Project Manager, NOKIA Israel
April 2000 - May 2002
NOKIA signed its first deal in Israel in May 2000. The scope of the project was to swap out 500 base stations from a competitor with similar equipment from NOKIA. I was one of the key persons on the Customer Services side in the negotiations leading to the award of the contract.
I was nominated project manager for the project, and as such responsible for building the NOKIA organisation in Israel, and to make sure that we delivered the project to the customer's satisfaction.
In a brand new organisation, I was responsible for staffing with locals and expatriates, and to complete the staff with visitors from other parts of NOKIA. The project comprised 20-30 persons. It was also my duty to define and implement suitable processes for the work.
As project manager I was the primary interface to the customer, and my target was to consolidate the team, and lead it towards our goal: to make sure that the customer was satisfied with the services provided by NOKIA.
In 2001, NOKIA Israel got the opportunity of providing a quotation for a combined contract for GSM and upgrade to 3G for another operator. The scope of the project included more than 1000 base stations, circuit switched core, packet switched core (GPRS), and network management system.
I was responsible for the rollout part of the preparation of the tender and for negotiations with the customer regarding the rollout. NOKIA won the deal, and we signed the contract in June 2001.
I was nominated project manager for this project, and was responsible for all aspects of the project, with responsibilities as for the first project. I build a new team to fulfil this new challenge, as was the motivational driver behind this team. The project had a tight budget and schedule, and it was my duty to fulfil both - and we succeeded! In less than half a year we had the full central network and 1000 base stations ready.