We are innovating to solve customer engagement problems and address specific challenges presented by our clients. And, we are succeeding – Miloš Borenović
TeleSign is probably the only IT company in Serbia which has products that were, at least partially, envisaged, designed and built locally, and which are used by 20 of the 25 largest web properties in the world.
We are instrumental in securing and managing client relationships and building products that change the way businesses interact with their customers.
What makes TeleSign unique?
– A vast majority of people have likely used our products without even realising it. From the moment someone wakes up in the morning and checks their email, all the way until they go to bed at night and check what’s new on their favourite social network, they have likely used our products in a variety of ways. This ability to reach and influence a great number of end-users across the globe provides the purpose of our work and presents a privilege and honour for us at TeleSign.
What types of products does Tele- Sign build and how much of business is present in Belgrade?
– Every facet of TeleSign’s business has a presence in our Belgrade office. Whether it’s development, sales, marketing or product management, a large part of TeleSign’s success is created by our innovative team in Serbia. We are instrumental in securing and managing client relationships and building products that change the way businesses interact with their customers.
One of these products is built around a messaging platform that delivers SMSs on behalf of our customers to and from end-users all around the world. The so-called Application-to-Person (A2P) SMS is going through a renaissance period. The main drivers of this are twofold. On the one hand, customers all over the world are increasingly reliant on mobile in all facets of their lives, from shopping to communicating, and they prefer to work with businesses that allow them to communicate via mobile devices, especially SMSs.
The education system is not well known for yielding future product management professionals and there is a lack of companies offering such positions and experience
On the other hand, businesses are realising the effectiveness of SMS communications, where more than 90 per cent of messages are opened within three minutes and engagement is drastically increased compared to other platforms like email.
This is reflected in numerous reports indicating strong and steady growth of the A2P SMS and Communications Platform as a service (CPaaS) market in general. TeleSign, which was founded and is headquartered in Los Angeles, recently launched its CPaaS platform, and IDC has stated that TeleSign is poised for victory on this market.
What are some of the challenges and benefits of having a full-fledged Product Management department in Serbia?
– In Belgrade, TeleSign’s local PM team consists of 10 experienced product managers who are working on all the jobs you would typically hire a PM to do – from Corporate Strategy and ideation to go-to-market execution. Forming and maintaining such a department has traditionally been a challenge in Serbia.
Moreover, the customer base is international and gathering customer insights, which is a vital job of a PM, can sometimes be challenging and include lots of travel (i.e. high costs). Despite all of the aforementioned, TeleSign – mainly through investment in PMs’ knowledge base and internal processes – has found a way to not only have a local PM department but one that is successful and vital to the growth of TeleSign’s international business.
Our strong PM department works to TeleSign’s benefit not only when it comes to market success, but also internally. Thanks to our instrumental role in TeleSign’s vision and success, we are able to help bring alignment, meaning and purpose to all other departments of our Belgrade office. We firmly believe that meaning and purpose in our everyday jobs are an essential ingredient to being happy and engaged in our work, and this helps us ensure our customers are successful when we are successful at what we do.