By the results of the 1st half of 2009, the share of North-West Telecom in the corporate clients segment reached 20.7%, which is 2 % higher than the similar period of 2008. In some regions of the North-Western Federal District, this indicator exceeds 50% (Archangel, Vologda, Leningrad, and Murmansk Oblasts.) The revenues of N.W.Telecom from services provided to corporate clients grew by 13.6% in the 1st half of 2009 compared to the similar period of the last year, amounting to about 3.8 billion rubles (29.4% in the Company’s revenues).

In the 1st half of 2009, large corporate clients increased their monthly consumption of N.W.Telecom’s services by 900,000 rubles on the average. Among the customers having connected new options and services of N.W.Telecom are RF Savings Bank branches in NWFD, Pension Fund branches, Ministry of the Interior agencies, Bank VTB North-West etc. The percentage of revenues from large corporate clients is traditionally about 34% of the Company’s total revenues from corporations.

“The predicted decrease of communication services consumption due to the world financial crisis primarily affected the medium and small business. Large corporate clients did not decrease the use of our company’s telecommunication services in the first half of 2009 – on the contrary, they increased it. We therefore have compensated a certain drop in the revenues from other corporate customers, and gained a growth, which is not so large but very important to us,” noted Oleg Popov, Associate General Manager and Commercial Manager of N.W.Telecom.

In all, N.W.Telecom provides services to more than 110,000 corporate customers, of which about 670 are large corporate clients; these are the most profitable, and as a rule interregional companies and organizations, having their branches in five or more regions of presence of N.W.Telecom**. Among them are such governmental entities as the Pension Fund, Federal Tax Service, Ministry of the Interior; banks and financial institutions such as the RF Savings Bank, VTB, Baltiysky Bank, Orient Express Bank, the district’s largest research institutes and universities: St. Petersburg Center, Herzen University, and Voenmekh University; industrial enterprises Okeanpribor, Rosmorport etc.

The principal services used by large clients are corporate data transmission networks with guaranteed bit rates and reliability and data protection terms (including VPN), traditional telephony including office PABX’s, and broad-band access to the Internet.

Dealing with the large corporate clients segment is traditionally the focus of attention in N.W.Telecom. In every regional branch, top skill personal managers continuously interact with such customers. For this client category, individual solutions and individual approaches to project implementation are provided. 

According to Oleg Popov, Associate General Manager and Commercial Manager of N.W.Telecom, “the multiservice communication network created by N.W.Telecom, based on fiber optic lines and using the IP /MPLS technology, enables implementation of large-scale projects of services to corporate clients throughout NWFD, in particular those of VPN construction. Individual approach in service, and bonuses depending on the intensity of use of our services make our company’s offers most advantageous in terms of quality, service level, and price.”

Interaction with small and medium corporate clients has become a strategically important business sector for N.W.Telecom in the recent years. Specially for these customers, uniform package offers of the AliancePRO series have been developed and are operating in all NWFD regions (product website www.aliance-pro.ru). They enable not only profitable connection of services in a package, but also control corporate monthly communication costs, which is rather important for any level of business. The Company regularly launches marketing actions to attract this category of clients; in particular, it is developing offers of service connection and equipment purchase under an interest-free installment program.

*total NWFD percentage of revenues

** according to the client segmenting method adopted by the Company