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December 22, 2022Prioritizing projects that bring long term value, with Éric Marchand
As we approach the end of the year, this four-part series recaps Intelcom’s successes and challenges of 2022 from different perspectives. It’s a brief moment to stop and catch our breath, so we can move forward into 2023 with the past year’s learnings in our toolbox.
After speaking with Jean-Daniel Gervais, Vice-President Sales & Marketing, and Mélie Matifat, Vice-President, People & Culture, in the previous weeks, it’s Éric Marchand’s turn to take part in this series.
As Vice-President, Technology, Éric gives an overview of his 2022 year through Intelcom’s tech lens.
Éric Marchand, VP Technology
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What were your priorities for 2022?
2022 has been a truly exciting year for Intelcom’s technology team. In my case, my priority was essentially to get to know the team and the projects in progress. Then there was an important exercise of prioritization to be done, in order to deliver the projects which have a structuring value for Intelcom’s technological and commercial ambitions. A house is built on solid foundations, and it’s in this spirit that we have established our priorities in 2022.
What achievements are you especially proud of?
On a larger scale, we continued our evolution toward a company with high technological value. The projects that are currently in development will be promising for years to come and that is extremely satisfying in my position.
In the field, the implementation and mastery of our automated sorters in the regions of Toronto and Montreal are great technological facilitators to increase the company’s capacity and volume.
All our projects are bold, but seeing the teams embark on them together with motivation, is a mindset I like to see on my team. It makes a big difference in our daily work.
How do you think Intelcom has evolved during the year?
I like to say that Intelcom is increasingly a tech shop and not just a package delivery company.
For example, we have set up a research and development department, in order to be even more on the lookout for new industry trends and to provide cutting-edge solutions to our customers.
The technology team has also evolved a lot: our working methods are transforming to always contribute to creating more value. The beauty in this is that Intelcom is becoming an increasingly sought-after employer for technology roles, and that’s a big development in my eyes.
What were 2022’s biggest challenges?
The rapid growth of the company in the past few years was on the verge of creating technological debt within the company, but we made the right decisions at the right time to avoid this situation.
With this in mind, prioritizing projects to place efforts in places that create long-term value has been challenging, but very rewarding.
We have also internalized several of these projects to build our expertise on key technologies in our industry. This is a big challenge, but the benefits will be noticeable in the autonomy and independence we gain in accomplishing our technological advances.
What were the year’s key takeaways and what are we bringing into 2023?
You have to put time into the foundations, and you have to have a corporate technological vision that goes beyond the technology department itself.
We are in the process of setting up a center of excellence that will allow each of our teams to automate certain internal processes, and therefore increase efficiency.
As we standardize our processes, there are fewer gray areas from one department to another, from one station to another, and this increases our efficiency. This is what we aspire to as a company and the technology team will be there to facilitate this journey!