Women of tech: Ann Heyse

Welcome to BICS’ Women of Tech series, dedicated to the women leading the way in tech, to inspire a new generation. Through interviewing women with leadership, operationally crucial, or high-growth potential positions at BICS, we will explore both the opportunities and challenges faced by women in the industry – including but not limited to: 

• Learning, development, and accessibility to opportunities 
• Achieving industry diversity 
• Challenges, and ways to tackle them 
• Growth and business potential  
• Mentors and role models 

In short, the series celebrates the talent and contribution of women to the advancement of technology, and building a better future for all – with the aim to equip and empower young women to embrace a career in tech. 

First up is Ann Heyse, our Global Telco Solutions Manager, who’s been a trailblazer in the tech industry for over two decades. Ann shares with us details of her career, her views on the evolution of telecoms since the nineties, and why private 5G is the trend to watch in the coming years.  

Watch her interview below or keep scrolling for a transcript. 

Ann Heyse: I’ve been working in the telecoms industry for 24 years, working for mobile network operators and vendors – mostly in engineering. And for the last two years I’ve been responsible for the business development of our new mobility solutions at BICS. 

AH: As technologies are becoming much more complex and doing business is much more challenging, it is my role to translate our very technical solutions into business opportunities for our customers, listen to their needs, and understand how we can grow their business together. My goal is to make people see BICS as a business partner, not just a vendor.  

AH: Back in the nineties, when mobile technology was booming, it was attracting a lot of young people to this industry, but now after so many years, I feel that the telecoms industry has earned a reputation for being old and rigid.  

In recent years, with the expansion to more global use cases and also with the adoption of IoT and 5G, I really feel that we need to attract more young people – because they are very fast at adopting new technologies, and also they are the future of our world. So, we need to listen to their needs and develop use cases together to make our world a little bit safer, more comfortable, and change the way we interact with each other, and hopefully reduce our carbon footprint. Because these are topics that are top of mind of our younger generations, and we need their input.  

AH: I feel that private 5G will be a big trend in the coming years. This year was all about forming partnerships between the different players in this market, but also, thanks to more and more government support, I feel that the coming years will really see an uptake. So, our role at BICS is to bring the mobility and connectivity part, because that is our field of expertise, and it proves to be a very important piece of the puzzle. 80% of all enterprise private use cases have a need to roam outside of their own private networks into public networks, and to always stay connected. 

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Quick links: 

Find out more about a career at BICS.
Follow Ann Heyse on LinkedIn.