Euroweb appoints new management team, reveals growth targets

Telecom company Euroweb Romania, part of Turk Telekom group, has brought three new members onto its management team to assist the company in fulfilling its growth target in a “tough” and “crazy” competitive climate. The company plans to invest EUR 1.5 million in infrastructure in Romania in 2013.

By Otilia Haraga

“At the moment our total commercial team, which also covers customer care and customer support, numbers 24 people. We have 16 sales people, most of them based in Bucharest, but we also have people in Timisoara, Cluj and Iasi,” Stuart Evers, CEO of Euroweb Romania, told BR.

The new management team includes Toma Matei, who has been appointed sales manager. Matei started his career at Euroweb in 2008 as key account executive and a year later was promoted to area sales manager. In 2010, he became regional sales manager for Transylvania. From the following year, he coordinated the sales process for the west of the country as regional sales manager for the Transylvania and Banat regions.

He graduated from the Faculty of Telecom Management of the DeVryUniversity in Chicago and is currently taking an MBA at the Executive Academy of the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Before joining Euroweb, he worked in the market research and IT consultancy industry in the United States at various organizations.

Meanwhile, Daniela Florentina Gurau becomes financial director while Sorana Balan has been brought in as human resources manager. Before coordinating the financial department of Euroweb, Gurau spent five years as financial director at Dual Group and four years as financial auditor at Deloitte Romania. She is a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and also of the Body of Expert and Licensed Accountants in Romania.

She graduated from the Faculty of Accounting at the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest and has a master’s in International Accounting.

Balan joined Euroweb this year. She has over 12 years of experience in human resources and coordinated the HR strategies for RTC Holding and Biofarm. She graduated from the Faculty of Economic Studies in Foreign Languages at the Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest. She has two master’s degrees, one in Business Administration and Organizational Development from the University of Orleans and one in the Management of Human Resources from the Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest.

Euroweb provides IP and internet communication solutions for the business segment as well as integration of VoIP and video telephony services.

At the beginning of April, the company will launch its revamped website, which will provide online technical support via live chat, placing its customers in direct contact with its technical support department.

Before the implementation of this system, it was necessary to deploy the team to the client’s location for any reported malfunction.

With this application, approximately 40 percent of the reported technical problems can be resolved within 5 to 10 minutes via remote control. In this way, the company aims to better allocate its resources and provide quicker services, said Evers.

“This year looks set to be a difficult one for the local telecommunication market. More and more pressure is being placed on cutting costs, the economic crunch is not over yet and companies are no longer willing to invest in infrastructure development, even if this would help them on the long term. Overall, I do not believe the Romanian telecommunication market will see significant growth in 2013,” explained Evers.

At the moment, Euroweb has 85 employees, and it plans to grow the team by 10 percent, as happened last year.

“This year we are aiming for growth in revenues of between 6 and 10 percent, which will be organic growth from existing and new customers,” said Evers.

According to preliminary data, Euroweb posted revenues of EUR 8.2 million in Romana in 2012. “Overall, we are hoping to make EUR 8.7 million in revenues in 2013.”

While Turk Telecom announced an investment budget of EUR 12 million for 2013 in Romania, the amount of investments will depend on certain projects that are currently under negotiations.

However, the firm has announced it will definitely invest EUR 1.5 million into fiber optic infrastructure and several hundred thousands of EUR into its car fleet.

Euroweb has also announced that it has acquired an important client, Techem, a global supplier of energy billing and energy management for real estate, headquartered in Germany, providing it with internet connectivity.

“Competition on the Romanian market is somewhere between tough and crazy because the Romanian market has the lowest internet prices and the highest bandwidth per user in the world. The model is now moving from low cost-low revenues to high cost-low revenues. As operators grow desperate for revenues, they cut prices even more. This may seem like a good deal now but in 10-15 years time, who will invest in the next generation of networks? We should instead focus on adding value to the services we provide,” said Evers.

Since 2010, Turk Telekom has been the main shareholder of Euroweb Romania, with telecom infrastructure in South-Eastern Europe which gathers together brands such as Pantel, Euroweb, TTNET, Argela, Innova, Sebit, Sobee and AssisTT.

Turk Telekom is listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange under the code TTKOM.

otilia.haraga@business-review.ro

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