Telviva, the market leader in cloud-based communications for business, has announced the appointment of technology industry veteran Antony Russell to the position of chief technology officer.
Russell will be instrumental in the management and continued development of the company’s product portfolio serving both local and international markets.
“Modern businesses face a huge challenge in dealing with the plethora of communications channels that are available out there. Taking a unified communications approach is hugely beneficial for business as it brings synchronicity between voice, video and chat. Combining this with additional context from backend systems means that businesses can provide their customers with contextual, seamless and personalised engagements,” says Russell.
As chief technology officer, Russell will be in charge of overseeing the following teams within the company: the core team, which is responsible for the infrastructure used to run the Telviva network as well as the data centres running the company’s software solutions; the development team, which has been crucial in the design, development and deployment of the company’s market-leading business communications solutions; and the professional services team, which serves large private and public sector customers with requirements for modern, omnichannel contact centre solutions.
Extensive experience
An entrepreneur, business leader and an expert IT specialist, Russell has extensive experience in the industry, including in hardware and software sales and distribution, security, PBX systems, IT and business consultancy, proactive monitoring of customer IT infrastructure, the provision of managed services, and the design, development and deployment of contact centre solutions to the local market. He is one of the few Digium Certified Asterisk Professionals (dCAPs) in South Africa.
In 2001, Russell co-founded Clarotech, an IT infrastructure company that specialised in providing consulting, support and procurement services to small and large companies in South Africa. As technical director, he was influential in seeing the company expand beyond its traditional offering and into the provision of ISP services, private cloud services, telephony and contact centre solutions to local customers.
Clarotech was acquired by Logicalis in 2019, and Russell continued to be involved in multiple roles, including providing high-level technical guidance for international teams, and heading different areas in the company. His last role here was as practice manager for unified communications. Russell joined Telviva in June 2021 to replace previous chief technology officer and company co-founder Steve Davies, who sadly passed away earlier this year.
Russell is also a member of the South African flying team and earned his national colours in flying for representing South Africa in the World Air Navigation Race in Portugal in 2019. He is looking forward to representing South Africa at the World Rally Flying Championships to be held in Stellenbosch in November 2021. In addition, he developed a booking system — Book-A-Flight — which is targeted at the South African flight training industry.
“We are excited that Tony decided to join the team. He brings with him a wealth of expertise and experience that will allow us to continue to operate a world-class service and pursue our international aspirations,” says Telviva CEO David Meintjes.
About Telviva
Telviva, formerly Connection Telecom, is a market leader in cloud-based communications for business. Seamlessly integrating voice, video and chat in one intelligent platform, Telviva allows you to have better quality conversations with customers, suppliers and staff.
For several years, we have presented a portfolio of brands, namely Connection Telecom, Telviva and Fat Budgie. These have now been consolidated under the Telviva banner to better align our product understanding and messaging, enabling our customers to maximise the benefits of consolidating all their general business communications into a single cloud application.
For more information, please visit www.telviva.co.za.
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