Transforming with excellence – a perspective from John Watson
By John Watson, Group President, Bell Canada
17 months ago I was asked to lead the Bell Business Market’s team and immediately we began a radical pivot to create growth and opportunity – a strategy we are calling Inside-Outside. This strategy leverages the scale of Bell and maximizes the potential of entrepreneurs and their elite teams to build a Canadian based Global IT services champion.
In this blog, I will discuss our digital transformation journey, and explain how Stratejm and CloudKettle play a critical role in cementing our position as a trusted technology services leader in Canada.
The cornerstones of our digital transformation
The building blocks that I have adopted together with my team are simple, straightforward and effective – and are instrumental in driving the $1.2B investment we make annually in technology services.
1. Evolve our skillsets and talent:-we recognize the importance of investing in our most valuable asset – our people. To that end, we have adopted a focused approach to upskilling and nurturing new graduates and university collaborations to remain at the forefront of innovation.
2. Build a culture of innovation and growth:-nurturing a growth mindset across the organization is paramount. We encourage everyone to embrace change, continuously learn, and explore new ideas, fostering an environment where innovation thrives
3. Strategically partner with industry leaders: this allows us to tap into specialized knowledge, enhance our capabilities, and accelerate our progress towards becoming a leading-edge technology player.
Milestones achieved and the path ahead
We know this strategy is working. FX Innovation is a perfect example. Guillaume Bazinet and his team joined Bell just over a year ago and has helped to create an excellent operating model leveraging the culture and capabilities of a fast-paced technical start-up with the resources and customer base of the large corporation. Together we have launched first in North America services like Service Bridge from ServiceNow and have secured new programs with a number of large businesses. Most importantly, the FXI team survey confirms that things have never been better, with survey scores increasing and employee retention remaining extremely high. Opportunity and growth are an amazing wave to ride!
We’ve also made significant advancements together with the hyperscalers. Our collaboration with Google and the launch of Google Cloud Contact Center AI (CCAI) from Bell-is a great example. By drawing on our own internal capabilities and expertise, we were able to combine the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing to elevate customer interactions and deliver exceptional value.
We took a similar approach with Microsoft and the launch of Bell Operator Connect, and we continue to pursue strategic relationships in the security space with Palo Alto Networks and SentinelOne.
Finally, our unwavering focus on talent has opened doors to a number of new and innovative tools and programs. This includes the introduction of the AWS training program and new certification levels with Google and Microsoft, driving a 70% increase in certification since last year, with an anticipated 300% increase for 2024. What an accomplishment!
Our Latest Acquisitions: unleashing new possibilities
Our recent acquisitions of CloudKettle and Stratejm mark another pivotal moment in solidifying our position as a leading provider of advanced services.
CloudKettle brings deep expertise in Salesforce enterprise implementation. They specialize in helping organizations leverage the Salesforce ecosystem across the entire customer lifecycle, from awareness, to sale, then support and renewals to drive revenue growth and efficiency. Their proficiency in integrating data and AI capabilities through the Salesforce Data Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Einstein solutions complements our existing offerings and presents an exciting opportunity for organizations to leverage a powerful combination of ServiceNow, Service Bridge, and Salesforce to streamline data flows and optimize their operations.
Stratejm specializes in end-to-end Security-as-a-Service (SECaaS) solutions. Their AI-powered threat detection and response capabilities, combined with their incident management processes make them a trusted partner for organizations seeking robust managed security solutions. I look forward to combining Stratejm's expertise with our Advanced SOC services as well as our cloud security consulting to expand our security platform and continue to develop, and deliver, cutting-edge security solutions to Canadian organizations. We will also take advantage of Stratejm’s cybersecurity mesh architecture, which integrates various cybersecurity tools into a cohesive, cloud-based system, eliminating the common issue of siloed tools that are unable to communicate with each other.
Bringing CloudKettle and Stratejm into Bell is another step in our journey to empower businesses with the tools they need to thrive in this digital era. We can now securely bridge the Salesforce and ServiceNow platforms together, all orchestrated under one unified umbrella. And with Stratejm’s cybersecurity capabilities and mesh architecture, we can start to seamlessly integrate these offerings together with our core networking solutions to create even more innovative opportunities.
Building a strong future
I’m thrilled to be able to welcome Cloud Kettle and Stratejm to the Bell family. It’s a big transition for small and agile businesses to be acquired by a giant like Bell. As an executive at a start-up a number of years ago, I remember clearly the feeling of being acquired by a large telco. What that experience taught me is that when the stars align and you are at the right time and place – you go for it! I feel that we are absolutely at one of those junctures now. I can’t wait to start building something amazing together.
To learn more about these acquisitions, read the news article.