{"id":9966,"date":"2020-05-29T11:50:14","date_gmt":"2020-05-29T10:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/?p=9966"},"modified":"2023-01-16T17:04:40","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T17:04:40","slug":"ringside-interview-with-claire-harris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/ringside-interview-with-claire-harris\/","title":{"rendered":"Ringside: Interview with Claire Harris"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019re expanding the circle. In the Ringside series, we\u2019ve adjusted from talking to our own leaders to approaching our partners for insights into the challenges and solutions of the telecommunications industry. We\u2019re curious to uncover a broader perspective on business communications.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this episode we introduce Claire Harris, Director of Field Sales at <a href=\"https:\/\/business.bt.com\/products\/cloud-work\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BT Business<\/a>. Claire has previously worked with Orange and EE, where she formed her reputation for raising standards within the medium, corporate and <a href=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/definitions\/enterprise\/\">enterprise<\/a> business arenas by removing barriers to sale and driving growth for business communication services.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Claire is passionate about building an engaged and collaborative culture, empowering and developing her team to be able to deliver the right solutions, at the right time for our customers. She is also driven by innovative technology that can transform businesses and increase their success.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Claire, what&#8217;s your role and what do you love about your job?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Director of Field Sales for SME at BT Business, I lead a direct team of c140 and an indirect team of c1,000 staff across a network of 34 BT Business Local Business (LB) partners. Field Sales connects over 1M small and medium enterprises to help them to manage and grow their business.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I love the variety that every day brings, as myself and my team adapt to the many differing requirements of our SME customers. The BT Business LB model is a very unusual sales model, that enables our customers to be serviced by SME sized businesses, whilst being supported by one of the countries most trusted brands. The varied combination of leading direct and indirect sales teams on a collaborative journey to mutual success, makes every day an exciting one.<\/span><\/p>\n\t\t<style>\r\n\t\t\t@media (min-width: 768px) {\r\n\t\t\t\t.bottom-cta .bottom-cta-img {\r\n\t\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\r\n\t\t\t\t\twidth: 50%;\r\n\t\t\t\t}\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\r\n\t\t\t.bottom-cta .bottom-cta-img img {\r\n\t\t\t\twidth: 100%;\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\r\n\t\t\t.bottom-cta {\r\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #001138;\r\n\t\t\t\tpadding: 30px;\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\r\n\t\t\t.bottom-cta .bottom-cta-copy {\r\n\t\t\t\tpadding: 0 30px;\r\n\t\t\t\toverflow: hidden;\r\n\t\t\t\tcolor: #fff;\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\r\n\t\t\t.bottom-cta .bottom-cta-copy .btn-primary {\r\n\t\t\t\twidth: 100%;\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\t\t<\/style>\r\n\t\t<div class=\"bottom-cta  CID-cta-2FdM5dTp IID-cta-69d052f0da32b\"\r\n\t\t\tdata-dl-custom-type=\"cta\">\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"bottom-cta-img\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/498023704-Datasheet-forRingCentral-Office-Rapid-Deployment-banner_1200X627-1.png\" alt=\"Call to action banner\">\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"bottom-cta-copy\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<span style=\"font-size: 24px; line-height: 30px;\">Get up and running in 48 hours with RingCentral Office Rapid Deployment.<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"text-center\" style=\"display: block;\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"rc-cta-shortcode btn btn-primary btn-lg\" data-dl-element=\"button\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"btn btn-primary btn-lg\" style=\"margin-top: 16px; font-weight: bold;\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\ttitle=\"Click for more details\" href=\"https:\/\/netstorage.ringcentral.com\/documents\/datasheet_for_ringcentral_office_rapid_deployment.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\trel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-dl-additional-info=\"Get up and running in 48 hours with RingCentral Office Rapid Deployment.\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\tdata-dl-name=\"Get up and running in 48 hours with RingCentral Office Rapid Deployment. | Find out more\">Find out more<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\n<h2>In what ways has business communications changed over your career?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I think back to how we communicated 30 years ago, it was mainly by corded telephones and fax machines, and communications tended to be formal and at a much slower pace. Technology advancements have provided new levels of communication that were previously only imaginable and technology has become the most important communication tool as we have evolved from traditional to digital.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s estimated that approximately 70 billion WhatsApp messages and 23 billion text messages are sent each day worldwide and around 300 billion emails are sent and received each day.\u00a0 These figures show the incredible ability we have to communicate with our colleagues and customers instantaneously at any time, anywhere around the world. Our customers\u2019 expectations have changed, with responses and results expected much faster than ever before.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For our colleagues, connected devices and social media encourage innovation and collaboration and the flexibility they allow also impacts on efficiency, productivity and wellbeing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Communications are changing at an incredibly fast pace and in business we are continuously adapting to maximise the opportunities and benefits they bring; I still find myself learning new skills every day! The recent situation has demonstrated the importance of remote communication and I\u2019m really proud and fortunate to be a part of the support we can offer to the UK economy.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>What&#8217;s the best piece of advice you can give to a business wishing to improve its communication?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take the time to use your investment in technology to its fullest capacity by understanding its full capability. This isn\u2019t just about understanding the tools you invest in and how they integrate into your infrastructure, but also about understanding your workforce and your business processes, and how your technology can enable productivity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adoption is critical \u2013 there\u2019s no point having tools that nobody uses. So find out how your technology can truly support your employees to deliver, and demonstrate how it empowers them towards success.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>How do you see the partnership with RingCentral and the product BT Cloud Work fitting into the BT Business proposition going forward?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our partnership with RingCentral has been in place for five years, and over those years we have seen stronger demand for features such as live reports, team messaging, call analytics, quarterly product updates and plug-and-play integrations from our customers. In 2020, in the midst of COVID-19, partnerships with cloud <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/office\/unified-communications.html\">UCaaS<\/a> providers like RingCentral have turned out to be a game changer for BT Business and our customers. It would be difficult as a SME to survive the lockdown without proper communication tools, and BT Business brings our core strength of being the UK\u2019s best fixed and mobile provider and our industry leading network capabilities to the partnership. RingCentral brings their cloud UCaaS industry leadership and expertise. I look forward to helping more SMEs navigate this interesting time with partners like RingCentral, who are just as committed to our customers\u2019 success.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>As we prepare for the next <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">300 billion emails, we thank Claire for her insights and wish her success in the uncertain second half of 2020. Look out for more episodes in this series of Ringside, and remember \u2013 there\u2019s lots of advice and information to <a href=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/remote-work-resources\/\">support your business remote working<\/a> if you need help on anything from infrastructure to self-management.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"uc-expo-cta-2 text-center IId-bottom-banner-144903516 CId-bottom-banner-1098205596\"><span style=\"font-size: 24px; line-height: 30px;\">Get more information on RingCentral Office Rapid Deployment.<\/span><span class=\"text-center\" style=\"display: block;\" data-dtm-element=\"button\" data-dtm-context=\"bottom-cta\" data-dtm-additional-info=\"Find out more\"><a class=\"btn btn-primary btn-lg\" style=\"margin-top: 16px; font-weight: bold;\" title=\"Find out more\" href=\"https:\/\/netstorage.ringcentral.com\/documents\/datasheet_for_ringcentral_office_rapid_deployment.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-dtm-name=\"Bottom CTA\">Find out more<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019re expanding the circle. In the Ringside series, we\u2019ve adjusted from talking to our own leaders to approaching our partners for insights into the challenges and solutions of the telecommunications &hellip; <a href=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/ringside-interview-with-claire-harris\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Ringside: Interview with Claire Harris&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":244,"featured_media":9984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,3],"tags":[74,116,122,40],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ringside: Interview with Claire Harris | RingCentral UK Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this episode we introduce Claire Harris, Director of Field Sales at BT. Claire has previously worked with Orange and EE.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/blog\/ringside-interview-with-claire-harris\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"RingCentral Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ringside: Interview with Claire Harris | RingCentral UK Blog","description":"In this episode we introduce Claire Harris, Director of Field Sales at BT. 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