendor list
• ISP Partners: Access to ISP list showing installation status only
• Finance Team: Validation access for payment authorization

Intelligent Workflow Routing

Automation understood context and routed accordingly:

• Area manager decisions (internal vs. external) triggered different paths
• External work routed to vendor manager for assignment
• Vendor assignment populated appropriate vendor-specific list
• Completion in vendor list triggered master list update
• ISP notification triggered when installation phase complete

Power BI Reporting Foundation

All lists designed with reporting in mind:

• Consistent status fields across lists enabling aggregation
• Timestamp fields tracking duration at each stage
• Regional and vendor categorization supporting breakdown analysis
• Historical archive maintaining trend analysis capability

Execution

Duration: Major component of broader ESB Networks digital transformation engagement

Phase 1: Process Mapping & Architecture Design

Workflow Documentation:

• Mapped complete end-to-end process from purchase order to safety removal
• Identified all decision points and stakeholder handoffs
• Defined status values for each stage
• Documented information requirements for each role

List Architecture Design:

Designed five interconnected SharePoint lists:

1. Master Internal List (ESB Operations Hub)
   • All projects tracked centrally
   • Complete workflow status
   • Address validation fields
   • Regional assignment
   • Internal vs. external decision
   • Vendor assignment (if applicable)
   • Installation and removal phase tracking
   • Purchase order numbers
   • Timestamp fields for reporting
2. Vendor-Specific Lists (One per external contractor)
   • Work assigned to specific vendor only
   • Limited information (location, work description, PO number)
   • No visibility to ESB internal operations
   • No visibility to other vendors' work
   • Completion status field triggering master list updates
3. ISP Partner List
   • Installation completion status
   • Address information
   • Ready-for-fiber-installation flag
   • Fiber work completion notification (triggering removal phase)
   • No visibility to ESB internal resource assignments
4. Archive List
   • Completed projects moved quarterly
   • Maintains historical data for reporting
   • Removes items from active lists (performance management)
   • Supports compliance and audit requirements

Permission Architecture:

• Defined security groups for each role
• Configured list-level permissions
• Designed filtered views for area managers (regional visibility)
• Implemented item-level security where needed

Phase 2: Power Automate Flow Development

Built comprehensive automation ecosystem consisting of multiple interconnected flows:

Flow 1: Purchase Order Processing

• Triggered on new purchase order submission (5,000 items)
• Creates individual items in Master Internal List
• Flags items requiring address validation
• Notifies triage team of new batch requiring verification

Flow 2: Address Validation & Regional Assignment

• Monitors items flagged for address verification
• When addresses validated, automatically assigns to region (North/South/East/West)
• Notifies appropriate Area Manager of new work in their region
• Updates status to "Assigned to Area Manager"

Flow 3: Internal vs. External Routing

• Triggered when Area Manager makes internal/external decision
• If Internal: Updates status, notifies internal team, tracks assignment
• If External: Routes to Vendor Manager, updates status to "Pending Vendor Assignment"

Flow 4: Vendor Assignment & List Population

• Vendor Manager assigns work to specific external contractor
• Flow identifies appropriate vendor-specific list
• Creates items in vendor's list with relevant information only
• Sends notification to vendor with PO number and work details
• Updates Master Internal List with vendor assignment

Flow 5: Vendor Completion Sync

• Monitors vendor-specific lists for status changes to "Complete"
• When vendor marks work complete, triggers automatic update:
  • Updates Master Internal List status
  • Notifies Area Manager and Vendor Manager
  • Prepares for ISP notification

Flow 6: ISP Notification

• When installation phase complete (internal or external), triggers ISP notification
• Creates/updates item in ISP Partner List
• Sends notification to ISP: "Safety work complete, ready for fiber installation"
• Updates Master Internal List status to "Awaiting ISP Completion"

Flow 7: Safety Removal Initiation

• Monitors ISP Partner List for "Fiber Work Complete" status
• When ISP marks their work complete, triggers removal phase
• Creates new workflow in Master Internal List for safety removal
• Follows same routing logic: area assignment → internal/external decision → vendor assignment (if needed)
• Effectively repeats workflow for removal phase

Flow 8: Finance Validation & Payment

• Monitors completion of removal phase
• Notifies Finance team with PO numbers for payment authorization
• Tracks finance approval in Master Internal List
• Provides complete audit trail from purchase order to payment

Flow 9: Quarterly Archival

• Scheduled flow running quarterly
• Identifies completed projects older than specified period
• Moves items from Master Internal List to Archive List
• Maintains performance of active lists
• Preserves historical data for reporting

Flow 10: Status Dashboard Updates

• Scheduled flow running hourly
• Aggregates status counts from all lists
• Updates summary dashboard for management visibility
• Feeds Power BI reporting datasets

Phase 3: Power BI Reporting Development

Operational Dashboards:

• Real-time installation counts by status
• Regional breakdown of active projects
• Vendor workload and completion rates
• Cycle time analysis (average time per stage)
• Bottleneck identification (stages with longest duration)

Executive Reporting:

• Overall program progress (% complete)
• Trend analysis (completions over time)
• Resource utilization (internal vs. external work split)
• Financial tracking (work completed vs. billed)

ISP Partner Reporting:

• Installations ready for fiber work
• Geographic coverage completion rates
• Timeline forecasting for remaining work

Phase 4: Testing & Refinement

Scale Testing:

• Tested with batches of 1,000+ items
• Validated list performance under load
• Confirmed automation handled high volume without failures
• Verified reporting aggregation accuracy

Permissions Testing:

• Validated each role could access only authorized information
• Confirmed vendor isolation (vendors couldn't see each other's lists)
• Tested area manager filtered views (regional visibility only)
• Verified ISP access limited to appropriate status information

Workflow Testing:

• Tested complete end-to-end process from PO to payment
• Validated both internal and external routing paths
• Confirmed vendor completion triggered proper updates
• Tested removal phase workflow
• Verified archival process

Phase 5: Training & Rollout

Role-Specific Training:

• Address validation triage team
• Area managers (regional work planning)
• Vendor managers (external contractor assignment)
• External vendors (using their specific lists)
• ISP partners (status visibility and completion notification)
• Finance team (payment validation)

Documentation:

• Process flowcharts for each workflow path
• User guides per stakeholder role
• Vendor onboarding materials
• Troubleshooting guides
• Administrator documentation for flow maintenance

Phased Rollout:

• Pilot with single region and one vendor
• Validated process with small batch (100 homes)
• Expanded to additional regions and vendors
• Full nationwide deployment supporting 5,000+ home batches

Results & Outcomes

Scale Achievement:

• 5,000+ Concurrent Projects: System successfully handled purchase orders for thousands of homes simultaneously
• Zero Performance Degradation: Distributed list architecture maintained responsiveness under load
• Quarterly Archival Success: Automated archival kept active lists performant while preserving history
• Nationwide Coverage: Solution supported all ESB regions and vendor networks across Ireland

Process Automation Impact:

• 100% Workflow Automation: Every handoff from purchase order to payment automated
• Eliminated Manual Status Tracking: All stakeholders received proactive notifications automatically
• Reduced Coordination Overhead: Area managers, vendor managers, and ISP coordinators freed from manual status updates
• Accelerated Cycle Times: Automation eliminated delays between workflow stages

Multi-Party Coordination:

• Seamless ESB-ISP Integration: ISPs gained real-time visibility into installation readiness
• Efficient Vendor Management: External contractors received work assignments automatically with PO numbers
• Clear Accountability: Every project had visible ownership at each stage
• Reduced Miscommunication: Systematic notifications replaced phone/email chaos

Visibility & Reporting:

• Real-Time Operational Dashboards: Managers could see bottlenecks and address them immediately
• Executive Visibility: Leadership gained insight into national program progress
• ISP Partner Confidence: Telecommunications providers could plan fiber installations based on accurate status data
• Financial Reconciliation: Complete audit trail from work assignment to payment validation

Data Quality & Accuracy:

• Systematic Address Validation: Triage process caught mismatches before crew dispatch
• Reduced Wrong-Location Visits: Address verification prevented wasted field visits
• Improved Data Confidence: Validated addresses ensured accurate work completion reporting

Resource Optimization:

• Informed Internal/External Decisions: Area managers could see workload and decide capacity allocation
• Vendor Workload Visibility: Vendor managers could distribute work based on capacity
• Balanced Resource Utilization: Monitoring enabled proactive resource allocation adjustments
• Reduced Vendor Idle Time: Systematic assignment kept external contractors productive

Privacy & Compliance:

• GDPR Compliance: Customer address information protected with appropriate access controls
• Competitive Confidentiality: Vendors couldn't see competitors' work assignments or volumes
• Role-Based Access: Each stakeholder accessed only information necessary for their role
• Audit Trail: Complete record of all access and modifications for compliance verification

Financial Controls:

• Complete Payment Validation: Finance team verified all work with PO numbers before payment
• Reduced Payment Disputes: Clear completion records eliminated vendor billing disagreements
• Accurate Cost Tracking: Comprehensive data supported budget forecasting and variance analysis

National Infrastructure Impact:

• Accelerated Fiber Broadband Rollout: Systematic coordination enabled Ireland's national broadband initiative to proceed efficiently
• Public Service Delivery: Thousands of homes received fiber connectivity faster due to streamlined safety processes
• Strategic Infrastructure Partnership: ESB's efficient coordination strengthened relationships with ISP partners

Key Takeaways

Distributed Architecture Beats Monolithic Scale: When you're managing thousands of concurrent projects, fighting SharePoint's list thresholds with one massive list is a losing battle. By designing a distributed architecture—separate lists for internal operations, vendor assignments, ISP coordination, and archives—we elegantly solved both scale and permissions challenges. The right architecture makes problems disappear.

Automation Is The Coordination Layer: With eight workflow stages and dozens of stakeholders, human coordination was the bottleneck. Power Automate became the orchestration layer, synchronizing across separate lists and ensuring every party received exactly the information they needed, when they needed it. In complex multi-party processes, automation isn't about eliminating human decision-making—it's about connecting decisions into coherent workflows.

Information Isolation Creates Trust: Vendors wouldn't accept work assignments if they could see competitors' workloads. ISPs didn't need to see ESB's internal resource decisions. Area managers didn't need visibility across regions. By designing permission architecture that gave each stakeholder exactly what they needed and nothing more, we created trust and compliance simultaneously. Privacy by design isn't a constraint—it's a feature.

Reporting Foundation Enables Program Management: The Power BI dashboards weren't an afterthought—they were designed into the list structure from day one. Consistent status fields, timestamp tracking, and regional categorization enabled comprehensive reporting that gave leadership visibility into a national infrastructure program. You can't manage what you can't measure, and you can't measure what wasn't designed to be measured.

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