HomeWorksCorporate LeadershipCutting a fibre operator’s asset management rollout from 24 months to 9, and its cost by 20%

Cutting a fibre operator’s asset management rollout from 24 months to 9, and its cost by 20%

Situation

A UK hyperfast fibre operator was building a national gigabit network for wholesale data services, rolling out over 200 points of presence and hundreds of intelligent roadside cabinets, and spending more than £1bn a year. It wanted to “technology leapfrog” traditional ways of managing infrastructure at scale and asked me to lead the first of three stages: discovery and scoping, ahead of design and delivery.

The execution risk

Assets were managed through spreadsheets and home-grown databases, with no single view of performance. At this rate of build, a conventional approach would have locked in high cost, slow delivery and a system that could not grow with the network, and any change had to land without disrupting live operations.

What our Fractional Leader did

  • Reviewed the business from a technology and commercial view with the Group CTO, delivery management and CFO, and identified where a leapfrog would pay off and which new processes and skills were needed.
  • Delivered a transformation roadmap, built with stakeholders around the needs of staff and customers, covering assets, processes and operating cost management.
  • Recommended a data centre infrastructure management system to bring all assets and systems into a single, real-time view, with performance management and automated workflows replacing manual reporting.
  • Designed a real-time collaborative framework based on a digital twin and a data fabric with continuous-learning AI and machine learning, building on existing investments and enabling predictive maintenance, fault identification and capacity planning.
  • Produced the full discovery output: technology assessment, high-level architecture and solution evaluation, milestones, budgetary costs and a supplier shortlist.

Results

  • Implementation cost was cut by 20%, from £18m to £14.4m, a saving of £3.6m.
  • Implementation time cut from 24 months to 9 months, bringing earlier customer onboarding and a faster return on investment.
  • Operating costs 30% lower year on year, with fewer outages, higher service quality and greater energy efficiency.
  • A solution designed to grow with the network over ten years and beyond, and to take in best-of-breed technology as it emerges.

  • The client approved the move to design and implementation and assigned the budget.

Why it matters

Discovery work earns its value when it changes what gets built, not just how it is described. This engagement shows how our Fractional Leader works: establish what is really happening in the estate, test the plan against the business case, and set the direction before the money is committed.