LC M
​Network Service Professionals

Technology Services
  
The landscape for connectivity and networking technology continues to evolve. LCM’s strategic focus on this technology ensures that we fully understand its impact on business IT infrastructure, have the right expertise to design and build the best technology architecture and project manage the migration to new architecture.

LCM aims to help de-mystify the technology and delivery options available, and offer our clients consulting services that design, test and implement their projects and deliverables. It is the knowledge and experience of our people that makes the biggest difference to the quality of the service and solution we deliver.

Each of our senior consultants has at least 15 years experience in delivering major infrastructure projects, gained within the Telecoms, programme management and IP Network Transformations space. The majority of our Consultants are independent industry experts and have been working together on a number of LCM managed projects over the years. This allows LCM to deliver a team which knows how to work together and deliver.
  
​LCM has carried out design and implementation across a wide range of projects including:
  • Large scale network transformation projects
  • Data centre moves and consolidation
  • Network Design and Implementation
  • Service Delivery Functional Process Architecture
  • Service Optimisation, improvement and Compliance Management
  • Data Quality - Alignment and Reporting
  • Supplier Delivery - Management and Improvement
  • Field Engineering Support
 
Technology is at the heart of what we do. We are dedicated to providing our customers with the best possible service which is underpinned by our people, processes and experience.

All LCM consultants have many years experience in the Telecom and Network Service industry. They typically have a background in a number of diverse industries and markets including finance sector, international telecom and network service providers, multi-national enterprises and large network technology vendors. This provides them with an in-depth knowledge of the major vendor technologies, service products and business processes.

Our team of qualified network design engineers (vendor specific accreditations of CCIE and JNCIE) are actively working with emerging technologies and constantly refreshing their technical skills on product enhancements. This ensures that they are able to deliver first class technical services in the following technology areas:

  • Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS)
  • Converged Voice, Video and Data (Triple/Quad Play)
  • IP Telephony (incl IPCC)
  • Wireless LAN and Broadband
  • Mobile Technologies such as 3G and GPRS
  • LAN and Campus Switching
  • Metro Ethernet and Optical Switching
  • Network Security
  • Network Optimisation
  • CRS-1 (IOS-XR)
  • SAN
  • WAN acceleration
  
LCM holds a well established and certified network of Associate Consultants (ACs) for immediate engagement at all levels. The on-boarding and movement of ACs between different projects is carefully managed by LCM Project Administrators (PAs), working closely with the partner organisation, ensuring continuity for the AC and maximum productive time and disruption to the end client and the project.

The depth of the Associate Consultants (ACs) resource pool and the availability varies depending on the active projects and engagements terms, however, LCM currently holds 85 ACs on file, across various technology disciplines and can facilitate upto 38% for immediate and active engagement (based on historical data and continuous AC engagement tracking)
  
  
SmarT Consultancy
  
We provide SmarT Consultancy by selective engagement of our consultants in key areas of their expertise. The client benefits by:

  • Access to relevant technical competence
  • Optimise delivery timescales
  • Maximise efficiency
  • Reduce non productive time
  • Availability of the highest certified technical resource

SmarT Consultancy allows the client to tap into a team of technical experts instead relying on one individual. Our partners benefit by:

  • Removing administrative cost
  • Removing Resource hiring cost
  • De-risking potential delivery issues that may arise from individual working Practices

The SmarT Consultancy Tiered structure adopts the following profiles

 Principal Consultants

Have minimum of 10 years industry experience in their relevant technology area
Have vendor accreditations for specific Technology and Standards
Have in-depth knowledge on vendor agnostic  implementation of Industry Standards
They provide key strategic and Technology level engagement in the early stages of the programme or project
They define the high-level Business impact and technology road-map
They design and develop high-level Network and Business Solutions

 Senior Consultants

  • Senior Consultants work both independently and into Principal Consultants
  • Have minimum of 5 years industry experience in technology and network solutions
  • Have mid-level vendor accreditations for specific technology and standards
  • They provide critical ground level customer engagement and define the mid/low level Solution Designs
  • They provide detailed scoping on the Solution and Delivery and manage Compliance
  • They define customer acceptance criteria
  • They define Operational Readiness criteria

 Planning and Implementation Consultants

  • P&I Consultants work both independently and into Senior Consultants
  • Have a minimum of 5 years industry experience on planning & implementation of network solutions
  • They provide End-to-End delivery management of the Solution
  • They are focussed on the implementation and operational environment
  • They are responsible for handover to the customer
  

Technology and Skills

  LCM’s present and past engagements in Network Transformation projects include:

  • BT Global Services (Finance Vertical – Transformation and Client Service Delivery)

  • Tiscali (Core Network Design and Operations)

  • British Leyland (LAN Transformation)

  • Alcatel Lucent (Network Migrations and Datacenter Closure)

  • Accenture ( Network Services)

  • Tech Mahindra (Bid Response and Network Services)

  • ATOS (Ethernet Metro WAN migration to EoMPLS)
Programme and Project Management
  
It is not uncommon for complex or medium to large projects to fail due to lack of critical knowledge, best practices and key ingredients which guarantee success. LCM has been effectively working with our partners and clients in the formation, launch and maturity of their Programme Management Office (PMO). Our senior associates in the programme and project management space carry a long history of successful delivery of projects and management and execution of major programmes. 

LCM has developed its own PMO model and offers an out-sourced PMO function to its partners and clients. The purpose of this function being outsourced is to allow the client to not have an expensive insourced function which may need to be sized or re-sized in line with the business requirements and funding constraints every quarter. The partners and clients can utilize this function as and when required and will be able to access some of the industry’s best qualified resource on an as needed basis. The PMO function outsourcing is tailored to suit individual client and their business.

The PMO function delivers:

Programme Delivery Assurance Imperatives

  • Correct, Effective & Timely Mobilisation, to ensure that all the programmes’ baselines are defined, understood and agreed across all business units or functional areas, i.e., cost, supplier scope, accountability, programme management controls, synergies/benefits and delivery baselines
  • Implementation of Metrics Based Reporting to ensure maximum visibility of delivery and resultant synergies/benefits realisation
  • Implementation of Independent Reporting of delivery, dependency and risk/issue management to mitigate any risk to delivery from within any constituent part of the Programme and extra Programme dependencies, such that the client is aware of all delivery reporting channels to provide early warning of programme risk and overall failure
  • Knowledge Transfer is effected and that knowledge acquisition is ensured, such that IPR is retained within the client business, in terms of experience and expertise and that future repeatability is secured
  • Robust, Commercial Management to minimise scope creep through tight, contractual change control of the post mobilisation scope, contractual obligations and cost baselines, and overall robust commercial management
  • Accurate & Prioritised Information on Achievement of Planned/Forecast Delivery, i.e., key integration milestones and synergies/benefits, such that planned, external communication, especially market sensitive communication, by the clients’ senior management is not jeopardised
  • Ongoing Evaluation Reviews of planned/forecast versus actual in terms of delivery achievement, budget spend and synergies/benefits realisation
  • Informed Decision Making & Appropriate Challenge, leading to sound business conclusions through the provision of independent evaluation reviews of full delivery visibility to the Programme Sponsor and Executive Steering Committee

Programme Delivery Assurance Approach

  • The approach to programme delivery assurance is to totally align to client’s strategic imperatives; the creation of a Programme Assurance Plan will be in full alignment with the overall Programme Plan, in terms of the approved baselines – scope, key milestones, timescales, cost and programme management controls
  • The PMO will provide with active advice and guidance to the programmes, portfolios and projects, in order to instill a proactive delivery culture

Programme Delivery Assurance by the PMO will include:

  • Top Down Quarterly Reviews of the overall Programme covering key governance and management areas of programme risk, e.g., synergy/benefits realization, stakeholder management, transition management, responsibility, accountability and authority, executive leadership commitment
  • Specific Deep Dives, e.g., of either a programme, portfolio or project, the interfaces between selected work areas, extra programme dependencies 
  • Dynamic, Proactive Project Evaluation Reviews (PERs), e.g., of either a programme, portfolio or project, in order, review and deliver progress against its scope, cost, and timescale baselines and in accordance with its synergy/benefits baseline
  • Dynamic Reactive Activities, when following a PER, the work area is placed in Intensive Care in order to identify, and to put in place and progress an action plan to address an identified shortcoming, prevent reoccurrence and ensure the shortcoming is not elsewhere 
  • A Tiger Team would be assigned to work with the relevant team(s) of a work area in Intensive Care and would comprise programme delivery assurance resources (PMO), and appropriate technical expertise from the Technical Design Authority, and where required, from outside the programme

Static Scheduled Reviews will also be undertaken, e.g., of the adherence to the programme management controls, the efficacy and effectives of these controls, risk/issue logs, dependency registers, change control and so promote continuous improvement.
  
Programme and Project Management