Telstra consolidates units and executives function, gears up for NBN era
As the national broadband network overhauls Australia's telecommunication industry, so is the largest telco in the country, Telstra Corporation, which announced on Wednesday consolidation on its services and reorganization on the firm's leadership functions.
In a statement, Telstra said that its sales and customer service divisions have been transformed into a single unit now called Telstra Customer Sales and Service, which will be tasked to deal with the company's consumer, business, enterprise and government customers relations.
That outfit, Telstra said, will be headed by Gordon Ballantyne and in tandem with the company's chief marketing officer, Mark Buckman.
The latest move, according to Telstra chief executive David Thodey, will allow the company's frontline unit "to work as one team to serve our customers better, win in the market and become more efficient as we prepare for the National Broadband Network."
The changes, Thodey told the AAP, is Telstra's way of adapting improvements "by putting our customers first, building new growth businesses, and simplifying the way we get things done."
The company also established a new unit called the Applications and Ventures Group (AVG), which will handle the business' emerging high-speed broadband operations, cloud computing and media applications.
The new unit will devise Telstra's approach in dealing with the delivery of content and value-added services as the local telco industry commences its new role in an environment dominated by the government-initiated NBN platform.
Along with those adjustments is the fortified functions set to be performed by Telstra Wholesale, which Thodey said will be steered through the new era by Stuart Lee.
Once the NBN is in full swing, Thodey said that Telstra will positively benefit from the $11 billion deal it struck with the federal government, which will see the company partnering with NBN Co. for use of its dark fibre, exchange space and ducts over the next three decades or so.
Despite the perceived dominance that NBN Co. will flex on the future telco scenario in Australia, Thodey said that Telstra is all poised to take its new role that gives emphasis on the company's new core function of sales and marketing behemoth in the industry.