John Walsh

In recent years, the Republic of Ireland has become a technology-leading hub for digital transformation. Its progress is only continuing, with the country’s ICT market having been valued at US$20.3bn in 2023.

One of the companies at the forefront of these changes is Virgin Media Ireland, Liberty Global’s telecommunications operation in Ireland. As of August 2024, the company offers broadband internet, digital television and mobile phone services to one million customers. 

John Walsh, the company’s Director of Technology Transformation, explains how the company is helping Ireland capitalise on its technology boom, leveraging its partnerships to position itself at the forefront of technological advancements in a competitive landscape. 

“We have a responsibility in Virgin Media as a long-standing telco in Ireland to modernise and ensure that we're delivering services, particularly digital services, for our customers that use the services that have come in the tech boom,” he says. “It is also a massive responsibility to ensure our telecommunications company is up to the highest standards.”

‘Digital-first’ telco transformation in Ireland

The organisation is currently embarking on a three-phase digital transformation journey. With a keen focus on customer-centric solutions, John continues to orchestrate this strategy to encompass digital enablement, operational modernisation and systems simplification. 

“The first phase of the project was digital enablement, where the company helps customers work with them on their own terms,” John says. “The second phase is more operational, modernising how we ensure that our operations are as efficient and as advanced as they can be behind the scenes for our customer so that there are no major service issues.”

Currently, the project is in its third phase, which looks at simplicity and agility around its billing systems and mobile platforms. John says this part of the process is to “finish off that end-to-end digital-first strategy.”

He adds: “We have a traditional billing platform and traditional customer order management platform that sits underneath our digital systems. This is the beating heart of how a lot of telcos operate with their customers and how we sell to our customers and how we make sure that we monetise those services.”

For John, the customer is everything, as he explains that Virgin Media Ireland’s project seeks to provide an overall better experience for the customer.

“If our customers are happy, if our customer services are as performant as they can be, then we win all around,” he says. “The customer was at the forefront in the first phase. Providing simplicity and the ability for us to provide the best operational experience is all beneficial to our customers.”

‘Family’ partnerships empower digital transformation

Virgin Media Ireland credits its partner ecosystem as a very important enabler for its successful digital transformation strategy. Notably, its partnerships with Infosys and Prodapt who work at incredible speeds to deliver a collaborative and successful environment.

“We couldn't deliver the transformation we needed without our partners,” John explains. “The speed at which they operate, and the speed at which they can scale in relation to delivering high quality, also benefits our customers,” John comments.

Infosys is the prime system integrator of Virgin Media Ireland’s digital transformation plan, managing the governance of each programme. It takes on the responsibility of delivery, particularly when it comes to customer order management, billing and the digital space. On the other hand, Prodapt helps with service assurance, provisioning and traditional OSS, so are closer to the network. 

This was actualised via the company’s Full Fibre project which was not only very complex, but went live in record time. It was designed to help roll out full fibre broadband to more homes and businesses across Ireland.

John credits this journey to these partners, saying: “Their unique strength is scale. It goes back to understanding those partners and whether they're willing to operate in that family ethos,” John explains. “Once we're all on the same page, once we're all working together, we always give ourselves the best shot at success.”

Setting and maintaining high standards

For the last several years, Virgin Media Ireland has implemented major transformation efforts and shows no signs of slowing down. Now, the company is eager to leverage its innovations to better serve its customer base. 

“What's next for us is always that customer focus,” John says. “Now that we're ahead with our major transformation, it's now about hunkering down and focusing on how we can make that customer experience better, week by week, month by month.”

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