We’ve expanded the Ringside series to draw insights from business leaders beyond our walls. In partnering with others to help create the future of work, we’re curious to uncover a broader perspective on business communications.
This episode welcomes Sebastian Tietz, who is a key leader in the cloud communications revolution for Atos customers globally. Sebastian has been with Atos for almost four years, following the acquisition of Unify, where he was working since 2014. He’s also spent a good chunk of time working for Siemens, complementing his business communications experience.
Sebastian, what’s your role and what do you love about your job?
I’m Group Vice President Head of Sales Cloud & Contact Center for the Unify solutions business as part of Atos. For those who are unfamiliar with Atos (ATO), we are a European multinational IT service and consulting company headquartered in Paris, France but with offices worldwide. We specialise in hi-tech transactional services, unified communications, cloud, big data and cybersecurity services.
I lead our global cloud team and am responsible for both direct & channel sales. I also globally manage our portfolio element Contact Center, including our corresponding competence center, in South & North America, Australia, Benelux, Germany, France and UK. Both roles cover a three-digit team and a volume of ~EUR600m. I love that it’s a global role which brings many diverse and interesting challenges, and of course that I’m focused on a hyper-growth part of the market.
What’s the best piece of advice you can give to a business wishing to improve its communication?
My advice would be to always remember that people do business with people. Build your communication strategy with your business, your employees and your customers in mind – it cannot be only a technology decision. Technology is an enabler and today it is available to all sizes of businesses.
I try and inspire my team to deliver a compelling level of business and technology expertise to our customers with a key focus on local & regional market understanding. We’re a global team with local expertise that understands our customer culture and speaks their language in almost every country on the planet. That locality brings with it deeper market understanding of the challenges and opportunities, economics and regulatory demands. Get support from a trusted partner and regardless of the size of your project, don’t forget about the usability and the adoption programs across your company. Communication turns into business only when people use it!
What are your thoughts on the post-pandemic economy and how businesses can survive these unprecedented times?
“Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.” I saw this quotation from Einstein while running through the hallways of an airport last week, during my first COVID-19-Business-Travel.
The recent events have shown to all of us, as individual, as business or as government, our limits – a generation where everything was possible. It is a wake-up call but also an opportunity to embrace the change and be creative.
Home Office is probably the second most popular topic after the COVID-19 itself and some newspapers published long obituaries to the Death of the Office. We will find a new balance… Companies are already shifting their priorities and moving forward their digital roadmaps to adapt to the situation.
Will the digital signature kill centuries old Japanese Hanko Stamp Tradition? Possibly yes, but businesses will survive.
How do you see the partnership with RingCentral and the product Atos Unify Office fitting into the Atos proposition going forward?
Atos is a digital transformation company. Our purpose is to help design the future of the information space. Across the world, with special emphasis on secure decarbonisation. We’re enabling our customers and employees, and members of societies at large to live, work and develop sustainably, in a safe and secure information space.
Communication is a key element of any digital transformation strategy and as the leader of this space, it is important for Atos to bring the best solutions to our customers. Through our partnership with RingCentral, we are exactly doing this. We are developing with RingCentral a differentiated co-branded offer to bring enterprises the market’s leading UCaaS solution combined with the services essential to migrate, integrate and transform the way that organisations will communicate and collaborate in future. We really are in the right place at the right time with the right capabilities – and it doesn’t take Einstein to understand that!
For now, we thank Sebastian for his insights and advice, and wish him success in the second half of the year. A year of constant surprises, challenges and opportunities. Atos Unify Office is launching in France on 31 August, in Germany on 30 September and in the USA, UK, and other European countries in Q4 of 2020. If you want to find out more about how to take advantage of some of the opportunities Sebastian mentioned, you’ll find all the information you need about Unify online.
Originally published Jul 31, 2020, updated Jan 16, 2023
