BWCS - Consulting - Case Study

Case study: Future Military Communications Applications

[THE CLIENT] is a member of a consortium which is responsible for delivering the communications infrastructure to the Defence Ministry in a European Country.

As part its contract commitments, the consortium must develop a strategic long term plan for the infrastructure, based on expectations of the future IT and communications needs of the Country's military. BWCS was retained by [THE CLIENT] to provide input to this strategic planning process, by examining the likely requirements for communications which future IT applications will generate.

Based on an initial workshop with the consortium, it was concluded that the main sources of new applications (and hence new bandwidth requirements) were to be found in the US military and defence sectors, and in the IT and communications habits of the Country's businesses and young consumers. The importance of the US military and defence sectors stems from its high spending on IT and communications applications, many of which are adopted, replicated or adapted by the Country's defence sector. The importance of the business and consumer space as a source of new ideas is self-evident: the Internet, instant messaging and email were all largely propelled by the civilian sector.

BWCS conducted interviews with leading technologists in the US defence sector, with a selection of large and medium businesses based in the Country, and conducted secondary research on the adoption of new web applications by consumers over the last 10 years, and expected new trends in the future.

A number of scenarios were developed, and workshops held with [THE CLIENT]'s partners and certain individuals in the Country's Defence Ministry. These scenarios were reduced and refined as a result of these workshops, and more research was conducted to fill information gaps. A final report was presented to [THE CLIENT] outlining the five most likely technologies which would drive bandwidth requirements inside the Country's Defence Ministry and the likely adoption curve for these.