In her day-to-day role with Datacom, Diana Kirkland is part of the New Zealand Market and GTM or ‘Go-to-Market’ team, which she describes as being focused on simplifying complexity and ensuring the products and services that Datacom offers meet the unique needs of all of its customers across diverse industries.
“Our key responsibility is to align our offerings with our customer needs, ensuring we communicate their value clearly and deliver them at the right time and place. We support this by wrapping around the right resources to enable seamless delivery and easy adoption for our customers. Throughout the process we ensure our customers' needs are at the centre and forefront every step of the way. Our goal is to consistently be delivering value at every part of the journey – internally and externally – with continuous improvement and always looking to create measurable outcomes along the way.”
Getting the best outcomes for Datacom's customers requires a combination of firsthand discussions with the decisionmakers and the teams that do the work, along with our subject matter experts and then digging into the data to help shape the right solutions.
As a principal consultant in the GTM team, Diana values the fact her role is ‘varied and rewarding, with no two days the same’.
Based in Datacom's Auckland office – after a recent move from her longtime home in Hawke's Bay – Diana says one aspect of her job she finds rewarding is working closely alongside customers, running workshops with leaders and their teams to better understand the challenges they face.
"Once we understand their challenges we can support with prioritisation and bring in the right resources from Datacom's wider team of expertise to help solve their problems in a timely, efficient way."
The other part of her role sees her collaborating with teams and experts from all over Datacom and she says this aspect of her work has shown her the massive breadth of expertise and experience in the company – from software engineers and architects, to analysts, product managers, technology SMEs, strategists, marketers, and design specialists ‘to name a few’.
Diana sees her role in helping support and navigate the collaboration of these teams as one of the most important aspects of her job.
“To me it's so important as it helps us ensure we’re consistently delivering solutions and strategies that meet our customers' needs bringing together and leveraging the diverse and incredible skills and capabilities from across our talented teams. This sets everyone up for success and ensures we can achieve wins for all our stakeholders.”
The culture across those talented teams – and in Diana’s own team – is very important to her. Before she joined Datacom, Diana looked into the values and culture of the organisation and that was a major deciding factor in taking the job.
“Exceed customer expectations, look beyond today, thrive together, everyone has a part, it’s the people and courage to act. Those six values, those principles, really landed with me and I think no matter what project you are part of at work or whatever is happening in your personal life, those values are so true and so important. It is the people around you that matter and we need to look after them.”
The importance Diana places on people and community became even more apparent when, less than a year after joining the business, she was named as the winner of Datacom’s annual Vernon Kay Award – an award which recognises one team member who has made a special contribution to their community.
Diana, who joined Datacom in 2022, was nominated by her colleague Amanda Wayman for going above and beyond to support her wider Hawke's Bay community in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle, including helping to coordinate the delivery of thousands of meals to some of the thousands of people who were without power or had to leave their homes due to the flooding. The nomination also described Diana as an “exceptional employee and a dedicated regional connector."
Diana is quick to point out she was part of an “army of Mums and Dads who coordinated the delivery of 15,000 meals that were kindly made by local restaurants and others with the capability, and distributed to local maraes, churches, old people’s homes and families."
“As crazy as it sounds it was an incredible time because it brought people from all backgrounds together it was a testament to human kindness."
In the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle, Diana says senior leaders including Justin Gray, Mark Drysdale, Jon Lewin and Steve Swallow were having daily check-ins with her and other colleagues in the region and one day she apologised for not getting enough work done because her house had become a hub for community support activity.
“I’ll never forget how they responded. They said ‘Keep doing what you are doing because you are living our values’. It was so good to have their support, and it confirmed my decision to come and work at Datacom, because when I was looking at Datacom as a potential employer, it was the company’s values and culture that were a major drawcard.”
Diana says while she hasn't had the chance to meet Vernon Kay, she has heard great stories about him, and it is an honour and a privilege to be recognised as someone who makes a contribution to her community and the people around her.
“We’re really lucky to work here at Datacom, surrounded by such a diverse team of incredible people. My advice to everyone is to continue being the best version of yourself, look for the good in people, continue putting other people before yourself and keep doing the great work that you do – teamwork makes the dream work and it helps us achieve the impossible.”
