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 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 training. They were occasionally used for taskings such as VIP travel. The fleet of aircraft had reached the end of their lease, a new lease agreement was needed. An economic cost model was produced to ascertain the cost of replacing the existing aircraft with possible successors. A major part of this analysis was to determine the economic value of hiring vs purchasing the aircraft, but also the benefits of repatriating training.

The economic whole-of-life cost was determined, the process followed the Better Business Case (BBC) methodology which involves a series of progressively more detailed business cases allowing Cabinet to select their preferred option. Cabinet chose to update the training aircraft from a B200 to a more capable KA350.

Our involvement in this project consisted of providing cost modelling and a business cases to:

  1. determining the likely training and economic costs avoided by repatriating training to New Zealand, including direct and indirect costs avoided overseas, as well as the new costs that would be incurred in New Zealand;
  2. determining the economic costs of a range of replacement aircraft in various configurations; and
  3. providing options to Cabinet for their decision. For each option we presented its alignment with policy, and also its economic costs.

Cabinet after consideration of Defence's business case determined replacement aircraft.


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