'Hutch will expand customer support on WAP application'

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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