Kelly Bayer Rosmarin (Optus)
Optus will take operational control of its business-to-business arm following a decentralisation process by its parent company Singtel.
The Singapore-headquartered telco has handed operation management of Optus Enterprise over to the Australia-based Optus team in a move that will support the “localised need of [its] business customer[s]”.
Effective from 1 July 2022, the move will also give Optus more operational autonomy and direct accountability, Singtel claimed.
“This change is about delivering better outcomes for all our customers, whether they are consumers, small business, enterprise customers or wholesale customers,” said Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin.
“With a more unified and collaborative approach across Optus, we will be able to better meet the localised need of our business customer and bring solutions to market more quickly. Importantly, we still will be able to leverage the insights and global reach of Singtel, while having the autonomy to make decisions quickly.”
This year, Optus’ operating revenue hit $7.8 billion for the full financial year ending 31 March, a slide of 5.8 per cent.
Of this, Singtel claimed, Optus’ business division revenue accounted for $1.21 billion, having delivered its third consecutive year of EBITDA growth. In the last 12 months, Optus Enterprise launched a network integrated mobile call recording feature for businesses and unveiled its 5G Innovation Hub, a showcase facility for customer co-creation of 5G-enabled solutions in Sydney.
Singtel Group CEO Yuen Kuan Moon said the decision to spin off operational control of Optus Enterprise was “timely” given the “hyper digitalisation” under way across Australia.
"Since our strategic reset a year ago, we’ve been evolving our operating model to stay relevant and maximise shareholder returns and this is another step in that direction,” he said.
“By adopting a decentralised opco-driven structure, we can empower our businesses to exploit commercial synergies and capabilities to drive growth. This is all the more important in today’s volatile macro-economic environment where business units need greater independence and agility to better navigate the market.”
Optus Enterprise’s management spin-off follows that of Singtel’s IT arm NCS, which was removed from the latter’s enterprise division.
NCS launched in Australia at the end of 2020 under the leadership of André Conti and in partnership with Optus Enterprise. It also acquired Riley, an Australian cloud-based solutions consultancy.
