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Katherin Miño Sánchez

ECUADOR - Telecoms & IT

Katherin Miño Sánchez

CEO, Puntonet

Bio

Katherin Miño, CEO of Puntonet SA has a Master’s degree in Strategic Management -MBA- by the Polytechnic University of Catalunya and a Master’s degree in Finance by Sek International University (Ecuador). Her bachelors was obtained in Business Management by the Central University of Ecuador. Her work is oriented and specialized towards Strategic Planning, Artificial Intelligence, Corporate Governance, Management, and the implementation of agile frameworks for businesses. 
She is regarded as a referent in the Telco environment in Latinamerica being one of the few women in leadership roles within telecommunication companies in the region. Her business philosophy is focused in constant innovation, which derives in innovative solutions and services that enhance the business model she has implemented in Puntonet. She has more than 20 years of professional experience in Puntonet.

TBY talks to Katherin Miño Sánchez, CEO of Puntonet, about digitalization, supporting different sectors, and priorities for the coming year.

How has Puntonet been developing in the last few years, considering the rapid acceleration of companies’ digitalization processes?

Puntonet has had a fairly aggressive evolution over the last few years. Some years ago, we began a digital transformation project focused on the understanding of the company’s business model and its essence. From there, we centered our development in technological systems and information in order to build a more client-based solution. Puntonet has become a technological renovation bridge, regarding the connection between connectivity and telecommunications with society. As a company, we have been doing the groundwork, and the pandemic was a catalyst for us as we were able to demonstrate that telecommunications companies were prepared to contain the connectivity, security, and optic fiber avalanche that was required to connect people in such hard times. Puntonet continues to work on its strategic plan, and we have modeled and shaped it according to the context and market conditions. By having a technological platform, as well as infrastructures for fiber optics, cloud computing, and security, we can make quicker decisions and develop our actions based on our customers needs. This is extremely important.

How has Puntonet adapted to the different economic and strategic sectors of the country?

Puntonet has two business lines: the residential segment and corporate. The pandemic resulted in an enormous increase of residential internet lines in the last two years, as everyone turned to remote working. However, the corporate sector had to start adding new technologies, which Ecuador was lagging in. The current digital ecosystem is consolidated through data understanding and management. When you start working on data governance, you first need to understand the source of your data and how you are going to use it, in order to establish a proper flow of data that assures the quality of it. We would like for this digital ecosystem not to rely solely on hardware and connectivity, but rather be the core of a more complex system of data that derives in sustained insights about our clients. We are currently seeing an alignment and synergies between the public and private sectors, which was impossible some time ago. The idea is to work together in this big social project to reduce the digital gap. Starting in April, Puntonet is expanding the fiber optic network to rural areas, since over 50% of the landline connections are concentrated on urban areas. The Ministry of Production also provides income tax reductions for those who invest in this area, which are beneficial for the company.

What is your view on the current economic momentum of optimism experienced by Ecuador?

Having a government that considers the private sector an ally for the development of its projects is fairly positive, as is the fact that it takes into consideration the opinions of the private sector. This has been one of the most important factors helping the private sector find ways to help society’s development, to better target and model our business and economic objectives, and what investments we should be looking at. SMEs have an important involvement in Ecuador, and we should help them solve their digital illiteracy. The private sector is extremely optimistic on these projections, and our governing body represented by the Ministry of Telecommunications supports such plans such as with the 1% universal tax, which will enhance the growth of connectivity. The governing body is looking to consolidate efforts, with the aim of reducing the digital gap. We can enhance social growth through technology. We should also focus on checking the prices we pay. Right now, the telecommunications sector has probably the highest tax burden of the region, however we expect this to decrease in the following years through the partnership between the private and public sector. 

What are the priorities for Puntonet for 2022-2023?

We will focus on territorial expansion. We are currently present in 20 cities, and we will open operations in another 10. We are carrying out research with advanced analytics to understand the current situation. We are using banking and market predictions, so we can know how the population is doing and how we can approach them with products that truly meet their needs. We are building a personal connection between internet and customers. As an example, we now have a similar tool to the one Uber uses, which allows a customer to identify the technician coming to their house. We are giving them the peace of mind that they are truly opening their doors to an employee of the company that is providing technical support, which demonstrates our compromise with the service and experience we provide.

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