b'OPENREACH SPECIAL Interview with Steve OwenI joined Kelly Group on 6th October 1992 andNationwide Battery will celebrate my 30th work anniversary next monthI spent half of my life working for KellyReplacement ProgrammeGroup. I started my journey as a cable puller onThe Battery Replacement Programmes scope thecabletvnetworksthroughtoinstallationofworkincludesUK-basedbackupbattery workingonourBellCablemediacontractinreplacement infrastructure. We currently have Becton.Ilatermigratedclosertohomeata small team of 8 engineers completing battery Croydon and worked on the Groups Telewestreplacements nationwide. Works commenced in cable project. 2014 and its been a highly successful project. TheGrouphasasmallandnichegroupof There was a very interesting project that notengineersworkingontheproject,whohave many people know about, and I had the pleasurebeen highly successful with their installations.toworkonit;wegotinvolvedinabrewerySteve Owen - Head Of Operationsinstallationprojectwithacompanycalled Innserve, who was a maintenance and technical support company working in partnership withW eve completedMDU Projects Contract Heineken producing UK products. This projectapproximately 67,000 involved 10 engineers working in the South ofAwardsEngland installing pub equipment. installations within cabinets Weredelightedtobeawardedacontract since 2014these includeextensionforourMDUfibreprovisionand I later joined the Openreach project and have beenworkingoniteversince.AsHeadofthe replacement of thosenetwork delivery contract. The scope of work Operations,Iamcurrentlyresponsibleforincludes providing fibre from the network pickup Openreach small projectsnetwork deliverybatteries which neededpointoutsidethepropertyandintroducing whichincludesthreemainprojects:nationalreplacement again after thefibre into the building by installing a fibre DP (DistributionPoint)atthebottomofthe batteryreplacementprogramme,DNO projects and MDU projects. initial completion.baseandrunningfibreservicesoutsideof everyresidentialdoor.Ourpreviouscontract During my time on the Openreach contract,Were proud of our engineers who all completedcommencedin2018coveringNorthwestof the newly introduced safety modules meetingEngland, and Scotland, which went to tender this Openreachs new training requirements, puttingyear however, through the new contract award T here have been manyus ahead of our competitors in the market as thewe have been granted the biggest chunk of the first fully qualified team. contractintheUKcoveringtheNorthwest, interesting small projects inNortheast and Southeast of England and the west outer of London. Its a 2.5-year contract the past DNO (Distribution Networkcommencingonthe1stofOctober2022 andwerelookingtoengage60-70gangs that I had the opportunity to get involved in, suchOperators) Project nextyear.Werecurrentlypreparingforan as installing fibre to over 200 National Trustaggressive transition plan with Openreach, and heritagesitesaroundtheUK.OtherfamousKelly Groups Distribution Network OperatorsourrecruitmentandHRteamsarecurrently NationalTrustheritagesitesourengineers(DNO) is another remarkable project and notworking on a ramp-up plan to deliver resources completedinstallationsincludeStonehenge,many people know it exists.in preparation for the upcoming workload.PowisCastleandLindisfarneCastleatThe Holly Island of Lindisfarne.Another interestingDistributionNetworkOperators(DNOs)are job from our Fibre to School project in 2019energysuppliersaroundtheUKwhohaveaI m delighted with the news wasaninstallationwhereourKellyGroupcontractwithOpenreach,toinstallsomeof engineers installed fibre to the most westerntheirnetworkinfrastructureonpoles,whichand firmly believe this will school in Wales, which due to the execution of a successful but difficult installation, was featuredcarry low voltage lines.provide career progression in an Openreach case study later. Throughanewsafetyprogramme,networkopportunities for service operatorsidentifyde-poles(defectivepoles),delivery engineers across the which need replacement due to safety concerns and install a new pole directly to the oldGroup. one, then notifies Openreach requiring them to transfer their equipment over.Thisprojectisexpectedtofinishin2025 Openreachconductsalistofnewhowever,werefurtherdiscoveringdifferent polesandtheirlocationsandthatscontractsandopportunitieswithintheMDU when Kelly Group engineers step in andmarket.MDUtrainingwillcommenceacross completetheequipmenttransfer.KellyGroupsNationalTrainingFacilities Our skilled engineers are workinginNuneatonandStHelensandeventually towardsKPIsandtimescalesBrimsdownprovidinganationaltraining ensuringtheequipmentiscoverage.Wehavetrainingprogrammes transferredanddangerisdesigned to run from 19th September for a 10-eliminated. week period to get the initial resources for the beginning of this new contract.22 .The Networker Autumn 2022'