One of the main focuses for Greater Manchester-based broadband provider TalkTalk is the upcoming transformation of moving the UK broadband network to full fibre from the legacy copper wire infrastructure. The Government has issued targets to providers and wants full fibre accessible to 25 million homes by 2025 (to the road not the door).
This large-scale digital transformation was one of the topics discussed at Manchester Digital’s MD Tech Leader Talks on June 8.
嘉宾们在十大网博靠谱平台技术中心参加MD技术领袖会谈
菲尔·海斯蓝, 他在电信公司TalkTalk工作了20年, 担任了两年多的首席技术官. 他接受了Tom Huggon的采访, Principal at 激流回旋 discussing legacy systems and the upcoming change to full fibre, 电信系统中人工智能的未来以及他迄今为止的职业生涯.
菲尔向我们介绍了TalkTalk的历史, 该公司最初是由总部位于伊拉克的欧珀电信公司(Opal Telecom)创立的, 是手机仓库的子公司, 2010年分拆. The company is headquartered in Salford and offers telephone and broadband services.
Tom Huggon, Principal at 激流回旋 (left), interviews 菲尔·海斯蓝, CTO at TalkTalk (right)
Tom asked Phil to talk about his career path: “Early in my career I changed roles probably every four years reflecting the amount of change as the business grew. 这是我回首往事的感想之一, is that a key moment for me was being offered the opportunity to run a network transformation programme. I thought it through and decided sometimes you just have to take a leap into the unknown. 这是我做过的最好的事. 获得现在的职位绝对是我的长期目标.”
TalkTalk于2018年将总部迁至索尔福德的Soapworks网站, 尽管它在伦敦仍有业务. 菲尔解释, “The business always had a significant footprint in the North West but it was still a bold move. But it’s great to have this history and culture, as we have always had sites in Irlam and Warrington. 成为大十大网博靠谱平台科技社区的一员真的很重要. 我们和索尔福德食物银行有持续的合作关系, 我们有来自MMU的学生, 最近我们和AJ Bell一起赞助了大北方跑, and we founded the annual North West Women in Tech Awards too to celebrate the achievements of women working in our sector and to encourage more to join.”
就电信和宽带行业的现状而言, 菲尔解释, “我们正处于IT和系统产业转型的高潮. 我们正在对系统进行现代化改造，并且有一段使用云技术的旅程.
“在行业内部, 我们关注的是职业道路和团队构成, as the job role is becoming more about software rather than traditional engineering. 这改变了我们球队的形态.
“作为一个价值品牌, we have to use tech to punch above our weight in terms of competing with other telcos. One of our many ongoing challenges is how we increase the capacity of our network, stay ahead of ever-increasing demand for the internet without becoming too expensive for consumers and our wholesale partners – it drives us to innovate more.”
汤姆还向菲尔询问了招聘和寻找合适人才的问题, 这对每个科技公司来说都是一个持续的挑战. He said: “The retention of talent is an ongoing war – but people either stay for five minutes or 20 years. We do have lots of great activity from our comms and engagement team as well as lots of retraining opportunities. 我们做了很多工作来留住员工. 这是一个真正的氛围，绝对是一个TalkTalk家庭. People all have each other’s backs and it’s been great to see more and more people coming back to the office – not least for our £1 breakfasts!”
Alison Ross, chair of Manchester Digital, takes questions for Phil from the audience
汤姆问菲尔十大网博靠谱平台新兴科技的挑战. “One of our challenges is that the consumers have lots of different tech - they might have smart speakers, smart TVs or Ring door bells etc - and they expect it to be seamlessly compatible with their broadband and Wi-Fi technology. 目前, 物联网仍然是非常分散的，相互竞争的技术, 比如Zigbee和Matter, competing for spectrum which constantly presents new challenges for us to understand and adopt.
“当然, you would have had to be living under a rock to not realise that AI is the biggest tech development at the moment. At TalkTalk we are just dipping our toes in the water at the moment and proceeding with cautious optimism. 例如, we’re using AI to help coach our employees at contact centres and give them the right answers to queries, 探索人工智能如何帮助监控网络.
“There are lots of practical ways that we will be able to use AI to help with diagnostics and make it much easier for customers to fix their own problems with broadband and ultimately proactively fix them in real time.
“I’m certain that AI will revolutionise what we do – but I fully expect there to be moments of both brilliance and challenge along the way. 但总的来说，这是一个很好的机会，当然，我们会好好利用它. This has the promise to be the next stage of the Industrial Revolution if we get it right. Machines and automation have given humans the opportunity to think of higher things. I think it will be a right angle turn for us all - and I hope we exploit it safely and brilliantly.”
我们非常感谢 激流回旋 感谢您赞助并主办我们的六月科技领袖讲座活动. If you’d like to pick up a conversation 激流回旋 - their MD Caroline is happy to chat: 卡洛琳.grant@slalom.com.
更多即将到来的十大网博靠谱平台数字活动，请继续查看我们的 活动页面.
Please note the next MD Tech Leader Talks is planned for the 9th November 2023.
我们的下一个项目是 会员大会及暑期社交活动 6月22日.
