Intensive work at TeliaSonera International Carrier

Anne Cook is an Account Manager in Voice Trading and she’s one of the very important cogs that turns the wheel of the international voice business in TeliaSonera International Carrier.

Voice minutes terminating into Sweden and Finland as well as minutes originating from the TeliaSonera group is defined as bilateral traffic and is negotiated in contracts lasting between 3-6 months. All other traffic, about 55%, is traded on a day-to-day basis.

A cog in a wheel
Anne, who is one out of ten Account Managers in the trading team, joined Telia in 1997 when the UK branch was focusing on the domestic UK market. Over the years she has been able to maintain different roles and develop her skills in both retail and wholesale.
“At TeliaSonera it’s been great to experience different fields in international telecoms as it helps to understand how our part of the business fits into the whole company scope. Knowing the industry from different angles is also useful when talking to customers and vendors as it means that you’re able to understand their perspective on the market”.

Fast business
The Voice business is very dynamic as minutes can be won and lost in one afternoon. Anne and the rest of the team have to keep up the pace by always looking for better prices/costs for different destinations on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. The Product Management play a huge part by controlling the margins, re-routing traffic when an Account Manager has negotiated a better cost, and also by adding margins to costs to produce a sell rate for each destination.

Important with balance
Anne finds her job challenging and also enjoys being part of a group where people have to rely heavily on each other. “It‘s nice to know that we can support each other and all contribute to reach a common goal. If you like figures and have worked in the field for a while then you will be able to see different patterns emerging and therefore find new ways of improving our performance”, she elaborates. “The job can be quite intensive therefore it’s important to relax when you’re off duty so that you can achieve some balance in your life”. She confirms that TeliaSonera’s standpoint and eagerness to support a healthy life for their employees is truly attractive to her as an employee.

But Anne is also one of the people in TeliaSonera who will be working during the entire summer. She’s enjoys the summer in the UK and then looks forward to the winter sun in November, when she is going to Australia where she will be able to indulge in one of her favorite sports, scuba diving.