AAPT boosts SME revenues

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 18 October 2005 16:09

IT Industry - Deals

AAPT says it has signed its 10,000th business customer, following record months of August and September.

The company claims to have added more than 600 new customers in each of the two months, and to have added $160 million in annual revenue from medium enterprises and corporate customers.

Mark Frederikson, AAPT's general manager, business, said the company's 'Talk and Reward' initiative had "really resonated with SME decision makers," claiming "the strong feedback has been that this is the first time a telco has truly valued their time."

'Talk and Reward' is offered to business customers of Optus and Telstra. AAPT tells them: "We bet you $500 we would have saved you money on your phone bill last month! If we wouldn't have saved you money we'll give you a $500 Officeworks voucher for your time. Or, if we would have saved you money we'll give you a $500 credit against your first month's bill once you've switched to AAPT."

According to Frederikson, "Another SME product success story has been our Unlimited Broadband offer. It is drawing the attention of business customers because it offers a simple flat rate with no tricks or hooks, no extra costs, no speed reduction, no contract term and no installation fee."

Frederikson added; "We will continue to develop SME specific offers at a competitive price point and with the ongoing $50m upgrade of our internal processes starting to take effect, we expect further improvement in customer satisfaction."

AAPT CEO John Stretch revealed earlier this year that the company was in the throes of a complete revamp of its operational support and billing systems at a cost of $50 million, but refused to reveal the main supplier of the new system. However ITWire understands that this is Infonova, a subsidiary of BearingPoint. The system was developed for Telekom Austria but has since been sold to a number of carriers including VeriSign and a global ISP.