Looking at digital transformation from a commercial perspective
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The commercial a IT transformati O2 Czech Repub WRITTEN BY
HARRY MENEAR PRODUCED BY
JAMES PEPPER
and ion of blic
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O2 CZECH REPUBLIC
Jan Hruska, CTO at O2 Czech Republic, discusses the company’s ongoing digital transformation of both its technology and commercial functions
A
challenge often faced by customer-facing tech companies is the internal conflict between marketing and IT. After more
than a decade working on the commercial side of telecommunications, O2 Czech Republic’s new 04
CTO, Jan Hruska – a mathematics and computer science graduate from the Charles University in Prague – has the unique advantage of seeing the country’s largest telecommunications provider from both sides of the equation. “I’m lucky to be one of the few people who are able to understand and know the company from every perspective,” he explains. “Because I spent over 10 years in different positions on the commercial side of the business, I can apply a deep understanding of its marketing, commercial and distribution issues, programs and challenges to my technical role. At almost every company there’s a tension between the technicians and the commercial guys. I see my current mission as not only mitigating this tension, but bringing the two halves of the company together to establish a creative dialog that helps us progress, and strengthens both
05
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O2 CZECH REPUBLIC
our technological market leadership and our commercial position. I can talk to the commercial side and explain technologies using language the commercial guys understand, and along with this, promote achievements, projects and excellent people we have in Technology.” Hruska’s new role has included overseeing the completion of a fouryear digital transformation of O2 Czech Republic’s customer relationship management (CRM) strategy, business support systems (BSS), and practices 06
ranging from billing systems to product catalogues. “We call it Simple Online Company. The aim was a radical simplification that would enable future digitisation,” Hruska says. Never a company to stand still, O2 Czech Republic is also now embarking on another ongoing personnel-focused transformation. “We are now implementing agile scrum methodology for change delivery, that covers about 300 people and connects with the Simple Online Company transformation, because we created the enabler for digitisation and now we need to transform the way we deliver new services and changes,” Hruska adds. From a technological
“ Our advantage lies in the fact we are able to offer the full range of telco products” — Jan Hruska, CTO, O2 Czech Republic
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘O2 SMART BOX: O2 SMART BOOSTER’ 07 point of view, the company is also
Founded in 2006 after rebranding
implementing significant changes to its
from the amalgamation of Czech
network architecture. Hruska elabo-
Telecom and Eurotel, O2 Czech Republic
rates: “We’re introducing some sign-
is the largest integrated telecommunica-
ificant product improvements, one of
tions provider in the Czech market,
which is that we are complementing
operating approximately 7mn mobile and
traditional copper DSL lines with house-
fixed accesses in the region. In 2012,
hold internet that is based on LTE
the company was the first in the region
connectivity, so called Fixed Wireless
to open its network to virtual operators.
Access.” We spoke to Hruska about
Operating the only Tier III certified
O2 Czech Republic’s ever-advancing
data centres in Central Europe, O2 is
evolution, its past, present and future
a regional leader in hosting, cloud and
transformations, and the collaborative
managed services.
expertise he is bringing to the company’s CTO role.
“Our advantage lies in the fact we are able to offer the full range of telco w w w. o2. cz
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O2 CZECH REPUBLIC
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products,” says Hruska. “We originated
Republic, as well as Czech national
from a merger between fixed and mobile
football and ice hockey leagues –
operators, so we have fully integrated
a huge majority of important matches
suite of products. We were the first
you can’t see without O2 TV service.”
operator here that started an IP television
For a company with such an extensive
service, which adds a new dimension
and diverse portfolio of offerings,
to our fixed internet service.” O2 also
ensuring its customers have an intuitive
produces its own content for television.
and accessible customer experience is
“We have a daughter company that pro-
a top priority. The Simple Online
duces three sports channels, and we
Company, which launched in October
own some exclusive rights to content
2018, involved the launch of a new CRM
like the Champions League in Czech
system and a new customer portal, as
11 E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Jan Hruska Jan Hruska graduated in Computer Science at Charles University in Prague in 1994. After 8 years in management consulting, he moved to Telefónica O2 Czech Republic. Within his 15 years with Telefónica, and later O2 Czech Republic, Jan went through many positions, mainly Fixed-Mobile convergence program manager, E-shop manager, Director for distribution strategy and sales performance, Fixed services marketing director, to his current role of CTO, covering responsibility for IT, Network, and Product management areas. Jan’s latest focus is fixed wireless internet, network function virtualisation, simplification of product portfolio and customer serving processes, agile change delivery.
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CONTACT US w w w. o2. cz
Trusted Partner of O2 & Telco Sector Key competencies in Telco Sector
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Enterprise Economic Systems & SAP Services Portal & Digital Commerce
SPC Provisioning
Prepaid billing
Projects for O2
eCommerce CI/CD solution architecture
DWH & BI Billing / Operations Service Support
Ness, strategic partner for a complex digital transformation
Provisioning
z Understanding your business processes and needs z Exploiting strong market related know-how to achieve your objectives
Custom Application Development
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well as a new product catalogue, network
“Emeldi is a key partner that we picked
inventory system, provisioning system
because of their flexibility. We are able
and a complete revamp of the billing
to influence the product and get any so-
system. “Our aim was to radically
lution we need. Putting their technology
simplify,” says Hruska. “We reworked
in the middle of our CRM is definitely
our product catalogue from thousands
strengthening our partnership.”
of services to a couple of hundred. We
Even though the technical side of the
also switched from our legacy CRM to
transformation is up and running, Hruska
a new system we built ourselves based
maintains the work is far from over.
on Emeldi Commerce Core.” Emeldi is
“This is an ongoing process. We need
a long-term partner of O2 Czech
to keep it simple and make sure any
Republic. The company’s Commerce
additions and modifications we make
Core provides the core functionality
aren’t creating extra complexity, which
for O2 Czech Republic’s new CRM. “It’s
is an extremely tough exercise.” The
the heart of our CRM,” says Hruska.
transformation has also allowed O2
“ I spent over 10 years in different positions on the commercial side of the business, and I can apply that deep understanding to my technical role” — Jan Hruska, CTO, O2 Czech Republic
15 Czech Republic to take the next step
er’s mobile and access the system
on its journey towards digitisation.
alongside them. It’s true assisted
“Previously, our store set up had
self-care.”
a legacy system that typically required
If Emeldi is the heart of O2 Czech
four employees behind the counter,
Republic’s new CRM, then Ness is its
working on a main computer, and only
face. “They’re an important IT vendor,
allowed for one on the floor greeting
providing us with portal solutions; our
customers,” says Hruska. “Now, we
new Moje O2 portal, developed by Ness,
have a new system running on all our
is what the customers and internal staff
devices, not just the store computer,
see from their side,” says Hruska. The
but with no reduction in functionality.
new face of O2 Czech Republic’s IT is
We can have four guys on the floor in
allowing the company to pursue strategic
any setup you can imagine. They can
change in the way it manages its
talk with the customer; they can take
employees and hiring practices. “It’s
their own mobile or even the custom-
enabling us to look for a different w w w. o2. cz
O2 CZECH REPUBLIC
£1.5bn Approximate revenue
2006
Year founded
4,500
16
Approximate number of employees
profile when hiring people in our stores
they can focus on their conversation
and call centres. Previously, the ability
with the customer.”
to work with the complex system was
In addition to reworking the customer-
a priority. Up to 30% of store consultants
facing side of the business, O2 Czech
were leaving the company within the
Republic’s behind the scenes technical
first three months. Now, after launching
infrastructure is also undergoing a trans-
this system, we can focus on hiring
formation to ensure that the company’s
people who enjoy serving our customers,
services remain at the highest possible
who have more sales skills than technical
level of quality. “We are lucky to be in
skills – and that exit rate has dropped
a business with huge demand - a dem-
to almost zero immediately. Our employ-
and for data that shows double digit
ees are able to work naturally with the
annual growth rates. This requires us
new CRM and portal, which means
to significantly change our network
frequency band of 3.7GHz and LTE TDD to provide home and business internet connectivity for locations not covered well by fibre or DSL infrastructure,” Hruska explains. “This is allowing us to offer speeds of 100 megabit per second and higher, which is something that you cannot guarantee on a standard LTE network. This, connected with the O2 Smart Box – the premium WiFi router that we have in households and SMEs – complements the unique ecosystem of our fixed broadband service.” Chinese tech giant Huawei is a key partner in O2 Czech Republic’s journey to ensure the tier one quality of its network architecture. “Huawei is one of the architecture in
important vendors to the network side
order to sustain quality
of the business,” says Hruska. “Our
and profitability,” Hruska adds.
fixed wireless service that runs on the
“We’re in the middle of virtualising our
dedicated 3.7GHz band is based on
core network systems, as well as
Huawei radio technology. It was one of
introducing a number of product
the key projects that we implemented
improvements.” The company is
with them last year.” Huawei’s Fusion-
implementing Huawei 5G ready radio
Sphere technology is also powering the
access technology to complement its
company’s virtual core network infra-
new, ultrafast LTE broadband service.
structure, part of O2 Czech Republic’s
“Last year, we launched a second
ongoing virtualisation initiative. “Huawei
generation of our fixed wireless broad-
is helping us to prepare for extreme
band service. We use dedicated
data usage growth that we expect to w w w. o2. cz
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O2 CZECH REPUBLIC
“ Our employees are able to work naturally with the new CRM and portal, which means they can focus on their conversation with the customer” — Jan Hruska, CTO, O2 Czech Republic 18
continue but is hard to predict precisely. Network function virtualised infrastructure, together with virtual evolved packet core, is granting us practically unlimited scalability with a sustainable profit margin.” Looking to the future, Hruska is confident in the ongoing transformation of O2 Czech Republic, powered by the symbiotic relationship between the business’ commercial and technology divisions. “We need to shorten the delivery time for new features and functionalities; we need sufficient capacity in our network to support the huge global demand for data, as well as providing a service with sustainable profitability.” He concludes: “My vision is that every year we deliver a significant piece of our IT and network transformation which immediately translates to improved value proposition and customer experience, eventually allowing for constant growth of our market share, revenues, and profit.”
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