Nine months ago, ST Engineering iDirect welcomed a new Chief Executive Officer, Don Claussen.
Don assumed his leadership at a critical time for iDirect as we prepare our next-generation platform for launch and focus on guiding our customers through an industry-wide phase of business transformation.
In these nine months, Don and his leadership team have refined the company’s vision – aligning iDirect’s legacy of innovation, its present capabilities, customer needs and core trends shaping the future of both the satellite communications and telecom industries.
What’s resulted is a clear and distinct pathway for our customers to unlock a massive addressable market.
“…Today, we are embracing an even more ambitious focus: to establish the new norm where satellite-based networks seamlessly integrate multi-orbit solutions with terrestrial-based wireless communications.”
“One of the first actions I took after coming onboard was to meet with our customers. To hear directly about their business challenges and understand where they see future opportunity,” Don explains.
“For decades, the satellite communications industry has obsessed over speed and efficiency – and that made sense in those days. But as we look to the future, the measure of success is changing.
“Our vision today moves us beyond waveform efficiency, bandwidth management, and the nuts of bolts of network operations. Today, we are embracing an even more ambitious focus: to establish the new norm where satellite-based networks seamlessly integrate multi-orbit solutions with terrestrial-based wireless communications.”
Realizing this vision, according to Don, requires an unwavering commitment to three core operating principles:
- Standards-Based Innovation: The most significant opportunities to provide worldwide connectivity are achievable only if they interoperate in a global, multi-domain, cloud-enabled, standards-based telecom model. So, iDirect is dedicated to taking its customer on the same digital transformation journey that mobile operators and cloud innovators are pursuing.
- Operator Focused: Major satellite operators, as well as regional players and large service providers, need to deploy highly flexible networks at scale. We will enable our customers to simplify their operations, reduce their capital and operational expenses, and speed time to revenue, while providing end users with increasing levels of control.
- Collaboration as the Cornerstone: The challenges of new space are too complex to be solved in isolation. Our vision fosters an environment of collaboration and partnership with global and regional satellite operators, telecommunications companies, technology leaders, and our entire ecosystem.
Don discussed iDirect’s vision, the launch of its next-gen platform, and its renewed focus on customers in an exclusive interview with Mark Holmes, the editor in chief of Via Satellite.
You can read the interview here.
Don also shared critical elements of iDirect’s vision at the recent World Satellite Business Week conference in Paris. He spoke with Pacôme Révillon, Euroconsult’s Chief Executive Officer, on the significant role of ground infrastructure to drive future growth for satellite operators and service providers.