The world may have changed during the current financial crisis, but Telstra does not seem to mind as there will be no slowdown in the pace of innovation and transformation of the company.
Telstra Chief Executive Officer, Sol Trujillo said the company was now stronger, better integrated, and more agile than ever to deal with the challenges ahead.
“Unlike most companies at this time, Telstra is in the enviable position of achieving top line growth and expanding margins to deliver improving bottom line growth. There are very few companies in our peer group, either domestically or globally, that can say that in the current environment,” Mr Trujillo said.
Telstra made several announcements at the investor briefing, including the development of a 21 Mbps mobile broadband device with Sierra Wireless and Qualcomm, so customers will benefit from the upcoming 21Mbps Next G network upgrade, an alliance with Microsoft to merge mobiles, desktop computers, and software over Telstra’s IP-based mobile and fixed networks to provide end-to-end communications services for Australian businesses, an alliance with Cisco to bring new advanced communication solutions and services delivered with stronger support arrangements to customers in Australia and New Zealand, leveraging the power of Telstra’s integrated IP networks, as well as a new consumer offering, MyConnect, which offers a suite of services combining email, voicemail, and text communication that makes it easier for consumers to stay on top of incoming communications and to respond in real-time.
“Our transformation journey is fundamentally changing the game for our customers – moving them to the next level and providing them with a truly differentiated, quantifiably better experience than our competitors,” he said.
Mr. Trujillo reiterated that fiscal 2009 guidance remained unchanged and also announced that Telstra had achieved double-digit mobile service revenue growth, 3G subscribers moved beyond 50 percent of its total mobile subscriptions, and mobile revenue exceeded PSTN revenue in the September quarter.
Mr Trujillo said Telstra had outperformed its competitors at virtually every level as a result of the transformation. He said investments in infrastructure such as the Next G and Next IP networks; system improvements through the IT Transformation; knowledge of customers through market based management; and a cultural shift within the company were reaping dividends.
“The IT Transformation alone will have a huge impact on the way we serve our customers. We now have a single view of the customer and a single bill, which will reduce the frustration for customers and our consultants of hand-offs for multi-product orders, leading to greater productivity in the front of house, and better service for our customers.”
“More than 6.3 million customers and 11.1 million services have been migrated to the new system with the full migration of mass market customers – which includes many business customers – expected to be complete by the end of this year.”
Mr. Trujillo said Telstra had made enormous gains in the past three years but had much still to do. “The creation of Telstra Media, a new business unit focussed on leveraging Telstra’s media content assets, and driving home our infrastructure advantage recognises the growing importance of content to the future growth of Telstra as a leading media-communications company,” he said.
“We will continue to execute on our Transformation and deliver change that ensures Telstra continues to win in the marketplace and changes the game for our customers.”
See: www.telstra.com
