KEY POINTS:
Fresh from selling the software developer she founded with her husband, Mike, over a decade ago, Dot Johnstone has a new challenge - to propel CallPlus Retail into the big league of telecommunications players.
Johnstone joined CallPlus this month as general manager of its newly created business division,
CallPlus Retail, after selling Keylogix, the firm she started in 1992.
In recent years Johnstone stepped back from day-to-day management at Keylogix, working instead with healthcare software company Orion Health on its product development.
She and her husband sold their shareholding in Keylogix last year.
It is Johnstone's product development and management skills CallPlus will use to try to grab a bigger share of the phone market.
After 11 years of business, the CallPlus Group has an annual turnover estimated at $80 million - but only 0.7 per cent of the telecommunications market.
It announced last month it would split into four new business units - Slingshot Retail for residential phone and internet customers, CallPlus Retail to service business internet and phone customers, Blue Reach wireless and a wholesale division.
Johnstone, after only two weeks, already has big ambitions for the company. "I see a picture of the size of our growth, I've also been given a picture of the expected size of our growth ... we're aiming high."
She has been busy appointing a new senior management team. The separation of CallPlus Retail and Slingshot Retail included each having its own customer service, sales and marketing and product development teams - services previously shared.
Next on the list is introducing WiMAX products to the business market.
CallPlus invested $3 million in a WiMAX trial in Whangarei and has recently begun selling the service to business and residential customers in the area.
While the present allocation of spectrum allows the company to develop the network from Papakura northward, it will be looking to grab more in the Government-run spectrum auctions to be held in December.
"My opportunity is just right there, take it, run with it and focus it more on the business sector," Johnstone said.
She said that while her feet "haven't touched the ground" since starting, she could already see opportunities to be innovative and focus on customer service.
"I believe we've got the potential to differentiate ourselves from the status quo," she said.
"Telecom is old post office and that DNA runs through that whole organisation. We don't quite have that same DNA - ours is a little bit younger and more vibrant."
It was the entrepreneurial spirit established by company founders Malcolm Dick and Annette Presley that attracted her.
"I sat back one night and thought, 'Who do I want to go and work with?"'
Presley is no longer involved in management of the company after a very public marital and business split with Dick last year.
She retains a substantial shareholding in the business, but at present is focused on charity work.
Johnstone said that having built her own company, the fact CallPlus was still 100 per cent New Zealand-owned appealed.
"That actually is really important because ... we're serving other people who are New Zealand 'number eight wire' companies, so they do respect and appreciate why we want to differentiate ourselves in that way."
Johnstone will be able to draw on experience as a CallPlus customer.
Keylogix was one of the first businesses to trial voice over IP technology instead of traditional phone lines.
"I've always felt strongly about working with your suppliers, like in this case CallPlus, if we believe they were going to achieve what we wanted them to do.
"It's less trouble than swapping."
Johnstone says the ability to see services from a customer viewpoint is an advantage she has over competitors, one she hopes she'll never lose.
She admits telco companies have had so much going on technology-wise that they have been guilty of forgetting about their customers.
