In this episode of the Ask Anything series, we dive deep with Dave Tomlinson, the Operations Director at Telcom. With over two and a half years under his belt, Dave has been instrumental in reshaping the company’s operations, overseeing everything from service delivery to fleet management.
Being part of the Ask Anything series, we don’t shy away from difficult questions. Our first focus was understanding the pain points within a rapidly growing network. Dave explained: “Service delivery is the most painstaking right now. We’re undergoing a major system overhaul, testing new systems that will hopefully go live in October. The challenge is ensuring we meet our partners’ needs—understanding what they want and how they prefer to receive updates.” As Telcom continues its rapid growth, Dave’s focus on service delivery is critical, constantly improving processes to better serve clients and ensure high-quality fibre products for resellers and customers.
Dave’s focus isn’t solely on the tech side; he’s also committed to a cultural shift within the company. His honesty about cultural changes was refreshing to hear, and it’s clear it’s a strong focus: “When I first joined, Telcom was still quite small, and a lot of things were done on goodwill. As we grew rapidly, our processes and people struggled to keep up. We’ve focused on improving how we manage our people, ensuring they feel supported and valued.”
With Telcom’s recent acquisition of Luminet, Dave has faced new challenges regarding operational integration. He explains, “We’ve decided to keep Luminet operationally separate for now because it’s a successful organisation, and we don’t want to disrupt that. However, from an engineering perspective, we’re cross-training teams to share knowledge and skills.” As we enter the consolidation phase within the altnet space, getting honest answers regarding the difficulties of merging multiple companies is rare. Understanding the work the teams need to put in behind the scenes shows exactly what multiple networks are going through right now.
As Telcom ramps up its wholesale operations with GigaBritain, Dave recognizes that each partner has unique expectations (I can vouch for that). “Our wholesale partners often want something a bit different, so we’ve created a dedicated wholesale division within service delivery, with specific account managers to tailor communication and solutions for each partner.” This is absolutely key within the wholesale arena. Dave hits the nail on the head. Each partner is different and works in a different way. Some prefer to pick up the phone for a quote, while others want to rely on tech. Telcom Group has made it clear, from the start since launching GigaBritain, that service was always going to be a main driver (if you haven’t already, you can watch Will Goodall, head of wholesale, run a further deep dive on the subject here).
To streamline operations, Telcom is transitioning its systems to Salesforce, aiming for a unified platform from sales to service delivery. “Right now, our sales team uses Salesforce, but our service delivery team is on a different system. We’re moving everything to Salesforce, which will allow end-to-end visibility and improve the customer experience.” As the company grows at a rapid pace, aligning systems internally is key to keeping partners, customers, and engineers aligned.
Managing stock for fibre installations is another crucial area for Dave. He uses historical data to forecast future demand: “We look at what we’ve used historically and apply that to our forecasts. We don’t like holding too much stock because it’s expensive, but we ensure we’re covered for standard items and plan ahead for bespoke installations.” This balanced approach helps Telcom stay agile while managing costs effectively.
Finally, Dave shares his insights on the advantages of having an in-house engineering team. Having worked at Sky, where a mix of in-house and subcontracted engineers was used, he sees the benefits of both sides. “There are pros and cons to both, but having your own engineers allows for better control and consistency in service delivery.”
