Acknowledgements –
Thanks!
I would like to acknowledge the support of the
management at AT&T who gave us their time, effort and valuable information
about of their Operations Management. We would like to thank AT&T for all
the information given to us which was very helpful in completing the project.
INTRODUCTION
“Today,
our mission is to connect people with their world, everywhere they live and
work, and do it better than anyone else”
AT&T
is a multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre
Tower, downtown Dallas, and Texas. It is the largest provider for both mobile
telephony and of fixed telephony in the United States, and also provides
broadband subscription television services. In addition, AT&T is the third
largest non-oil company, behind ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips. For periods of
time AT&T was the world’s largest phone company.
The company provides
voice, video, data, and internet telecommunications and professional services
to businesses, consumers and government agencies. AT&T has the nation’s
fastest 4G network serving millions of customers and also the largest
international coverage of any U.S. wireless carrier offering the most phones
that work in the majority of the other countries.
When taking AT&T’s competitive
factors into consideration, AT&T successfully competes with major telecommunication
carriers such as Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile. Among these leading companies,
AT&T is arguably in one of the greatest positions it has ever been, due to
its current external competitive environment.
Recently, AT&T is in the process
of building its U-verse network that is comprised entirely of fiber optics. Fiber
optics carries data at the speed of light. AT&T has one of the largest
Wi-Fi hotspot networks in America to support this growing trend. When observing
the operations of the telecommunication companies, this industry is heavily
controlled by four major players: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, and
their wireless subscribers are 103.9 million, 93 million, 56.1 million and 33.6
million respectively. If we happen to break this industry into the most
competitive environment, it is essentially a duopoly. The financial and the
market share are very similar between AT&T and Verizon. Rather, T-Mobile
and sprint are not a competitive threat to these two leading companies, where
sprint has a low market share and T-Mobile continues to lose customers. While
AT&T is building its network to the new 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution), it
also pursues a larger expansive network compared to its competitors. Moreover,
to compare the big players of the industry, Verizon operates on a CDMA network,
which uses ESN's (electronic serial numbers). Apparently, this approach of
Verizon makes it less attractive to switch between mobile devices and again
this network is primarily utilized only in America. While AT&T utilizes the
GSM network which uses SIM cards. This not only makes mobile devices much
easier to switch between, but it also is on the same cellular network as the
rest of the world uses.
Furthermore, AT&T pursues the activities
which sets them apart and gives them the competitive advantage to stay ahead in
this industry.
· Inbound Logistics - AT&T does not
have the traditional inbound logistics for transporting raw goods. The most
they have in this area would be shipping phones to their stores to be sold via
UPS.
· Operations - AT&T does have a bit
more of this in the form of delivering wireless service to customers and
maintaining their towers. In this part of the process they helped design the
fast 4G network out today.
· Outbound Logistics - This takes a
different form for their industry but consists of strategically placing cell
towers around cities and states to deliver the most wide spread and fastest
network possible.
· Marketing and Sales - This is the main
point in AT&T's whole strategy, it is where the customers are taken from
other carriers and where AT&T spends a lot of its money on advertising. They
used this to their advantage when they rolled out the first iPhone that
propelled them to the biggest wireless carrier. This is the activity that
AT&T performs superior to other companies. They leverage their existing
clientele and brand name to acquire customers.
· Service - This is also another big
segment for AT&T. Not only do they need to keep up their wireless network,
they also provided service updates for customers phones, as well as physically
servicing customers phones in the store that are broken or otherwise not
working. This is certainly a weakness for AT&T and many other wireless
carriers for that matter, the phone is such a personal gadget for people that
they express this passion to the phone companies when it's not working
correctly.
Operations
of Management Activities and their controls:
When analyzing the operations of
management and their strategies to sustain the competitive edge in the market. It
was divided into four major sectors. These sectors give us an idea to for the
potential growth and efforts of the company’s managerial team to grow
strategically amongst its competitors.
· Firm
Infrastructure – AT&T has quite a virtuous management in place that has
continually increased earnings for the company and boasts one of the highest
paying dividends in the telecommunications industry as well as the broad stock
market. They are helping cut costs but outsourcing some of their non-face to
face services with customers such as IT support, remote assistance and some
computer customer service support. This has been a little detrimental to their
customer satisfaction.
· HR Management - AT&T human
resources has a never-ending job on hand with all the 256,000 employees they
keep on pay roll.
· Technology Department - AT&T really
takes the reins on this one with their ground breaking R&D department
helping create one of the fastest and broadest networks in America.
· Procurement - AT&T has great
relationships with wireless equipment makers such as Qualcomm and other
companies that help create their cell sites and phone receivers.
Hence, AT&T has undoubtedly done
a great job leveraging its core competencies of providing wireless services to
its customers. Its ultimate strategy is "bringing it all together for our
customers, from revolutionary smartphones to next-generation TV services and
sophisticated solutions for multi-national businesses."
Analysis
of Quality Improvement
AT&T managed internet service MIS provides
internet connectivity private network transport PMT and other value added
services over a dedicated connection AT&T offers various band with speeds
for MIS and PNT services. These speeds can vary depending on the access options
chosen by the customer. MIS/PNT services include 24/7 customer support, network
monitoring, life cycle modifications, end-to-end circuit management, and access
to tools and applications. In order for AT&T to provide services of this
nature, the customer must have a router, channel service unit/ data service
unit (CSU/DSU) and an Ethernet interface. The AT&T MIS Call Centers are
made up of technical support engineer is who are responsible for the
identification analysis and isolation of customers circuit impairments as well
as any other Internet Protocol related issues. The maintenance of each circuit
is dependent on the service type. The three service types that are available
immediately are MIS, Business Voice over Internet Protocol (BVOIP), and GSCS.
A circuit is a discreet and specific path between
two or more points along which signals can be carried the network is an
arrangement of circuits. In a dial-up connection a circuit is reserved for use
by one user for the duration the calling session. In a dedicated or leased line
arrangement, a circuit is reserved in advance in can only be used by its owner
or renter of this circuit.
AT&T is all about improving customer service
through product and service quality. One of the first tools that AT&T used
to process and report circuit issues was EIPDB. EIPDB was an Internet Protocol
Database Application whose purpose was to keep an in-house inventory of all MIS
Business customers in it and also to store contact information and plain old
telephone service line numbers for Plus Equipment in one readily available and
easy to use system. The EIPDB is also go home to immediate inventory of all
AT&T access router loopback IP addresses.
The IP service database is the source of data for
several important applications used in the MIS Customer Care Centers. These
include proactive circuit monitoring email notification voice notification
welcome letters technical support information axis route information backbone
maintenance and events. Because the data in the EIPDB be is crossed checked
against the network operations center own databases as well as customer cares
own in-house router polling application in EIPDB, the information provided in
the database is frequently more reliable than what is available through other
sources thus making it an indispensable reference source.
As technology began to advance, the customer’s issues began to evolve as
well. To meet the growing demand of quality and service, AT&T added the
AOTS (AT&T One Ticketing System). AOTS is the MIS technical support mean
trouble ticketing system. It is used by MIS maintenance life cycle, general
escalation managers, quality assurance and ppm teams. The AOTS ticketing system
is used to document each and every event the MIS encounters. Metrics are run
against the system by the PPM team to gauge ticket volumes, length of outages,
individual TSC and group performance. All interactions with MIS Business customers,
internal and external MIS customers are logged in the AOTS ticketing system.
Due to its central role as the main ticketing system all other tickets that are
opened in other systems for any given trouble needs to be documented in the
AOTS ticket as well.
A ticket is basically an issue form to a specific
trouble which gives details of a circuit’s information, health, status, and
issues. Within the ticket are logs that hold frequently updated information
about escalations, updates, tests, and troubleshooting done on the circuit.
With this system you are able to create a ticket, update a tickets profile,
view logs, change management by certain organizations to manage changes to the
network and allow a user with administrative privileges to access AOTS administrative
functions and edit tickets.
Later AT&T created the looking glass tool which
is used to run commands on the provider edge router (PER). Using the Looking
Glass Tool agents will have the ability to troubleshoot and verify
configurations on the promises router equipment. This means that you are able
to tap into the router and see specific issues with it such as latency,
services being down or up, and bouncing in the circuit. This tool provides many
access is that it could show within a circuit. This tool helps strengthen
AT&T's commitment to quality with their help desk service by providing
detail information to tailor the solutions specific to each business customer.
With the growing amount of databases being introduced handling the
different circuit issues and problems deemed problematic. AT&T specially trained SMART Team were
introduced to not only handle difficult tickets and circuits but to assist call
center agents through work flow processes in handling tickets as well. They
introduced SMART Chat which is a one stop solution that provides a
comprehensive integrated solution combining the power of an online chat and a
robust management module, where refine search for technical tips solutions are
available at the click of a button. SMART Chat was designed to complement the
agent in their needs. Using the tool allows the agent to connect to a technical
engineer. The agent then could explain the situation to the tech and get the
resolution needed to move forward without losing valuable time hold with a
customer. AT&T was proud to introduce this because it cut the wait time of
customers on hold to speak with a n agent significantly. Smart chat features
robust artifact in content search for all technical queries, integrated instant
messaging solution to chat with a technical engineer, a one stop shop for all
agents’ technical queries, and issue resolution is made possible with ease.
Currently AT&T
introduced their latest system called SASHA which integrates all widely used
systems into one unified desktop workflow. In SASHA, all of the features of
previous databases are fused together and are command-able to handle tickets
through a step by step workflow which is accessed universally by tier
agents. Agents are given the option to
choose the type of service a customer has whether MIS, BVOIP, or GCSC. Then
agents are prompted to choose the matter the customer is reporting. The
workflow asks then if the customer has an existing ticket already opened. If
the customer does not have an existing ticket, the agent is able to create a
ticket on the spot within minutes for the customer. If the customer does so
have a ticket, SASHA will then give then the must current updated logs on a
ticket and the options to edit or update customer’s information. If the customer
is satisfied with the status update, agent is able to close the ticket. If the
customer is not satisfied with status, agent can escalate ticket to a high
technical engineer.
AT&T is rapidly
evolving with the services that it brings to its customers and the quality of
providing accurate information. With such innovation, AT&T is becoming a
greater competitor of innovation than it was in previous years.
Some recommendations for AT&T to improve their
quality of service through their shipping method. At the moment, AT&T
is only using the carrier UPS, but they should also be in an alliance with
another shipping company if something within UPS goes wrong. Being
capable of providing the ultimate customer experience without any inconvenience
is ideal especially in terms of receiving a personal cell phone. AT&T
must also ensure their clients that they are always providing the most current
up to date service out there. They have done a good job with their
research and development team so far, but to stay near the top they must
continuously be innovative in terms of providing quality service. Some
ways to increase productivity within AT&T is through the service
level. The company must always keep their employees up to date and know
the product. Ensuring that the employees are educated in the product’s
line of service, quality, etc. This will keep a good line of
communication between employees and customers with a better understanding of
how the network works. AT&T uses economies of location to the best of
their ability by being able to use market research through their systems to
gauge heavier usage areas vs. lighter ones.
Conclusion
AT&T is all about improving customer service
through product and service quality. They have been trying numerous ways to
make their service the best of all companies. The company is focusing on making
the customers happy and staying up to date with their technology because more
people today are becoming technical base and wanting phones that could do many
things at once. With all the competitors that AT&T has it still manages to
be at the top of innovation.
AT&T's
Strategies vs. Competitors' Strategies
|
|
Strategy
Highlights
|
Rationale
|
Pros
|
Cons
|
|
AT&T
|
Differentiation,
Somewhat Cost leadership, Superior Service, Reliable Service, Fastest Service
|
Consumers will
pay the extra dollar for the superior service, they want the best
|
More money
coming into the company, best service provider out there, not terribly more
expensive then cheap service
|
More
expensive, not everyone can afford the service, more service then just basic
needs
|
|
Verizon
|
Differentiation,
Very similar to AT&T and closest competitor, superior service, focuses on
the fastest network
|
Attracts the
best customers who want the best service
|
Fastest
service
|
More
expensive, not everyone can afford the service, more service then just basic
needs
|
|
Sprint
|
Cost leader,
unlimited data and phone plans for a flat rate
|
Consumers know
exactly what they are paying for, don't have to worry about overages
|
Not many
complaints on overages or extra charges, can forecast future revenue more
easily
|
Attracts a
"lower class consumer", not as much money to build out
infrastructure or networks
|
|
T-Mobile
|
Cost leader,
tiptoeing around no contract plans as well as fast service, somewhat confused
|
Believe they
can attract consumers of all backgrounds
|
Helps attract
consumers from all backgrounds, wide range of consumers
|
Confused,
can't focus on one specific strategy to help consumers
|
