TELECOM CASE STUDIES
Telco Due Diligence (Pre-M&A)
0-6 months | Medium Enterprise
Problem:
A private equity client evaluating a regional telecommunications operator commissioned a rapid, issue-focused review of strategy, commercial upside, and operational and capex risk exposure
Commercial review:
Market sizing, ARPU/churn, customer segmentation, and key contract risks.
Strategy & value:
Stress-tested forecasts, identified pricing and cross-sell levers, modelled 3 scenarios.
Operations audit:
Network capacity/lifecycles, OSS/BSS, capex plan, vendor contracts, site visits, and management interviews.
Risk map & integration checklist:
Top risks, mitigations, and a prioritized 100-day plan.
Result:
- Delivered a clear, decision-ready due-diligence report that reduced valuation uncertainty.
- Identified near-term opex savings and multi-year revenue upside, and recommended purchase price adjustments and an escrow to mitigate capex risk.
- The client used these findings to renegotiate deal terms and launch a focused post-close integration plan.
Organizational Structure Transformation at a Large Fixed Telecom Company
6-12 months | Large Enterprise
Problem:
The telecom operator historically followed a functional and regional organizational structure, where key functions - particularly Commercial, Customer Service, and Network - were managed locally within each geographic region. This structure led to inefficiencies, especially in commercial areas. The company decided to transition to a Business Unit–based structure, with the Commercial function reorganized into three verticals: B2B (including B2G), B2C, and Wholesale.
Action:
- Served as consulting partner with responsibility for (1) designing the new commercial organizational structure and (2) managing the transformation program, including oversight of change management.
- Developed a detailed organizational design for each business unit, defining structures across three to four levels with clear roles and responsibilities.
- Supported execution of organizational changes by engaging key stakeholders, resolving issues, and providing escalation and decision support as required.
Result:
The organizational transformation delivered a significant improvement in commercial performance, accelerating time to market for new products, tariffs, and promotions, and strengthening B2B competitiveness through the introduction of a focused and efficient direct sales organization
ERP (Oracle) planning, design and implementation
6-12 months | Large Enterprise
Problem:
A large telecom enterprise launched a large-scale ERP selection followed by a full implementation program. The company chose to deploy a comprehensive ERP solution covering finance, sales, order management, supply chain, and related functions.
The solution was planned for rollout across seven territorial branches as separate ERP instances with unified functionality and common standards.
Action:
Served as project and later program manager, leading the initiative as head of the consulting team across three phases:
(1) requirements definition and ERP selection;
(2) implementation planning and design of a “master system” to be deployed at headquarters and rolled out across territorial branches; and
(3) program management of the ERP solution implementation.
Result:
- In the first phase, a comprehensive analysis of technical, business, and operational requirements led to the selection of the Oracle ERP platform.
- The second phase focused on the design of a standardized “master solution,” fully configured to meet functional requirements and prepared for rollout across the company’s branches.
- In the third phase, implementation of the master system was supervised at headquarters and across seven regional branches.
Data Center Strategy for a Large Telco
0-6 months | Large Enterprise
The largest fixed-line telecom incumbent evaluated an expansion into the data center business to meet internal demand and offer services to the external market.
Problem:
Action:
Served as lead principal, responsible for overall project leadership. Key responsibilities included:
• Data center market analysis
• Scenario-based forecasting of data center demand and supply
• Financial and strategic assessment of build-versus-buy options
• Development of a data center growth strategy, including a detailed financial model, designed to create synergies with the core telecom business
• Strategic definition of the base development scenario, with clearly articulated optimistic and pessimistic variants
Result:
The company developed a five-year data center business strategy, which was approved by the Board of Directors.
Within four years, three data centers with more than 10,000 racks in total were built, positioning the telecom operator as the second-largest national player in the data center market.
Post Merger Integration of Fixed and Mobile Operator
6-12 months | Large Enterprise
Problem:
A large mobile operator acquired a mid-sized fixed-line telecom company. The project focused on integrating business processes, organizational structures, and - most importantly - corporate cultures.
Served as senior executive overseeing project implementation and leading the PMO.
Under this oversight, a new organizational structure was designed, key business processes were restructured, and a detailed action plan was developed and executed. Progress was closely monitored, including achievement tracking, issue resolution, and management of organizational and people-related changes.
Action:
Result:
The company achieved more than 100% of the planned post-integration synergies.
Post Merger Integration of Telco Companies
6-12 months | Large Enterprise
Problem:
A holding company comprising a national backbone operator and seven regional retail telecom operators decided to consolidate into a single operating company.
Action:
Served as lead program manager for the overall integration program. Designed and mobilized a functionally structured integration team covering sales and marketing, finance, IT, network, procurement and logistics, and customer care.
Established a rigorous program charter and governance framework, and actively managed and reviewed the performance of each workstream to ensure alignment and coherence across all redesigned processes.
Led weekly program governance meetings to review progress, surface and resolve issues, agree corrective actions, and track execution results.
Ensured delivery of targeted synergies across the integrated organization.
Result:
The company successfully transitioned into a unified operating entity, delivering the program on time and within budget.
5G strategic modelling
0-6 months | Large Enterprise
Problem:
A large telecom operator required a strategically sound 5G rollout plan to optimize investment levels, strengthen market share, and support the launch of new services.
Action:
Served as partner responsible for the engagement, leading detailed analysis of the market environment, evaluation of network rollout options, development of the new services roadmap, and capex estimation across alternative rollout scenarios.
Result:
The selected 5G investment roadmap was approved by the Board of Directors.
Data Analytics Business Strategy (JV of Telco and Bank)
0-6 months | Large Enterprise
Problem:
A newly established joint venture was created to monetize data assets from its parent organizations - a large telecom operator and a major bank.
Action:
- Conducted big data market analysis;
- Defined data-driven products and services;
- Evaluated monetization options;
- Developed the supporting business case.
Result:
Developed a new business strategy.
Secured Board approval for a USD 30 million investment.