Passion makes a difference for businesses

Telstra Business, which has been headed up by Deena Shiff * since 2006, has the distinction of touching more small businesses other than the Australian Tax Office so she understands their needs and her focus is on making sure they get it.

In these more challenging economic times where Capex is difficult and Opex is more realistic for balance sheets and budgets, the launch of T-Suite last month has brought to fruition a raft of online software applications that are available to Australian businesses as a software as a service (SaaS) platform.

The T-Suite applications will be available to lease online for a predictable monthly fee and without expensive upfront licensing fees, meaning businesses can preserve vital cash reserves.

“In the current economic climate, those small businesses are looking for ways to improve cash flow and better manage risks and compliance obligations and we believe the T-Suite service provides a cost-effective answer at the right time,” Shiff said.

Shiff is one of four senior female executives within Telstra now but she was the trailblazer, being the first, not that she wants anyone to dwell on the gender issue. Down to earth, she says it is no big deal and any woman can aspire to it.

She wants to get on with achieving the goal of Telstra Business, which is providing far more integrated solutions for SMBs as she recognises they do not want a complicated life. Her reality is bringing this to fruition and T-Suite epitomises the goals of the business.

“Historically, products and services were organised into product silos and that is not a smart place to be. We are able to integrate and operate our services over different access platforms and this is something that our competitors can’t do. This is Telstra’s point of differentiation and we will continue to develop more of these services.”

With talks of a successor to Sol Trujillo, the current CEO of Telstra swirling in the industry and media, Shiff dismisses any rumours that she may be next in line by saying: “I am focused solely on what I can deliver for our customers.”

There is no conflict between the competing interests of shareholder value and customer value in Shiff’s world. “I genuinely believe if we are delivering good service to customers then we will deliver value to shareholders and this provides us with a greater insight into the company so there is not a two-way tug in different directions.

“The NextG network has revolutionised the way Aussies communicate and do business and with its great coverage there are a lot of things you can do with this next-generation technology.

“For example, in health we meet the expectations of Australians to have a more connected and integrated health service so it shouldn’t matter if people are in the city or country. Wireless scales and delivers affordable health services and can, for example, support people to stay in their homes longer when they are frail and elderly and it also helps a rural health worker connect to a specialist in the city or anywhere in the world.

“In other words, the new technology improves people’s lives and is not just a technology that delivers video games.”

Shiff is quiet plainly passionate about technology making a difference.

* Deena Shiff is the Group Managing Director, Telstra Business. Telstra Business is the part of Telstra that serves approximately 800,000 small to medium enterprises around Australia, the ‘engine room’ of the Australian economy.

Shiff made history in 2006 when she became the first woman to break through Telstra’s ‘glass ceiling’ and be elevated to the company’s senior leadership team.

Achievements began early for Shiff - she topped the state in her high school leaving exams before going to the UK to study at the London School of Economics at the age of 18. Completing that degree - with honours - she went on to study at law at Cambridge and was admitted to the Bar in London.

Shiff returned to Australia in the ’80s to work as an adviser to the Hawke government on key social and economic reforms and was later made a partner in the top law firm Mallesons.

She joined the company we now know as Telstra in 1989, working in the then Overseas Telecommunications Commission or OTC. Since taking the helm at Telstra Business, Shiff and her team have turned around a part of Telstra that had been shrinking for more than a decade and made it one of the company’s fastest growing business units.