Projects with which we have been significantly involved with include:


Defence quantitative risk analysis (QRA) Individuals now working for Andcer have determined the likely cost outcomes and associated cost risks for many major projects. Some of the larger... see below Defence Fixed High Frequency Radio Replacement (cost modelling, and data discovery) The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) is replacing its legacy domestic high frequency radio system. This system... see below Defence light aircraft Beechcraft 200 (economic cost studies) The New Zealand Defence Force had a fleet of B200 aircraft (more). These aircraft were leased, and were mainly used for aircrew... see below
NZDF sizing of aircraft engine inventory (QRA-logistics) High end military aircraft engines are expensive. Too many engines on inventory incurs excessive costs and creates a capability that... see below Telecommunications (regulatory cost model) Telecom New Zealand (TNZ) (now Chorus and Spark) provided their regulator, the New Zealand Commerce Commission, with a cost model showing the costs of... see below NZDF high capacity mobile communications (demand and economic cost model) WGS (Wideband Global Satellite communications) is a high capacity communications system owned and controlled by the... see below
Defence policy (optimisation) Policy and policy related discussions are often performed without the benefit of quantifying the economic cost and benefit of numerical optimisation. Policy is... see below Statistics: tools to detect fraud [the value is in the detail] Curiosity is probably the analyst's best friend in examining data for fraud or in any modelling. Analysis of data is about finding... see below ACC organisational performance measurement At the time of this study, ACC (the Accident Compensation Corporation) had approximately 33 main branches. Each branch was largely autonomous in its... see below
Police-organisational performance measurement The New Zealand Police have many Policing Areas distributed around New Zealand. This study examined the contribution of each Area to the overall... see below Department of Labour (currently MBIE) Immigration Office Performance Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used as the base technique to assess Immigration Office organisational performance. ... see below

Defence Fixed High Frequency Radio Replacement (cost modelling, and data discovery)

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) is replacing its legacy domestic high frequency radio system. This system provides limited bandwidth communication to deployed forces such as ships and aircraft. The deployed forces may be in New Zealand, its territorial waters or on the other side of the planet. The bandwidth available has similar throughput to dialup modems. Higher capacity is available using satellite communications (an alternate technology), which provides a throughput similar to modern internet access.

The legacy control system logged operational details in a proprietary format that the NZDF was unable to read. The successful delivery of this project critically relied on mining information available in a proprietary format on various log files. Usage information taken from the legacy radio system was a cornerstone of dimensioning the replacement system and of the economic cost model of this new system.

The project consisted of two major phases as follows:

  1. use logged activity data to produce statistics, deduce peak traffic requirements, and call a Request For Information (RFI) tender
  2. use RFI results along with the peak traffic requirements to prepare an economic cost model. This model was used in creating the Detailed Business Case (DBC) for approval by Cabinet

The project (in late 2020) is currently in its implementation phase. When the project concludes the NZDF will have modern high frequency communications capability.


The top three skills required and used for this project were: