Indigo in 2022: back to the future
By Ian Duggan, CEO, Indigo
Looking back at what turned out to be an extraordinary year for Indigo, it now seems bizarre that the most striking feature of the first few months was being in an office with people again. After the pandemic it felt like a luxury to have face-to-face interactions with colleagues and customers, and to be out and about at industry events. As a people person it was something I had really missed.
The two years since the first lockdown had been tough, but unexpectedly inspiring. I’d like to thank everyone in Indigo because they excelled in a company-wide effort to keep the business going while maintaining a safe workplace and implementing precautions that we could never have imagined a few years ago.
We did very well with the ‘new normal’, but I much prefer being back with the ‘old normal’. Indigo’s success has always been built around people collaborating which made the pandemic a particularly frustrating time for us. Needless to say, when everything started opening up again, we were quickly out of the traps, back focusing on the future and growing the business.
Expanding into the US
In the US market we have been particularly busy as we continue to build out our footprint there, opening a NOC (Network Operations Centre) in the USA to better serve our North American and subsea customers. We had previously supported them through a combination of remote and smart hands, but in 2021 we began to develop a stronger presence on the ground despite the pandemic.
This year it’s gone from strength to strength. I was lucky enough to visit the new NOC in October and spend time with our fantastic team there.
Chris Portlock, our Head of Global NOC Services and his team, has done an amazing job in the formation and development of the NOC. Crucially for us, he’s hired excellent people. A big part of Indigo’s success is down to the talent we recruit and it’s great to see the same approach replicated in the US.
Alongside the NOC staff, we are lucky to have a brilliant field engineering team working under Will Houston Our Head of US Field Operations. It was a huge commitment for Will to relocate over to the States and head up our field operations there, but the traction we’re experiencing with North American clients, old and new, is testament to what he’s achieved.
Named as fastest growing firm in Wales
We were privileged to have welcomed Andrew Bowie, the MP for International Trade, to our Wales HQ in December. The Minister was in South Wales to see what @tradegovuk can do to get more Welsh businesses exporting. ”Because when more firms export it boosts jobs, increases wages and grows the economy for Wales and the UK.”
His powerful message is backed up by our latest announcement that Indigo was named the fastest-growing firm in Wales by Insider Media.
New roles and new people
Closer to home we welcomed more new faces into the business, and saw familiar ones take up new roles.
Ray O’Connor, who has occupied many senior roles in Indigo over the years, was appointed Chief Commercial Officer and a member of the Board. He knows the business inside out and will provide long-term sales leadership as we focus on driving growth and building on our global customer base. Part of his job will be to expand our internal skills portfolio as we look to develop our capabilities around 5G, data centres, digitisation and managed services.
In October, Kyla Farmer joined as Chief People Officer and hit the ground running, putting her stamp on employee initiatives, our workplace culture, and in helping Indigo achieve gender balance at all levels of the company. She has directly contributed to the latter by being appointed to the board and joining our senior leadership team.
We are proud to have promoted 71 of our people in the last year which is testament to our commitment to our employees in progressing their careers. Next year we hope to further support all our people with what they want from their careers in Indigo.
Planning for 2023
For all of us in Indigo it’s important to continue to develop as a company with a distinct culture, one that we can be proud of. As we move into 2023, we will continue to work on our ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) frameworks, with a particular focus on sustainability.
We will increase our commitment towards climate change through the conservation of natural resources, and continue to build on the trust, transparency and ethical practices that are integral to every customer engagement. We are committed to setting realistic targets on reducing our carbon footprint as we focus on delivering against our sustainability plan.
At the heart of the business is close collaboration with customers across all our different divisions. We have forged many new relationships in 2022 which we look forward to developing in the years ahead. We’ve been fortunate enough to grow our global footprint in the last few years, something we expect to continue with our expansion into the US and the development of our subsea business.
Fun and games
Of course, it’s not all work at Indigo. It was great to welcome back social events after the pandemic and get to spend some fun time with our wonderful people. In July we had a summer party for the UK and Ireland teams, an all too rare opportunity to bring together staff who work across all corners of the two countries. It was a first in-person meeting for some, a chance to catch up with colleagues they had previously only met over video calls.
We even had time for a football match. The Cain McKee Memorial Cup is an annual football match that usually takes place in Limerick to commemorate our late colleague who sadly passed away playing football a few years ago. This year we decided to make it international by having the Irish staff take on the UK team. It was a great occasion which saw the UK team winning narrowly. I suspect one of the first things we’ll have to plan for 2023 is a rematch.
We all would like to especially thank our front-line teams who will be working over the holiday season to make sure we keep our customers connected!
For more on who we are, visit our website Who We Are – Indigo (indigotg.com)
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