ng to what is agreed before. Several fields are suitable for administrative automation. Statistics Visualisation Generally, pure counters are extracted from the NMS as text reports. There is then a need for conversion into a user-friendly interface. This means applying some formatting macros on the original files. Through various project experiences, it is recommended that Microsoft Access is used rather that Microsoft Excel for such applications building. In fact, Excel has a size limitation of 65 536 lines, which means that Excel cannot display, for example, the adjacency file of a 2000 macro sites network where each cell has an average of 12 neighbours (2000 X 3 X 12 = 72 000). More details on statistics is given later in the section. Adjacency Management Dealing with the adjacency relationship is a regular part of an optimisation engineer's job. As the network grows (integration of new sites) and changes (implementation of new frequencies), adding new neigh- bours, deleting obsolete ones and updating existing ones become a daily concern and a repetitive task. In defining the Man-Machine Language (MML) commands of adjacency management, there is definitely a risk of errors due to human intervention when they are manually handled, whereas tools guarantee a certain level of reliability. In order to minimise error risk, automatic programs are the key. This method also helps to control the automation loop quickly. By automatically analysing the logouts, it is possible to identify whether the required changes have been implemented or whether some problems have been encountered. Geographical Illustration The field approach is very important in the optimisation process. Knowing the geography of the area helps a great deal in understanding interference, overshooting, weak coverage, etc. In this way, it is important Radio Network Planning and Optimisation Collection of data Real Network Automation tool: Control & check-up Formatting Post-processing module Recommendations Figure 2.55 Technical automation process to visua