The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) executives yesterday hailed their newly-launched ‘Business Solutions Centre’ as a cost-effective initiative that will boost private sector profits.

The Centre, launched at the company’s Mall at Marathon flagship store, offers business clients a “try before you buy” approach to give them the opportunity to test technology  prior to purchase.

Speaking with Tribune Business at the launch, BTC’s chief executive, Leon Williams, said: “BTC is a business that is in the business of solving people’s problems. You have to find out from the customers what their problems are, and then we use the technology to solve that problem for them.

“There has been a cry from a number of our customers in trying to reduce travel expenses and improve their business efficiencies. One of the major difficulties is the cost of travel to conferences to do training.”

The Business Solutions Centre features 4HD displays, a whiteboard and projector, a conference bridge to accommodate 24 participants in one session, and a video conference platform that can be used for meeting and training purposes.

Small to medium-sized business customers are also able to sign up for the company’s Business Phone Plus product, and enjoy 3,000 hours of talk time at a low flat monthly fee. The solution is similar to the residential offering of Home Phone Plus, and provides companies with the ability to make long distance calls at one low rate.

“We heard the needs of our customers and I have given the technical people the task of finding  a technical solution. This solution was born out of that,” said Mr Williams.

“It’s not new to us because we did this years ago when we were asked to bridge Grand Bahama and save the trouble of having to bring magistrates in. If you go in the police stations, you see a very sophisticated video conferencing network where the commissioner of police can sit down and talk to his heads of departments on various islands.”

Kendrick Knowles, BTC’s senior manager for pre-sales engineering, directory publications and business to business operations, further explained: “The solutions centre used to be called a demo room, but we have turned it into more than that because it’s going to be more than just a try before you buy offering, but is also going to become an educational forum where we can invite customers to update them on new products and service as they come into the market.

“We have some businesses that have special customised training needs, and we can use this facility to train their staff on the products and services. We have used this to to  host a video conferencing deposition.”

Mr Knowles added: “We have solutions that help customers save costs. It’s not just about selling a product but solutions that benefit them from a cost perspective also.

You have customers who have sales teams or members who have to be away form their desk, but still need to be reached.

“We have the solution where they can now transfer their extension from their desk to their smart phone,  so they can never miss a call. That’s important to the customers  because they can always be in contact from any data connection anywhere in the world, so there is a great cost savings with that from roaming charges.”