Consultative, Advisory, Investigative and Planning provided:
Investigations and studies \ Strategy, procedure, policy development \ Reporting and recommendations
Context
Vernetzen was engaged to develop a long-term network strategy for this global miner.
This organisation had not reviewed its fundamental network design for over a decade, yet the importance of the network had grown to a critical piece of infrastructure.
The organisation had recognised this fact and were keen to prepare for the future.
Scope
Conducting a review of the company's network infrastructure to determine the long-term technology aspirations and their dependencies of work - particularly as they relate to automation, cloud adoption, Edge computing and mobility.
Recommending strategies to address the risks and issues found in the review and to prepare for the adoption of new network-intensive technologies.
Proposing a cost model, a governance framework to foster great transparency, and a programme of work.
Given the breadth of this review, the size of the organisation and the limited timeframes, Vernetzen had to be highly efficient in the way they conducted this assignment. Therefore, to expedite the strategy development, Vernetzen utilised its own comprehensive blueprint for a modern industrial network.
Issues and Resolutions
Because the network had not had the necessary investment, a technology-debt had been built up over the past decade, with projects launched at the same time as this Strategic review. Management was questioning whether these initiatives needed to commence/continue until the Strategic review had finished. Vernetzen had to guide senior management through the process of balancing the risks faced of network failure against some regret-spending on fixing their current networks.
There was also a number of high-profile projects under the spotlight as part of this review, with a lot of political pressure applied for them to be viewed favourably. Our Consultant need to empirically state the facts in a dispassionate manner for the Organisation to make its own decisions, based on solid data and a sound assessment framework.
Outcomes
For each of the four key components of the blueprint, Vernetzen was able to make a strong case for the initiatives to undertake. The Organisation has since used the strategic recommendations to guide the programme of work and their sequencing.
Conclusions
Having a comprehensive blueprint for a modern industrial network helped to expedite this strategic piece of work. While other organisations could have done a similar job, without the Vernetzen blueprint and methodology, this initiative would have taken far longer.