16 December 2025

As demand for fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks surged across South Africa, engineering consultancy EES Live (Pty) Ltd found itself wrestling with increasingly complex design workloads. Traditional design tools — a patchwork of desktop GIS software, static maps, spreadsheets, and manually assembled bills of materials — were slowing projects down and creating significant room for costly errors.

Engineers regularly had to switch between different applications to map routes, validate addresses, assign splice points, calculate cable lengths, and prepare construction documents. Because none of these systems talked to each other, the team struggled with version control issues, inconsistent datasets, and long feedback loops. Every project required re-building documentation from scratch and repeatedly verifying that the design still aligned with real customer locations and actual field conditions. As the firm’s client base expanded and deadlines tightened, the risk of rework — or, worse, misaligned fibre builds — became increasingly problematic.

A platform built for fibre networks

To streamline their approach, EES Live began searching for a dedicated tool that could eliminate unnecessary steps and tie every stage of FTTH planning into a single, coherent workflow. This search led them to VETRO FiberMap, a cloud-based platform designed specifically for fibre-network planning, design, and management. Unlike conventional GIS software, VETRO operates on a fibre-native data model that treats ducts, cables, closures, splitters, splice points, demand locations, and customer addresses as core components rather than generic map features.

By shifting to VETRO, the firm could build routing, topology, splice design, address assignment, and construction planning inside one unified environment. Network paths no longer had to be drawn in one tool while materials were calculated in another; everything now lived within a single, accurate model anchored to validated address data and real-world geospatial context. The platform’s cloud-native architecture also meant that engineers no longer had to deal with the friction of passing files around or maintaining isolated desktop installations. Multiple team members, and even external stakeholders, could collaborate in real time from the same authoritative version of the network design.

Design once, use everywhere

One of the biggest breakthroughs for EES Live was the transition away from manual documentation toward fully automated generation of design deliverables. Because every component in the network was tied to accurate address points and build areas, VETRO FiberMap could instantly produce materials lists with precise cable lengths, duct quantities, closure counts, and split ratios, along with splicing schedules aligned tightly to the selected network topology. Construction-ready route maps and both high-level and low-level design views could be created on demand, complete with network hierarchy diagrams that previously required painstaking manual drafting.
Any design adjustment made within the platform propagated automatically through the relevant documentation, eliminating the inconsistencies that often plagued spreadsheet-based workflows. For clients, this meant more transparent proposals with accurate cost forecasts and fewer surprises once equipment hit the ground. The ability to anchor every design decision to verified customer address data also helped avoid routing errors, saving considerable time and cost by ensuring that fibre infrastructure was deployed where it was actually needed.

Efficiency, accuracy, and better collaboration

Since adopting VETRO FiberMap, EES Live has seen a substantial boost in its overall productivity. Work that once required days of cross-checking spreadsheets, diagrams, and GIS layers can now be completed far more rapidly, supported by intelligent automation and a single coherent dataset. Internal reviews have become more efficient, duplication of effort has decreased, and the team has far greater confidence in the accuracy and completeness of every design.

Perhaps most importantly, collaboration across the organisation has improved dramatically. With a live, visual representation of the network available at any time, engineers, planners, project managers, and clients can all work from the same up-to-date information, speeding up decision-making and reducing communication friction. The platform also simplified onboarding for new engineers; instead of training them across multiple disconnected systems, the firm now introduces them to one unified environment with clear logic and fibre-specific data structures. This has allowed EES Live to scale up its design capacity without compromising quality.

“By validating connections and identifying inconsistencies in a network design, VETRO FiberMap catches errors before they become costly problems. For example, in a 9,000-point design, even a small 10% error rate could mean 900 points need fixing. Imagine discovering these errors during installation – the delays, the budget overruns! VETRO FiberMap pinpoints these issues upfront, saving time, money, and frustration,” says Anton Hochleutner, Director at EES Live.

EES Live’s decision to implement VETRO FiberMap has fundamentally reshaped how the company designs and delivers FTTH networks. By replacing fragmented, manual processes with a cloud-based platform built expressly for fibre, the firm now completes network designs with greater speed, accuracy, and consistency. The ability to generate precise route plans, materials estimates, and documentation directly from a single model has significantly reduced errors and rework, while improved collaboration has made the entire project lifecycle smoother.