Telecommunication now plays a very important role in our daily lives. The countries that have reliable telecom services not only have profitable businesses but they also have good social sector to support the society.
In Pakistan, the PTCL is a major or perhaps the only service provider for large number of people in voice and data communication over the fixed network and there is a discussion going on for restructuring it. An attempt is being made in this article to ensure that every thing possible is being done to ensure that restructuring will deliver the required benefits.
The major stakeholders in the restructuring process are; the customers; employees and the shareholders.
Customers are the most important stakeholders of the PTCL. For any telecom service provider to succeed in this very competitive world, it must have satisfied customer base, willing to support it's efforts for modernization so it can serve their needs better.
One hopes that despite being free market of fixed network, the PTCL will still be a major player in future not because there is no one else to supply such services but only because of the fact that the PTCL is delivering services at competitive prices.
It would be interesting to see the benefits customer will receive after the restructuring. Will their telephone bills go down ? Will they receive better, fair and accurate charging for the service they receive? Will it be simpler, quicker to have new working telephone installed? Will telephone work more regularly and if there is a reported fault on the line will it be fixed promptly? Will it be possible to pay the service charges in a simple and easy way? Will they receive benefits of global technology and reduction in the price of telecom equipment ? These and other important questions are for the PTCL to ensure its customers in a better way in future.
The people who work at the PTCL could be divided into two categories: those who will lose their jobs immediately after the restructuring and the employees who will reap the benefits even after restructuring.
The people who will lose their jobs need to be treated fairly and it is PTCL's social responsibility as a good corporate citizen to help them adjust themselves outside the PTCL where there are not many jobs awaiting for them. The PTCL could create a fair mode of compensation taking into consideration the age, level of competence, future prospects, length of service and host of other issues relevant to local conditions. However, it needs not create jobs for these people by out-sourcing non-core activities.
These people who will be out of work should be encouraged to form companies and use their know-how in order to bid for new contracts. They should be supported by the small enterprise loan by banks and other similar organisations. PTCL will be always in need of software so it can give some contracts to these companies also.
The telecom business is picking up on a worldwide basis. The PTCL needs to approach other global companies who may need this type of competence. If PTCL do not have the requisite resources and the know-how, there are global companies who help other restructuring organisations, such as British Telecom.
By merely reducing the work-force the PTCL will not be able to deliver the envisaged benefits to its shareholders and for reason, the PTCL needs to change its business model and the way of working.
It needs to have new business processes and new information support systems so that it is able to work with new processes and serve its customers in a better manner.
The PTCL needs to out-source all its non-core activities so that it could focus on what it knows best. It also needs to have a global competence management team which manages local and national business. Moreover the PTCL needs to increase its revenue so that it has enough cash to survive in the future. In this regard, it may take the following actions ensuring that:
* their network has zero defect level and they do not miss a single call at its international gate way;
* they have extra capacity available on special days such as Eid to generate more revenues;
* its cost is reduced when the network is not busy fully so that people would make more calls;
* they too have companies where large number of Pakistanis live;
* they utilise their foreign exchange in a way that it gives maximum benefit;
* they have re-routed maximum international call traffic via Pakistan;
* they have more value-added services for their customers.
* they renegotiate their contracts with suppliers for getting benefits of scale purchasing at total level.
* they have reduced the number of suppliers and work with their core suppliers and have calculated the total life cycle cost and not just purchasing prices.The world class companies not become world class by having just a good mission statement.
They become world class companies by delivering world class service. Why should we expect and accept less than world class performance from PTCL.
