What does Lucent do?
As one of the world’s largest telecommunications suppliers involved in all aspects of telephone equipment design, manufacture, supply, and installation Lucent has a wide range of customer profiles and sizes.
Lucent supplies large switches to public Telco's (such as BT in the UK), call centre ACD’s, and PBX systems to a full spectrum of organisations.
The problem?
In most cases Lucent’s sales team were treated like one of many suppliers of such equipment, and as the market developed away from proprietary systems towards more modern technologies so margins were being squeezed.
Newcomers were using clever software running on more commonly available computer platforms (hence lower cost) and also combining many different functions in that software.
How to raise Lucent’s profile, and how to ensure that margins were maintained was occupying the UK board’s minds.
After discussions around the options that might be available, pharos recommended that Lucent should seek to establish a strategic consulting service, and a full spectrum of solution delivery capability. This plan would achieve two objectives:
Raise Lucent’s profile in its target customers by working with board level management rather than with the more typical telecomms manager.
Increase its margins by delivering high value consultancy services, and a more compete systems portfolio.
The UK MD decided to implement this strategy by utilising resource from outside his organisation so he could immediately benefit from their expertise.
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"Create a new business!”
That was the brief to pharos, employed at UK board level, to implement this ambitious plan and to carry through the implementation.
A new business needs a believable business plan and that was the first objective. Having evaluated capability, the market, and using previous experience pharos created Lucent’s business plan. This plan was approved at UK, EMEA, and US HQ level.
Once approved, the plan had to be implemented, and over a two year period everything needed to set up and establish the new business was completed by pharos working with the UK board .
A sales and marketing plan, followed by a full set of collateral began the process. In parallel, the existing team received training to help progress sales. The business needed custom designed office and lab space and again this was managed through to completion by pharos. Recruitment of specialist skills in sales, consultancy, support, and systems engineering skills was also completed.
All of the commercial aspects of the new business model were also established; operating procedures, financial controls, monthly reporting, contracts, and agreements with suppliers were all put in place under pharos’ management.
The result is that over a two year period pharos established a new business with revenues of $200m at the end of the assignment. Lucent was providing strategic consultancy services at board level, and was supplying its clients with complete turnkey solutions. A significant success for Lucent and pharos!
n.b. Lucent has since de-merged its businesses and this work was carried out for the group now known as Avaya. |
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