Cytracom is focused on Connecting the Modern Workforce by empowering users with a simple cloud-based communication hub to enable the highest value conversations. With a reliable platform built on flexible, cloud-based technology, Cytracom delivers a communication suite tailored for business needs. A 100% channel-driven model enables North American partners to bring the solution directly to customers, providing the ease and comfort of working with local, trusted managed service providers.

Meet the Trailblazer

Meredith Caram joined Cytracom as the Vice President of Sales in July 2020 to drive top-line revenue at the fast-growing company. She works closely with the sales team and in the field to discover needs and drive solutions for both partners and customers. Before Cytracom, she led the channel sales team at Intrado and spent 18 years at AT&T, where she had several channel, marketing, and sales roles.

Focusing on Outcome, Not Process

Meredith's career has been shaped by her progression through new positions and areas of the business. She learned early on to focus on outcomes, not processes. Meredith says this mindset has driven her to be one of the hardest workers to meet expectations and achieve the outcomes needed to win. With that drive, she also learned how to lead by example and work with the team to help them succeed. Meredith focuses on the big picture and sets big goals for herself and the team. She emphasizes that her focus is on digging deep and pushing to rise above.

Covid-19: A Catalyst for Cloud Adoption

Meredith believes leaders must acknowledge that COVID has changed everything about life right now, including innovation. She observes the adoption of technology and its development has been disrupted too. Meredith explains the company has had to think about many things. Cytracom had to think about the employees' safety, so the company can keep running and play a useful role in this crisis. Moreover, she says the company had to think about how the leaders can address the pandemic and accelerate everything they are doing to keep the partners and customers connected. She states that, "We have intense focus, determination, and passion for the business. We feel a weight of responsibility here. Work is no longer where you go. Work is what you do. We are committed to keep everyone connected. We have a team of dedicated experts with decades of experience developing enhanced technologies. "

Meredith views if there is a silver lining from COVID, it has forced a renewed focus on innovation, speed, and new ways to think about how to keep businesses connected. She observes the most obvious thing has been the increased usage of cloud services. With remote work and companies sending their employees home, use of voice, business text messaging, and other cloud-hosted communication solutions, Cytracom solutions have been in high demand. She says there has also been a spark in collaboration with the Cytracom partner community. The company has offered discounts to non-profit organizations and free services to customers and will continue to develop new approaches in the delivery of cloud-based solutions.

Addressing Challenges through Personal Growth

One of the greatest ways Meredith learned has been through personal relationships with other leaders. Specifically, she mentions the relationships that have moved beyond business and into a true friendship where there's a level of trust and camaraderie. With these experiences, Meredith has learned to take responsibility for her successes and failures.

As an example, early on, she had to learn how to listen because wins and losses depend on listening skills. Meredith realized that she had to focus on deep listening so she could understand what was going on. She says, "You have to own your leadership development. As every business constantly evolves, it is also incredibly important to renew and develop wider and perhaps softer skills."

Meredith remarks if she could do it all over again, she would kickstart her self-development journey by being curious, networking, embarking on courses, and digesting as much relevant content as she could. She recommends that throughout the business journey, one should identify their skills and knowledge gaps so that they can continue to plan the learning, and the business growth, effectively. She states, "Becoming your development critic is important to continued learning and success. By continually evaluating your skillset, identifying your knowledge gaps, and finding an appropriate channel to build them, you will set yourself up for a lifetime habit of learning, overcoming challenges, and being a part of something cool."

Making Technology Human-Centered

Over the past several years, the conversation around AI has been shifting. Meredith believes there is still much optimism about how AI will transform industries like agriculture, healthcare, and manufacturing for the better, but the world is also starting to see more troubling consequences with it.

She cites examples that have emerged in recent years such as the man arrested for shoplifting solely based upon facial recognition technology or an HR screening algorithm that began automatically screening out resumes of people who attended women's colleges. She opines that as this technology becomes more sophisticated, the world is starting to see its profound social consequences.

Meredith says researchers are at the forefront of examining how to make AI more human-centered and put guard rails around this technology. From a leadership perspective, she notes that we have not done enough to increase diversity in this field. She affirms women are underrepresented in the greater conversation of AI. There is a massive opportunity for women leaders to participate in AI and diversify the field, and build on others' efforts.

Leadership through Employee-Centric Approach

The world is now nine months into the COVID pandemic with no immediate end in sight. This is a challenging time for leaders across all industries. Remarking that none of today's leaders was taught how to lead teams through a pandemic in business school, Meredith explains transformational leaders have to apply a lot of common-sense principles and think through what people need. She says the primary focus is safety, and a company cannot function if everyone is ill. Meredith adds a leader needs to be able to rapidly enable everyone to be productive no matter where they work.

She proposes that a leader must apply strict protective measures to make workplaces as safe as possible for people who cannot work from home. Leaders must be conscious of people's communication, connection, and support. They should check with one another much more frequently with the team than before because it is challenging time for everyone. Meredith deems it is essential to acknowledge the differences and support social distancing and remote work.

Future with Customer-Focused Solutions

Cytracom is focused on connecting the modern workforce. The company has developed solutions that will serve Cytracoms' partners and customers' needs now and in the future.

Meredith notes that communication is essential to all businesses, whether local, regional, national, or international. "When we say connecting the modern workforce, we are focused on providing them with the tools to communicate anywhere, anytime, and on any device."

Now with Cytracom's apps and integrations, users can have their customers' contextual data to have meaningful conversations. The company will continue to evolve with solutions to meet the partner and customer community needs.

Advice to the Emerging Women Leaders

Meredith suggests that emerging women leaders need to be flexible as they grow their careers. She advises emerging leaders to be nimble to oversee the company's various phases – the startup phase, the development phase, and the first-burst-of-growth phase. As per Meredith, each phase requires different skill sets and motivation to lead the team. Meredith observes women leaders need to learn from their mentors and self-study to adapt along their journey.