Ethio telecom conducted the 5th Distributors' Day on July 31st 2012 here in Addis Ababa at the Sheraton Addis in the presence of the company¡¯s management members, ethio telecom Products and Services distributors and telecom equipment vendors.
On the occasion, the Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr. Jean Michel Latute said that the usual close relationship between ethio telecom and the different distributors will continue in the future as well with more cooperation and commitment for mutual interest. He also stressed on the need to follow the guidelines of the company¡¯s rules and regulations so that both sides will benefit from this cooperation in the long run. In addition, he cautioned distributors who are violating their contract agreements will phase serious measures ranging from warnings to cancelation of agreements with ethio telecom as is the case recently with half a dozen of distributors in the country.
Finally, he called up on all participants to participate fully in the afternoon's discussion so that the day's meeting would be fruitful.
Prior to the Chief Executive Officer's brief speech, Mr. Denis Nicolas, Chief Residential Marketing and Sales Officer, and Mr. Gilles Chapuis, Chief Operating Officer had made opening remarks respectively.
On the occasion, Mr. Denis Nicolas said that in the past few months alone ethio telecom's customer base had increased remarkably because of the tireless efforts of both parties, the company and the distributors, which resulted in a significant revenue collection for ethio telecom. He further said that, ethio telecom has planned to expand its sales and network expansion so as to achieve its goals and that of the telecommunications sector in the country's GTP plan.
The company's new Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Gilles Chapuis, on the other hand, introduced himself to the distributors whom he met for the first time since his arrival to Ethiopia. He stressed that during his stay here he will continue the already good partnership between the stakeholders and vowed to further strengthen the existing bond so as to improve the company's endeavors.
In addition, he said that in the coming days and months he will give priority to three major issues of utmost concern. These issues are Process Implementation, Capacity Building and Realization of Quality Telecom Network and Service Provisioning in the country. These three issues, he said, are core issues/challenges to be met in order to be a competent telecom operator.
Next to the opening speeches preliminary remarks, different ethio telecom managers from the Residential Marketing and Sales Division's Indirect channel Department presented different documents pertinent to the day's agenda. Ato Masresha Tilahun, Indirect Channel Officer and Ato Seatu Benega, Residential Sales Operation Support Officer presented in detail on the initiatives being undertaken as well as the plan forward, and on commission and breach of agreement respectively.
Next to the above presentations, four different presentations related to Customer Application Form (CAF) were presented by different offices in ethio telecom. The presenters gave detailed analysis related to how distributors are using CAF currently when they sell mobile SIM cards. The issue of using CAF in a responsible manner by distributors is said to be extremely important for ethio telecom as well as to ensure the national security of the country will not be compromised.
In this regard, the importance of CAF from security as well as legal sides was presented by Colonel Gudeta Olana, Chief Security Officer, and Ato Endalkachew Abune, Contract Manager. In addition, two more presentations explicitly focused on CAF were made by Ato Muez Yihdego, Front Office Deputy Officer, and by Ato Wondirad Bitew, Sales Administration Manager.
All the four presenters stressed on the fact that the distributors should give due focus to the way they fill out CAF templates whenever they entertain new customers. They detailed the necessity of filling the CAF form properly so that whenever illegal activities involving telecom infrastructure/services occur, suspected criminals would be easily identified and apprehended in time. They further acknowledged that the distributors will also bear some responsibility whenever illegal activities are reported by using telecommunications services.
In addition to the above presentations, Ato Bewket Taffere, Product and Services Manager and Ato Zerabruk Bekele, Acting Deputy Indirect Channels Officer, presented on Marketing Offers and Handsets and New Channel Proposal respectively. Under new channel proposal, Ato Zerabruk Bekele said that ethio telecom is currently working on introducing electronic CAF so that all the works are simplified and efficiency is achieved.
After these presentations, distributors were grouped into different syndicate groups so that they will be able to discuss issues of mutuaul concern whenever they undertake sales activities of telecom services. After these syndicate groups discussed the matter, group representatives presented their group's discussion outcomes so that those issues will further be discussed together with the others or responses are given in case of clarification questions. Accordingly, further discussions and clarifications were made on issues raised by each group.
Finally, representatives and managers of different telecom equipment suppliers presented their companies' overall activities, their unique products for customers in Ethiopia, and about their future plans. Hence, company representatives of Tana, Huawei, Samsung, and Nokia companies presented briefly about their respective product offers and new services.
The Fifth Distributors Day was successfully concluded after Ato Abdurahim Ahmed, External Communications Department Officer, presented the vote of thanks and declared that the event was now formally closed.
