Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 23:50:27 GMT Server: NCSA/1.4.1 Content-type: text/html Last-modified: Mon, 24 Feb 1997 18:12:19 GMT Content-length: 8230 Who We Do It For



In Good Company:
Shared Technologies Fairchild's Customer Base

Prospective customers of Shared Technologies Fairchild may rightfully ask, "Who am I about to deal with?" Given the sums involved in major telecommunications systems acquisitions - often running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, that is a reasonable question. Even for the smaller enterprise, telecommunications service is mission critical. In fact, when we reviewed our own purchasing behavior, a simple fact was clear to us. First and foremost, we want to know who the vendor is AND we measure vendor credibility by who the vendor already has as customers.


The cliche' "You're known by the company you keep" continues to carry weight.


"In Good Company: Shared Technologies Fairchild's Customer Base" is our attempt to introduce potential customers to the company we keep. In preparing this paper, something became quite clear. Our customer base has changed substantially over the last five years. In the past, we characterized ourselves as a middle to smaller market sales and service organization with average customer size ranging between 20 to 40 lines. Over 95% of our customers fell within that range.


Today, those customers still dominate our list, just as they dominate the American business landscape. However, there has been a migration of larger customers to our company that startled even us! (Of course we worked hard to get them, are pleased to have them and work still harder to keep them.)


We analyzed this change and came up with a very comforting conclusion. Major telecommunications product and services customers have sought out our model of service and operation and found us to be one of the few companies in the market that is able to put it all together. We'd like to take credit (especially our marketing staff) for great foresight in positioning our company in the path of the business and institutional buyer's demand for superior and comprehensive service at a reasonable price. We can't. Frankly, that is the only way we know how to run our business.


In time, the pendulum may swing back the other way but we won't swing along with it. We believe the value our customers come to us for is not driven by price alone but by their absolute understanding of the opportunity costs of lesser equipment and inferior service.


Shared Technologies Fairchild Customer Base

We have approximately 15,000 customer accounts. About 20% of these are either well recognized public or private companies, public sector entities or non-profit organizations. We looked closely at those accounts to understand the makeup of that portion of our customer base. As shown below, even in this segment, we are still predominately a business communications provider. However, federal, state and local governments and miscellaneous non-profit organizations make up almost 30% of this overall group, as shown in Chart I.

Customer Segmentation Chart I





Public Sector/Non-profit Customers
Included among our public sector customers are the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, the National Park Service, Internal Revenue Service, Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We provide communications equipment and services to over 60 school systems and universities including Harvard, Northeastern and Temple and the universities of Pittsburgh, Dallas, Maine and Maryland. We also count nearly 40 hospitals among our customers including Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat , Memorial Sloan Kettering Centers and Yale - New Haven Hospital.

All of these customers share a common trait. Budget pressures across the board have forced them to look for productivity enhancing tools for the workplace. They have found them in our phone systems and applications from voice mail to automated call distribution and entire call center applications.


Major Corporate Customers
Another factor that escaped our attention until we studied our base for this paper is the degree to which major national companies - recognized household names - had turned to Shared Technologies Fairchild . We now have over 200 publicly traded companies as our telecommunications products and services customers. They turn to us for everything from enterprise wide solutions to single satellite offices.


Customer Segmentation Table I
Customers Listed on: Number of Companies
New York Stock Exchange 173
NASDAQ 38
American Stock Exchange 4


One of the strengths a telecommunications company such as ours (few as they are) has is an ability to draw on a wealth of field applications from diverse industries. Understanding our customer's business is, after all, the first step toward quality service. As the table below shows, our "Name" customers literally span the breadth of the American economy.


Customer Segmentation Table II
  • Advertising
  • Air Freight
  • Air Transport
  • Apparel Manufacturers
  • Automobile Manufacturers
  • Automobile Rental
  • Aviation & Space Manufacturers
  • Banking
  • Basic Foods
  • Basic Industries
  • Beverages
  • Business Services
  • Capital Equipment
  • Chemical Producers
  • Communications Equipment
  • Communications Services.
  • Computer Services
  • Computer Software
  • Computer Hardware
  • Construction
  • Construction Products
  • Consulting
  • Consumers Goods
  • Cosmetics
  • Defense Contractors
  • Education Services
  • Electrical Equipment
  • Electronics Manufacturers.
  • Employment Services
  • Entertainment
  • Financial Services
  • Food Wholesalers
  • Forest Products
  • Hotels
  • Insurance
  • Media
  • Medical Products
  • Motor Freight
  • Natural Gas Distribution
  • Network Hardware
  • Office Equip. Manufacturers
  • Oil & Gas Production
  • Paper Products
  • Pharmaceuticals
  • Publishing
  • Railroad
  • Real Estate
  • Restaurants
  • Retail Stores
  • Steel & Aluminum
  • Tool Manufacturing
  • Toy Manufacturing
  • Truck Manufacturing
  • Utilities



Which of these industries believes telecommunications equipment and services are not mission critical? Can't think of any? Neither can we. So, whether its General Dynamics or General Mills, Citicorp or New York City, Sun Microsystems or Sun America, our "Name" customers get products and services they can depend on from Shared Technologies Fairchild.
So can you!




If you would like a complete copy of our white paper "In Good Company: Shared Technologies Fairchild Customer Base", including a partial customer list, contact us.