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(Note: parts of the conversation have been paraphrased for clarity. You can watch the full webinar here.)
Why Ralph Chose Shapemaker
Evan: Why did you decide to buy Shapemaker?
Ralph: At the start, it was about ease of use. With Shapemaker, it was easy to get going - to get structures into the software quickly, and to get to the point where you could build a tower.
But quickly, it became more than that. Shapemaker isn’t just the software; it’s the team behind it. I have weekly calls with Marthe Elise, for example, and Vladimir has spent time watching how I build towers in Shapemaker - showing me how to improve, or even removing pain points directly from the software.
That interaction makes me feel like I have a stake in Shapemaker. Features we needed - like the equivalent static method criteria check - came out of those discussions, even before I purchased the system. It feels like Shapemaker is partly built from my requirements.
It’s the whole package, not just the software.
Where Icon Tower Wants to Go with Shapemaker
Evan: Where do you want to get to with Shapemaker?
Ralph: My vision is to have all of our structures in there. A single dashboard where every tower has been analyzed at least once, with a capacity rating attached.
That way, when a customer calls or emails, I can make changes or add new equipment in real time and give them an answer really quickly. The faster I can respond, the faster they can get on our towers, which helps their coverage and helps our revenue.
It also saves me from waiting on external checks. In many cases, I can do an analysis myself in the time it takes to raise a purchase order for someone else to do it.
When we reach that point, Icon Tower will be in a really good position - fast, reliable, and customer-focused.
The “Agents” Concept
Evan: You’ve talked before about the idea of “agents.” What do you mean by that?
Ralph: At Icon Tower, we’re a small team - right now just one engineer. That means all the analysis requests come to me.
Looking to the future, if our portfolio grows, it would help to involve others in the process. That could mean external consultants or even tower manufacturers who could connect to our hub. The idea is that we’d have centralized and agreed environmental parameters, so everyone is working from the same assumptions.
Those external “agents” could add equipment, run checks, and then send the results back to us for review. That way, the master record always stays with Icon Tower, but work can be shared out when needed.
In practice, it would mean creating a pool of people who can help with analysis, all working from the same data and parameters. That way, I’m not a bottleneck, and we can scale up without losing consistency or control.
Digital Twins vs. Photo Realism
Evan: There’s been a lot of buzz about digital twins and photo-realistic models. What’s your take?
Ralph: Photo realism looks great, but as an engineer, it doesn’t really help me. I can’t analyze a photo of a tower or add antennas to it.
What Shapemaker gives us instead is a digital twin - a structural model you own and control. That’s very different from how things usually work, where information often stays with suppliers. If you switch suppliers, you might end up paying for another site survey just to get the same data again.
With Shapemaker, once you’ve done that initial climb and built the model, you don’t have to redo surveys every time. You’ve got the information, it’s then about keeping track of what equipment gets added. The model doesn’t need to be photo-realistic to be useful. What matters is that it’s reliable, repeatable, and something you can manipulate to make engineering decisions.
The Bigger Picture
Evan: How do you see tower engineering evolving in the next few years?
Ralph: I think operators and towercos need to get a much better handle on their information. Too often, they don’t really know the details of the structures they own. Without that knowledge, every analysis means sending someone up a tower.
The industry needs to change that. We need to understand our towers better and get control of that data, so analysis doesn’t always depend on site visits. And there are still important questions around fatigue that we, as an industry, need to get a better grip on.
Final Thoughts
For Ralph, Shapemaker is not only helping Icon Tower move faster and respond more effectively today, it’s also opening the door to new ways of working in the future.
“Shapemaker does what I need it to now. But what it can do in the future is also exciting.” – Ralph Freemantle
