Professional Services Bulletin - Edition 1

Welcome to the First Edition!

Summary

• IT Migration Project for Connex Trains
• Project Management of $17m Fibre Cable Roll Out
• Funding Application for a Broadband Education Network
• Technology Advisory Service for Australian SMEs

On behalf of the management and staff at Consultel IT&T, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the inaugural edition of our "Professional Services Bulletin".

Consultel has a 20 year background in delivering high quality, independent IT&T professional services throughout Australia and overseas. Our consultancy advice and service has assisted hundreds of organisations over this time.

This is a quarterly publication that seeks to inform our customers about emerging innovations in IT&T technology through case study examples of how other organisations are accepting and deploying these new technologies.

We also aim to describe our specific role and contribution in these projects to demonstrate our capability and versatility in assisting businesses through the complexity and challenges of doing business in the 21st century.

I encourage you to read our new publication, and should you have any questions in relation to any of the articles we discuss, feel free to call me at our Melbourne office on (03) 9347 4711.

Graeme Leigh
Director

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On 19th February 2004 the Victorian State Government announced the sale of its equity in MTrain and MTram to Connex and Yarra Trams respectively. The date set by the government for the commencement of the new Connex business was 18th April 2004.

In the two months between the sale and the official hand over, Connex needed to design, build and implement their new IT infrastructure as well as migrate their 400 users and 35 separate business applications onto a single new standard operating environment (SOE).

Some of these business applications were critical to the operation of the rail system. Consultel IT&T was part of the project management and transition team for this major IT Infrastructure rebuild and migration project. Mission critical responsibilities included:

• IT Transition Project Management and technical support;
• IT Technical analysis, testing and migration of the 35 business applications including e-mail;
• Establishment of all MAN/WAN connectivity incorporating all offices and all 90 metropolitan railway stations;
• Recovery and sale of all old PC equipment and peripherals;
• The management of staff training for the new IT network and SOE;
• The development and distribution of staff communications and public relations information during the various phases of the migration; and
• The complete software/web development for the new IT Intranet.

Consultel's IT&T expertise was put to the test to complete the IT migration project in such a short space of time. Senior Consultel staff were only too aware of a number of critical issues that had to be overcome if the project was to succeed on time and on budget. Major issues facing the project team included:

• The number of building locations involved. Most Connex staff were physically relocated to three city office locations. Two of these buildings involved considerable office fit out works with completion/handover dates critical to the IT migration timetable;
• Deployment of new PCs and SOE to all staff; and
• The old Connex IT network was shared with other organisations such as V/Line and Alstom and access and ownership of servers, routers and other network equipment and infrastructure was not straightforward.

Consultel successfully executed the project, with the migration and major IT Infrastructure rebuild being completed on time and on budget.

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Recently, the Department of Education and Training (NSW) awarded UeComm a $17m contract for the rollout of fibre optic cable access to over 400 primary and secondary schools within the metropolitan area of Sydney. The role of project managing the fibre optic cable roll out was awarded to Consultel IT&T.

For this project Consultel provided:

1. An experienced project manager (reporting directly to the Uecomm Project Director), to be responsible for ensuring the completion of the project on time and within budget and to report regularly to Uecomm on the progress and administration of the contract;
2. Two experienced quality managers/technicians to conduct all site and installation inspections and report on progress and quality of workmanship in the field and to verify claims for payments and/or variations; and
3. A contract administration manager to manage all commercial and administration aspects of the project.

The fibre access project was successfully completed on time and within budget. Consultel were further contracted by UeComm to assist in the costing and evaluation of technology options for connections to the main fibre cable where copper cable tails were not possible or cost effective.

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On the academic front, Consultel IT&T was engaged by the University of Wollongong to provide advice on the design, costing, construction and funding for a new broadband optical fibre network linking Wollongong University to other leading regional universities, and information networks in Sydney including the AARNet (Australian Academic and Research Network).

Consultel's previous work for DETYA (now DEST) had demonstrated the restrictions imposed by distance-based telecommunications tariffs and lack of broadband competition on the availability and cost of broadband access by regional schools to the Internet and AARNET.

An opportunity to collaborate with the NSW Rail Infrastructure Corporation was identified by the University, and Consultel was subsequently engaged by the NSW Department of Commerce to develop and submit on behalf of the NSW Government and the University of Wollongong a joint bid for funds to ARENAC, the Australian Research Education Network Advisory Committee.

The bid document comprehensively addressed ARENAC's funding criteria and set out the immediate and longer-term requirements of a broadband teaching and research network for the University and adjacent Innovation Campus. The Bid proposed a complex arrangement under which State Government fibre assets in the rail corridor would be upgraded and supplemented with broadband tails and interconnections to several sites in Wollongong with links to VET institutions in a co-operative arrangement involving several departments and authorities. The bid provided details on a range of key financial and technical parameters necessary to implement three fibre pairs each supporting at least one gigabit/sec.

Consultel's bid document was successful in attracting the only funding awarded by ARENAC, and has been described as a model for such future proposals to ARENAC. The funding amounted to $4.2m.

Consultel has won a $6M contract with the Federal Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources to develop and provide a national technology advisory service for small to medium enterprises (SMEs). Consultel has shown leadership, drive and endeavour by totally designing, building and promoting a fledgling Industry TechLink, into Australia’s pre-eminent (technology focussed) advisory service.

Over 3,200 Australian businesses have directly benefited through this innovative service. Technology enquiries have ranged from sourcing appropriate machinery, improving processes, going ‘high tech’, sourcing new age materials, computerising operations and general problem solving. Industry Techlink’s advisory service enables SMEs to overcome problems, get started or simply more efficiently handle the technology challenges they face on a daily basis.

Operating on a national basis and located in Consultel’s head offices in Melbourne, Industry TechLink has in excess of 100 highly skilled technology consultants, delivering high grade solutions to small and medium businesses. Simple enquiries are handled over the phone, for more complex enquiries face to face on-site consultations can be arranged anywhere in Australia.

To speak with one of our consultants, ring 1800 111 485. The service is available Monday to Friday between 9:00am and 5:00pm across Australia.

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