What is your name and your organisation?
Lauren Croxson , Sangoma Technologies
What is your role at your company?
Senior Sales Director, UK, Ire and Northern Europe
How long have you been working for your company/ or in the industry?
6 years
What are your company's USP/key focus areas?
We are a leading global communications as a service provider, where we can provide a one stop shop of all things telecoms to our customers, all in a single quote. Plus, this is all our own IP
What achievement at your company are you most proud of?
The launch of our hosted UC services throughout the UK, Ire and Europe, this has grown significantly and continues to do so with more services to come!
What are the key trends that you are experiencing currently in the market?
The ISDN Switch off has a large impact on the UK market currently and I feel we are uniquely positioned to offer our customers a choice of what they can do, compared to our competitors. We have Gateways, UC on prem, in the cloud or a hybrid option.
What do you see as the main industry challenges at present?
The challenges currently are the confusion around the ISDN Switch off with mix messaging and scaremongering to the end customers. Also, there is huge competition in the telecoms market, even more so with the merging of worlds with IT, security etc. I see there is going to be a change in the vendors/suppliers, partners etc. We will see a lot of mergers and buyouts in the next few years.
If there was one thing in the industry you would change or want to resolve, what would it be?
More support for all when it comes to work and parent life...... I see very little of this in this industry and others as a whole within the UK. The cost to be on maternity leave and then the cost for childcare is too extreme for a parent to consider either having a child in the first place or to give up their career they have worked so hard for. Unfortunately, some, if not a lot of this lies with the government to make the change
What opportunities do you foresee for the sector and women in comms?
I think with better understanding of industry from an early level, i.e IT in high school we can channel the younger generation to know and believe they can be a part of this industry whether that is an engineer, coder or a sales person. But to get the messaging across like many ways in life, it has to resonate with them, be in their language. Also, companies supporting the young through in-house programmes and also parents deciding to have a family need better support financially, emotionally but also support on coming back to the workplace.
What benefits do you find most beneficial from the Comms Council UK membership?
The womens in Telecom are fantastic and are going to grow into something larger and more meaningful as time goes on. To have a network of women from all kinds of backgrounds and experience helping one another to stand tall, is amazing!
