DST to launch Blackberry service

The DST Group will be launching the highly-awaited Blackberry service at the end of the year, its CEO revealed yesterday.

"We may do a soft launch in November and an actual one in December, but the schedule is dependant on a number of factors. As a company we want to make sure that it works. So we need to make sure that the tests are successfully completed," said the group's new chief executive officer, Idris T Vasi.

"In my personal opinion, the Blackberry is the best platform for email applications and person-to-person communication, and the term for the Blackberry is often, 'an office in your pocket'," said Idris.

The phone is ideal for people who travel a lot, and also for people who work within Brunei, but need to stay connected to people in the office, he said.

The new chief executive officer, who has only been holding the post for three weeks, said that as he takes on his new role, he expects to face plenty of challenges and has targeted three segments for improvements.

"Network transformation, services transformation and operation transformation," said Idris.

In network transformation, he said that the idea is to improve the technology that DST carries from 3G to 3.5G and ultimately to 4G. "It's moving packet-based, or IT-based services towards value-added services, and making sure that the network infrastructure is ready for the next generation of services," he said.

In the services transformation segment, he is targetting for the the company to gain "service velocity", a term which he explained would ensure that the company has the ability to roll services at a fast pace and involve structural developments geared towards that objective. With operations transformation, the CEO aims to make sure that the organisation's structure is ready for the challenges of the future, "but all these three things work hand in hand," he said. "You cannot prioritize one over the other you essentially need to do network services and operations transformation pretty much in parallel," said Idris.

Asked about the growth of DST and whether Brunei's tiny market size is an obstacle, Idris said that he only sees it as "a challenge".

The market size in Brunei may be limited, but mobile penetration in the country is approaching 100 per cent, he explained.

"It's certainly far north of 90 per cent, and the only way a company like DST can grow is by opting for more value-added services," said Idris.

"The Blackberry is one example, and is one way we can get closer to customers and gain customer retention," he said.

Another way is by working with regional partners and looking at various alliances that the DST Group can make with key players in the region, although those plans are geared more for the "mid to longer term".

"In the short term, it is basically trying to get to our customer base, which is not equally divided between pre-paid and postpaid, and one of our initiatives is to get more corporate clients, getting more postpaid customers, and driving more value added services, getting the 'average revenue per user' up by providing these value added services. The Blackberry is an example of a service that is very useful for corporate customers and corporate accounts," he said.

However it does not mean there will be more focus on the postpaid segment of the business, as a larger portion of their customers are pre-paid clients.

"We are looking at innovative products and services, and we are looking at investing in intelligent networking platforms that allow us to get much closer to our customers and targeted services and our prepaid customers as well. So while we are looking at expanding our postpaid client base, we cannot ignore that the larger number of customers are on the prepaid side, and we will not ignore that," he said.

The CEO also said that plans to add growth to the group would include expanding their Go!Broadband services, and moving towards providing a higher bandwidth to subscribers.

"Looking at the various transformation initiatives, on network transformation and operation, but also from the image or branding perspective, we find that the best way to improve the image is to be better with the customer, and exceeding their expectations," he said.

Idris wants to make sure that DST becomes "a more customer-centric organisation".

"The main thing is that you can't lose your customer focus, so if your customers are happy then the company is successful," he said.

Idris said that based on anecdotes of the usage of Blackberry in other service providers in other countries, he is confident that it will be "no different in Brunei".

"Customers will have the same needs, and it doesn't matter where you are, given that the service has been proven to be very effective," he said.

The Blackberry is a productivity tool, he said, which "helps corporations and companies increase the productivity level of their employees".

The Brunei Times