Reality Check: Mitigating network deployment delays and cost overruns

After billions of dollars and countless man-hours spent over the last two decades, network deployment should have almost evolved into a science. Unfortunately, it often continues to be plagued by delays, quality issues and cost overruns.
Executing large-scale deployments across variable and complex environments will never be completely free of issues. However, implementing simple and tangible actions can significantly minimize delays and create environments conducive to successfully achieving deployment objectives on time and within budget.
Understanding the business objectives
Launching a particular service by a target date is frequently the center of the discussion between the business units and network organizations. But, in doing so, experience suggests that more often than not some key principles are not entirely followed.
Carriers often do not invest enough time up front to clearly define the “what, where, when and how” of a network deployment for all stakeholders. Key goals need to be defined, understood and agreed on so engineering, planning and design can take place. The goals should be articulated in a business case covering:
–Clearly defined deliverables and expectations from marketing/sales.
–Detailed “must-have versus nice-to-have” expectations.
–Prioritization of coverage, quality of service levels, feature readiness and marketability by area (e.g., 80% in location “x” is marketable whereas 90% in location “y” is required).
Setting a target launch date of a particular service is an important part of the pre-launch process, but to be meaningful, the target needs to be tied to the engineering milestones necessary to achieve the business case objectives.
Vendor management: promoting a true sense of partnership
It is an unfortunate reality that customers often perceive taking back ownership of a task from a failing vendor as the first logical mitigation step. While this may be the right solution, it is imperative to understand the drivers that caused the vendor failures and what steps the vendor took to attempt mitigation of the problems. There are instances when reallocating makes total sense and should be executed, but this option needs to be based on a diligent review of the drivers.
A healthy and productive relationship with vendors is key to a successful deployment and this can only be accomplished through a true partnership attitude reflected in the contract language. This can only happen when contracts are defined with the input of the teams that are tasked with the responsibility and accountability of the day-to-day deployment – these are the people who really understand what is needed to make it work.
Building the right team
All key stakeholders need to assign dedicated resources to the deployment organization. This enables departments outside of engineering and operations to truly understand and better support the deployment process.
“Dedicated” means that their primary role is in support of deployment, with other responsibilities at a lower level of priority. The cross pollination among these groups builds a higher level of teamwork, shared objectives and alignment, based on a broader understanding of tasks and challenges outside of the scopes of their immediate responsibilities.
The most important attribute of a successful deployment team is effective communication. It is completely within the carrier’s control to create open and honest communication channels among all of the project stakeholders. This can be accomplished by openly defining realistic and achievable targets; proactively identifying and mitigating challenges as a team; and maintaining a culture of “it’s our problem” and not one of “it’s your fault.”
No ‘off-the-shelf’ deployment solution
While there is no single recipe that can guarantee a deployment free of issues, carriers can significantly improve their chances of success by addressing basic business, vendor contracting and governance requirements upfront, and aligning them with the unique aspects of the program.
Tony Mistretta, Managing Partner and Co-founder of Vertix Consulting, has more than 25 years of wireless industry and systems experience, previously as a regional VP of Engineering and Operations with Nextel Communications, Sprint VP of Engineering and Operations, and Digicel CTO. Mistretta has built and led organizations to successfully deploy and operate nationwide cellular networks from the ground up, both nationally and internationally. For more information on how mitigate network deployment challenges, download the new Vertix Network Deployment White Paper.
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column where C-level executives and advisory firms from across the mobile industry share unique insights and experiences.