UK Porting - Chairman’s Report #4
Introduction
I am pleased to report that the project continues to progress well overall although some interim deliverables are running a couple of months later than our most optimistic plan. Engaged Members continue to work hard to achieve the project milestones although I am concerned that on a few occasions, decisions that were believed to be behind us have been re-opened by some Communications Providers (CPs) leading to inevitable delays. The Request for Quotation (RFQ) referred to in last months report has been issued to the five selected Vendors; a Vendors meeting has been held to explain the next steps in the process and the first Vendor responses to the RFQ are due in the next few days.
As reported last month, after much discussion a Governance model and funding model have been tabled for the new commercial entity ‘PortCo’. A counter proposal has been tabled by a group of Fixed operators and active discussion continues.
A competition was run to establish an agreed name for ‘PortCo’. The winning name was PortCo.
The overall project status remains AMBER due to: the Governance model for ‘PortCo’ not yet being finally agreed, and; a re-plan of the project to allow more extensive Technical evaluation which is injecting some delay into the interim deliverables of the project.
The overall programme however remains substantially on track at this time.
Progress Update
1. Governance
The RFQ was issued from UKPorting with absolute clarity to all Vendors that PortCo would be the company that any contract would be placed with.
As mentioned above the Commercial Group had established a model for ‘PortCo’ governance after many weeks of work. A group of Fixed CPs put forward an alternative governance proposal. The Executive discussed this proposal recently and agreed there was merit in it; the Executive required some sensitivities to be demonstrated before finally deciding which proposal and what values of cost allocation and voting shares to adopt. Discussions are ongoing to reach a Governance model acceptable to all CPs in the near future.
Ofcom produced a paper outlining Ofcom’s view of what they wanted to see as the UKPorting Independent Project Team (IPT) role in the project going forward once PortCo is fully constituted. A sub-group of the Executive was charged with considering Ofcom’s proposal and have subsequently responded with suggestions of a way forward from their perspective. The suggestions are being clarified before being remitted back to Ofcom for consideration.
2. Work Groups
Policy (GREEN) – Policy group have added co-ordination of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to their work as the SLAs cover many work group areas. They are continuing their work on capturing and reviewing the Inter-Operator Communications (IOC) business requirements.
Commercial (AMBER) – As outlined above, the major Commercial activity is around the creation of the new commercial entity ‘PortCo’ and the governance model needed to operate ‘PortCo’. In addition, comprehensive support and input is being made to the post-RFQ evaluation process – the amber status reflects the unresolved issue of the governance model still being debated by the Executive.
Programme Management (AMBER) – The Programme Work Group continue to enhance the granularity of the plan. The Programme group have also been reviewing some of the near term plan dates in the context of the Technical group requiring substantially more time than anticipated to complete their evaluation of the Vendor submissions. Another review will take place after the Vendor submissions are understood to evaluate the ongoing implications of this slippage and the opportunities to recover any time lost.
Procurement (GREEN) – The recent focus of work was mainly on the RFQ production and its distribution. The RFQ was issued on the 30th of May and vendor responses are due on the 23rd of June. Questions from Vendors were received and turned round quickly. After a period of evaluation of the Vendors submissions they will be making initial presentations to the Members in the week beginning 14th of July. A shortlist of Vendors is scheduled for early August.
Technical (AMBER) – The Technical Work Group have developed Migration and Testing strategies for ratification. The Technical group was a major contributor to the RFQ process. The main activity for Technical in the near future will be the evaluation of the responses from vendors due now on the 23rd of June. The amber status reflects the Technical Group's request to significantly extend the process of evaluation.
Business Processes (AMBER) – The Business Process Work Group is working on the high level process description for mobile number porting which is due for completion at the end of June. Significant work and decisions will be completed over the next few weeks. It is disappointing to find again, that decisions made in good faith and given guidance by Ofcom are being re-opened by some CPs, inevitably leading to unplanned delays at a stage when we should be consolidating our approach and moving on.
I would like to thank the wide range of contributors we have working on the project. Given the aggressive timescales and complexity of the activities I am pleased with progress so far; however, all contributors now need to raise their game in terms of commitment and adhering to the spirit of the operating model we developed for UKPorting.
Peter McD. Black
Chairman UKPorting
Green means no issues have been identified that will impact the plan.
Amber means some issues have been identified that are being dealt with that could impact the plan if not resolved.
Red means issues have been identified that could impact the plan that no solution is yet available for.