GET TO KNOW
What are the region-specific
challenges when implementing
new technologies in Europe?
Anything that involves regulations and
government mandates. For example,
in the UK the government regulations
for the energy supply market are highly
demanding while being very dynamic.
We have a lot of experience in this vertical
and have addressed these issues for
customers by providing the necessary
capabilities, such as a localisation layer
with policy configuration capabilities and
business process management workflows
that are open for modifications. This allows
a rapid implementation of compliance with
the relevant regulatory requirements without
impacting the core of the solution.
Consumer behaviours have been
changed by the likes of Google, Apple,
Facebook, Samsung and various others.
Today, consumers expect that service
providers will be able to predict their
individual needs and offer personalised
services and customer experiences. This
is a huge challenge for providers of
commodity services in competitive markets
such as telecoms, utility companies and
financial institutions, where both existing
and potential customers expect the
personalisation of services.
Artificial Intelligence applied to consumer
data and integrated within the landscape
of business support systems can be a
strong competitive advantage for modern
service providers.
Access to AI-driven technologies has become
easier thanks to large players such as AWS
and Google. Both have introduced and make
readily available a variety of AI solutions
that are straightforward to use.
Another important point is that
government regulators are taking action
to define privacy mandates restricting the
use of consumer data. These steps regulate
use of Big Data and AI algorithms without
compromising on privacy.
Levering both AI and Big Data technologies
will benefit service providers and this is
something that will certainly happen in 2019.
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INTELLIGENTCIO
What do you currently identify
as the major areas of investment in
your industry?
In the billing space, there are less large-
scale replacement projects that take years
to complete. There is a growing demand
for efficient implementations that deliver
maximum value in a short timeframe. This
we see happening for both replacement and
greenfield projects.
More and more service providers are also
moving away from expensive on-premise
deployments and are preferring to run
their billing operation from the cloud in a
managed service model.
How do you deal with stress and
unwind outside of the office?
A few years ago, I started sailing competitively.
Myself and my sailing team compete in yacht
races around Europe regularly.
What changes to your job role have
you seen in the last year and how do
you see these developing in the next
12 months?
Over the past year, we achieved a level of
maturity with our micro-service architecture
that includes several-micro services
integrated both by direct APIs and Kafka
messaging bus.
Our modern DevOps technics have helped
us with the agility of our development
processes and have extended the
deployment of both pure cloud and
additional hybrid options.
This year, we will be focusing on extending
our partnerships with other vendors and
technological leaders to expand our
solution both in terms of functional and
technological capabilities. Examples include
ML billing algorithms, prediction and
automation scenarios, service enablers and
omnichannel systems.
If you could go back and change one
career decision, what would it be? What advice would you offer
somebody aspiring to obtain C-level
position in your industry?
I’m pleased to say I don’t have any regrets.
There have been many challenges along
the way and there are many things that did
not go to plan or that I might have done
differently. However, I am pleased with how
my career has developed and the direction
it’s heading. Continuously evaluate technology trends for
practical benefits of your customers. Also,
conduct ongoing research and experiments
to enrich your product offerings and overall
portfolio, and find a way to achieve a
creative working atmosphere that allows the
company to obtain its targets. n
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