Product Innovations Expert

Cecilia Wong, Executive Vice President – Product & Innovations, HGC Global Communications Limited believes that change is good; she believes in innovation, and that technology will change the world and do good for humanity. She says transforming an organization is not an easy job at all; first, one needs to define what needs to be changed, set a target, then a plan, negotiate for buy-in and resources, and lastly, execute it. Hence one needs to be visionary and set clear targets and direction, and persistency to completion is essential. Detail-oriented in planning but keeping the flexibility to change. “Staying focused and problem solving attitude is a must in all execution. Lastly, I have a strong capability in handling complex contract negotiation with suppliers and external parties, which always try to find the optimal balance and win-win situation.”

Cecilia strongly advises all the leaders to define what they want to achieve and craft out a strategy. “One has to carry out the actions with persistency; adjust along the way to better fit the situation. It doesn’t matter if one is having impediments, failure is not short-term, a long-term success is always awaiting in front of us.” She adds, “One of most important factors, is also be able to explore the potential of team staff and colleagues, and be able to utilize, appreciate and trust their capabilities and work, creating common goals, lead and inspire them along the way.” Armed with this ideology, she has been taking the organization to new heights.

Innovations and Flexibility are the two critical factors of HGC’s key differentiator. Being challenging in the market, HGC provides standardized yet customizable solutions to customers to make sure solutions are 100% fitting into customers’ needs. In 2019, HGC acquired Macroview telecom, one of the most prominent SI in the Hong Kong market, turning HGC into a complete ICT solution provider instead of staying at traditional telecom services.

HGC's overall digitization strategy is to create a better customer experience. One of the major strategies is digitally enabled products and services:

1. First, their services have already implemented auto-provisioning capabilities such as residential IAD service. This first helps in the provisioning time to market for customers, keeping a better record for customer service, and turning into a lower operational cost to customers. Overall, it’s a customer experience improvement

2. The second strategy is to create a new revenue stream and operational efficiency:

• Their current services have even turned into self-ordered capabilities, such as their software-defined network (SDN) service. Customers can order international connectivity at the portal to be automatically provisioned to the points selected.

• SecurityFirst is another new service launched which enable 12 different security brand/services over a single platform for SOC, proactive monitoring as well as parameters correlation

A fascinating instance to share is the smart IoT solution for property management where would be pretty specific to the Hong Kong environment due to its crowdedness with high environmental standard. The solution assists property management in gathering ambient data to improve customer experience. Typical examples include monitor Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) to adjust ventilation and timely dispatch maintenance when detect water leakage. In addition, it also provides Smart Reception and reservation to minimize human contact to ensure its safeness during this Covid period.

HGC Group is continuously expanding the digital transformation to local and international markets for the days to come, and cybersecurity is one of the most prominent considerations during this digital journey. Riding on their full-fledged digital infrastructure, they will continue to invest millions of US dollars in different phases to enhance their capabilities in cybersecurity further.

About HGC Global Communications

HGC Global Communications Limited (HGC) is a leading fixed-line operator with extensive infrastructure in Hong Kong and overseas and offers a broad portfolio of products and services. HGC provides other operators with telecoms infrastructure while acting as a service provider to corporations and households alike. HGC is a comprehensive information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider; offerings comprise fully-fledged telecoms, data center, and broadband services to suit local, overseas, corporate, and mass markets.

HGC owns and operates an extensive fiber-optic network, five cross-border telecom routes integrated into tier-one telecom operators in mainland China and connects with hundreds of world-class international telecom operators. HGC is one of Hong Kong’s largest Wi-Fi service providers, running over 29,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in Hong Kong. The company is committed to further investing and enriching its current infrastructure and, in parallel, adding on top the latest technologies and developing its infrastructure services and solutions. IEWL