Toolbox Talks ep 9: The New JULIE Ticketing System: What Excavators & Utilities Need to Know w/ OCC

Welcome to JULIE's Toolbox Talks podcast, your go-to resource for safe digging and protecting Illinois's underground infrastructure. Each episode, we'll share practical tips, real stories, and expert insights to help you dig smart, stay safe, and keep your projects on solid ground. Brought to you by JULIE Illinois Facility Notification Center.

Hello and welcome to JULIE's Toolbox Talks brought to you by JULIE Illinois Facilities Notification Center. I'm your host Brian McKenzie. Welcome folks. Today we are going to be talking about change. There going to be some change coming to Illinois. The way tickets are managed here in the system. Back in December 15th, guys, is when we're going to go live on this and our board of directors and our employees have decided that we are going to be switching over to One Call Concepts. And with me today, guys, what better way to discuss this new program? I've got with me Matt Rudo. He's the director of customer relations at OCC since 1998. And I've got Adam Franco, who is the vice president of OCC since 2003. Matt and Adam, thank you guys for being here today. Excited about this new program. We're going to jump right in though. But before we get started, guys, just few questions to ask you. Give us a quick intro on One Call Concepts. You guys, you serve 17 other states. How many years of experience are we talking about? What does OCC actually do for a one call center like JULIE? Clue us in here.

Sure. Well, thanks, Brian. It's it's great to be here. Adam, I I'll chime in first and then you fill in the blanks. Uh, you know, One Call Concepts, we were founded in 1982 by uh Tom Hoff. And uh, as you mentioned, Brian, we're in 17 states. We cover New York City to the Hawaiian Islands. And this past year in 2025, we uh processed 9.5 million inbound requests and delivered over 48 million tickets to the tens of thousands of uh utility owners that we serve in our footprint, which is pretty impressive.

Yeah, very excited to be uh working with JULIE and having this opportunity. Excited to be here to talk to you today. We got a lot of really cool stuff coming and we think that uh your membership and your excavators are going to benefit significantly from the tools and opportunities that we can offer them.

Fantastic. That's I know there's a lot of good tools coming this way and I can't wait to get them. But first, let's talk about timing and roll out. You know, again, we we have publicly committed that we're going to go live December 15, 2026 for the new OCC system. Describe the roadmap, guys. How do we go live? What are the key milestones between now and December to get us going?

Sure. We we've kind of got a lot of uh a lot of milestones hitting all at once. Um October 12th is going to be a big day. Uh so yeah, October 12th is going to be the next big milestone for us and it's going to be a significant one. On the 12th, we're expecting to release uh ticket uh testing for all of the members. They'll start receiving the final formats that they should expect to see post December 15th. Uh along with that, we'll be providing access to the sandbox environment so that folks can get in and start playing with the tools. The sandbox allows the same access that any user would expect to have post cut over, but it does so in a safe environment where tickets can't be released. Um you can't accidentally notify anyone. So they can really just get in and test out the tools. And in tandem with that, we will be starting training sessions uh that'll be hosted throughout the state of Illinois uh as well as online with a reoccurring schedule. We like to call them Webinar Wednesdays. It may not always be on a Wednesday uh but we'll host those reoccurring sessions in order to give everybody a chance to get in and see the system.

Very good. Yeah, that's something that that we currently are doing now.

Yeah, I just wanted to chime in. The key is just going to be making sure that we get plenty of folks in there testing uh the applications and uh the feedback is critical because we want to make sure we're providing a uh a reliable uh stable uh user-friendly uh application uh come December 15th.

Yes, very good.

So, and I did mention that was October 12th for those training sessions to start for the members. Um the next milestone will be November 1st when we start the training session for uh excavators and uh everyone else who's going to interact with the system.

That's great. So essentially it sounds like we have a sandbox where people can go in and they can play around. They can test these different features and there's no worry about sending anything out to somebody or messing something up. So go play in the sandbox. All right. So that that leads me into this next question. JULIE has already released the TXT, the XML, the XSD format previews. So, what should members be doing today with those preview files?

So, this is kind of their opportunity to uh have an early peak at what those formats are going to look like. There should be enough data in those sample formats for most members to be able to start preparing their parsing systems making any adjustments that they need to in order to ensure that they can receive the tickets in the new formats. That said, you know, as I mentioned, uh in October, we'll be sending physical copies to their actual receiving locations, which will be the true test of the processing. So, for now, the focus should be any preemptive changes that they need to make in their system uh in order to be able to accept those tests come October.

Great. Yeah, that's something that uh again, folks, pro tip, let's don't wait till the end on these things. We we've sent these out for you. Start to check them. Start to make sure everything's going to be because it tick tock. It's coming again. So, let's talk about some of these cool features. I am so excited about some of these. And these features, guys, I want our listeners to know that these are not just for the pro guy that's doing it every single day. I mean, I want the little guy out here, too. And because the reason I want the little guy out here is because of these features that are coming your way. It's going to make your life easier on keeping track of tickets and etc. So, let's just jump right in with that. First one being positive response. And we obviously launched positive response last year and it's now mandatory in our law. How does the OCC platform take this further as far as locate statuses, response codes, ticket details, all on one screen in real time on the web and the mobile?

Well, I'll chime in first. So, so Brian, we installed the first positive response system for Maryland and DC, the Utility system in 2001. We work very closely with the damage prevention stakeholders and we designed it in such a fashion so that the small municipality that maybe you have a locator that reads meters and also locates and gets 10 tickets a month can use uh a cell phone to provide statuses. You know the mom and pop excavating company that maybe not always have internet access. Uh they can review statuses via their phone. Uh we do send email confirmation. So, we installed the first fully automated uh positive response system with 208 communication in 2001. That was 25 years ago. So, we have a lot of experience with it. And uh you know, I'll turn it over to Adam to to get into some of the specifics.

Yeah. Thank you, Matt. You know, the the biggest thing that I think stands out uh about our our positive response system is that everything is integrated in one place. So when you're interacting with the ticket, anywhere that you view the ticket, you're going to see the current status up to that moment. Um, we do provide, you know, email notifications to the excavators as the statuses are posted or when all statuses are received. But in reality, they can see the status in real time anytime they want just by logging into the system and viewing their tickets. That that history will also move with the ticket long term. So if somebody needs to go back in four years and look at a ticket and see you know how each utility responded all of that data that full history will always be there and always retained with the ticket. Um the interface allows for batch processing of statuses for large facility operators who may want to you know send in a hundred statuses at once uh all the way down to the the member that just wants to manually status each ticket individually. You know, you mentioned um the little guy and the little guy is always in mind for me. You know, we're providing technology solutions that have to scale to fit the huge organization that's, you know, working all across the US as well as the farmer who's got a fax machine and they're just dealing with one line that they need to be aware of. So, our solutions have to be built to solve the needs of all of those users across that full spectrum. And we always make sure we've got a good option for, as you said, the little guy as well.

Yeah, that's that's great. And again, the the little guy, I I say you because again, I'm very pro little guy, but now it's all on the same page, guys. As we pointed out, positive response was mandatory for us. You have to check it before you dig. You have to post your responses before the dig start date and time, guys. It's mandatory. The number of excavators out in Illinois that don't quite understand that right now is alarming to me. And this is something that I really want for everybody to understand that confusion is going to be taken out for you because it's now on one same page. We're not switching back over. Let's talk about this next one. I'm super excited about because again, fiber work takes over everybody's work here, but we have a ticket scheduling option, folks. Describe how an excavator can schedule a pair or manage multiple tickets in a single session. How does it compare to the old way that we were doing things?

So, that this is something that I really love. Uh it's a project that got me really excited from the very beginning and I think it solves a lot of problems and and you hit the nail on the head um with the workflow and being able to submit multiple tickets simultaneously and then break those out for scheduling. That's a big one. You know, the other one is reducing the impact on the facility operators by allowing the excavator to easily map out and schedule that work so that the facility doesn't get hit with all of it at once when in reality it's needed uh in individual segments. The way that the system is designed is it's it's actually built into the submission workflow. When somebody is completing a ticket, they they start out in the map and they identify all of the areas where they're going to be excavating, whether it's one job or several. The system will automatically split those areas into the individual tickets that are required for that work. After that split occurs, the excavator has the option to either release that ticket right away with a a selected start date and time or they can put that ticket into a hold. And that hold retains all of the information associated with the ticket, the mapping data, and sets a reminder to come back to the excavator and notify them that that ticket is ready for release. The ticket is re-evaluated when it's released uh just in case a facility operator has changed their notification area. It's always going to be evaluated at the time that ticket is released and sent to those facilities. But what it does is it allows that excavator to, you know, generate 100 tickets, determine which of those tickets are needed right away. Maybe it's 50. They can release the 50 that they need and they can store the other 50 for release at a later time. Um we have seen it have a huge impact on the additional notice period that's provided to the facility operators uh which we understand to be a major impact um in the workforce management side of things.

Absolutely.

That's and and the ticket scheduling I mean that came from one of our customers in the Midwest. You know, a lot of the products, the services, the applications that JULIE is going to have the uh ability to utilize came from our existing customer base. We we've gotten a lot of great feedback from our damage prevention stakeholders that have helped us make our products and services uh what we think are, you know, some of the best in the nation. I know I I say that a little uh bragging a little bit, but uh you know, we're we are where we are at because of the clients and the feedback that they provide us.

So it's essentially it's just not a it's going to this thing can constantly change evolve you can add you can take away you can do whatever you want to do with the system. And it's so I just want to clarify it because I know there's I'm sure a lot of excavators are excited about what you just said so if I'm working from the east side of the state going to the west I could enroll my tickets the system would bust it down and let me know like the red grid's in place and like our our rules is you can only go a mile or quarter mile the system is going to know and it's going to break that down for the excavator. So again guys, it's going to make your job so much easier when you're entering tickets that you can schedule these things and and I am so excited about that one. And you also mentioned this map first design folks. So paint us a picture on how the whole ticket experience is built around this interactive map. I mean what does the change for the excavator in ticket entry look like?

Yeah. So moving to map first was a was a major paradigm shift for us. Um I I think most of the industry started from a text-based uh entry. What we realized when we were redesigning the ticket entry for online users is that that design was very much driven by the call-in process. The the text first makes sense when you've got a caller on the line and you're just trying to capture and translate the information. But when you yourself are the excavator and you can see on the map exactly where your work is taking place, you're able to provide a much more finite description and a much more uh simplified explanation of where the work is taking place. In essence, you're almost creating a virtual white line. Some people would would go so far as to call it that. Um that became the base of the entire design of ITC NextG and ITC NXT. Uh the platform allows the user to not only draw with a free form polygon, which I think a lot of people have seen in in our industry over the years, but it also allows them to select entities like a circle or drawing a route or selecting a parcel. And those entities then become the description of the job site. So, if I'm working on a pole line and I need to drop 10 circles along that line, uh, highlighting each of the poles that I'm going to be replacing or working on, I do that in one session in the map. The map in the system then knows how many are allowed on each ticket. Maybe you're only allowed three poles per ticket. So, it's going to break that down into tickets with three poles max. It's going to auto-populate the county, the city, the address if one exists. If it doesn't, it's going to populate the cross streets. All of that information is being driven from the map drawing that the user created. Um, to paint a picture in our old system, if a user needed to do that work, say they had 100 poles that they were going to be replacing, each pole may be an individual ticket that they have to go in, describe, and submit. With the map first system, they can draw those 100 circles, let the system do all the work, and even if they end up with 100 tickets, it's still just the act of drawing the circles that generates all that. Um, I've seen things that would have taken 30 minutes to an hour to complete on a text-based system uh being done in 10 or 15 minutes in the map-based system. So, it's a huge time savings uh from an excavator perspective and from a facility operator perspective, it means you're you're going to reduce over notification because you're only going to be notified in those precise locations where work is taking place. But it's also going to guarantee you consistency because the system is generating the majority of the information on the ticket. It's going to be the same format, the same layout. It's going to follow the same rules every single time. There's no human element causing that additional variety that can introduce confusion.

So, so Brian, going back to your uh the words that you had talked about earlier about going from the east side of Illinois to the west side and quite honestly Adam did a really great job explaining the map first design and um the whole idea behind it is is when you talk about the little company or the person that maybe not be that may not be tech-savvy, this takes all the guesswork out. They can go in as Adam mentioned draw any kind of entity whether it be a route, a circle or a parcel and the uh locate instructions are are populated there. So we take the guesswork out and and really using the online platform as Adam mentioned you know reduces over notification. Obviously the CSR and the uh call center doesn't have the um the advantage of having the individual in front of them and the map that they're looking at. So, um, you know, the internet product is will reduce over notification and will provide a specific uh locate that will assist the, uh, the locating community when they're going when they receive these tickets and having to go out in the field.

Yeah, I'm I'm so excited about this part because, you know, again, we've gone to mandatory pre-marking, white paint, stakes or flags, good verbal extent, whatever it is if if you can explain the locate. But now with this, what you guys are actually telling me is I can take my finger, I can take my mouse, I can draw actually where I want to locate, I can select the radius that I want. If I want 5, 10, 15, 20, whatever it is on that radius, if I'm going to be installing water main, or if I'm going to be installing a fiber along the road, I could actually determine if I want it on the front side, if I want it on the back side. I could draw up into the yard, however I want to do this. I've always pushed maps because I'm a visual learner. Like it when you're out on a site, when you're a locator, you can actually see what that excavator wants. But now guys, you excavators, you can actually draw that in. You know where you guys want to dig, right? The locators don't. Now show us. So with that electronic white lining, describe how an excavator can again draw their dig site directly on that map. I love this part.

Absolutely. Um, you know, I think that the best example of that is the route. Uh when a user has a route uh they can simply draw the line along the route that they need uh to excavate along. So you know in the in the old days trying to describe that with points and trying to explain where that location is over the phone or online can be really tricky when you're physically drawing it out. If you think about a scenario where you're running a line along the north side of a road from one curve to the other, you can precisely identify that, specify the width that you want covered for that excavation, and you're done. Your your entire process from there uh is going to be uh extremely simple. The system's going to identify the route. It's going to describe it. It's going to provide all of the populated textual information necessary and you've essentially got a complete ticket at that point. Um, circle is another great example. You know, when when people are doing pole lines and things like that in the past or like a tree planting, they end up having to map out a much larger area than where the work is actually taking place. With the circle, you drop a point, you specify a radius, and it will precisely identify the area where that excavation is taking place. And that could be as small as a 20-foot radius, a 15-foot radius around a specific uh site.

That's great. This is one thing I'm really hoping will eliminate. And again, I'm full disclosure, guys. I'm a retired locator. Um I hate entire property right-of-way to right-of-way. I'm sorry. You're not installing right-of-way fiber on both sides of the right-of-way. You're going down one side and crossing the other. So now with this new system, I'll be so bold as to say there is no excuse to call in right-of-way to right-of-way because you have the ability to draw where you want to cross over to that and pick up that section. So I'm really hoping that right-of-way to right-of-way goes away unless you're truly working right-of-way. You know, there are guys that truly do that, but most of them 90% of them are not doing right-of-way to right-of-way. Most of them are not doing the entire property. It's just easy for them to say that. So I am super super excited about that one. So, let's talk about another one. You know, this 24/7 online ticket entry. I got an emergency. Uh for excavators used to calling 811 during business hours. What changes that they can create and manage to track tickets online 24/7?

Yeah. So, good.

Now, I was going to say that again that came from feedback from the damage prevention stakeholders. We created the first online ticketing application in 2002. Again, almost 25 years ago. And uh you know we're fortunate in the footprint that we serve. I mean 85% of the tickets are done online. I mean there are several states that are over 90%. Again access to it 24/7 very user-friendly. You know knock on wood it's been stable reliable. We've not had a whole lot of downtime. So I think by being able to provide such a user-friendly application I think it's increased the usage and uh you know we're just excited to be able to provide it to uh the stakeholders in the US.

Yeah at this point I don't know why you wouldn't right I mean you got all these features, we guys, we've just hit four or five right there just tip of the iceberg of the things that are going to help you again all the way from the big excavator down to the little guy and that's I I I really want to help this little guy. So, let me ask you guys straight from your mouth, what are what are other features do you want to highlight or what do you think the audience should be excited about? Something that we haven't hit on yet? Some of these new features, scheduling, we got pre-marking, we've got the ability.

We've done a we've done a good job highlighting some of the things that uh you know, we've discussed uh during this uh podcast and um you know, there's there's there's opportunities. I mean, we're looking forward to hearing from, you know, the staff at JULIE, the board members of JULIE and and the stakeholders uh that JULIE serves uh by providing us feedback so that we can provide a better uh a better application, you know, going forward. I mean, we've done a lot. There's always room for improvement. So, we're excited about the opportunity to to provide uh our applications to the to the stakeholders of JULIE and look forward to uh continued feedback from the public.

I'll throw another one in there. Uh something that that I'm pretty excited about and that I've I've heard uh positive feedback on from the folks that we've talked to so far. Uh the iSight platform. We basically put all of our products under a a single portal uh with the intent of allowing a user who interacts with the system in multiple different ways to do so through a single portal. So, if you think about uh a facility operator who's also likely an excavator, they're managing notification areas, they're managing locate tickets that they receive and they're submitting and managing their own excavation tickets. Um, with the iSight system, that's all one login. It's one set of credentials that that user needs to remember and through that they can access every element within the system. Uh and they can even cross over and have access to multiple states. So any other state that OCC serves can be added to their credentials um so that they have access to all of those from a single iSight login. Um and my understanding is that that's something the users were excited to to see.

That makes sense. I mean we've got a lot of folks I'll throw Quincy in there as an example just that's part of my area. They can go quickly go over to Missouri or even on the other side of the state they can quickly go over to Indiana. So, just to clarify for our listeners, if you do work in other states, guys, that are OCC states, you can now have the same credentials and um just seamlessly, effortlessly go into another state, which is fantastic. So, let's talk about some training, guys. Uh what does the training plan look like between now and December and after go live? The live webinars, on-site sessions. We're going to have tutorials. What do we got?

So, at the moment, we're working with the the team at JULIE uh with Amy and Mark to identify opportunities for in-person training. Uh we're going to be providing support uh on the OCC side with as many uh in-person sessions as we can. Um in addition to that, uh as you mentioned, uh training materials, training materials are a very big focus for us and are something that we spend a lot of time and energy on. We will have uh video segments for all of the products. Um so anyone that needs to interact with the system if they prefer a self-service solution and they want to they want to learn at their own pace, they'll have videos, they'll have manuals that are heavy in graphics uh to help walk them through the system and get them tuned up. And then in addition to uh those two tools, we'll also be uh as I mentioned earlier hosting those webinars and and those are really uh kind of a sweet spot. We try to run them at different times of the day. We run them with different focuses. There will be, you know, a webinar for ticket entry. There'll be a webinar for uh members who want to manage their notification areas so that people can focus their time and be efficient and just get the training that they need or if they're interested in learning everything, they can attend all of the sessions uh and receive all that input. So, we really do kind of offer a choose your own adventure path for people on the training side, whether they want to do in person, online, or move at their own pace and then just reach out when they have questions. Um, you know, all those different pathways work.

That's fantastic. So, they could actually it's basically a buffet of trainings. I mean, you you pick what you'd like. If you're if you're fluent in in one section, you don't quite need that one, you could pick up that one and take it this way. So, these will be not only live, but they're going to be pre-recorded so they could take them at their own pace. Perfect. That's that's uh that's another thing that we really like to push is take this when you can, you know, make this around your schedule, folks. It's we're sending you so much information here that uh all you got to do is is is take that effort. But so, what is the message to the small excavator or contractor who are not tech-savvy? I know we keep talking about this, but I want to make sure that these guys are 100%. You're not going to be left behind. It's not going to be difficult. Help us out with that one.

Absolutely. Uh my message would be don't worry, we got you covered. We we work with uh every level of uh tech-savvy uh across the country. So, we have a lot of experience working with uh you know, different areas that have different restrictions. You know, we cover uh Montana where there's a lot of limitations on cell networks, uh you know, network speed, things like that that we have to work around uh all the way to New York City where, you know, we're kind of on the opposite end of the spectrum for coverage and access. So, you know, from a receiving perspective, so you know, the simplest way is to just receive the ticket and email in a plain text format or an HTML format that lays it out really nicely for you to see. Uh you can post your responses with a simple interface. Click on the ticket, post the response that you want. Um you know we we make it as simple as we absolutely can and if you know anybody needs uh additional support, we'll have folks around that can provide that. We'll come up with a solution for every one of the members. So I wouldn't worry about it. We know, you know, we've been tested on this front and we've been successful um for 43 years.

I think I'd just reiterate what we talked about earlier in the in the podcast that uh the application is created in such a fashion that it takes the guesswork out for the little um when you said the little guy or or the or the smaller excavating firm that's not sure well it's like well can I can I do a a mile long guard rail system? Do I need to break the do I need to break the tickets up? The system is designed to to handle that for them. And again, you know, it's it's user-friendly. It's been very stable and reliable and it's been created from the feedback that we've received um you know, over the past couple decades. Like I said, internet ticketing was uh installed in 2002. So we have over, you know, two decades of uh of feedback from from the public and and helping to make it, like I said, user friendly and uh and reliable for those smaller users that don't interact with JULIE on a daily or weekly basis.

Well, our our system used to be you had to come to us with where you were digging. You had to know what you were doing. And that's what I want. Again, the little guy, even the large guy, the system is going to figure it out for you. If you've been afraid of that part, you don't know where you're digging. You don't know the tier, you don't know all that information right now. The system is going to do that for you. So, please do not be afraid of it. I know for a fact there are people that still have flip phones out there and you're probably still listen on this call. So, please do not be worried about that. All right, so let's talk about compatibility and integration, guys. Um, does OCC provide APIs for member utilities and third-party management vendors to integrate? If so, what's the developing and onboarding process like?

Before Adam, before you get into that, I think it's important that the stakeholders in JULIE know that there are a lot of really good third-party ticket management uh, software companies out there and they're already interacting with us on a daily basis. I mean, like I said, we we operate in 17 states from New York City to the Hawaiian Islands. So, this shouldn't be a reinventing the wheel process here because we're already interacting with uh these third party uh ticket receiving software companies, but I'll let you speak to the specifics, Adam.

No, that that's spot on, Matt. The the reality is we we likely have an existing relationship with uh whatever ticket management solution um your facility operators are utilizing. But in addition to that, I I will say OCC offers uh secure API integrations for member utilities, for contract locators, for third-party ticket management, uh all to exchange ticket related information back and forth with this system. So we have lots of solutions uh they're proven solutions. We know that the major players uh in the industry the third party providers are already integrated with the system and we really have never had uh challenges associated with onboarding new you know even smaller uh one-off ticket management organizations. So the onboarding process is very simple. They need to tell us who the uh facility operator is who they're serving. Generally speaking, we we want the third party to show a connection to a a receiving member. Uh and once they've done that, we'll provide them with all of the data that they need to access the APIs to uh interact with the system and the schema for any of those requirements.

So you could essentially because we have many of them, we have very small utility members, very small members that maybe they want to hire you, maybe they want to and again folks, this is not a sales pitch. There are other companies out there. You have the ability. Either bring the one that you have to the table. If you don't have one, you've got folks that can do it for you. Again, I am not a salesman. I'm not going to go even down to that. But I I again, I want these little the little guys. Again, I want you to to have the tools like the big guys. So, if you need help with understanding that, we've got the folks here. If you need iPads out in the field to some way to close tickets or make yourself a little bit faster, whatever it is, reach out. We can help you with that as well. But let's talk about one more thing about the positive response system guys. Again, you know, as it went mandatory, I know you guys can be compatible with this. But what about compatibility with any existing positive response workflows in Illinois that the utilities already have set up? Is this going to replace it? Is it going to build upon it? Tell us how that's going to look.

It will be a replacement. Um the the JULIE group is currently considering what uh positive response status codes are going to be included or excluded uh with that integration. Um so it it is going to be a new system. Um but it will be very similar I expect to what people are are used to interacting with. You know there may be differences in the interface from a batch processing standpoint uh or from the the way that the APIs work but the the basic concepts are the same. The ticket is posted. Uh the facility operator posts status until they achieve a complete status or a locked status, you know, something final like marked or or uh you know, no conflict, clear. Um and at that point, then the notifications are delivered to the excavators. So the the experience should be the same. It's just how they'll interact with the system that's going to change.

Very good. And again, one little plug for this. The excavators that are listening, if you're new, this is mandatory by law in Illinois. You must check positive response before you excavate. You must put your responses in before the dig start date and time so that they can excavate. Everybody uses the system properly, guys. If you pre-mark, you know, you you're not asking for right-of-way to right-of-way. Hopefully, the goal is to narrow down to get these locators to your tickets on time because again, there's a lot of wasted paint out in the world right now and it's just absolutely aggravating to me because we can fix it, right? It just all we all have to work together. So lastly guys, let's talk about safety and a call to action here. You know, what should we be doing? We've learned a lot about some of the new features that are coming, some of the different type of programs. As far as damage prevention, ultimately that is the top concern, guys, is damage prevention. How does this platform tangibly reduce the risk of strikes, better communication? Are there going to be faster locates, maybe fewer mislocates because of the ability now to to put so much information out?

I I hope it's all of the above. Um the the system is very much designed to make the process as simple as possible, but also more importantly as accurate as possible. We believe that the map first concept and everything that we've done uh on the enhancements that we've built for NXT, they're all designed to provide the most accurate and complete description of the work site. That's the number one thing. Everything we do, we look at it from the perspective of um as a facility operator or a locator, if I receive this ticket, do I know where to mark? Do I know where the excavation is taking place? And am I able to interact with the excavator if necessary? Uh those are the primary goals. Everything we build surrounds that. We can make it faster, we can make it simpler, but it cannot interfere with the accomplishment of those primary damage prevention goals.

Okay. So, we talked a little bit earlier about ticket scheduling. You know, obviously if if someone has tickets that are ready to go in the field, obviously they'll they'll process them, but if they have future tickets that they want to hold for for another time, that helps that helps with load leveling. That takes a little pressure off of the the locate community. Um, you know, as Adam mentioned before, the the map first uh design, you know, if you have a you can do a 30-foot radius around a pole, uh, that's better than, you know, and if that's on a property, better than selecting an entire property, you know, we've I think we've done a a we're doing a great I think we're doing a pretty good job in trying to reduce over notification by creating these excavation entities, you know, creating the ticket scheduling, you know, obviously having positive response, having iSight, and having tools, you know, they're communication tools, right? And we're trying to prevent damages by by providing as much uh detail and communication as possible for the, you know, the excavators and the uh general public homeowners contacting JULIE in addition to the utility owners that are receiving that information. I think that's that's our goal is to provide as much communication, as much detail as possible to help close the loop and hopefully, you know, reduce damages into the future.

I think just by having on the same page, right? I mean, you're able to see everything at once instead of having to go over here and over here and over there. I I think that alone is going to really help a lot of people because, you know, there are a couple different steps right now that unfortunately we have to go through. But, you know, with this all being on one, again, I I cannot see the reason why people are not doing this online. So, we got a two-part closer here, guys. Um for an excavator and for a member utility watching this episode, what is one thing that they should be doing this week to get ready for December 15th?

Make sure that all the folks on your team know what this is coming. Keep a lookout for upcoming communications. Uh one of the things that we're going to be doing, you know, we talked about the training schedule, we talked about the testing with the members, and and like I said, there's a lot that's going to be happening in October. All of that will be preceded by notices with uh alerts on what's coming, when it's going to happen. We'll be posting the availability for training uh on on um websites and we'll be sending out notices to direct people to those. So the the biggest thing right now is to just make sure that you're paying attention and keeping an eye out for those next steps and communicate to the member of your teams um that this is coming. One big change that I think is the number one from a member and locator side is that when they receive the tickets post December 15th, they're going to receive a link to the map. That map is key to the process. So making sure that that map not only stays with the ticket through its entire life uh but also making sure that it gets out to the locators in the field is going to be key. So if you're looking at uh the ticket formats that we sent uh or provided samples, you know, that's the thing to look at uh and make sure that it gets taken care of on your side is that that map stays there. When we've rolled out NXT previously in other states, that's been the thing that we've tried to push the most is get that map to the field because if you open up a ticket and it's unclear to you where the work is taking place, you flip to that map page and you will have a visual indicator of exactly what is happening in the field. Um, so that would be the number one thing that I would draw everybody's attention to. And then the rest of it is just it's a it's a pay attention and watch and wait right now. Uh because there is going to be a lot coming starting in October through December.

Yeah. And I would say to to the folks listening to this, tell your friends, tell your colleagues, let everyone know that JULIE is partnering with OCC and that it's coming December 15th and just look out for the communications between now and then.

Well, the emails look different. I mean, uh, as far as I want everybody to know that they get a lot of emails from JULIE right now, right, with a positive response with with all that. And I don't want anybody to say, "Oh, that doesn't relate to this." Are there going to be any distinguishing factors that they're coming from you or anything like that?

They they will all reference uh the the software package and integrations that are coming, but they're going to be JULIE branded. They'll be, you know, under the JULIE header. Um, but it will be clear that they are communications related to the transition. Absolutely.

So, please don't get caught up on that, folks. Check your emails early and often. Make sure that you know, sign up for these webinars as you get them. Lots of information coming your way. And lastly, guys, when can everyone expect to hear more about the JULIE and OCC transition? What's the communication cadence between now and go live? Again, I I know we're going to be checking emails, but just uh just to solidify that one a little more.

Um, I I think the the big rush of communications is probably going to be during the the I would say last two weeks of uh September. Uh, I think that's when you're going to see the most information coming across. Uh, between now and then, there's going to be a lot of work put into developing the training materials and the supporting documents that are going to go out with those messages. Um, so I'm thinking, yeah, if you look at kind of that that uh last two weeks of September, pay pay close attention during that window.

Well guys, I I I can't thank you enough for being here today, you know, and to our listeners, thank you for tuning in to this episode of JULIE Toolbox Talks. Whether guys, you're you're a big excavator, you're a small excavator, you're a member utility, now is the time to start paying attention to these emails, look at the different formats, get ready for this because, like I said, I mentioned, it's going to be here before we know it. Just like uh just like the positive response, just like the law changes. Yes, there have been a lot of changes at JULIE the last couple years. I understand that. But we are going in a very good direction, guys. We're going in a I feel a positive light here for the excavator to get these tickets online and hopefully start to narrow down some of these overlocates out there. So again, folks, head to JULIEbeforyoudig.com to check out our training resources. Get familiar with what's coming. Until next time, stay safe and remember, safe excavation starts with you. Thank you.