Bussines_Analysis

Business Analysis Part I After looking the ‘Fortune 500’ list to find out for which company I would make a business analysis, I choose AT&T because I have been a customer of this entity since a long time ago. In my experience the customer’s service always have been flawless and never have a complaint of them. The service and the technologies they offer always are the latest ones combined with attractive packages and offers. For those reasons I decided to perform a business analysis of AT&T Company and at the same time be more informed about the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats for this company in order to determinate if it is a guarantee and wise decision to invest in this corporation. This entity is worldwide known and is ranked number twelve in the Fortune 500 Company List of 2011 with revenues amounting to $124,629.00 and profits of $19,864.00. According with the corporate history, this company was founded in 1885 and is one of the oldest telecommunications companies that still exist. AT&T is a company that is bringing various services together for their customers, from smart phones to TV services and a variety of solutions for businesses. For more than a century, AT&T has provided innovative and reliable products, services and customer care. The mission of AT&T according to its web page is “to connect people with their world, everywhere they live and work, and do it better than anyone else” They fulfilling this by creating new and novel solutions for consumers and business. They are recognized as one of the most complete providers of communication services. Also they ranked with the fastest and largest coverage in the United States. They are expanding their services by offering television services with their recently acquisition of AT&T U-verse® TV and AT&T|DIRECTV. As part of the business analysis it is necessary to identify the company internal and externals stakeholders. For this company the stakeholders are the clients. Their needs from AT&T are a high quality wireless service with a broad coverage which never fail or interrupt their service. Among the years the company is been and still providing these services having a low percentage of claims and increase the quantity of clients. Like I said before as a customer, I never have a complaint for their service. The company seems to understand the necessities of their clients and provide them affordable alternatives. Among the strengths that AT&T as a company has we can say that it is a solid entity well stable in the market, being one of the oldest communications companies that exists and thus, is recognized as a reliable brand. In the wireless businesses, AT&T has one of the largest coverage including international countries and worldwide cruise ships. Actually, AT&T is expanding the coverage of its 4G network, which is one of the latest technologies in telecommunications. During the month of March 2011, AT&T acquired T-Mobile, another provider of communication services, allowing AT&T reach to more subscribers. In addition, AT&T is recognized as a company that has the ultimate mobile devices with the latest technologies. This can be proved with the launching of the ‘Iphone’, which is perceived by the market as one of the most versatile and functional smart-phones. The services offered by AT&T are not limited to the mobile networks, since now include TV services creating an alliance with ‘DirecTV’. We can also mention that as a strength, AT&T is well marketed; thus, building a strong relationship with clients and creating an image and brand. However, every company has weaknesses that should face. For example, a weakness of AT&T is that it offered a limited internet capacity in the wireless plans compared to other wireless services providers which offered unlimited internet data usage. In addition, the Iphone is not longer exclusive of AT&T since is now offered by Sprint and Claro, other telecommunications providers. Moreover, other competitors are launching mobile devices and smart-phones with technology and functions that may be compared to the IPhone’s characteristics. Also, the prices of wireless and data plans of the competition are cheaper than the ones offered by AT&T. As a well known company and having the opportunity of providing diversified products, AT&T should be keeping combining products and services to offer simplified alternatives to customers. All-inclusive plans, for example: internet plus TV services, are perceived by clients as a way of having various services in a single-step with an affordable price. This modality is attracting more people and thus, the company can increase the sales. As business’ customers are increasing, AT&T should take advantage of this and offer mobile devices with technology according to their needs that can be accessed from different locations such as their homes, job facilities or international country in order to improve productivity. A threat for AT&T can be the fact that a lot of other companies offer similar or the same products and services in the market and this can impact the company by reducing sales or making their profits less by pushing AT&T to reduce their prices. According to the article “Why AT&T bought T-Mobile” they are focused in the expansion of the company and preparing to the 4G era. This move helps them to compete with the other companies. From another point of view we can say the lost of exclusiveness of the iphone can be a treat due to a lot of people are fans of this equipment and now they can acquire this equipment in more than one company with maybe more attractive contract offers. According with the business analysis made about AT&T, this company is fulfilling the needs of their stakeholders by providing diversified services and equipments. They also have stores and boots of customer service strategically distributed in order to facilitate access to their clients. The globalization of the service is one more thing to satisfied the stakeholders and maintain them loyal to AT&T. In the article Why AT&T bought T-Mobile Ben Parr said: "AT&T's mobile data traffic grew 8,000 percent over the past four years and by 2015 it is expected to be eight to 10 times what it was in 2010," AT&T explained in its announcement. Put another way, all of the mobile traffic volume AT&T carried during 2010 is estimated to be carried in just the first six to seven weeks of 2015." In the present, technology is one of the things more demanding for the customers and it is the way the industries are moving. Invest in a company that is at the vanguard of communication and signal technology guarantee your investment at these times. In the web page “Next Wireless Latam” the article “AT&T Extiende su red en Puerto Rico” said: “The mobile operator AT&T announced that on November 20 LTE network will expand to six additional markets, including San Juan is the capital of Puerto Rico. Thus, the 4G technology begins to reach the island, as Open Mobile also announced LTE in this region. AT&T and LTE launched in nine cities across the United States, and add a total of 15 markets with the technology. The company already has LTE devices, among which is the JetStream HTC tablet with Android. In addition to San Juan in Puerto Rico, the LTE network will come to the U.S. cities of Charlotte, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Las Vegas and Oklahoma.” Assuming the role of a mutual fund manager and using the facts discovered in the analysis if I have the final decision of invest or not invest in this specific company, I would decide to use the money to invest. It is true that this company has threats and weakness, but all companies have them. Is important to take in consideration the strength and opportunities add to the fact that this company is one of the oldest telecommunications companies that still exist, this are the strong facts to support my argument. The decision of invest in this company is based on the findings of the business analysis and all the information collected in the different sources. AT&T is a stable and strong company which has been on the top ones from its foundation. Also this decision is supported by all the articles I read to complete this paper. In most of the articles all the information is pointing and supporting this company, they explain that the company is moving in a good and positive direction, and backing up my recommendation to invest in AT&T Company.