National Broadband Network

The National Broadband Network (NBN) is the largest infrastructure project ever built in Australia. It had fallen years behind schedule and run billions of dollars over budget when we were called in to conduct a detailed review of various options to complete the network.

The then Minister for Communications, Malcolm Turnbull, asked NBN to provide the government with a detailed strategic review and cost assessment of various options to finish the network.

We were awarded the tender due to our experience in project management and our ability to design and deliver programs of large, complex work in short time periods.

Drawing on the broader skills of the firm, we worked alongside Boston Consulting Group to review every part of the NBN’s operational and financial performance, as well as culture and organisational structure.

As the project was politically sensitive with an extremely tight deadline, sixteen partners and their staff worked 40 days (and 40 nights) to complete a detailed assessment of the cost to complete the NBN.

It was the largest independent business review in Australia’s history. The complex, detailed assessment included a large number of diverse stakeholders and was completed under intense government and media scrutiny.

We also worked with and managed a diverse and sophisticated group of stakeholders from across the private and public sector.

A Senate Estimates Committee called our partners to appear before them to explain our findings and position.

Our review and advice gave the federal government a solid platform of information to help decide the NBN’s future. The government accepted our cost estimate and changed the technology platform on which it would build the NBN.