What you will work on

Recently, I concluded a project with an infrastructure fund that was looking to expand into China’s data centre market through M&A. We performed a commercial due diligence on a potential investment target, which included a market review and a business plan review.

As an Associate Consultant, my primary responsibility was desktop research, with a specific emphasis on the regulatory landscape governing the data center market and power usage in the country, a competitive assessment of peer operators in the market, a regional analysis of key markets, pricing and potential customers for target. I accomplished the tasks by cross-validating data with expert legal advisers, conducting expert interviews and integrating data from disparate sources to form an independent view on the target in question.

The project was particularly memorable for me because it was the first time that I took on full responsibility for a sub-workstream. Thanks to the depth of research conducted, I was able to contribute to project discussions with both the project director and the project manager. I also appreciated having greater exposure to the client through multiple client calls, which were invaluable for my consulting career.

I recently completed a project for a government department in the UK that was looking into 5G use cases. I was the most junior member of staff and was working remotely from Cambridge with a Consultant and a Partner in the London office and a Principal based in Edinburgh. My role was to conduct the initial desk research into what 5G use cases existed and what the benefits and barriers of them were. I then developed categories of use cases (such as transport, smart cities and manufacturing), determined the key technical requirements for each category (such as VR/AR, robotics and autonomous vehicles) and produced a list of key barriers (such as the business case, cultural resistance and cost).

We conducted a range of interviews with key stakeholders and I helped to develop an analysis of the likely adoption of use cases in each category based on an assessment of the impact of each barrier on each technical feature’s initial delay to adoption and initial rate of adoption.

What I really liked about this project was how the categories I developed within the first few weeks became a central part of the analysis and report. I also enjoyed being involved in a range of activities: from the initial desk research (which involved reading through all the articles and papers I could find about 5G and its use cases, documenting my findings and presenting that to senior team members) to participating in stakeholder interviews (for which I had to put together a numerical analysis in Excel and a visual representation in PowerPoint) and finally drafting key sections of the report. As a recent joiner it was thrilling to see my work within the final deliverable, and it was exciting to be exposed to such a wide range of techniques and skills, all within one project.

One of my most interesting projects at Analysys Mason was working with the Government of Papua New Guinea for over a year to support the institutional strengthening of the Department of Communications and Information (DCI) and to develop an ICT policy roadmap for the country.

This was a long-term project requiring a small team, meaning that I worked closely with an Associate Consultant to guide them in taking on wide-ranging responsibilities, including leading the necessary research and analysis, coordinating market consultations, drafting the deliverables, and presenting findings to the client.

The project included consultations with a wide range of public- and private-sector organisations in PNG over three visits to the country (requiring three flights and a 37-hour journey each way from London!). We also arranged and supported study tours in Seoul and Singapore for our client to learn from best-practice of policymakers in countries with more developed ICT sectors. We finished the project by organising and presenting at an event in the capital Port Moresby to launch and communicate details of the new policy roadmap, and were only told later that it had been broadcast live on national television!

In my first project, I worked with the IT department of a German telecoms company. The company wanted to develop integrated IT capacity management for projects to ensure effective resource allocation. It also needed accurate capacity forecasts for projects to avoid overloading the workforce.

As a consultant, I had direct contact with the client almost every day in order to present results, gather feedback and further develop the project in workshops. One of my main tasks was to develop a pilot tool for IT capacity management. This tool collected basic information such as capacity and project requirements. I was also in regular contact with the IT department to collect and validate resource information.

For the project, I received internal support from one of our experienced Managers.

One of my favourite pieces of work explored a new way in which operators can deal with the complexity of their cloud infrastructure. The report defines what observability platforms and frameworks are, outlines their benefits and use cases and describes the requirements for implementing them effectively. It also includes analysis of market trends, based on the strategies of vendors that offer observability solutions to operators.

The research process so far has involved extensive desk research, discussions within the team and interviews with operators, telecoms vendors and a few innovative start-ups. The report mentioned previously is the first strategy report in our practice that covers this topic, so I am grateful for the company and the team for giving me the opportunity to work on something so comprehensive and complex this early in my career.