CASE STUDIES
Collectively, the Ferrum Networks team have successfully delivered information and communications projects in various fields. Please refer to some of the work that we have experienced.
Business Technology Outsourcing
GOVERNMENT-LINK COMPANY
A Government-Linked Company (GLC) plan to embark on a substantial number of IT based projects over a period of 3 years. Ferrum Networks was chosen as the IT-PMO office through an extensive open tender selection process based on our knowledge and ability to execute and achieve successful deliverables.
The IT Strategic Plan (ISP) consisted of two phases; Phase 1 of the ISP included thirteen core IT projects and fifteen key deliverables to be completed within a 12-month period. Phase 1 required a range of experienced technical, procurement and managerial skill-sets for the duration of the program.
The Challenge
The main challenge encountered by the client was that, its internal resources were not able to scale-up and manage multiple projects, especially when the requirements included a wide variety of technology and business know-hows in areas of consulting, project management and documentation. Any delay in the implementation of the ISP would have had a major impact to the company’s KPI growth targets. The client was also looking for solutions to see how they could train and equip their internal resources to run such programs in the future.
The Objective
- The review, , consolidate and document an IT Strategic Workplan for the current year.
- Based on the review of the Project requirements, recommend an IT Core Framework and future IT initiatives.
- Managing the overall IT Program with all the stakeholders within the company.
- Facilitation of the IT blueprint and framework for the 2nd and 3rd Year plan.
- To transfer the IT-PMO know-how to the customer.
The Solution
The client decided to setup and outsourced IT-PMO (IT Project Management Office) as an extension of their Corporate (Shared) Services Department. Ferrum Networks provided three key services via the outsourced IT-PMO, namely : Consulting, Program Management, and Documentation Services based on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model.
In the first stage of the project, we set up the project management office based on PMI™ best practices. Documentation was done on their existing processes, workflow and reporting structures. Working with the client, new process flows and reporting/escalation structures were created.
All projects, completed, current and planned for future were documented and integrated into an overall Dashboard as well as a Program work plan (for that year’s deliverables) as part of the ISP. We used our unique methodology of operating such IT programs and customized it to fit the client’s environment.
Most importantly, targets and KPIs were defined for the program and agreed between both parties to measure success and ROI. Part of the success criterion included measurements for a successful BOT.
These KPIs were matched and some even exceeded the performance requirements in the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) set out in the contract.
Large Enterprise
A large diversified conglomerate operation with vested business interest in Asia, USA and South America with an annual group turnover of almost RM 18 billion and provides employment for about 24,000 people.
The Challenge
The Objective
The group has been in existence for more than 80 years. With so much heritage and culture cultivated over many decades, the group has flourished to become major leader in its industry. As the group consist of many subsidiaries, they were facing critical issues with their legacy systems especially in their network environment consisting of disparate systems with a high cost of maintaining the systems.
- To increase efficiency of the groups network.
- To lower maintenance cost and obtain faster ROI
- To build a network to support next generation technologies in line with business expansion e.g. VOIP, Video Conferencing, Mobility etc.
- To be self-reliant on maintaining its network infrastructure
- To be equipped for their 2nd phase, Data Center Consolidation.
The Solution
We created an IT PMO Office comprising of key specialist in Project Management, Business Analyst and Technical specialist with expertise and experience to address their technical as well as business operations issue by initially gathering intelligence on the current state of affairs. The team was responsible for the delivery and management of the network upgrade project from inception to final deployment in line with the Group’s business objective.
To ensure that the current live network was not affected, a comprehensive trial lab was set up and extensive tests were conducted. The new network was implemented in parallel to the existing network and the carefully planned migration was carried out section by section. As a result, the entire network is being upgraded with minimal downtime and was transparent to the end-users of the network. As a result, the Group was able to increase their business operation efficiency and lower down their cost of maintaining the network infrastructure. This is an on-going exercise for 4 years with multiple phases covering each regional area.