Executive Interview with Joost Deckers, Managing Director of Talk & Vision, one of Europe’s leading providers of worldwide visual communication services based in the Netherlands and owned 64% by Dutch Telco KPN

17 January 2010. Joost Deckers joined the KPN group in 1994. On 1 October 2010, he was  appointed Managing Director of Talk & Vision. Before that he was managing director of Gemnet with responsibility for the integration of this ICT service provider within the KPN organisation.

Talk & Vision is headquartered in Linschoten, the Netherlands. KPN purchased Getronics, the IT and networking specialist with a global reach, in 2006. KPN purchased a 51% majority stake in Talk & Vision on 1 July 2009. Talk and Vision was the largest videoconferencing specialist in the Netherlands with revenues of Euros 13 million in 2008. The merger was the world’s first between a large Telco, an IT services company and a specialist provider of visual communication solutions.

 A major focus of Joost Deckers’ job is to create an integrated approach to the KPN offering of videoconferencing by involving Talk and Vision, Getronics and KPN International. The approach covers video systems integration backed up by a managed network connectivity service for end-to-end video communication worldwide.

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Editor: How do you see the prospects for 2011.

Joost: We see the market growing between 15% and 25% in 2011 so the market potential is there. We expect Talk and Vision to grow in line with the market in the countries in which it operates: The Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland.

Editor: KPN has a beautiful strategy combining expertise in IT and networking, videoconferencing and an international telecom network. How does it work in practice?

Joost: Talk and Vision is expected to take the lead in Telepresence and videoconferencing and has already absorbed the smaller units in this field that KPN and Getronics once had. At the same time, we all recognise that video is usually part of a broader solution. Our customers are trying to find ways to become more efficient by improving collaboration and communication.

So first of all we cooperate from a distribution point of view. We aim to make a joint proposition to today’s customers.  KPN / Getronics have a massive sales force of 750+ people who can sell videoconferencing to their customers.

Talk & Vision integrates with KPN Getronics in 3 areas:
-  Videoconferencing in combination with the network, e.g. with KPN international
-  Videoconferencing within the UC proposition of Getronics
-  Videoconferencing within the Workspace proposition with Getronics

The “New Way of Working” is a concept that both KPN and Getronics offer their customers. It is a pillar of the sustainability policy pursued by both KPN and Getronics and their customers.

Editor: How do you coordinate on distribution?

Joost: For Getronics’ and KPN’s 500 largest customers, Getronics will ensure that video is added to the agenda and involve us if this leads to an interest in video from the customer. Getronics has offices in Belgium, Germany and  in Switzerland. So we locate our staff and our demonstration facilities in their offices.

If the customer wants to install videoconferencing, we take over that part of the project and take full responsibility for it. We assess first with Getronics whether the organisation’s internal network is equipped to carry video.

For example, together with KPN International we have adopted this approach with Imperial Tobacco.    

A key feature of the whole approach is that KPN International has its own optic fibre MPLS IP telecom infrastructure extending across Europe. Customers appreciate this as most have pan-European operations.

Editor: Do you find potential customers realise how much videoconferencing has improved in the last three years?

Joost: I am not sure that all of them do. Some of them did not have a good experience in the early years. As a person new to the industry, I find videoconferencing has reached a level where it is easy to use. Technologically it has reached a good level. That is the message we give to our customers.

Customers are told about Telepresence and desktop HD videoconferencing but do not grasp how these can all be linked together. It is our job to educate them and in this context “seeing is believing.” That is why we have videoconferencing demonstration facilities in all our offices. We use KPN’s facilities to demonstrate Cisco and Tandberg Telepresence.

Some customers struggle to understand the complexities of what the industry calls Unified Communications. They are told the possibilities but don’t know which way to go forward. We help them in two ways: how to make the correct choice for their particular circumstances and how to design and implement adoption. We show our customers how to pick the best solution and how to implement it and make it work. That is our role.

Editor: Do you find customers are pleased with the results?

Joost: Generally they are pleased. But some are disappointed after one year because usage has not reached the level they expected and on which the business case for videoconferencing was made.

The reason for their disappointment is that they assumed that all they had to do was turn it on and people would use it. I have concluded that we need to do more to help them encourage adoption. People need to be shown how to profit from the different ways of communicating. We estimate about 10% of the cost of an installation should be devoted to training, support and reinforcement for usage.

That is why we offer a “Usage and Adoption Program”. The Usage & Adoption approach is based on six key steps: alignment, measurement, communication, training, support and reinforcement. Implemented correctly, people will soon find that the new technology can help them do their work better and faster. It should also improve their work/life balance and the impact on the environment of their organisation.

We are aware that in the past the approach of some in the industry was “box shipping”. Our approach is different. We want to be advisers to our customers. We want to show them how to use videoconferencing. If we do that successfully customers will get what they expected out of the installation.

Editor: Do you think organisations have found all the ways in which video can be used?

Joost: No, definitely not. New ways are being discovered all the time. Here is just one example. A leading bank has 200 small branches where the local staff cannot provide the total range of expertise customers require. So they tell their customers you can make an appointment with a bigger branch or immediately you can have a video meeting with a top expert.

Editor: What are your ambitions for Talk and Vision in 2011?

Joost: We want to improve the portfolio of services and raise further the level of service. We already operate our managed video service and helpdesk 24/7 and in four different languages.  We can see that customers who use our services benefit more from their use of videoconferencing.

We also aim to become firmly established in the UK, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland though our close cooperation with KPN and Getronics. We will not venture into new countries until this is achieved. We will work hard on integrating our videoconferencing proposition with the approach and portfolio of Getronics.

We will help our customers align visual communication to their business strategy. We will assist them to make better utilization of their visual communication environment.

Editor: Joost, thank you for these valuable insights.

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