One of the most important tasks in my new role is to meet as many Capacity readers as possible, both to ensure we are addressing your information needs as best we can and to find out about developments taking place in your business. So please email me at the address below with your news, comments and suggestions; they will all be received with interest. I will be attending the Capacity events in Toronto and Amsterdam later this year. Do come and say hello if you see me there, or drop me a line if you’d like to arrange a meeting.
I was delighted to attend the Leadership and Innovation event hosted in Rome by Telecom Italia Sparkle in September. TIS is a company which has undergone significant changes and restructuring in recent times – including three CEOs in the last nine months – but now boasts a new board of directors and a new CEO, Paolo Ferrari, appointed in July. Ferrari spoke impressively about the challenges faced by telcos in a time of small margins and declining prices, particularly in the voice market, and laid out TIS’ strategic responses to the current conditions. Like many companies in today’s climate, TIS is balancing differing requirements: meeting the need to be lean and more cost focussed while recognising the importance of innovation, service evolution and identifying new opportunities for growth. Ferrari spoke about the concept of “customers as partners” and the need for his business to be more customer oriented. He stressed that voice provision – “while not the sexiest business” – should not be focussed on scale, traffic or volume, but rather on value and quality of service. Providing new products, strong networks and value-added services is essential but is not, on its own, enough; telcos must not only address the needs of their customers, but communicate those activities and carry them to the market. Customers must recognise what you offer, in order to appreciate what it means for them.
Next month we will be publishing a special issue of Capacity to celebrate our 10th anniversary. We will bring you interviews and profiles of some of the key players and companies in wholesale telecommunications, reflecting upon the massive changes which have taken place in the industry over the last decade. We want the issue to be as representative of your experiences as possible. If you would like to be included, please write to me with your thoughts on the major breakthroughs and developments of the last ten years, and your views on how telecoms will continue to evolve in the coming years. I’m looking forward to seeing how many of your predictions prove to be correct.
Angela Partington
Editor, Capacity
E: angela.partington@capacitymedia.com
