The Sun Doesn’t Set on West Corp

December 6, 2017 Steve Casale

From SpringOne Platform, learn how West Corp is transforming itself.

For more than 30 years, West Corp. followed a typical path to growth, stringing together strategic acquisitions to build a $2B business that brought unified communications, safety services, and automated notifications across the world for governments, utilities, hospitals, and enterprises. If you’ve used 911 in the US — West powers some 70% of all 911 calls — or received an automated reminder to pick an order at the pharmacy, you’ve encountered West Corp.

“The biggest opportunity for change is being able to have people see themselves in what the future looks like.”
— Thomas Squeo

More recently though, West Corp. initiated a dramatic strategic in its business model, betting on software to help it transition from a services holding company grounded in waterfall process, to building great products through lean and agile principles. Jeff and Ciara sit down with West Corp.’s Thomas Squeo (SVP Digital Transformation & Enterprise Architecture), Gautham Pallapa (Vice President, Enterprise Platform Engineering), and Don Fossgreen (Principal Platform Architect), to talk automation, embracing the API marketplace, sunsetting apps and replatforming others, and bringing along not just thousands of developers on the journey, but its executive leadership and the rest of the organization as well.

Built to Adapt is at SpringOne Platform 2017 to talk to the people leading the world’s largest technological transformations — from challenges to trends, and insights to anecdotes. If you work in technology at any level, you’re going to want to hear from these innovators. Talks are hosted by Jeff Kelly and Ciara Byrne, journalists for Built to Adapt.


The Sun Doesn’t Set on West Corp was originally published in Built to Adapt on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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Enabling Global Transformation at West Corp.—Thomas Squeo, CTO, West Corp.
Enabling Global Transformation at West Corp.—Thomas Squeo, CTO, West Corp.

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