Network and SD-WAN delivery leadership
I lead enterprise network transformation programmes from site planning to the last cutover: SD-WAN, branch connectivity, data-centre and cloud migrations, and voice modernisation. My background is telecom network engineering, and for most of the past two decades I have delivered network programmes on both sides of the relationship, for carriers and for the enterprises they serve.
Currently Delivery Lead, SD-WAN network transformation, for an international professional-services firm. Engaged through edgeVelocity Labs Inc.
- PMP
- CSM
- ITIL v3
- Executive MBA, Queen’s University
- Electronics Engineering
- 20+ years in network and telecom delivery
Typical programmes
- SD-WAN deployment and migration across multi-site branch and office networks.
- Branch and WAN modernisation, including carrier circuit changes, LTE backup and wireline connectivity.
- Data-centre and cloud connectivity migrations (AWS, Azure, GCP).
- Voice and unified communications moves to cloud voice, and contact-centre migrations to cloud platforms.
- End-of-life network and end-user device refresh, run alongside the migration.
- Carrier-side delivery of enterprise network contracts.
Scope of work
One delivery lead accountable for the whole lifecycle, from the first site survey to the handover to operations.
- Plan
- Site surveys and inventories, equipment and circuit lead times, a readiness checklist for every location, and the integrated schedule across carriers, vendors and internal teams.
- Budget
- Cost per site and per wave, forecasts, variance reporting and tracking against the contract value.
- Pilot
- Pilot sites validate the design, the cutover runbook and the rollback before any wave is committed.
- Migrate
- Sites grouped into waves sized to field capacity. Each wave has a pre-cutover checklist, an after-hours or low-traffic window and a documented rollback path, so one failed cutover cannot spread across the wave.
- Stabilise
- Hypercare with the service desk and desktop support, legacy decommissioning, asset records and handover to operations.
Governance
- Tiered governance: working team, steering committee and executive sponsor, with weekly or bi-weekly steering across client, carrier and vendor leads.
- One RAID log, one financial tracker and one status view shared by every party.
- A RACI across carrier, OEM vendor, integrator and internal IT.
- Vendor accountability against contracted commitments. A slipped delivery is logged as a formal risk with a corrective action plan and interim checkpoints, and taken to steering with its schedule and cost impact quantified.
- Site readiness tracked as a milestone: a named contact at every location, briefed and trained before cutover.
Selected programmes
Client names are withheld. Full case studies are on my personal site.
Major Canadian bank
SD-WAN, cloud connectivity and voice modernisation. Carrier-side delivery lead.
A nine-figure programme across a national branch network. Legacy branch network and voice moved to Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, cloud connectivity and cloud voice without disrupting branch operations: pilot branches first, then migration waves with after-hours cutovers and a rollback path for every site. Cross-functional team of 25+ across three countries. Included the end-of-life device refresh workstream: imaging, configuration, testing, user migration and asset inventory.
Global consumer-goods manufacturer, UK
Enterprise connectivity portfolio. Carrier PMO.
A 24-person team across 15+ concurrent connectivity, LTE, data-centre migration, contact-centre and security projects, under multi-vendor governance and executive reporting.
National mobile operators, India
2G/3G network rollouts. Delivery manager.
30+ vendors and engineers across multi-vendor RAN and core. A BSS/OSS operations plan that reduced revenue leakage by 40% and network downtime by 30%. Equipment lifecycle from procurement to secure decommissioning.
National carrier, India
Wireless broadband, 2G/3G and fibre rollouts. Implementation engineer and team lead.
Implementation teams for wireless broadband, 2G/3G and fibre network rollouts, and enterprise broadband projects.
Network, cloud and IT transformation pursuits
Presales lead.
Solution design, estimates and RFP responses for nine-figure deals spanning SD-WAN, unified communications, AWS and Azure.
The full story, on my personal site: Network rollout case study ↗
Technologies and vendors
- Cisco Meraki SD-WAN
- Cloud connectivity
- Unified communications and cloud voice
- Genesys Cloud CX
- AWS
- Azure
- GCP
- LTE
- 2G/3G RAN and core
- Fibre and wireless broadband
- BSS/OSS
- ITSM / ITIL
- MS Project
- Jira
- Confluence
- Planview
Engagement models
Specialist engineers and contract project managers can be added through edgeVelocity Labs when the scope needs them.
- Programme delivery lead
- Embedded part-time or full-time, from planning to handover.
- Programme Health Check
- Two weeks, fixed scope, for a network programme already under way.
- Recovery
- 30 to 90 days for a rollout that has stalled between waves.
NDA first, on request. I take a small number of clients at a time.