LEARN
What's a Riser?
The area where the telecom provider’s equipment comes in from the street. This area is called the Minimum Point of Entry, or “MPOE.”
The building’s telecom closets on each floor.
Together, the MPOE and the telecom closets form the riser system – the pathways that allow cabling to be run throughout the building.
As you can see, the riser is a common area of the building. Without management, these areas are a liability – one cut cable or unplugged equipment means service outages to tenants!
What is Riser Management?
Riser Management is the active management of the riser system (see What’s a Riser) if you’re not sure what we’re talking about). Since the riser is a common area of the building, riser management includes responsibility for all telecommunications closets, wiring, and routing equipment that runs from the riser closets, through common areas and conduits, to the tenant spaces.
As riser manager, Montgomery Technologies works for the building owner and/or operations team. Our main functions are to:
- Screen and document access to the riser, preventing unauthorized access.
- Ensure the cabling infrastructure within the building’s telecom closets on each floor and the Main Point of Entry (MPOE) is documented, labeled, and organized.
Tenants in commercial office buildings rely on readily available and actively maintained building connectivity to run their enterprise solutions. Riser management ensures this occurs to code and buildings standard.
Responsibilities of the Riser Manager
- Screen access to all riser spaces, documenting who is entering, when, and for what specific purpose
- Maintain a 24x7x365 Service Center for all inquiries and access requests.
- Provide authorization to building security for authorized access
- Document the type and path of each new cable run through the riser system
- Maintain a database of building infrastructure and pathways
- Ensure that only experienced technicians with testing equipment perform cabling work in the riser to code and building standard
How does the access
screening process work?
Service provider, tenant, or vendor requests access to telecom closet(s) and/or MPOE
Montgomery screens access request (purpose, approval list, COI, etc.)
Management-designated personnel provides physical access
Montgomery email approved access request to management-designated personnel
A service provider, tenant, or vendor wants riser access (access to any telecom closet and/or MPOE)
They contact us via phone or email
- (844) 824-0100
- service@montgomerytech.net
The riser is a security sensitive common area of the building – most of the tenants’ business operations run through it! We screen each access request so the building staff knows, specifically:
- Who: Company and specific personnel
- What: Specific scope of work defined
- When: The time they will arrive on site and how long they will be there (applying all building access rules)
- Where: Which telecom closets and/or MPOE will be accessed
- Why: Troubleshoot, equipment maintenance, cabling, etc.
We also check to ensure that their COI is current.
If the access request is from a vendor that is not on a pre-approved list, we escalate or reject the request based on the building’s rules and regulations.
We email the approved access request to all building-designated personnel (typically security and/or engineering with a cc to the management office)
Building-designated personnel provide physical access at the requested date and time
Riser access screening, provided at no cost to the building, ensures every riser access is vetted and documented, providing accountability when something goes wrong (e.g., a contractor accidentally cuts a live cable).