Skender: Digital User Experience is in the Center of Vipnet's Transformation

The telecommunications industry has been irreversibly changed over the last few years, somewhat late in the 1990s, the paradigm was a slow substitution of fixed mobile telephony, which is today the thing, after that it was talking about higher speeds in fixed and mobile, then came the OTT player’s Facebook, Netflix, YouTube who telecharged to turn to other revenue. This transformation has now brought telecoms to the emergence of ICT services, but also participation in the trend everyone is saying, and this is the new buzzword of the ICT world - digital transformation.

We have talked about it with Ivan Skender, Senior Business Transformation Director at Vipnet, who points out not only the word process and organization transformation based on digital technology but also about people and their skills and knowledge sharing.

The telecommunications industry is changing. What is Vipnet’s view of the digitalization of the customer experience?

Based on the experiences in the digital world of today, our customers are creating new expectations, and they put these before us. Our customers wishes and needs are our biggest motivation to provide them with even better, simpler and more sophisticated solutions for everyday communication. It is through the digitalization of the customer experience and the channels that we wish to enable our customers the simplest possible access to our products and services.

What can Vipnet’s customers expect?

The latest example of our steps toward the digitalization of the customer experience is Pokupi u Vipu, a click-and-collect service that is standard when it comes to online shopping around the world. Pokupi u Vipu allows customers to collect devices purchased from a webshop in one of our Vip Centers, thus making online shopping even easier and more comfortable.

With this, we have joined other global telcos and are the first on Croatia’s telecommunications market to introduce new possibilities in the Vip webshop. Now, devices purchased from the webshop can not only be delivered to one’s home address and on the same day but also be collected at one of the Vip Centers in Zagreb (Avenue Mall and Arena Centar), Split (City Centar), Pula, Osijek (Portanova) and Varaždin. It is the customers who expect to be able to choose their channels of purchasing products and services, delivery method and type of support when they need it. Perhaps the simplest example is the introduction of a digital way of topping up one’s mobile phone by scanning a QR code with one’s mobile device. That simplifies the top-up procedure to the maximum and replaces the existing method of entering a 14-figure code.

As regards the business segment, we have introduced the highest industry standards in Croatia’s strongest industry - tourism - through our One Suite Hotel solution, which enables the creation and distribution of digital room keys at the hotel reception desk the moment the guests check in.

Telecommunications are undergoing a digital transformation process. Can you single out three or four key things that, in your opinion, are critical for success?

There are some ways in which we want to provide our customers with a complete integration into the digital society and enable them to enjoy all its advantages as part of this digital transformation. We are constantly looking for new ways of securing the best possible customers experience by developing and implementing new technologies on all levels, with the aim of digitalizing customers experience. Speaking of digital transformation, I have to say it is not just about transforming the processes and organization based on digital technology, but also about people and their skills and exchanging their knowhow. To provide our customers with a complete customer experience, we need to exchange our knowledge and experiences with all the stakeholders. A great example of that is our cooperation with HUB385, a center for knowledge, creations, and innovations, where we provide our employees with opportunities to develop new ideas and improve continually thanks to numerous seminars and collaborations with a large number of freelancers and startups located at the HUB385 center.

How to encourage innovativeness among your employees in the digital transformation?

Vipnet’s basic characteristics are startup culture and a spirit of innovation, with which the company entered Croatia’s market in 1999. Although today it is a company with more than 2 million customers and 1,300 employees, Vipnet has managed to maintain a strong startup culture among its employees. Also, Vipnet’s team recently won the competition Empowering New Ideas - Intrapreneurship Program of the Telekom Austria Group, where Vipnet employees were the best among 60 teams from 7 countries. This win means that in the next 12 months, members of the team will be working exclusively on developing their project idea outside Vipnet, with support from mentors from Telekom Austria Group. That is additional proof of Vipnet’s determination to invest in its employees and the support they have for growth within the company. Workplace, Facebook’s social network tailored for corporations, is another great example: through its implementation, we have encouraged an agile approach to work, exchange of ideas, creation of a collaborative environment, and innovativeness.