The history of STROM
telecom has developed very rapidly during the last
2 years, could you summarise the most important
changes for this period of time?
First of all I would like to underline that we have
finished one of the most serious development programs
we have ever undertaken. It is the development of
a very complicated and concise switching platform
that is used not only for voice switching but also
for data transfer. We have also improved our equipment
and the systems we use, primarily because we wanted
it to be in accordance with the EU norms. The result
of all this work has been the approval of the quality
of our products by the EU's corresponding institutions.
We have also received positive results from the
Interoperability test and practically that means
that the doors are now open to the EU markets and
that is something that is included in our future
plans. Our products have also been tested by one
of the first-rate EU's Telecom and they were approved
and accepted, which is a very good sign and it is
also a great reference for the future.
You used to be more interested in the eastern
markets and the CIS countries, does that mean that
you are going to change your foreign market orientation?
When you work in this business you have a very limited
number of opportunities. Basically your clients
are only Telecom operators and as you know there
are usually two or three of them in a country. What
we can offer them is a strong support team and very
good hardware-software solutions. We are really
listening to our clients, we are adapting our products
and services to their needs. Regarding our orientation,
there is going to be a change. We decided to make
a shift in our business orientation and try to penetrate
the Western European markets. This is going to be
easier now, with the reference that we have from
German alternative telecom operator. We would like
to decrease our dependence on the CIS market and
to increase revenues coming from Western Europe.
This Year we will already have only 30 to 40% of
our revenues coming from CIS market and it will
further decrease.
The number of your subsidiary companies has also
grown a lot, what are the developments?
I want to emphasise the fact that the company has
grown also in its size. We have 550 employees working
for STROM and 15 subsidiary companies. We have bought
additional land around the territory where we are
situated now and we are going to develop more in
our size.
How has that increase contributed to the financial
turnover of the company?
The company has been steadily growing since its
establishment and we had an average increase of
turnover of 15 to 20% per year. The telecom business
has not been performing very well in the last years
and everybody is kind of expecting something really
revolutionary and big that would get the sector
going again. We are always using the latest technology
that enables us to create products according to
the latest criteria and to lower the production
costs. In spite of our dramatical growth we remain
very flexible, so we can adjust our products to
the needs of the market. Our platform and systems
are all based on plain open decisions and they provide
complete network solutions.
As I understand you already work with Germany,
what has been your most important project there?
Yes, we are definitely working in Germany. Moreover,
we have installed there a complete network of our
switches in the 15 biggest cities of the country
and the network is now run by us entirely. Our network
management system has enormous ability for remote
on line monitoring and control the whole network
and every elements of it, this means that this network
is managed from our office in the Czech Republic.
So, our customer does not need recruit, train and
keep personnel for network operating and maintaining.
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What other countries have shown an interest in
your products?
You know, we have such interest from almost all
over world, but inquiries which we got from Western
European countries, especially Great Britain, United
States and Asian region are much important for us,
and that is why we are more active in these regions.
One of the major differences between you and
your competitors is the approach that you have to
your clients, how has that helped you develop your
business?
Yes. I would say that this is the major difference
between them and us. Of course I don't want to compare
STROM telecom to Ericsson or Nokia, because those
are huge companies with a tremendous financial and
intellectual potential, but they are very slow.
If you look at our business, there are these big
companies and there is nobody behind them, there
are no medium size companies that could fill the
gap. That is our aim, to become one of these medium
size companies and we are succeeding. Our strength
is our size, we can adapt easily and we are flexible
in choosing our direction of development. When we
established ourselves here in the Czech Republic,
we bought one of the Tesla manufacturing. It was
a good start because that brand was very well known
in the world for its good quality products, but
they were without any program. So after we bought
them we implemented our production programme and
it worked very well. Now our factory, Tesla Tech
is one of the biggest production lines in Central
Europe. Production capacity of our pick and place
machines is 1 million electronic components per
day and currently we use for our own needs 40% of
this capacity, 60% of it is going for world-wide
sales to the markets that I have mentioned before.
What would be the latest products developed by
the company?
One of the latest products is called AGNES, Advanced
-Generation Network Solutions. It is a packet-switched
network solution designed universally for voice
and the new broadband services.
For today we have fully complete pre-production
sample in our laboratory and all technical and technological
items of its development and manufacturing are clear
for us and under our control. The market for this
product is huge and very serious, and by it's size
exceed STROM's current opportunities. Marketing
and sales - our main task for the near future. To
fulfil it we have designed our partnership program.
And, who knows may be among your readers there are
some that will be interested in it.
The choice of the location was a coincidence,
nevertheless it turned out to be the right choice,
how has been your experience working here?
This experience has been great. The Czech Republic
is a great place to make business. All the ministries
and all the officials were very friendly and helpful.
The country is very suitable because it is very
stable and they are able to have a good production
here. Regarding our personnel, they are great people.
They are really good specialists and 90% of my success
is thanks to them. I always say, that the combination
of foreign management and local specialists is the
best, because I have the approach of a businessman
and they are doing a great job with the research
and technical details. This is why 10 years ago
we chose Tesla Votice to be our main production
site, people here are used to work with technology,
they have a tradition to work, and they are very
responsible and most importantly they are very able
in the technical field. I would also mention that
Prague is a beautiful place to live and it is one
of the most beautiful places in Europe.
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