CEO MONTHLY / C-suite Awards 2023 12 Mar22259 Best National Telecommunications Network CIO 2023 (UK): Belinda Finch As CIO at Three, Belinda Finch is responsible for all the IT across the Three UK estate, both from a transformation point of view and also business as usual. We find out more as she gains recognition in the C-Suite Awards 2023. Whether it is systems used in stores by retail agents, back-end billing systems, or the digital systems used by Three’s customers, Belinda Finch handles all IT at Three, as well as being responsible for all internal IT systems such as finance, HR, and legal. Having started her career as a Cobol programmer for The Bank of England, Belinda quickly moved into the media scene, loving the variety and excitement around the industry. She stayed here for some years, and was working in a comms role when she accidentally ‘fell’ into telcos. “I worked for all the big ones and I absolutely loved it,” she enthuses. “It was fast paced, at the forefront of technology and connecting people. It’s an industry that keeps you on your toes – there is always something new. It’s exciting.” Being a huge advocate of business-led IT, Belinda is actively rolling out new ways of working at Three, with the associated technology to allow the company to operate in this way. This includes joint multidisciplined teams with the same goals and objectives out in place along with technology that allows the business teams to make changes themselves rather than ask IT. This strategy is already being rolled out in the data team at Three and there are plans to go further with the goal of having a much smaller operational, security, and architecture guardrail type IT department and the business in control of its own destiny. Three is currently also working on its digital transformation, so it is a busy time for Belinda between juggling this along with BAU. In the transformation space, Three is launching its brand-new B2B offering. As an area where the company hasn’t been prominent in the last number of years, the decision was made to build a brand-new team, products, and IT system. In October last year, Three launched its completely new IT stack, underpinned by the Amdocs CRM and billing systems, and supported by the salesforce. “In order to achieve this programme, which was ground-breaking in terms of time to deliver and ways of working, we ensured the entire transformation was business-led from the beginning, ensuring goals and objectives aligned from both sides,” Belinda elaborates. “We have now launched our business offerings to the market, there is more to come, more releases – but in nine months we have built new systems, a new operation, and are entering a new segment.” In addition to this transformation activity, Three launched its loyalty programme, Three+, which has been having great success in the market – not forgetting SMARTY, the Three sub-brand, which also involved the development and launch of a brand new app. There have also been several initiatives introduced over the last year to help development and empowerment within the company, such as the reorganisation of the entire CIO department to ensure that accountability sat in the right teams. “Every single person within the organisation now knows what they are accountable and responsible for and more importantly feel they are empowered to make decisions to keep the flow of work flowing smoothly,” Belinda enthuses. “The purpose of this move was not only to speed up decision making processes, but also to ensure it was documented and communicated that you did not need to be a ‘certain grade level’ to make key decisions. The outcome of this has been a tangible speed up of decision making, especially in financial and project decisioning. We no longer wait for the monthly steerco to make decisions; we make key important decisions every single day at every single level.” In addition to this, a new incentive called ‘Focus Fridays’ has been implemented whereby the last Friday of each month within core hours (10am-4pm) there is a ‘no meeting’ policy so that team members can focus their time on personal development, training and accreditations, lunch and learns, and wellness activities with the aim of giving everyone the time they need to enhance their learning and a day dedicated entirely to themselves. Throughout all of this, the company has been supporting Ukraine too by providing free calls to and from Ukraine, irrespective of network, and helping provide handsets where necessary. In addition to this, Three has supported a number of Ukrainian technology resources to apply for open roles, especially in the data and digital space. More recently, Belinda herself gained notable recognition by being rewarded for her diligence and dedication in the C-Suite Awards 2023 and was bestowed with the prestigious accolade of Best National Telecommunications Network CIO 2023 (UK). Now, as the future calls, Belinda foresees further developments in the form of two main goals – firstly, completing the transformation programme, and secondly, setting the company up to be a truly business-led IT. “This is a journey and will not happen overnight,” she states. “And this is just the start. It is an exciting time and one I am delighted to be leading.” Contact: Belinda Finch Company: Three Web Address: www.three.co.uk Mar23526
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