CEO of Crnogorski Telekom, Dina Cibulskaja said that Telecom customers and partners can be sure that the company, despite the great challenges, will continue to provide services at the expected level
Crnogorski Telekom dedicated last year to the transformation of the company said the executive director Dina Cibulskaja and added that the internal focus remained on improving and creating better and more efficient business processes, keeping in mind the more efficient approach to customers and their satisfaction.
Cibulskaja said that there is no industry in Montenegro that has not felt the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The economic crisis, which accompanied the health crisis, was further exacerbated by the absence of the tourist season, which was felt not only in tourism, catering and related activities but also in the telecommunications industry, especially in roaming revenues. All this does not jeopardize the continuity of customer service. which is a priority in extraordinary circumstances, because we perform activities of public importance, and this was especially evident in the pandemic, “said Cibulskaja in an interview with Mina-business.
She added that Telecom customers and partners can be sure that the company, despite the great challenges, will continue to provide services at the expected level.
Cibulskaja reminded that Telekom has been a part of the Deutsche Telekom Group since 2005, which has about 230 thousand employees and which generated 80.5 billion euros in revenue globally last year.
“At the same time, if we apply the analogy of our direct majority Hrvatski Telekom, Crnogorski Telekom, as the leading operator in the country, in previous years participated in generating 2.5 to three per cent of the total gross domestic product (GDP) of Montenegro annually,” said Cibulskaja.
She also mentioned that Telecom, as one of the largest investors in its field, has invested around 200 million euros in Montenegro in the past ten years, of which almost 50 million in the development of the mobile network and frequency bands at the state auction of spectrum, and more than 30 million in the fixed access network, ie in the development of the optical network.
“Also, our company has over 500 employees, and we generate another 300 jobs in the business chain,” Cibulskaja specified.
Speaking about the activities carried out by the company during the epidemic, Cibulskaja said that Telekom, following the standards of the Deutsche Telekom Group, started applying preventive measures in February, before official measures were prescribed in Montenegro, in order to prepare in time. to what followed.
“First, we focused on reorganizing the work in the shops and employees in the field to be available to customers at all times. Another important task was to procure protective equipment for employees, which we had in sufficient quantities and when the market was in short supply, so we are in We have helped other companies from our sector and some state bodies on several occasions, “said Cibulskaja.
As she announced, Telecom has been a part of the UčiDoma project from the beginning through the assignment of rights for television channels on which classes are broadcast.
“In the first wave, we significantly met the needs of the public sector and the economy by increasing the capacities of Internet access, which was a precondition for them to organize work in the new circumstances. Through direct donations, we supported the fight against the epidemic with over 40 thousand euros. , employees, union and management “, said Cibulskaja.
Also, the company, through partnership initiatives with the German organization Help, Rotary Club and Coal Mine from Pljevlja and the Association of Parents and Juventas, donated more than 180 smart devices with free internet to socially endangered children throughout Montenegro to support learning.
“New circumstances have further highlighted the fact that as a company we have advanced in the digital transformation. At that time, 75 per cent of our colleagues on the job worked from home, and among them were Call Center agents, about 60 of them, we worked with the users from their homes “, added Cibulskaja.
When asked what trend in business and development of services she expects this year, Cibulskaja answered that technology will certainly continue to play a key role in everyone’s lives.
“This primarily refers to the connection and access to the network that Telekom provides, as well as proven digital solutions that we develop and offer to customers and that allow our employees to perform daily tasks and participate in meetings and workshops with colleagues from Deutsche Telekom Group, which is especially important for a company like ours, “said Cibulskaja.
According to her, Telekom, in order to digitalize the business of the private sector, developed the Cloud Call Center as a professional call centre solution for small and medium businesses, and there was great interest in tools from the business portfolio.
“We have also developed new tools that will only get a full application, namely Cumulus, an application for digital accounting and Folder X, for digital management of documents and archives,” added Cibulskaja.
She also said that Telecom used the previous period to develop a complete solution for electronic fiscalization, currently state-of-the-art on the market, with partners from VG eFiskal and DATALAB.MN, so that Montenegrin businessmen would be ready to switch to a new way of doing business with as little as possible. costs.
When asked what are the expectations from the Government in the field of digital transformation, Cibulskaja answered that, in order to accelerate the digital transformation, it is necessary to continuously improve the investment environment for the technology sector.
“Concrete measures and laws have recently been presented in Montenegro to stimulate investment in innovation, and it is crucial that the new government continues to work in this direction even more intensively,” Cibulskaja believes.
According to her, the Montenegrin economy is suffering serious blows due to the pandemic, from which it will recover slowly.
“Our forecasts say four or five years, which is why it is necessary to find new business models, in order to encourage investments where they will have a real impact and push the economy forward,” Cibulskaja said.
She said that times are changing, so the approach to the regulation of the telecommunications industry should be changed.
“Today, governments and regulators should treat operators as partners in building the digital future. The role of shaping the digital future has been taken over by major international players – Google, Amazon, Netflix, which do not pay local taxes, do not employ local workers and are completely outside local regulations. “Still, they win,” Cibulskaja said.
Therefore, he believes, governments should support local companies in their desire to achieve operational and investment efficiency.
“At the same time, governments have a way to ensure that users emerge victoriously. There are also models that would ensure that part of the profits is reinvested for the benefit of the digital society at the local level,” Cibulskaja added.
She assessed that such a revision of legislative practices, together with focused efforts to promote the digital economy, would change the country.
“For example, digital solutions should be promoted from the highest addresses as the first, even the only, choice of citizens, and not as an alternative to traditional ways of doing business. Only in this way can the necessary digitalization process be accelerated,” Cibulskaja concluded.
