03 November 2008, Pages – 30

Telstra Corporation Limited (Telstra) is a telecommunications and information services company. The company’s principal activities include the provision of basic access services to homes and businesses in Australia; local and long-distance telephone calls in Australia, and international calls to and from Australia; mobile telecommunications services; a range of data and Internet services; management of business customers’ IT and telecommunications services; wholesale services to other carriers and carriage service providers. Telstra operates through eight business segments: Telstra Consumer Marketing and Channels, Telstra Business, Telstra Enterprise and Government, Telstra International, Telstra Operations, Telstra Wholesale, Sensis and Other.

Industry trends and drivers have a direct or indirect affect on IT spending of all companies operating within an industry. For example – increase in demand for WiMax services might result in increase in demand for the required infrastructure and access equipments by Telstra. Thus, we can conclude that industry spending on any particular IT product or service is an important indicator of the criticality of that product or service for the industry. Based on the IT spend information available in ‘TechNavio^TM’, we have computed a ‘criticality score’ for various IT products and services, for Telstra.

Further, various company level developments and events are important indicators of selling opportunities and drive the sales of IT products and services. For example – an acquisition by Telstra might result in opportunities for IT migration and integration services. By tracking these sales drivers (using ‘TechNavio^TM’), we have arrived at a demand score for each product and service.

Through an in-depth analysis of industry trends and drivers and company level developments and events, we have made the ‘IT Selling Opportunities Map’ for hardware (including telecom equipment), software and IT services for Telstra. These maps have been divided into four zones representing Level I, Level II and Level III opportunity areas. Level I opportunity areas have the highest scores and hence, there is a high probability that Telstra will buy these products and services. Level II opportunity areas have lower scores and hence, lower probability to sell to Telstra. Level III opportunities have the lowest scores and hence, unlikely to sell to Telstra.

The report is meant for IT and telecom equipment vendors and intends to help them identify selling opportunities within the company. Further, the identified sales drivers can be used to penetrate these accounts or increase current share of the customer's wallet. Also, the report lists key IT spending decision makers, which will enable salesperson to directly contact the key executives within the company.