The Future of Communication Technology: Peter Hanlon Of Moneypenny On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up How We Connect and Communicate With Each Other

An Interview With David Liu

It’s all about people and trust. A common misconception is that the CTO role is all about leveraging the latest technology. In reality the role is about getting the most out of teams. You do that by empowering teams to be as autonomous as possible and supporting them. Making them as productive and happy as possible by removing blockers and ensuring they have the right tools to do their work. Teams can only operate this way if they feel they have your support and trust.

The telephone totally revolutionized the way we could communicate with people all over the world. But then came email and took it to the next level. And then came text messaging. And then came video calls. And so on…What’s next? What’s just around the corner?

In this interview series, called ‘The Future Of Communication Technology’ we are interviewing leaders of tech or telecom companies who are helping to develop emerging communication technologies and the next generation of how we communicate and connect with each other.

As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Pete Hanlon.

Pete Hanlon is CTO at Moneypenny, the leading outsourced communication company that answers calls, live chat and digital comms for thousands of companies globally. Since joining Moneypenny in 2019, Pete has dedicated his time to taking the business’s existing technology solutions and software development to a whole new level by leveraging new tech, such as AI and deep learning.

Under Pete’s leadership, Moneypenny has developed innovative products to improve and scale the services provided to clients. It’s this passion for technology that has resulted in him being accepted into Forbes Technology Council — an invitation-only community for world-class CTOs.

Above all, Pete’s vision of using technology to enhance human interaction continues to grow and will shape Moneypenny’s service offering now and over the years to come in order to ultimately do more for clients.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I first started playing with computers at school using commodore PET machines. I was just playing around writing simple BASIC programs, but I loved it. My parents saw that my brother and I were interested in computers, so they bought us both a ZX80. They were insanely underpowered compared to today’s computers with only 1KB of memory. It’s hard to imagine a computer like that now but at the time it was amazing. There was no internet, so we had to write our own games or copy games from magazines. That got me hooked.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

When I worked at AutoTrader, I joined the company in 2003, it was predominantly a physical magazine. There was a website, but it was loss-making and didn’t have much traffic. What was impressive at AutoTrader is that the senior management team was clear about the importance of technology for the future of the business. Over a ten-year period we automated internal systems, improved processes, outsourced areas of the business such as printing that weren’t strategic and invested in the website. When I left the business, the website was taking at peak four million searches an hour and AutoTrader is now a FTSE 100 business. The key to the success of the AutoTrader was listening to our customers and being open to pivoting the business.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain. I saw this on a jeep in the Ilse of Mull and liked it. For me it says if you’re doing anything of any significance there will always be challenges. You have a choice to push hard until the end or take time to enjoy the ride.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I briefly worked for an amazing guy called Ivan Pope at the end of the 90’s. Ivan was the founder of Netnames which he successfully built and sold. I worked with Ivan briefly at Netnames then joined him at a new company he formed after the sale. Working with Ivan was a breath of fresh air. I had been working at larger organizations for most of my career to that point which was full of bureaucracy. Ivan was completely different; he was a true entrepreneur and challenged everything. I remember one meeting where he felt the energy had left the room, so we spent the day at the National Gallery for inspiration. That was a great place to work, sadly the dot com bubble hit us hard, but I learned a lot working with Ivan and the management team he built.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Our culture at Moneypenny is one centered around understanding and kindness and this applies to all stakeholders, and it links real people with real business. When the pandemic hit we listened and supported our partners and did all that we could to help them through the tough time; for some listening was enough, for others we were able to provide solutions to their immediate requirements through providing our digital switchboard service free of charge, for example. We also invested our resources into supporting the essential services in creating Chatbots to check symptoms and wellbeing. I believe that a company’s impact, its role in overall society, is a leadership responsibility that should be integral to any business strategy. It is good business and it has the potential to deliver very real benefits to all involved.

Ok wonderful. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Can you tell us about the cutting edge communication tech that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?

We’re doing a lot of work around speech-to-text and conversational AI right now. We’re training our own Automatic Speech Recognition systems using our PA’s so that we can increase the accuracy of our transcriptions. We’re also working with companies like Huggingface to implement state-of-the-art conversational AI capabilities into our product base. Our goal is for our technology to work in synergy with our PA’s and to leverage AI to make the next conversation better than the last.

How do you think this might change the world?

Speech recognition software has the ability to distinguish between more words and accents, responding using natural language. Thanks to cloud-based processing it is also learning every time, improving as it does. Add to that the data that is collected and can be analyzed, providing actionable information and insights for business, the potential and value of speech recognition to business is colossal.

For example, effectively and efficiently being able to analyze your date means that you can understand customer interests and expectations with more speed and accuracy, turning it into actionable intelligence, tailoring it to meet their needs and exceed them even before they are asking for it. Speech recognition software has the potential to revolutionize customer service ensuring exception is the norm.

Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?

When you speak of technological advancements and their near endless potential, it is inevitable that some will feel uncertain. That is normal. But it is something that needs to be acknowledged as part of your implementation plan. Embracing speech recognition software, for example, is not about replacing human interactions, it is about adding value to your people and your business. It is about supporting your people with the tools that they need to do their job.

As with introducing anything new, but especially technology, it is critical to take people on the journey with you, involve them from the offset, communicate, be transparent, discuss the fears and make the benefits relevant. Do this and speech recognition software can contribute to creating a wonderful place to work.

Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?

Implementation and acceptance of technological advancements like AI and NLP, for example, already play a substantial role in how we communicate. However, the global pandemic really brought to the fore what is possible when you embrace them. In listening to what our customers needed to survive, we fast-tracked numerous projects and innovations that we were already working on in order to support them, advancing what we were able to offer in the process. Love it or loathe it, technology has really come to our rescue and the rate of innovation is only going to increase.

What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?

People’s buy-in. The challenge when talking about technology and AI, in particular, is that people tend to think of robots taking over the world resulting in people's roles and responsibilities becoming redundant and obsolete.

However, it is exactly in the cross-over of technology and how people behave in real life that will drive the most transformational benefits to businesses. For example, AI can remove the burden of repetitive administrative tasks, freeing employees up to focus on being more agile, more customer-focused and more innovative, all widely accepted critical components of business success in a post-pandemic world.

Technology is getting ever better at enhancing the human communications experience, creating quality conversations enabling rapid, efficient communications through real human beings, rather than replacing them.

And so, for businesses to stay ahead of the game, providing the best communications and customer service, they will need to wholeheartedly embrace technology in the workplace, rather than fear it. This makes it more than about technology and process, it makes it about your people.

The pandemic has changed so many things about the way we behave. One of them of course, is how we work and how we communicate in our work. How do you think your innovation might be able to address the new needs that have arisen as a result of the pandemic?

The pandemic has changed the way we work forever but it also showed us how important it is to stay connected and how, as humans, that is ultimately what we crave. Communication is and always will be critical for business success. It is what sets you apart from others and is essential for delivering exceptional customer service.

This means analyzing and then using your data to make informed decisions. Think about the best way for you to deliver the information required by your customer. I can guarantee we’ve all had some amazing experiences and some downright disgraceful ones. This communication, or lack of, defines whether we will still be a customer, the lifeline of your business, so treat it as such.

There are so many channels available to us today, choosing the right one to effectively deliver the message is crucial. And more are on the horizon as technological innovations come into their own. Fundamental to all of this, however, is how does your customer like to receive the information, technology can provide you with the options

Fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. It’s all about people and trust. A common misconception is that the CTO role is all about leveraging the latest technology. In reality the role is about getting the most out of teams. You do that by empowering teams to be as autonomous as possible and supporting them. Making them as productive and happy as possible by removing blockers and ensuring they have the right tools to do their work. Teams can only operate this way if they feel they have your support and trust.
2. You can’t please everyone all of the time. As CTO you need to make the best decisions for the organization. It’s important that you’re decision making is always balanced and fair but the role involves making tough calls which won’t always be popular.
3. Operations are the silent heroes. The area of technology that constantly impresses me are the operations teams. The teams that keep existing systems secure, optimized and running day in and day out. When we think of technology there is a danger that we focus on the teams writing new code and developing new products. While development is super important, we should also remember to give just as much credit to the people keeping the existing systems running.
4. Innovation can come from anyone in the business. When we talk about innovation we tend to think about new advances in technology. While it’s important to stay close to new advances in technology, it’s also important to realize that innovation can come from any area of the business. Some of the most impactful changes I’ve seen in my career have come from people that wouldn’t consider themselves to be technical.
5. Enjoy the journey. When I was on holiday on the Isle of Mull I came across the quote I shared with you above: “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain”. That really resonated with me. I choose to enjoy the ride.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 😊

If there was one thing I could influence, it would be reducing each person’s personal carbon footprint. Reducing the amount of carbon we create from travel, reducing the food miles and energy that goes into the production of the food we eat. I think that would have the largest impact and bring about the most good for people. The challenge for me is knowing how much energy and carbon I create from my actions. Ideally what I would like would be an app that could help estimate my carbon footprint so I could better manage it. So if I could influence anything it would be to see if someone could create that app.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/petehanlons

Thank you so much for the time you spent doing this interview. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success.