APAC Issue Q2 2019

12 APAC / Issue Q2 2019 , Mar19521 Partnerships and Proactivity are the Key to Enduring Success for Southern Cross The world relies on technology. Perhaps this has never been more true than in the modern age. As daily life moves ever more onto a digital landscape, technology’s importance only becomes ever more concrete. After all, people all over the world fundamentally rely on telecommunication services, and with that growing demand, comes a need to establish robust infrastructure to support it now and moving forwards into the future. In Australasia there’s only really one name that has come to differentiate itself in an incredibly proactive market, and that is Southern Cross Cables. Here, Laurie takes a moment to explain more: “We provide Layer 1 and Layer 2 capacity connectivity services to a range of customers across the region to telecommunications providers, ISPs, enterprises and content providers. Southern Cross specialises in SDH, OTN and Ethernet international connectivity, and in particular, protected and Southern Cross Cables Limited owns and operates a Trans-Pacific submarine cable network that connects Australia, NewZealand, Fiji, Hawaii and the USWest coast. InMarch, the company was recognised in the 2019 APAC Excellence programme as theMost Innovative Cable Solutions Provider. We spoke with LaurieMiller, CEO of Southern Cross, to find out how they are driving the telecommunication sector to even greater heights. restored services that leverage the diverse and loop nature of our underlying system design. This has, ultimately, been a key differentiator of Southern Cross to single strand cable systems.” Yet, not surprisingly, Southern Cross’ success has been more than simply providing better quality products. It has, by all considerations, adopted a strong focus on customer satisfaction. “As the international capacity market is not a “mass market” type environment, it allows Southern Cross to forge strong partnerships with our customers.” This customer focus is only more impressive when you consider Southern Cross’ relatively small team, as Laurie moves on to discuss: “We have around nineteen direct employees, so the staff play a critical role in the success of Southern Cross, from initial engagements through to the quality and operation of the service, and the accessibility and proactive attitude to try and resolve any issues on the rare occasion that something goes wrong. It all comes down to the staff and the customer-focussed attitude.” At the end of the day, proactivity and innovation define the future of this industry. As technology continues to evolve, and new products are put onto the market, paradigm shifts look likely. As such, the key to enduring success hinges on an ability to adapt, improve and evolve – become better. “The industry (like all) is evolving over time. Content Provider requirements grow and are projected to become larger than traditional telco providers within the next ten years, and the effect of the Internet of Things (IoT) is forecast to continue to increase as the technology becomes more pervasive. Exactly where it will lead us is unknown, much like the impact of the smart phone would have been very difficult to predict when it was introduced only twelve years ago. “The challenge is to try and be adaptable and continue to grow and enhance our product offerings to meet changing requirements. One thing that doesn’t ever seem to change is the need to focus on the customer experience and satisfaction.” Southern Cross are embodying this idea of constant improvement over the next few years, moving to reinforce their position as one of the industry’s leaders. In his closing comments, Laurie offers more insight into the company’s plans. “We are in the process of a new submarine cable build project, Southern Cross NEXT, which will further augment the capacity and resiliency of international connectivity out of Australia and New Zealand to the Pacific Islands and the United States of America, which represents a significant infrastructure investment in the region. The NEXT cable will also provide new branches into Tokelau and Kiritimati islands providing their first cable links to the world. “The system will provide a third high capacity low latency route to the existing Southern Cross eco- system, providing our customers with even more resiliency options. The marine route survey and a number of other project milestones have been completed (such as Sydney landing facilities), and the project is due for completion by end-2021.”