2013

Channel Engagement of Tata Teleservices Limited

The project targets to Benchmark Companys channel distribution system against competing leaders and to come up with a suitable program as to elevate retail management

Ayush Daniel 12BSPHH010233 5/4/2013

An Interim Project Report On

Channel Engagement of Tata Teleservices Limited

Submitted ByAyush Daniel Enrollment No. 12BSPHH010233

A report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of MBA Program of IBS Hyderabad.

Submitted To: B.K. Malleswari

TATA TELESERVICES LTD, NEW DELHI. 02nd May 2013

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Table of Contents
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 5 About the Organization ............................................................................................................... 5 Tata Teleservices vision & Promise ............................................................................................. 6 Purpose of the Project ................................................................................................................ 6 Scope of the Project .................................................................................................................... 6 Limitations of the Study .............................................................................................................. 6 The Products................................................................................................................................ 7 Competitor Analysis .................................................................................................................... 7 Diversification for the telecom company .................................................................................... 8 Differentiation for the telecom company ................................................................................... 9 SWOT Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 9 Proposition of Ideas .................................................................................................................. 10 Plan for Completion of the Project ............................................................................................... 10 References .................................................................................................................................... 12

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Abstract
Tata Teleservices Limited spearheads the Tata Groups presence in the telecom sector. The Tata Group includes over 100 companies, over 450,000 employees worldwide and more than 3.8 million shareholders. Incorporated in 1996, Tata Teleservices Limited was the pioneer of the CDMA 1x technology platform in India, embarking on a growth path after the acquisition of Hughes Tele.com (India) Ltd [renamed Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited] by the Tata Group in 2002. Over the last few years, the company has launched significant services CDMA mobile operations in January 2005 under the brand name Tata Indicom, market-defining wireless mobile broadband services under the brand name Tata Photon in 2008 and 2G GSM services under the brand name Tata DOCOMO in 2009. Tata Teleservices Limited also has a significant presence in the 2G GSM space, through its joint venture with NTT DOCOMO of Japan, and offers differentiated products and services. Tata DOCOMO was born after Tata Groups strategic alliance with Japanese telecom major NTT DOCOMO in November 2008. Tata DOCOMO received a pan-India license to operate GSM telecom services and rolled out GSM services in all the 18 telecom Circles where it received spectrum from the Government of India in the quick span of just over a year. One of the key milestones in October 2011 was the brand integration exercise at TTL, which saw the Companys many brands being consolidated under its single flag ship brand, Tata DOCOMO. This helped TTL leverage the benefits of brand synergies and capitalize on its vast retail and distribution network, which is the largest amongst all private telecom operators in the country. Tata DOCOMO marks a significant milestone in the Indian telecom landscape, and has already redefined the very face of telecoms in India, being the first to pioneer the per-second tariff option part of its Pay for What You Use pricing paradigm. Tata Teleservices Limited also became the first Indian private telecom operator to launch 3G services in India under with the launch of services in November 2010 in all nine telecom Circles where the company bagged the 3G license. In association with its partner NTT DOCOMO, the Company finds itself favorably positioned to leverage this first-mover advantage. With 3G, Tata DOCOMO has begun to redefine the very face of telecoms in India. Tokyo-based NTT DOCOMO is one of the worlds leading mobile operators in Japan, the company is the clear market leader, used by nearly 55 per cent of the countrys mobile phone users. TTL entered into a strategic partnership agreement with Indian retail giant Future Group to offer mobile telephony services under a new brand name T24, on the GSM platform. Tata Teleservices also has a strategic tie up with Virgin Mobile that primarily caters to youth segment offering mobility services on both CDMA and GSM platform. Tata Teleservices is the undisputed market leader in the fixed wireless telephony market amongst private operators. In the wireless mobility space, the company in the past has been rated as the Least Congested Network in India for eight consecutive quarters by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India through independent surveys. Today, Tata Teleservices, along with Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited, has a reach in more than 450,000 towns and villages across the country, with a bouquet of telephony services encompassing Mobile Services, Wireless Desktop Phones, Public Booth Telephony and Wireline
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Services. In December 2008, Tata Teleservices announced a unique reverse equity swap strategic agreement between its telecom tower subsidiary, Wireless TT Info-Services Limited, and Quippo Telecom Infrastructure Limited with the combined entity kicking off operations with 18,000 towers, thereby becoming the largest independent entity in this space and with the highest tenancy ratios in the industry. Today, the combined entity which has been re-christened as VIOM Networks has a portfolio of nearly 60,000 towers. The company in the recent past has won many awards. TTSL was named The Best Emerging Markets Carrier by Telecom Asia, and received 8 awards at the World HRD Conference, including 5th Best Employer in India. The company also received 3 awards at the Telecom Operator Awards 2010 from Tele.net; Best Company, CEO of the Year and Best Quality of Service, and Business Standard award for 'Most Innovative Brand of the Year'. Tata DOCOMO was recently recognized as the best Utility VAS Service Provider and Best Mobile Broa dband Service Provider for the year 2012 by Frost & Sullivan.

Introduction
About the Organization
Tata Communications is a leading global provider of a new world of communications. With a leadership position in emerging markets, Tata Communications leverages its advanced solutions capabilities and domain expertise across its global and pan-India network to deliver managed solutions to multi-national enterprises, service providers and Indian consumers. TATA INDICOM Tata Teleservices Limited spearheads the Tata Group's presence in the telecom sector. The Tata Group had revenues of around USD 70.8 billion in Financial Year 2008-09, and includes over 90 companies, over 363,039 employees worldwide and more than 3.5 million shareholders. Incorporated in 1996, Tata Teleservices is the pioneer of the CDMA 1x technology platform in India. It has embarked on a growth path since the acquisition of Hughes Tele.com (India) Ltd [renamed Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited] by the Tata Group in 2002. It launched mobile operations in January 2005 under the brand name Tata Indicom and today enjoys a panIndia presence through existing operations in all of India's 22 telecom Circles. The company is also the market leader in the fixed wireless telephony market. The company's network has been rated as the 'Least Congested' in India for five consecutive quarters by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India through independent surveys. Tata Teleservices Limited now also has a presence in the GSM space, through its joint venture with NTT DOCOMO of Japan, and offers differentiated products and services under the TATA DOCOMO brand name. TATA DOCOMO arises out of the Tata Group's strategic alliance with Japanese telecom major NTT DOCOMO in November 2008.
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Tata Teleservices Vision & Promise

To deliver a new world of communications to advance the reach and leadership of our customers. They commit to invest in building long-lasting relationships with customers and partners and lead the industry in responsiveness and flexibility.

Purpose of the Project

The purpose of the project is as follows; - To maintain a continuity in workflow by developing a toolkit that will serve as a tutorial and a guide for the new reportees in the organization as well as a learning module that can be accessed across divisions in Tata Telesevices to understand and analyze the different levels of data that is maintained and generated by the company. - Interpretation and understanding of the reports and data maintained and circulated across divisions through channel engagements. - To bring master data and reports under the same roof and in the same format and thus come up with a centralized and improved reporting technique that can be practiced across the DATA function/division of Tata Teleservices. - To formulate strategies and insights including marketing decisions based on the reports and data available for value creation of the organization.

Scope of the Project

The project mainly aims towards maintaining continuity in the work process and in reporting by implementing a toolkit that can be accessed across platforms and also streamlining and centralizing data for common and easy access. The project also targets to benchmark companys channel distribution system against competing leaders and to come up with a suitable program as to elevate retail management

Limitations of the Study

Time Frame: Since the time stipulated for the SIP is only twelve weeks hence, it is difficult to study and analyze the overall channel distribution network and data pattern. Information Crunch: Since most of the information and data sourced in the report is confidential and sensitive, sharing and reproducing the reports for personal reasons is considered against organizational governance. The report sources data only pertaining to the NCR Delhi.

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The Products
The company's product offerings include 2G, wireless services, mobile telephony, fixed line internet services, Digital services, enterprise services includes national long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G wireless services and mobile commerce. The product offerings can be summarized as below; Mobile - Prepaid - Postpaid Broadband & Internet - Speed on demand - Tata Photon PC secure - Tata Photon Net PC Digital TV Data and IP Solutions Wireless Internet - Data Card - USB Modem Email on the go - Windows Mobile 5.0

Voice Solutions Conferencing

Competitor Analysis
By 20022003, the Indian market had grown highly competitive. Mobile rates were as low as three to four U.S. cents per minute, and ARPUthe average monthly revenue per customer unithad fallen by 50% in three years as telecom providers fought to capture new subscribers. 17 The top competitors were able to lower their unit costs as their market shares increased through acquisitions or bankruptcy of smaller competitors. By 2003, there were seven major operators in the Indian telecommunications market: Bharti, BSNL, Hutchinson, Reliance, Tata, Idea Cellular, and MTNL. Tata and three others had operations in both the fixed and mobile segments. The others operated only in the mobile segment. There were also several strong regional mobile operators, such as Spice and BPL. With industry consolidation, the focus was switching from having a national footprint to having the ability to provide value-added services. Operators needed 2.5G or 3G technologies to provide those services, and the transition upward from 2G represented a major capital investment challenge for any telecom operator. It was thought by some observers that the

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strong capital resources of players such as Tata or Reliance might give them a competitive advantage over the other operators.

Diversification for the telecom company

Mobile phone companies can no longer rely only on mobile phone business for their revenue generation. They have to look out to other businesses or in other words diversify from now on to improve their profitability as their main business reels under pressure due to intensifying tariff war. With new emerging initiatives such as per second billing, lower tariffs and a possibility of mobile number portability, the telecom sector has entered into a low profitability zone. This necessitates diversification for such telecom industries into other related service lines. Considering this, Tata is speeding up to be in a comfortable spot. It has diversified in the below segments; 1. Enterprise connectivity 2. Direct to home service 3. National and international long distance business.

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Differentiation for the telecom company

To differentiate itself in India's highly competitive communications environment Airtel comes out with regular initiatives and strategies; 1. Comes up with new plans, strategies, rate cutters and tariffs. 2. Ensures customer relations delight through personalized customer service. 3. Bharti Airtel has a managed services agreement with Nortel India to host contact center services for subscribers to Bharti's Airtel GSM mobile, broadband and fixed-line services.

SWOT Analysis

Strength: 1. Flexible plans 2. Good advertising 3. High brand visibility 4. Celebrity brand ambassadors 5. Ability to attract customers with various plans

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Weakness: 1. Price competition from BSNL and MTNL 2. Untapped Rural Market Opportunities: 1. Fast expanding cellular market 2. Latest and low cost technology 3. Untapped rural market 4. Value added services Threats: 1. Competitors low price offering 2. Saturation point in Basic telephony service 3. Mobile Number Portability 4. Non-availability of GSM Sims.

Proposition of Ideas
- Tuning the Workflow toolkit to design an e-learning portal that can be accessed across platform at different levels of work (managers, reportees, interns) and who so ever is interested in the organizational overview and performance and report generating techniques. - Taking into consideration the huge global presence if a centralized data model can be proposed and subsequently all upstream and downstream data can be incorporated in a database (oracle/Teradata) following the model proposed that can be accessed across platforms.

Plan for Completion of the Project

The project plan can be seen under the following heads; - Designing a Workflow toolkit for the proper channel engagement. - Interpretation & comprehending of the reports, surveys, questionnaires & available data - Centralizing Master data and reports for further analysis.
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- Suggestions & Recommendations to improve reporting & data maintenance

The progress of the project schedule is explained further through the illustrations below;

Phase 1

Designing a Workflow toolkit for the proper channel engagement.

Phase 2

Interpretation & comprehending of the reports, surveys, questionnaires & available data.

Phase 3

Centralizing Master data and reports for further analysis.

Phase 4

Suggestions & Recommendations to improve reporting & data maintainance

Status Completed Status in Progress Status Outstanding WEEKS 1st Week April 2nd Week April 3rd Week April ACTIVITY of Desk Research (Secondary Research) of Qualitative Field Work Qualitative Desk Research Of Questionnaire Development Pilot Testing

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4th Week April

Of Pilot Debriefing

1st , 2nd Week of Quantitative stage May Data Interpretation and Preparation 3rd Week of Analysis May 4th Week May of Presentation Final Report Available

References
1. Principles of Marketing, Kotler, Armstrong, Agnihotri, Haque, 13th edition, Pearson Education, 2006 2. www.wikipedia.org/ 3. http://www.tatateleservices.com 4. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_web_analytics 5. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/

(Note: A complete list of references will be provided in the final project report)
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