Telco details transformation and digitalisation at AGM
The world is going through a period of upheaval, with changes in the geopolitical landscape, supply chain disruptions, and economic pressures such as inflation coming on top of the growing impacts of climate change, stated Vicki Brady, CEO of Telstra at the telco recent annual general meeting.
“These things are driving different opportunities and challenges for all businesses, and to prosper in this environment, we will need to think differently and boldly,” said Brady.
“I am sure of one thing, and as COVID has demonstrated, connectivity and technology – Telstra’s core products and expertise – will play a key role in helping our country and world respond to these challenges.”
Brady said the telco’s key priorities – are strongly grounded in its T25 strategy and ambitions.
“We must continue to radically change the experience for our customers. We have made huge progress through T22 but delivering exceptional customer experiences – being known as a leader in customer excellence isn’t just the right thing to do; it is critical to us unlocking future opportunities – opportunities to fuel our growth.”
And that growth is Brady’s second priority for the telco. Growth will come from customers trusting us to play a lead role in delivering the technology that can make a real difference for them and their organisations.
Connectivity is at the heart of so much of our lives, and Telstra is in an extraordinary position with the team that can bring together its market-leading network, products, services and solutions for consumers and enterprises.
That demand for our products and services, with connectivity playing a foundational role in everything we do, means we are well-placed to grow into the future.
“The increased reliance on the connectivity we provide means we need to be vigilant in protecting our networks and platforms,” said Brady.
“We are seeing increasing cyber threats, and the recent attack on one of our competitors puts into stark focus just how real these threats are.
You may have also seen reports of a data breach at one of our third-party suppliers – I want to be clear that this was not a breach of any Telstra system and did not involve any customer data. The hackers accessed the names and email addresses of some of our employees.”
The telco has taken important steps to protect our networks and customers, but ongoing vigilance is required, and the job is never done.
“We are also blocking unprecedented levels of malicious activity from reaching our customers, including calls and SMS, while at the same time helping our customers to protect themselves and their businesses,” said Brady.
With a growing number of these cyber-attacks some of Telstra’s customers are asking the telco what ID documents we keep, for how long, and for what reason. “These are all fair questions and people are right to be asking them”, said Brady.
“Like many companies we are subject to multiple pieces of legislation and rules in relation to retaining our customers’ ID data. We collect it and fiercely protect it through our cyber security capabilities.
But we agree the time is right for a discussion on the laws around keeping data. As we do we have to get the balance right – and it’s a fine balance – between identifying our customers, protecting them against fraud, maintaining their privacy, and helping law enforcement combat crime.”
Given advances in technology and the broader work being done on trusted digital identity Brady thinks that balance is achievable, and we look forward to working with the Government on it.
John Mullen, Chairman at Telstra said Telstra has seen the rate of digital adoption accelerate rapidly, along with customer expectations for a seamless digital experience.
“Our investments in innovation and technology, in digitisation and networks, in improving our customer experiences and ways of working, and our disciplined approach to capital management mean Telstra today is a fundamentally different company with an incredibly bright future,” said Mullen.
“We have famously reduced the number of in-market products and services for our consumer customers from 1,800 to just 20 and stripped away the lock-in contracts, excess data and other charges that used to frustrate our customers.
Our 5G network is the largest and fastest in the country, covering 80 per cent of the population and it is among the very best globally. Our total network now covers 99.5 per cent of all Australians and stands at over 2.6 million square kilometres.”
Mullen said the telco has completely modernised and digitised our systems.
“Our direct headcount has been reduced by approximately 8,000 but simultaneously we have recruited 1,500 new hires in software engineering, data analytics, artificial intelligence and cyber security,” he said.
“Our cyber security capabilities are now considerable, and our teams are working around the clock to protect our networks and our customers from unprecedented levels of malicious activity.”
According to Mullen in the last 12 months alone the telco has blocked more than 1 billion malicious emails and 200 million scam calls. We are currently blocking 1,500 scam texts every single minute.
“Another significant change has been to bring our Consumer & Small Business contact centres back on shore,” he said.
“Commitment to hybrid working also means those new team members are located in cities and towns across Australia, including regional hubs like Maryborough, Bunbury and Bathurst.”
Mullen noted another significant change this year concerned our licensee stores, which have all been brought back in-house, and are now Telstra owned and operated.
“Almost half of all sales interactions and more than three quarters of all service interactions with Consumer & Small Business customers are now digital,” he said.
“The benefits of a better system are tangible and the number of calls now coming into Telstra’s consumer and small business contact centres have fallen by more than 70 per cent.
These improvements are also reflected in our Episode NPS results, which are stronger than ever, improving five points in the last 12 months and 18 points since the T22 program began.”
Inside the business, the adoption of Agile at scale work practices has transformed our approach to prioritisation and resource allocation so that we are faster to market, more efficient and more customer-focussed, Mullen said.
