AT&T Business Solutions President and CEO Calls Business "The Next Frontier for the Wireless Industry, Stankey: "AT&T Has the Right Network, Evolution Path to Help Companies Make ‘Tectonic Shift’".
The convergence of smartphones, smart networks, and mobile business applications has created unprecedented opportunity for companies across all industries to transform themselves – and in the process, reap dramatic returns on their network and IT investments, John Stankey, AT&T Business Solutions (ABS) President and CEO, said today at the CTIA Enterprise and Applications conference in San Francisco.
“Business is the next frontier for the wireless industry,” he said. “Mobility is going to transform the way companies do business in ways we have only begun to imagine.”
Despite a U.S. economy that remains challenged, “millions of companies are hungry for affordable, reliable solutions that can improve their productivity, increase their revenue potential, and lower their costs,” said Stankey, who estimated the enterprise mobility space – including hardware, software and services – would be at least $50 billion by 2015.
From discussions with companies across a number of industry sectors, it’s clear that productivity improvements will drive the next wave of business growth, he said. Combined with technology trends, this is prompting a “tectonic shift” in the way companies do business.
“AT&T has the right network and the right evolution path to help make this tectonic shift,” Stankey said. “Our goal is to help enterprises mobilize everything.
“AT&T’s wireless network creates the underpinnings for mobile solutions that allow businesses to change the way they conduct their business and unleash their full potential,” he added. “We’ve extended our established strengths in the enterprise space to deliver the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network to the world’s most demanding users.”
U.S. carriers are driving innovation in wireless broadband, virtualization and mobile and emerging devices to accommodate the demand for transformative solutions across industries like healthcare, energy, manufacturing, finance and retail, said Stankey.
“Companies from every sector are beginning to re-examine and re-tool the way they operate, with the help of the creative mobility solutions that wireless carriers deliver,” he noted.
He called upon providers to step up and help companies prepare for the fundamental changes in business processes that mobility will deliver. “We need to build networks, applications, and services that offer the full benefits of security and manageability,” he said. “We need to offer robust routing and QoS capabilities from the integrated IP core to the end user edge. We need to create a technology support environment that enables greater levels of personalized customer service. We need to create a software distribution system that brings an enterprise maximum productivity, efficiency and flexibility.”
Stankey made his remarks on the third day of the conference, capping an event during which AT&T announced a number of new products, applications and customer wins.
Customer News:
- Con-way Freight, a freight transportation company, has deployed approximately 11,250 wireless devices nationwide that utilize an AT&T solution for Pick-up and Delivery Operations, Dock Automation, and Line Haul Operations.
- AT&T delivers cost-saving and efficiency-driving mobile applications and as well as a set of leading smartphones and devices to the City of Chicago, which serves nearly three million residents.
- Advantage Sales and Marketing (ASM) uses wireless devices and services through AT&T that accelerate its ability to help consumer packaged goods manufacturers optimize the management and presence of their products in the retail environment.
- Through AT&T’s network, eCardio provides remote heart-monitoring for cardiac patients. Doctors can now track patients’ cardiac activity from a distance, allowing people who have undergone surgery to return home to recover sooner.
New Services, Devices, and Applications:
AT&T announced the following this week:
- The Motorola ES400, an enterprise mobile computer created to withstand tough environments for workers on the go, joined AT&T’s portfolio of mobile devices.
- The Motorola Bravo, a new android smartphone on the AT&T network, features a 3.7-inch, full Wide Video Graphics Array (WVGA) touch screen with enhanced Web-browsing and mobile entertainment.
- AT&T added the Motorola Flipout, a square touch screen phone that whips open to reveal a complete keyboard, to its array of consumer devices
- The Motorola Flipside, which packs features such as a 3.1 inch high-resolution display, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and a laptop-like track pad, is also now available to AT&T customers.
- The Pantech Laser, the thinnest, full sliding keyboard device that AT&T has ever offered, presents users with a vibrant 3.1 inch touch screen and a QWERTY keyboard, as well as access to email, social networking and messaging.
- AT&T presented its first LTE-upgradeable device, the USBConnect Adrenaline, and its first HSPA+-capable device, the USBConnect Shockwave.
- AT&T introduced global availability for the Global Smart Messaging Suite, which enables organizations to communicate more effectively via short messages.
- AT&T is the first carrier to offer Encrypted Mobile Voice, a service that provides high-level security for calls on the AT&T wireless network.
- The WIC Pager App, a healthcare notification application, is now available on the App Store for AT&T customers using iPhone, making it more accessible to more hospitals and healthcare professionals across the United States.
- AT&T revamped its Developer Programming website to help make developers more impactful and get their applications to market quickly and easily.
- AT&T announced plans for innovation centers, which will enable venture communities and developers to collaborate with AT&T, located in Palo Alto, CA, Plano, TX, and Tel Aviv, Israel.
In line with the CTIA conference’s theme of Enterprise and Applications, AT&T showcased the devices, applications, and mobility solutions that ABS offers to business customers, highlighting technological innovations and enterprise mobility market growth.
AT&T Business Solutions serves every Fortune 1000 company and has operations across 6 continents worldwide. AT&T offers the broadest international coverage of any U.S. wireless provider, delivering voice service in more than 220 countries and data service in more than 195 countries.
AT&T delivers one of the most comprehensive and globally consistent portfolios of business services to large companies. This portfolio includes advanced network management and network-based security tools, enterprise mobility solutions and applications, content management and delivery services, together with web hosting and application services. AT&T operates 38 Internet data centers around the globe, with MPLS-based IP services available in 182 countries over 3,800 service nodes.
The AT&T network provides connections for customers on the world’s most powerful and advanced IP/Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) network. Its data services are available in countries representing 99 percent of the world’s economy.
