CEO Q&A: Shena Brien, IP Telecom

Q. What are your main priorities and goals in your role?

At the moment, our main focus is the broadband product we’re launching in March 2018. Providing our customers with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and broadband is crucial to IP Telecom’s development as a company. Sometimes in the past, issues with call quality have been laid at the door of the VoIP provider but on further investigation, the problems lay with the broadband provider. By providing broadband ourselves, IP Telecom is guaranteeing its customers that both broadband and VoIP will be of the highest quality.

As Chief Executive Officer, my role has evolved to focus on building brand awareness. I’m still involved in the project management and customer support areas but at the moment, my main focus is on business strategy and direction.

Q. What are your biggest challenges as CEO?

Since the company was established in 2010, IP Telecom has consistently been developing solutions to ensure their customers’ needs are met, with relevant, secure products.

As well as providing telephony services, we also have the added advantage of writing our own software in-house meaning our team has the capacity to work with customers on bespoke integrations and deliver specific products, suited to that client’s particular needs.

As CEO, I’m always striving to ensure we’re on top of technological advances and the impact these might have on our customers and their businesses. We regularly engage with our customers to ensure our products are giving them what they need.

Q. How do you keep your team/staff motivated?

I think it’s really important to hire people who are as passionate as you are. A big part of our success has been putting in the time and effort to hire good people, who understand what we are trying to achieve and who want to grow with us.

We also encourage people to use their own initiative, particularly when they’re on-site with clients during installations or when solutions need to be found. We always try to give team members the space to grow and develop. We have many who stay with us for the long term because they know their work is appreciated and they have the opportunity to progress their careers here.

We also try to take the team out of the office once in a while – it always helps for everyone to get away from the desk and engage in a more informal and fun catch-up!

Q. What are the challenges facing your industry going forward?

Broadband outside the main cities remains very hit and miss. We were very disappointed when the Siro consortium pulled out of the National Broadband competition. Until businesses across the country have access to quality, reliable broadband services, innovative cost-effective solutions, such as those which IP Telecom provide, will remain inaccessible.

One of the challenges we faced when setting up the company in 2010 was to educate our users who thought of VoIP as simply a way to chat to the ‘emigrant daughter’ in Australia. We still encounter reticence amongst potential customers and spend a lot of our time speaking to industry groups on what VoIP can bring to their companies by way of feature integration and flexibility.

Irish companies are traditionally risk adverse and there is a lack of encouragement from the government, through the public sector tendering processes, to innovate by moving to newer technologies such as the ‘Voice as a Service’ solutions which IP Telecom provides. The government needs to be seen to take the lead in this regard.

Q. What new trends are emerging in your industry?

We see unified communication being used more and more outside the traditional ‘hi-tech’ arena – this is mainly due to the increased use of private messaging systems.

Coupled with this we are continuing to see more mobile telephony apps becoming available, these are fast-replacing the DECT/WiFi cordless phones with their increased flexibility and remote usage.

The days of the desk phone are definitely numbered and Ireland, with its huge number of mobile phones per capita, is ideally placed to be a forerunner in this area.

Q. Are there any major changes you would like to see in your sector?

I am concerned that traditional telecom companies still steer the way strongly in our industry, setting the rules and regulations based on the limitations of their technology.

VoIP has been in commercial use by these very operators for many years but until recently would be viewed a threat to their traditional business revenues so would have limited applications to internal use.

I would like to see the Irish regulator lead the way in encouraging innovation and the move away from physical infrastructure. Both Ofcom in the UK and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US have issued recommendations as they forewarn the end of time-division multiplexing (TDM) networks and request both end users and carriers to prepare.

Q. As an employer are you finding any skills gaps in the market?

Not really. We have a particular skillset we look for and usually the people who apply for roles in the telecommunications sector are very technologically minded. Saying that, I come