Who's the Boss?

Control and ownership of customers is key. Now that's changing. Although today's turnkey solutions still offer customers specialized service, they're being coordinated more and more by vendors rather than carriers.

According to Cary Campbell, AT&T Wireless national AVL (automated vehicle locator) segmentmanager, the sales strategy of partnering with vendors and resellers is beneficial because it saves time and makes money. In these partnerships, vendors are the first point of contact, and carriers are taking a more behind-the-scenes role.

"From a general standpoint, turnkey solutions are a great source of revenue for us," Campbell said. "Vendors bring us customers, and most of what we do is just bring the network."

But vendors say carriers also bring name recognition. @Road uses AT&T's network to offer an AVL service for fleet management. John Lankes, @Road vice president of marketing, said AT&T's brand helped his company get customers. Being able to offer reliability and nationwide coverage through a brand-name carrier can mean the difference between making the sale or not. When a customer hears a name, he has an idea of what to expect.

On the flip side, partnering with a vendor sometimes can give a carrier more name recognition. For example, resellers boost brand awareness for AT&T. Campbell theorizes that having no brand behind a solution may have been the downfall for some companies. Teletrak, for example, tried to use its own proprietary network and never really got off the ground. Now it's a value-added reseller (VAR) for AT&T and has sold off its own network.

As a part of its sales-channels program, AT&T has two different ways to handle turnkey solutions. Both put the vendor in the driver's seat. With data-solution providers, AT&T assumes the responsibility of billing the customer, but the vendor is the customer's first line of contact. With a VAR, AT&T gives the reseller total autonomy.

Without this vendor-carrier partnership, AT&T would have to market its turnkey solutions to customers. At the same time, having data-solution providers gather hardware and software companies to meet a customer's needs demands far less of AT&T's resources.

Campbell said the reason for this approach is that a solution's problems usually don't concern the network. Because carriers are less familiar with the vendor's products, it's always best for the vendor to address these issues first. Only when there's a network problem does AT&T step in. All AT&T's data turnkey solutions are done this way.

Recently, Sprint PCS announced a new turnkey solution of its own. Partnering with IBM, the carrier wants to be the first to "go behind the firewall" and provide businesses with wireless access to the Web. Beginning early this year, the companies plan to develop and test a variety of packaged solutions for business customers, including wireless e-mail and access to other corporate applications. Such services will be delivered in real time using Sprint PCS Internet-ready phones.

For this solution, IBM will deliver IT infrastructure, business intelligence, customer care and billing solutions to implement Sprint PCS's new wireless-convergence business models.

On the voice side of things at AT&T, however, things are a bit different. For now, AT&T is the point of contact for voice services, but Campbell said it would be nice if that changed.

"Even with voice, more often than not, the problem lies with the product, not the network," Campbell said. "We'd love it if the vendor would field those questions."

SINGLE POINT OF CONTACT For the most part, vendors field the questions about turnkey data solutions. But just which vendor gets the job? Greg Speakman, Sierra Wireless project manager, said the choice depends on which company figures more prominently in the solution. As a hardware vendor, Speakman's company seldom is the point of contact. More often, it's the software vendor that assembles the solution and interacts with the customer.

Global Data Wireless is a data-software vendor that uses GTE Wireless' WIN4 network to offer wireless meter-reading services to utility companies nationwide. Corey Tkachuk, Global Data Wireless vice president of sales and marketing, said vendors often want to be the first line of contact so carriers can spend more time optimizing the network. That way, the vendor's solution is better able to meet its full potential.

"This really is a symbiotic relationship," Tkachuk said. "We need them to be their best, and they need us to market their network."

Although GTE and AT&T said they do a lot of vertical marketing for their turnkey solutions, both allow vendors to do the bulk of the customer sales calls. Team sales calls, however, aren't yet a thing of the past. When a vendor requests that GTE accompany it on a call, a rep is there. Because both carrier and vendor see this as a partnership, there's never a fee for making a sales call.

Patrick Daily, GTE marketing administrator of WIN4 programs, said GTE representatives can and do go on sales calls with vendors when needed, and the reaction from customers has always been good. Taking this team approach means customers don't have to wait to have their network questions answered. But, Daily added, vendors are trained to do basic troubleshooting so they can better market the solution alone.

In the end, customers want one point of contact, but they also want to know that there's a whole team working on their solutions.

Larry Simmons, former GTE manager of WIN4 distribution, said, "There isn't any doubt that presenting ourselves as an allied front gives customers the impression that any problems can be handled quickly and expertly."

WHAT CUSTOMERS WANT Although some say carriers' customers have changed from end user to vendor, what they want hasn't changed. They still want simple solutions. They want low cost, high value and, most importantly, broad coverage. Bundled minutes and wholesale rates are good, but making your network a 1-stop shop is still one of the best features that you can offer. Simmons said the future of turnkey solutions may be international coverage and that carriers should prepare now to build out and upgrade their networks to meet customers' needs.

Some customers said they looked for a company that was hands-on and could adjust with their growing needs. Mission Linen Supply uses @Road, AT&T's turnkey solution to keep track of its delivery team. Dan Gallagher, Mission vice president of sales and marketing, said he was most pleased by the solution's flexibility. @Road didn't just offer a customized solution; it also presented new ways to manage growth in the future.

But again proving that the vendor, not the carrier, owns the customer, Gallagher didn't even know that there were two companies involved in the solution. What he wanted and got was a clear line of communications for customer service and a workable solution.

"The simpler things are kept, the easier it is," he said.