While many telecom operators are talking about adding
numbers, Hutch makes serving the customer its top priority. Sridhar S
talks about the next level of contact point introduced for customers.
As the technology head of a telecom company that is vast and
widespread, what are the typical challenges you face?
The foremost challenge is to be accessible by our customer 24x7. This is
very critical in a competitive environment as a dip in accessibility can mean
switching loyalty. At the same time, the major challenge is to keep pace with
the expansion, which is in terms of ever increasing capacities and volumes of
both subscriber base and usage. Also, the prime goal is to increase penetration.
This is growing beyond our predictions and we have to be geared up for this all
the time. With falling ARPUs, we have to allow customers to do more with same
rates, and differentiate ourselves by quality of service. Most of the tools we
use are based on inferences and business intelligence based on customer
behavior.
How do you ensure connectivity with customers for support
services?
For service support, we are reaching our customer through every possible
channel-SMS, voice portal, online and call centers. We also have mobile Hutch
shops that go around cities or towns covering colleges and office campuses. The
next contact point we want to establish is through 'feet on street'; our
mobile workforce for both sales and support services, who will physically reach
out to customers at their doorsteps. We equate it as a mobile point of support,
and it will be a WAP enabled service.
Why have you chosen a WAP-based service?
As of now, many services were being sent by SMS, but it's essentially a
one-sided communication. With WAP based applications, the Hutch service support
personnel will be able to resolve problems, on the spot. This is ideal in cases
where our customer is illiterate and can't follow SMS-based instructions. The
WAP service can be utilized to make quick bill payments, connectivity
activation, registering a complaint or even upgrading a service for the
customer.
Have you launched this 'feet on street' service anywhere?
We have completed the tests in some states, and in Gujarat we have already
gone live with this project beginning of this quarter. Since we are a market
leader in Gujarat, we launched it here first.
What are the challenges you faced in this kind of service
application?
One of the main challenges was to ensure role-based or need-based access to
the customer support agent, with control across the Hutch network. This has been
resolved.
With WAP based applications, the Hutch service support personnel will be able to resolve problems, on the spot. This is ideal in cases where our customer is illiterate and can't follow SMS-based instructions |
Tell us about the advanced networking at the enterprise level
within Hutch offices?
All our offices are Wi-Fi enabled. We use MPLS for connectivity across all
Hutch centers in the state. This ensures us 100% availability. We have a
national network that connects all centers, and we have a centralized data
warehouse. At the state level, we quickly ride on our own backbone or take
redundancy. Our network is 100% redundant and secured all across with multiple
layers of firewalls. Within the organization we have virtual LAN, and at the
edges we have virtual private network (VPN). In addition, Hutch has outsourced
the telecom core management network to Nokia.
Finally, in your opinion, is 3G the right vehicle to achieve
penetration in the latent market?
The 3G technology has been more associated with rich content and identified
as an entertainment delivery mechanism. If at all we need to penetrate the
latent rural market with content, I feel the local cable TV networks have
already undertaken the task. India's cable TV network has grown beyond anyone's
imagination as this industry is not regulated we may not even know the extent of
its reach. So the better question to ask is: Are we ready to compete with cable
TV's content delivery, using 3G's delivery mechanism, in order to penetrate
the market and make a dent. We know of several local studios in states like
Tamil Nadu that are generating local content for their viewers. It's a huge
reach and I don't think 3G is the only vehicle to deliver entertainment when
handsets are still highly priced. On the other hand, a cable TV is there in
every home. The comparison of 3G with cable TV is like comparing Pizza with
Masala Dosa-both are supreme in their own ways.
Malovika Rao
malovikar@cybermedia.co.in