Tell us a little about yourself. What does your job at Telefónica involve?
Practically my entire career at Telefónica has been linked in some way to technical team leadership and service development. I have been with the group for almost 14 years now and I couldn’t be prouder to belong to this great family. I am currently responsible for the Collaboration Services Technology Area at Future Workplace in Telefónica Tech. We work with different collaborative environment technologies from the main vendors on the market, such as Microsoft, Cisco and Zoom, among others, and we are responsible for launching new products and services that add value for our customers and, of course, ensuring their technological evolution.
What does the Global Platforms Technology area do?
Platform Technology departments require a high level of technical expertise to lead the design of the technical architecture, configuration and integration of the platforms that support our services. The big challenge is to have an innovative outlook, to always be able to find new ways of building and contributing, but also to get down to the technical details and understand precisely how the technology we work with works. Being rigorous in this allows us to detect shortcomings and come up with solutions. This is key in a technological environment where the main players have moved us to a SaaS platform model.
Our activity focuses on two areas:
- Industrialisation, which involves the implementation and definition of the service from all angles: functionality, technology, security, integration with other systems and platforms, automation, etc.
- The sustainability and evolution of platforms and services to ensure the correct life cycle.
How is the life cycle of technological products managed?
In the context of service development, the life cycle is not just a timeline with a beginning and an end: it is a living, iterative and constantly evolving process. It all starts with a need that is identified, sometimes by the market, sometimes by our customers, and often by our own team, which identifies opportunities for improvement or innovation in our services.
It is not just a matter of making the technology work, but of packaging a service that is consistent, easy to deploy and scale, and with robust operations behind it. It is also necessary to manage the maturity phases of the service, adapt it to new use cases, incorporate improvements or automations, and, if the time comes and it is appropriate, even withdraw it.
In short, the lifecycle of a technology product is not a series of sequential tasks, but a continuous cycle of listening, improving and adapting. And in a collaborative environment, where platforms evolve every few weeks, agility and long-term vision are crucial.
How can we ensure the technological evolution of platforms?
The role of design and technology teams has changed in recent years. In collaboration platforms, we have moved from managing our own infrastructure, requiring dedicated capabilities and teams for certification, implementation and sustainability of the different layers, to cloud models, where the vendor assumes that responsibility and provides the capabilities in a more packaged form. Eighty percent of the platforms we work with in the Future Workplace area are already in this cloud model.
These technologies and vendors evolve rapidly. Part of our job is to be able to detect gaps, track new features and, above all, identify as early as possible those that have a direct technical and operational impact, so that we can put the necessary resources in place and stay ahead of the curve or position our services.
The team is making a significant effort to keep track of all these capabilities. And it is essential to provide tools and automation to streamline operations.
What challenges do you face? Can you give us some examples?
In a changing environment, it is essential to be able to anticipate and identify opportunities and ways to add value. As I mentioned in many contexts, solutions have moved to third-party Cloud solutions where we cannot afford to simply resell what these third parties offer. It is essential to find a value proposition, define, design and prepare the areas to be able to provide differentiated value to customers. A clear example is the industrialisation of Professional Services. Preparing the machinery to handle projects with volume and scale without losing sight of offering customised services that adapt to the context and needs of our customers is crucial in today’s world.
Innovation is part of our DNA, as is being able to adapt to technological developments and new challenges. AI is testing us in this regard. We have to be able to get the most out of it and build services on the best technical solutions and maximise our capabilities in the deployment and operation of services. The quality of our work has a direct impact on the perception of quality that Telefónica’s customers have.
Which Telefónica employees would you nominate for this interview because you consider them to be excellent at their job?
I have spent many years meeting great professionals from whom I have always tried to learn. Some of them have even left the group. Many will always remain great role models for me. This is the case of David Padilla, who currently works in the Tech product team and with whom I have had the opportunity to collaborate at other stages of my career at Telefónica. I have always been amazed by his drive to get projects off the ground, but above all, his analytical skills in applying criteria and finding solutions to complex problems are truly brilliant.
