Indigo in 2021: another year of growth
2021 was a bright year for Indigo as a company despite all that was going on in the world with the COVID-19 pandemic.
IIP Gold Accreditation
We kicked off the year by being awarded the Investors in People (IIP) Gold accreditation. This means that we have the correct policies in place within the business and that everyone takes ownership of them.
Only 17% of IIP accredited businesses receive the prestigious gold title, and we are very proud of the work that we have all done collectively to achieve this gold award. I would like to send a big thank you to the team that made this happen for us.
Being appointed CEO
For me personally, a big part of my own and Indigo’s 2021 journey was being appointed as the Indigo CEO in March. After founding and serving as CEO of 4site for 20 years, the transition to becoming Group CEO was a big moment in my 30-year career within telecommunications.
The plans were significant for the company and I was excited to implement my experience and expertise directing the company forward into becoming a global leader in the provision of telecoms services. Having worked closely together with our Chairman, Kevin Taylor MBE, since the acquisition of 4site, and with the support from Excom, SMT and all staff I felt I had the trust and support needed to develop the company further.
This came at such a significant time for the business, with plans around the integration of 4site and to expand into new and exciting markets. Not only that there were plans to further develop our high-quality service offering across build and support services.
Rebrand
To support this growth Indigo Telecom Group became “Indigo” in June, signifying the integration with 4site. A significant driver was an increased ambition to drive our Design, Build and Support Services, and myself and Kevin decided it was a perfect time for the two to fully integrate.
The new name and a new identity were introduced, and with the slogan “Engineering a Digital Future”, Indigo announced our intentions for the company. This was a reference to the companies’ position as a global leader in the provision of digital infrastructure services. [See Full Press Release here]
The refreshed brand also reflects Indigo’s focus on capitalising on global market opportunities around Data Centres, Fibre to the Home (FTTH), Wireless/5G, Digitisation and Telco Network Services.
USA expansion and drive
2021 was also a year that saw us growing our US presence.
Will Houston has been named as Head of US Operations to support the growth in this region. Will now has a strong engineering team who are eager to help the company on its journey and I look forward to hearing about their progress in what is still the early stages for them.
Our medium-term aim is to deliver Indigo services to our existing customers. In addition, we will develop opportunities across all our divisions into new customers within the US market. Look out for some exciting developments in the US in 2022.
SHEQ
The newly-branded Indigo was awarded the ROSPA Gold Award for Health and Safety achievements in July of 2021, for the second year in a row.
This prestigious accreditation recognises the company’s commitment to improving health and safety performance and practices throughout the business. In this line of work, health and safety of ALL of our staff remain our biggest priority.
Newly promoted Head of SHEQ, David Healy was delighted about this achievement. I strongly believe SHEQ is one of the most important functions in our business. I have huge admiration for David and his team for their tireless work in keeping us all safe and well.
Recruitment drive
October was a significant month of the year, where we announced a substantial recruitment drive to grow our workforce. The company announced that 150 jobs are to be created within the next 12 months across a range of areas within the business.
We expanded the recruitment team by welcoming Geoff Ballard and Sam Price to help the existing team and further support the recruitment process.
The first phase aims to help strengthen the numbers within our Global Service Desk based in Magor, South Wales. The jobs within the Service Desk cover a range of support and customer service roles on a 24x7x365 basis, which is a critical part of our business and that of our customers.
The following phase will introduce 300 open-location and office-based roles across the UK, Ireland and US as the company continues to support the workforce within each of our service offerings. Open roles that can be expected within this phase will be fibre planners/surveyors, wireless designers/engineers, project managers, field engineers, data centre technicians as well as business support roles across accounts, sales, and operations.
The timing of the announcement of the jobs was supported with a visit to the Indigo HQ in Magor, South Wales by the Welsh Minister of Economy, Vaughan Gething and Local MP John Griffiths. Kevin and I welcomed their attendance and enjoyed discussing Indigo’s future.
Gething was impressed with Indigo’s growth intentions.
“We welcome Indigo’s expansion and the company’s continued commitment to Wales. It is important for our communities that we can offer high-tech career paths within Wales and play a key part in global growth sectors such as communications and digital industries.”
[See Full Press Release Here]
The visit from Gething was at a time where he was eager for young people to pursue their career goals within Wales by passionately claiming “Young people do not have to “get out” of Wales to “get on”.
Indigo wants to be a demonstration of this exact idea, and with the intention to expand, we hope to contribute greatly to the Welsh economy. On the visit to the Magor HQ, we showed the visitors the Global Service Desk, and gave an insight into how the team works on a 27x7x365 working with customers and engineers from across the world.
Qualcomm
In September Indigo announced that it was now part of the Qualcomm Advantage Network. Qualcomm is a global leader in developing 5G edge computing. With a breadth of Qualcomm Technologies-based solutions addressing diverse vertical segments, Indigo now helps deliver greater efficiencies, cost savings, safety, and sustainability to cities and private industry as part of the Qualcomm Accelerator Network.
Ambitions for 2022
With all the topics I’ve covered here, it’s clear that 2021 has been a significant year for the company, in terms of our ambitious plans as we continue to grow and expand.
I have no doubt that this will continue into 2022, and we are looking forward to further expanding our brilliant team with top-quality talent to support us through our next growth phase. We also promote from within with a huge percentage of our workforce progressing their career this year. This career development will continue through the training of our staff.
New years always bring new challenges, but as a company, we can only be excited to embrace them throughout the year 2022 bringing exciting opportunities for our people and our business.
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