Product Portfolio, Pricing and Distribution Channels Are Industry’s
Best for Small Businesses
OVERLAND PARK, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 22, 2009--
Sprint (NYSE:S), home of America’s most dependable 3G network*,
announced today the formation of its Small Business specialty team to
sharpen the company’s focus on the rapidly growing small business market
segment.
Formation of the Small Business team demonstrates Sprint’s intent to
capture a leading share of the segment’s growth by dedicating resources,
customizing products, and developing special offers for small business
owners. This team will reside in Sprint’s Business Markets Group, formed
earlier this year.
“Many small business owners realize that technology can greatly enhance
the way they do business but are unsure about where to start or what
products are best,” said Carrie MacGillivray, senior analyst, SMB
Markets: Mobility at IDC. “These business owners are looking for a
provider with a broad portfolio, multiple channels to reach them
directly and the necessary tools to educate them on the best
communications solutions for their business. A service provider that can
provide these critical pieces will be well-positioned to win small
businesses' trust and help them streamline their communications and
overall management of their company.”
The Small Business team will serve as a single, common interface for all
groups across Sprint that sell and serve small business clients to
ensure consistent focus on addressing the unique needs of business
owners and their employees. The Sprint groups include marketing,
customer experience, product development and all channels that reach
small business customers, including telesales, online/web, Sprint retail
stores, and third-party retail partners.
“Sprint is well-positioned to help the small business community explore,
embrace and maximize new technology that enables them to easily stay
connected to customers and access critical information from virtually
wherever they are,” said Tom Shaughnessy, managing director of Small
Business, Sprint. “We offer the best solutions for small businesses – no
matter their industry or communications needs. Our distribution
channels, which include a robust Web site, well-trained retail locations
and a strong network of indirect dealers, are ideally suited to serve
this community regardless of how they purchase voice and data products.”
The Small Business team will introduce new market-based resources and
expand on existing programs available to small business customers today,
including:
-
www.businessonmain.com,
a small business community Web site that is a partnership with MSN and
popular one-stop shop with tips and tools to enhance business
operations and productivity, access to expert sources who can provide
information that can be applied immediately, and a direct connection
to interact and build relationships with other entrepreneurs.
-
Ready Now for Business, a program that ensures business customers
clients have a positive experience in Sprint retail stores and
preferred retailers. Retail sales associates work with customers to
ensure the correct rate plan, device and additional features are
matched with the business needs of the client. Before leaving the
store all the features, services and applications have been activated
and trained.
-
New certified indirect dealers that focus on selling and serving the
small business community.
-
New market-based Small Business Account Executives provide support and
training for Sprint retail locations and local certified dealers.
-
Sprint Premier Care, a team that focuses on proactive and specialized
support for small business customers with one to 24 wireless devices.
Sprint, named by PC World as the most reliable 3G network overall among
top U.S. carriers in a 13-city 3G performance test,** also offers a
large portfolio of wireline and wireless products and services to meet
the needs of small businesses, including:
-
Sprint is the first and only wireless 4G network from a national
carrier, and it was the first national wireless carrier to launch a
nationwide 3G network.
-
The newly announced Sprint
Business AdvantageSM pricing plans delivers more value
with business-grade communications tools at a price that beats
competitors. Customers who select the Business Advantage Messaging and
Data plan will also benefit from the Any Mobile, AnytimeSM
voice feature, which means unlimited everything – messaging, data,
voice – to any of the more than 250 million U.S. wireless users at any
time.
-
Sprint offers the broadest portfolio of mobile devices, including
smart phones, operating systems and mobile broadband connection
devices, as well as the largest portfolio of rugged devices.
-
Nextel Direct Connect® is the fastest national push-to-talk
network with the only guaranteed call setup times of less than one
second and the world’s largest community of users. Furthermore, the Nextel
Direct Connect Custom Plans® allow businesses to easily
select a plan that includes the tools their workgroups use most and
the flexibility to add a bucket of minutes based on actual usage.
-
A deep history in serving vertical industries, such as construction
and field services, transportation, professional services, retail and
public safety, with tailored solutions to meet each industry’s
specific needs.
-
Sprint has the industry’s largest portfolio of GPS, inventory and
fleet management, dispatch operations and workforce management
applications.
Sprint’s Business Markets Group (BMG) is composed of more than 4,000
sales, support, marketing and operations personnel solely dedicated to
enterprise, small and medium-sized business and public sector customers.
BMG delivers wireless, wireline and converged solutions for companies,
drawing on the nation’s most dependable 3G mobile broadband network, 4G
capabilities that are well ahead of Sprint’s competition, the fastest
national push-to-talk network,*** and a comprehensive solutions
portfolio of devices and applications.
For more information, please visit www.sprint.com/smallbusiness.
ABOUT SPRINT NEXTEL
Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline
communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers,
businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel is widely recognized for
developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including
two wireless networks serving almost 49 million customers at the end of
the second quarter of 2009; industry-leading mobile data services;
instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a
global Tier 1 Internet backbone. The company’s customer-focused strategy
has led to improved first call resolution and customer care satisfaction
scores. For more information, visit www.sprint.com.
*“Dependable” based on independent, third-party drive tests for 3G
data connection success, session reliability and signal strength for the
top 50 most populous US markets (including Puerto Rico) from January
2008 to July 2009. Not all services available on 3G and coverage may
default to separate network when 3G unavailable.
** PC World’s tests included thirteen major cities with more than
twenty tests per city from all regions of the country during a two month
period from March & April 2009. In all, 5443 individual tests
from 283 testing locations were conducted for each provider’s 3G service.
Testing was one minute in duration, and network performance can be
highly variable from neighborhood to neighborhood. The thirteen cities
included Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, NYC, Orlando,
Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco and Seattle. Sprint
won for reliability in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Portland, San Diego, San
Francisco and Seattle. Sprint tied for reliability in Orlando.
*** “Fastest” based on initial call setup time.
Source: Sprint
Media Contact:
Sprint
Stephanie Greenwood, 913-315-1612
Stephanie.greenwood@sprint.com
