Once in a while, members of the IT/telco industry come forward to share their observations with Enterprise IT News, and to shine a light upon a happening which they feel strongly about. Below is just such an event that a reader observed has happened and wished to state his views about.
It came to my attention today that MyRepublic has undertaken a significant reduction in headcount. From my knowledge of previously working there and also of the people that they have let go, this will have a knock-on effect for customers in all markets and I believe that customers (current and prospective) should understand this.
As you know there has never been a more important time for telcos than during this pandemic as we are all working remotely and telecommunications is critical infrastructure.
The major area that was impacted today is on the technical team which covered the areas of Artificial Intelligence, BSS/OSS Platform, Solution Team, and of course Site Reliability Engineering.
I am sure that given past coverage and announcements of MyRepublic with regards to being a TelcoTech company and their key differentiator being that they had a custom-built BSS/OSS platform, removing a significant portion of the team will have implications with regards to new developments, maintaining the privacy and security of customers as well as maintaining operational uptime.
Do note that they had previously stated major focus of AI and the platform with this announcement .
This is a complete 180-degree change in course with all staff (including the new CTO) leaving within a very short timeframe post this announcement..
One could assume that this was just used to attract investors to raise funds under the premise of becoming a technology company and then re-purposing the funds for other non-related investments.
If I was to guess, I would say that this reduction in staff is to show that they have a very low operational cost footprint to facilitate either raising additional funds or to make them look attractive for an IPO that they have been talking about for years with no clear move to actualisation.
I believe that they are playing a dangerous game and putting all their customers in each of the markets at risk of poor service at a time when this could have serious ramifications across multiple industries, as everyone is working from home.
Time will tell and I hope that I am wrong, but having been an insider I don’t think that I am incorrect in my assumptions.
Editor Note: MyRepublic’s press release implies that the company has their own Business and Operational Support Systems (BSS/OSS), which powers the company’s cloud-based TelcoTech platform.
One paragraph goes on to say, “MyRepublic, the region’s fastest-growing telecommunications and technology company, has appointed a new Chief Operations Officer, Chief Data and Artificial Intelligence Officer, and Chief Technology Officer to accelerate development of its TelcoTech platform and ready it for commercialisation.”
IT BYTES BACK! says: If a telco has set customer expectations based upon being a Telco Tech company, can they deliver these expectations if the CTO allegedly leaves said telco company, and the telco company also allegedly lets go a substantial number of staff from their tech team?
