Communications
Case Study:
Cheap computing from Telmex
24 April 2008
Mexican telecoms company Telmex is providing low-cost computing and connectivity through its partnership with Microsoft.
When the company began to focus on growing the penetration of Internet services years ago, it encountered a problem shared by most countries in the region. Telmex realised that only a small proportion of the Mexican public owned computers. “There weren’t more than 11 million computers in the entire country,” says Tomás Alfonso Arias, Telmex’s Internet services marketing manager. And without computers in the hands of Telmex consumers, it is difficult to deliver the benefits of Internet connectivity to the larger community.
The challenge in a developing economy like Mexico’s is to make a competitively-priced, high-quality solution available to consumers across a broad range of the socioeconomic spectrum. By employing a model where PCs are financed and bundled with broadband Internet services for an affordable and convenient monthly fee, Telmex found a way to reach the Mexican public.
The Microsoft Subscription Computing Program (SCP) is part of the ‘Unlimited Potential’ initiative in Microsoft, which aims to enable sustained social and economic development for the billions of people who currently lack access to technology. SCP is designed to help service providers implement PC and broadband offerings (“subscription computing”) to expand the reach of personal computing to new consumers and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in emerging markets worldwide.
Together with the support of SCP, Telmex has significantly expanded its offering, providing a growing number of consumers throughout Mexico the opportunity to take advantage of computing technology and the Internet.
This one-stop shop solution provides customers with hardware and computer solutions provided by an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), a broadband Internet connection from Telmex, and the reassurance of genuine software from Microsoft. The instalments on the PC financing are also conveniently integrated into the customer’s monthly phone bill. “The advantage we have is the telephone bill,” says Arias. “When someone has an account with Telmex, they don’t need a credit card to buy a computer.”
The subscription computing model also delivers loyalty benefits for Telmex.
“When we get a customer who signs up for a 24 or 36 month plan for the computer, we obviously have a loyal customer,” says Telmex assistant marketing director Javier Vázquez del Mercado. “Tomorrow, when they’re thinking of another computer for the house, or in three or four years when they’re thinking of upgrading their equipment, we hope they’ll choose Telmex.”
If a customer encounters any kind of problem with the service, support is available directly from the OEM. This ensures customer satisfaction, but it is also good for Telmex. With OEM specialists taking care of support requests, the Telmex call centre can concentrate on engaging new customers and upselling to current ones.
“The innovative services of the future will be delivered through the Internet,” says Arias. “It requires establishing an important base of connectivity for applications, peer-to-peer collaboration, video conferencing, music downloads and video downloads. Telmex has to stay at the forefront in terms of services to be an industry leader. And the focus of the future is connectivity.”
One example of a family that has benefited from Telmex’s subscription computing offering is the Jimenez family. José Luis Jimenez is a technician and lives with his wife Leonor and three children in the Lomas Estrella neighbourhood of Iztapalapa, Mexico City. The Jimenez family had never owned a computer until recently.
Leonor explains that when money is tight, other, more essential things come first. “It was difficult to buy a computer because there were other expenses that are priorities,” says Leonor. “But we were able to buy one through Telmex, because it has a payment system with comfortable monthly instalments.”
Leonor considers Internet service very important for the education of her children, and because of that decided to purchase a computer and broadband service. “The reason we bought the computer was for Alfonso, because his homework required research,” Leonor says of her son. “He has encyclopaedias, but it’s not the same.”
Learning and creating a future for themselves is as important to the Jimenez children as it is to their mother. Alfonso says: “My dream for the future is to have a chain of hotels and restaurants. And that’s why I’m studying management.” Youngest daughter Seila has just finished her degree and is working in education. She too dreams of bigger things: “Right now I’m studying English to become an English teacher. For my future, my dream is to start a school, to have my own school,” she says.
The subscription computing offering from Telmex has allowed the Jimenez family to own a high-quality, reliable computer and broadband service in the comfort of their home, enabling family members to do so much more to improve their education and many other aspects of their lives. Alfonso has come to view the computer as an absolute life essential. “I like having broadband because it’s very fast. I couldn’t imagine life without a computer,” he says. “I use it everyday for fun and homework. Also for entertainment, downloading and watching movies, listening to music and research.”
Leonor values most the improvement to her children’s lives the new computer brings. “My children are everything,” she says. “Happiness is seeing them laugh. There’s no word, no way to say what I want for them. They are my life.”
This article first appeared in the March 2008 edition of Microsoft Connections in Communications.