Telco & PBX Engineering - Voice & Data Convergence - Project Management

Steve Head, Solutions Architect 

Steve Head is your prime interface for your telecommunications solutions.  He has 27+ years of experience from circuit design, system engineering, customer engineering, sales engineering, marketing, program management, product management, professional services consulting, and executive management.  He has 20+ years with Nortel Networks in various technical management positions with 5 years off-shore in Korea and Japan.  He has added to his career executive management positions with Log On America and Lightship Telecom.

He has been the voice of the customer to his operational peers and drives for complete satisfaction and loyalty.  He will ensure that your project is treated as the companies top priority.

He is a member of the following professional organizations:

Telecommunications Association of New England (TANE)

Telephone Association of Maine (TAM)

Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies (OPASTCO)

Maine Telecommunications Users Group (MTUG)

New Hampshire High Tech Council (NHHTC)

Software Association of New Hampshire (SwANH)

Project Management Institute (PMI)

Upper Valley Information Technology Consultants (UVITConsultants)

Upper Valley Computer Industry Association (UVCIA)

Portsmouth New Hampshire Chamber of Commerce (e-Coast)

Independent Consultants Association (ICA)

Biography

His technical background started with his Bachelors of Science from Oklahoma State University and his first opportunity out of school was with Rockwell Collins Radio in Dallas, Texas.  In 1977, he designed a microprocessor based circuit that rotated an HF Radio antenna using touch tones.  The circuit utilized an Intel 8080 microprocessor.  He also designed a military telephone interface converting it from analog to digital for switching.   He also designed a test set for use in Air Force repair depots for analyzing HF Radios which operated redundantly in fighter aircraft.  

He then saw the opportunity at Danray in 1979.  Danray had just been purchased by Northern Telecom.  He started his career with Danray as a system engineer for their data switching product that was tied to their Computerized Branch Exchange (CBX) system.    Northern Telecom began moving their DMS-100 and DMS-250 product lines to Richardson, Texas to support the new opportunities that MCI and Southern Pacific Railway (SPRINT) as well as the Air Force to upgrade their base telecommunications systems to the new digital technology.  Steve had the opportunity to build the customer engineering department to support these new customers.

As the FCC ordered the breakup of AT&T in 1984, he moved to support the new sales opportunities to the new Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOC).  The RBOC's were selling large PBX's (SL-100's) to universities and large corporations as an alternative to Centrex.  Nortel would assist them with their proposals and ultimate equipment implementation.  

Northern Telecom was awarded a contract to upgrade the telephone system for the U.S. Army in Korea.  This involved approximately 29 locations throughout Korea.  Steve had the opportunity to be the Chief Engineer on site in Seoul.  This involved the hardware engineering, implementation, translations, and project management of these systems for 3 years from 1984 to 1988.  He worked directly with the Defense Communications Agency (DCA) and the U.S. Army in developing the dialing plan for Korea.  There were 3 Autovon Nodes and the remainder were DMS-100 switches.  

In 1988, an opportunity for marketing and sales support of DMS-100 systems in Japan came available and Steve moved to Tokyo where he managed a team of Japanese engineers and managers as they implemented 2 International Gateway Switches for International Digital Communications (IDC).  IDC was a new carrier to the incumbent KDD.  The switches were engineered and installed in Yokohama and Osaka through the prime contractor Nippon Telephone and Telegraph International (NTTI).  

In 1989, NTT had determined that they had a traffic routing problem in their network that only occurred after the traditional "Golden Week" holiday at the first of May every year.  When business reopens on the Monday after Golden Week that they experience blocking in their local network.  Northern Telecom sold an Overlay switch that would be used to handle traffic overflow out of their local switches to other local switches within Tokyo.  A DMS-100 was engineered and installed in Sagamihara for this project.  As Northern Telecom learned, the Japanese came to expect a "Zero Defects" level of quality for the equipment.  Northern Telecom was up against the "Big 4", NEC, Fujitsu, Oki, and Hitachi, to meet the quality standards that have been pre-defined within Japan.  Japan also had special physical engineering requirements to support earthquakes and potential typhoons.  

In 1990, Steve repatriated to Dallas, Texas where he was a program manager for Federal Systems of Nortel.  He managed several switch implementations throughout the U.S.  He then took a position in international market support.  He developed the technical responses for proposals that were submitted outside of the U.S.  The organization moved to Raleigh, North Carolina in 1992.  Steve then was assigned a special project for IDC in Japan to convert their switches from DMS-250's to DMS-100's.  This was a project that was truly multinational with engineers and designers in the UK, Canada, Japan, and several locations within the US.  Steve was the ultimate program manager for the project.  The system in Osaka was fork lift exchanged while traffic was diverted to the Yokohama system during a proven low traffic period.  Because of the high risk of equipment failure, this project had every detail identified, tested, and documented.  The project was completed after over one year of planning and testing with the multinational team.  

Steve then moved into a product management role defining and managing the role-out of hardware and software for the international market.  An opportunity came available with the MCI Account Team in Dallas to support MCI's planned entry into the GSM PCS Cellular opportunity.  This involved building a test facility in Richardson, Texas.  Significant project planning took place to support the rapid roll out of equipment once the C-Block Auctions were completed.  MCI decided just before the auctions to bow out of their plans.  

Steve then provided project management to MCI Metro in deploying their Local Telephone systems throughout the US to meet the new competitive opportunity that came available with the Telecom Act of 1996.  He also supported a call center switching system that was located in Ohio that served call centers in Cary, North Carolina, Atlanta, Georgia, and Austin, Texas.  MCI provided the physical connections for their agents.  He managed the implementation and on-going customer support for this product that MCI was experimenting with.  

In 1997, Nortel was awarded a contract from Teligent to build out their network of switching systems and the deployment of their point to multi-point microwave radio equipment.  Steve accepted the position of the western region program manager and relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area.  The technology for the radio equipment was being designed and tested in Winnipeg, Canada.  He worked closely with the designers and testing personnel as well as the manufacturing managers to meet Teligent's technical and schedule requirements.  He became the national point to multipoint program manager directing the regional managers in support of the radio equipment implementation.  Despite several technical delays from the designers, the equipment was installed in time to meet Teligent's national advertising campaign.  

Several challenges were realized with the deployment of this 24GHz radio equipment as Teligent's engineers would have to work with the different local, state, and federal agencies to mount and operate the small 12" antenna's on top of commercial buildings.  The additional challenge was obtaining roof rights from the building owners as well as installation of equipment.

In 1999, Nortel won a contract to perform a complete turn-key implementation of equipment and services to support Log On America (LOA), a new Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC), in Providence, Rhode Island.  LOA needed technical management support to get into the CLEC business from the ground up.  They decided to build their network using one large switch located in Providence to support potential customers in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Maine.  LOA built out collocation facilities in Verizon central offices and designed the network between these offices back to Providence.  LOA was to sell voice and data services across their network to support their existing Internet Service Provider (ISP) operation.  Steve started with LOA as a Nortel Professional Services consultant to help build the team to support the operation and management of the switching system.  Worked with Nortel, Alltel, Verizon, Global Crossings, and LOA to develop internal processes to support the build out of the network infrastructure and the provisioning of customers on the system.  As LOA was closer to launch, they decided to stop the construction and deployment of the voice systems and to concentrate on the core internet business.  

In 2000, Lightship Telecom brought Steve on board to help build the engineering team and network as they grew throughout Northern New England.  Lightship already had 3 DMS-10's fully operational and processing customer traffic.  They needed to enhance their network and prepare for future Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) opportunities.  The challenge was to build out the necessary collocation equipment in Verizon Central Office's in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts.  Lightship had contracts with Nortel for implementation of DMS-100's in Worcester, Massachusetts and Portland, Maine.  As the limitations of the DMS-10 were tested, a DMS-100 was installed and cutover in Manchester, New Hampshire.  This completely opened up the sales opportunities for Lightship.  Now with Lightship consolidating to remain competitive and grow toward cash flow positive, Steve, with his international experience, has taken on the challenge of providing consulting support for telecommunications solutions around the globe.

Steve and his team of supporting consultants are willing to work with your company to build a technical solution utilizing their background of engineering, marketing, product management, program management, process development, and executive management.  His strength is building cross-functional teams to meet any number of challenging objectives that are put in front of him.  He is excellent with communication in written, presentation, or verbal formats.  He utilizes his engineering background to ensure that all avenues have been pursued to bring a high level of quality and  complete customer satisfaction.

Please do not hesitate to contact HEADNetworks for your telecommunications challenges.

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Last modified: April 16, 2005