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Capacity: What changes do you plan to bring to TI Sparkle’s business strategy in 2012?
Riccardo Delleani: Sparkle’s economics are sustained by two macro segments. Our captive market is serving Telecom Italia’s international needs globally, while the greatest share of our business comes from the open market. One of my main objectives is to optimise Sparkle’s role within Telecom Italia as I believe there are still margins of improvement and I am confident that my long term experience within the group can be of great support in this direction.
Capacity: And what are some of those experiences you are able to draw upon for your new role?
Riccardo Delleani: I have almost 24 years industry experience, both in the technical and management sides of the business.
I started my career in Telecom Italia as an electronic engineer and held various managerial positions in the company’s network department. Later, I became responsible for the group’s sales and marketing activities with Italian licensed alternative operators to then manage the entire National Wholesale department.
In the last year I have been running Telecom Italia’s Open Access function, where I was responsible for the provisioning of network access services and technology to both Telecom Italia and all other Italian alternative operators.
Such a mix of technical, sales and marketing skills allows me to fully interact with all organisational lines within the company and to contribute to all relevant processes from the introduction of new technology layers in our global backbone to the caring of our customers.
Capacity: What have you already learnt from your first few weeks in charge?
Riccardo Delleani: Well on one side, I have acknowledged the many challenges facing the international wholesale market, especially due to the decrease in value of voice and partially in data. On the other hand, I see that it still offers many opportunities, particularly from the fast evolving requirements of the retail market which are mostly driven by OTTs.
There are also opportunities within non-commoditised growth segments such as mobile data, data centres and cloud related services, as well as targeting specific geographies.
Capacity: And how do you plan to tap into all these market opportunities?
Riccardo Delleani: Our task will be to clearly pursue all sustainable growth opportunities with targeted development strategies while leveraging on the recent investments Sparkle has made in selected high growth segments and markets.
I also intend to maintain a strong focus on innovation, and ensure we continue to develop our very wide and comprehensive portfolio of services by adding new features and products.
In parallel, we will continue to focus on operational efficiencies in order to deliver increased competitiveness to our customers, while keeping in mind that excellence in quality of service and customer care are a must in this industry.
Capacity: And finally, what excites you most about your new role?
Riccardo Delleani: Sparkle is a company with strong potentials for further growth. I am very excited about this new challenge and I expect a very engaging and fun time ahead of me.
