Telstra has launched its first branded business centre in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta in a bid to better service SMB customers.
The retail outlet is broken up into three demonstration areas covering home, office and mobile business. It is one of 10 business centres planned nationally over the next 12 months.
The store features the full range of Telstra business products including business broadband, applications, mobile, GPS and logistical products. Telstra spokesperson, Brent Hooley, said the SMB retail strategy followed the creation of its dedicated business unit earlier last year.
"The idea behind it is that SMBs will get all of their needs addressed in one hit," he said. "Whether it's fixed line, mobile services, GPS, broadband, eftpos lines or Xora [field management] systems, all can be managed and bundled in one go."
Small business consultants trained up in all of its business-grade products will man the Telstra centres.
"Staff have been trained up across applications: for example, linking email into a PDA, and so on," Hooley said. "Many SMBs don't have IT expertise - they don't have the skills to get the network, applications and telco services running together."
Hooley said Parramatta's strong SMB community was the major factor behind its decision to launch there first.
He said Sydney and Melbourne metro would be the next cabs off the rank, followed by Brisbane and other capital cities. It had not set a cap on the total number of stores.
Hooley said the business centres would complement Telstra's recently launched SMB channel accreditation program.
