“Procurement & Planning” National Digital Radio Service in Ireland

1. “Procurement & Planning” National Digital Radio Service in Ireland An Garda Siochana – Telecommunications Division Sgt James Leonard Presentation to RCEG Meeting - 11th April 2013

2. Agenda • NDRS – A Brief Overview • NDRS Procurement • Timelines to the NDRS Contract • NDRS Planning • Garda Project Team • Steps to Migration (Strategy, Communications, Integration, Testing) • Key Lessons Learnt

3. NDRS – A Brief Overview • The National Digital Radio Service (NDRS) contract was awarded to Tetra Ireland on May 1st 2008. • The NDRS is based on a managed service model with designated Government agencies paying a monthly subscription fee. Garda is the largest user with 15267 subscriptions. • Garda migrated onto the NDRS on a Divisional basis over a 24 month period. • Circa 600 sites (green field, third party & state owned) deliver the following coverage; • Handportable In-Building Coverage – 100% of specified buildings (2000) • 97.1% HP coverage on whole land mass • 99.3% Mobile coverage or all roads, railways and canals. • 98.2% of offshore waters to 20km • 96% Mobile and 88% HP Overlapping coverage.

4. NDRS – A Brief Overview Mobile Coverage Handportable Coverage

5. NDRS Procurement

6. NDRS Procurement – Timelines to the NDRS Contract • The Business Case for the NDRS commenced– Jan 2003 • The main body of this business case explored four (4) main ownership and operation models; • Government Owned – Government Operated (“Go-Go”) • Government Owned – Company Operated (“Go-Co”) • Outsourced Service Provision (“OSP”) • Public Private Partnership based on asset sharing (“PPP”) Note: A “Value for Money” analysis was conduct by AGS on the four (4) main ownership and operation models.

7. NDRS Procurement – Timelines to the NDRS Contract • Consultations with Dept of Finance on Garda user requirements began – Nov 2004 • A National User Requirement Evaluation was commenced by Garda Telecom. • Allowed feedback from end users on “what was needed”. (Yellow Map & Indoor) • Formed basis of how RFT was written and fundamentally determined how the NDRS was built. (Extract from RFT on Mobile Coverage Requirements) The network must provide mobile radio coverage with a probability of coverage of at least 96% on all categories of roads (i.e., surfaced roads under the management of the local County Council or the NRA), railways, major lakes, canals, and navigable rivers, within any 1 kilometre grid square on any OSI discovery series maps (1:50000 metres) set out at Figure 1, throughout the Republic of Ireland, including its islands and sea areas up to 20 kilometres offshore to support inshore operations.

8. NDRS Procurement – Timelines to the NDRS Contract • Business Case was submitted to Dept of Finance (considering OSP) – Dec 2005 • NDRS Procurement Group formed – Jan 2006 • Chaired by Dept of Finance • All Government agencies were represented and had an input. • Group conducted a comprehensive risk assessment under key headings • (Procurement, Financial, Security, Services, Contract, Health & Safety). • Agreed RFT award criteria. • NDRS RFT was sent to marketplace – June 2006

9. NDRS Procurement – Timelines to the NDRS Contract • The key elements of RFT included; • The RFT did not specify TETRA as the technology. (“Digital radio services provision”) • Prior to a contract being agreed, the preferred service provider had to prove their capability to deliver the service solution it had proposed through a Service Performance Evaluation (SPE) • The State was willing to make Garda sites (including masts) and other State owned properties available to the chosen provider. • Detailed Service Requirements were specified in RFT – Coverage, National Mobility, Integration, Resilience, Security, Quality of Service, Terminal Mode of Operation, Resource Experience, SLA’s • NDRS Pre-Qualifier for the RFT completed – Dec 2006

10. NDRS Procurement – Timelines to the NDRS Contract • NDRS - RFT Evaluation Began – Jan 2007 • A total of five (5) vendors were involved in the tendering process • 6 person evaluation team (multiple government agencies) • 6 months of evaluation (reading, assessment, very time consuming) • Meeting with Tenderer’s on clarifications • Procurement Group evaluated and scored each Tender – June 2007 • Tetra Irelandchosen as the “preferred bidder” – Sept 2007 • Preferred Bidder status based on technical and financial evaluations; • Technical Merits & Suitability of the Proposed Service Solution • Financial & Legal Evaluation • Service & Support Arrangements, SLA’s & Associated Penalties • Training • Terminals (GCK)

11. NDRS Procurement – Timelines to the NDRS Contract • Tetra Ireland commenced build of Special Performance EvaluationArea -Oct 2007 • SPE - 15 sites in DMR (urban & rural), 3 month build, TI covered costs. • The SPE was extremely important as it. • Indentified Tetra Ireland’s ability to build-out a network. • Indentified unknown issues (terrestrial & cable tv interference, clutter model) • Conducted Operational Scenarios (blue light agencies) • Fleetmap Workshops. • SPE Evaluation Completed – April 2008 • NDRS Contract Signed with Tetra Ireland – May 1st 2008 Note: Tetra Ireland still needed to apply and wait to be issued with an “Operators Licence”

12. NDRS Planning

13. NDRS Planning – The Garda Project Team • Project Board ( 8 Persons) – Overseen activities and decision making board. • Project Manager (1 Person) – Overall responsibility for Migration of NDRS • Project Implementation (4 Staff) – Procurement, Logistic Services, Data Gathering, Vehicle Installations, Auditing, Subscription & Billing Mgt, Quality Assurance, ICCS Integration. • Radio Propagation & Infrastructure (5 Staff) – Coverage Testing, Fleetmapping, Codeplugs, Site Readiness, Security Audits, Station Installations, Stock Mgt, Voice Recording, iTM, E2E, AVPLS. • Project Planner (1 Technical Resource) – Project Plan, Risk Register, Issue Log. • Technical Writer (1 Technical Resource)– Policy & Procedure • PPMO (3 Admin Staff) – Project Management Office • GSMC (3 Units on Roster basis) – Garda Services Management Centre • Garda Change Management & Garda College (Briefings & End User Training)

14. NDRS Planning – Steps to Migration (Overview) • Preparation for the move to the new National Digital Radio Service began in Sept 2007 between Tetra Ireland and the Garda Project Team. • Business Case Objectives were broken into thirty six (36) work streams and managed to implementation. • Twelve (12) roll-out phases were identified to achieve national rollout over 24 months across all the Garda Regions & Divisions. • Key areas to successful Migration were identified, including; Strategy, Communications, Integration and Testing • When fully completed in April 2011, the rollout of the NDRS to the organisation integrated14,000 Garda Officers, 2,500 vehicles and 700 Garda stations nationwide.

15. NDRS Planning – Steps to Migration (Strategy) • Phased Divisional Migration within Regions • Just in time Equipment Procurement & Provisioning. • Just in time training. • Advance dual fit of Stations and Vehicles. • Temporary Vehicle Fleet. • Local Liaison Personnel.

16. NDRS Planning – Steps to Migration (Strategy) • Two day live roll-out. (To cover different shifts) • Trained Help Desk and Service Management Support. • Note: Help Desk Support / Service Management Centre was essential for user support and reporting on service performance. • Application of Lessons learned after each divisional migration. • Proven Contingency Plans in place. • Operational Continuity Plans in place.

17. NDRS Planning – Steps to Migration (Communication) • Conducted Pre-migration Briefing with each Region. • Conducted Pre- Go-Live Briefing with each Division. • Conducted Technical Briefings with Telecommunications Staff. • Early and regular engagement with the Representative Associations. • Preparation and Issue of Bulletins to the Organisation. •  “On-the-Ground” support for each Divisional migration.

18. NDRS Planning – Steps to Migration (Integration) • Integration of existing ICCS inDMR Control Room with NDRS. • Develop & Certify ICCS Integration Software. • Integration Testing. • Soak Test. • Contingency Planning in particular for System Integration is essential. • Motorola Radio Dispatching Equipment (no telephony) • Provision of a Managed Voice Recording Service on NDRS. • Integrated Terminal Management – iTM.

19. NDRS Planning – Steps to Migration (Testing) • Radio Profile Testing. • Fleet map testing (fleet map loaded and scenario tested) • Terminal code plug testing (before delivery) • Coverage Testing – Extensive – 3000 Indoor & in excess of 100,000 km of roads. • Pre- Go-Live QOS Testing in the DMR by AGS highlighted issues. • AGA Coverage (subscriber class / neighbour lists) • Call dropping • Radio scanning excessively (FRT / SRT) • Interference recognised. • Some instances of coverage not meeting RFT requirements

20. Switch Fail-over tested. Local Site Trunking. Base station coverage overlap. Boomer network. Resulted in optimisation of network and additional infrastructure been required. NDRS Planning – Steps to Migration (Testing)

21. Key Lessons Learnt

22. Key Lessons Learnt • Conduct a National User Requirement Evaluation • Complete a Special Performance Evaluation (SPE). • Invest in appropriate coverage testing equipment and test all functions and features extensively. • Purchase Terminals with common firmware release. • Take time in developing the Fleetmap. Conduct Scenarios. • Ensure base stations are configured with “all start”  

23. Key Lessons Learnt • Terminal Evaluation – Involve your end users. • Liaison Inspectors. • Project Management E2E KMF – different terminal vendors – license issue. • Outsourcing Communications Mast Infrastructure & Development. • Health & Safety (audio testing, wearing of hp, clips for bikers).

24. Key Lessons Learnt • Policy & Procedure (lost radios etc..). • User Training – in house. • Stock Management – in house. • Software Release Migration – tested in the field first. • Radio Control Head & Transceiver maintenance. • Complete User Evaluation post Go-live.

25. Thank You