Challenge
Westports needed to replace an ageing analogue walkie-talkie environment with a dependable modern platform. The decision required evaluation of architecture, coverage, devices, licensing, support, scalability and long-term cost—not simply selection of radio hardware.
Principal Consultant Contribution
Worked with Westports IT and operational stakeholders to translate requirements into a technical specification and compared TETRA, CDMA and IP-based platforms such as Cisco IPICS.
Attended a TETRA conference in Hong Kong and visited a Hong Kong port implementation to understand vendors, architecture and real port use cases before returning to the Westports evaluation.
Organised multi-vendor POCs involving several operational departments and used structured scoring to support the preferred TETRA vendor-principal selection.
Helped structure the solution into the existing outsourcing arrangement, including billable service components, Bill of Materials, SLAs, support responsibilities and commercial terms. Following award, oversaw controlled delivery and inventory of hand-portables, batteries, chargers and spares.
Approach
- Compared competing communications architectures across technical and commercial criteria.
- Used international benchmarking to strengthen the decision process.
- Validated the preferred technology through multi-vendor operational POCs.
- Used scoring to support transparent vendor selection.
- Translated the selected solution into a sustainable managed-service contract.
- Established auditable equipment handover and inventory processes.
Outcome
Westports moved from its ageing analogue radio environment to a modern digital trunk-radio capability supported by a structured outsourcing model.
Business Value
- Reduced technology-selection risk through benchmarking and POCs.
- Created clearer accountability through SLAs and managed-service terms.
- Converted a capital technology replacement into a sustainable service model.
- Established disciplined lifecycle and equipment-management processes.