Virtual University of Pakistan - Ningapi.ning.com/files/WRH9ovbTZmD7yUk*Qx7LgHrDkT9eWTYHUs01rhe1… · Nadia Bashir (bc100200574) MKTI620 Internship Report 5 | P a g e Pakistan Telecommunications

Virtual University of Pakistan Evaluation Sheet for Internship Report

Fall 2013 MKTI619: Internship Report (Marketing) Credit Hours: 3

Company Name: PTCL

Name of Student: NADIA BASHIR

Student’s ID: BC100200574

Supervisor:

Evaluation Criteria Result

Written Work Status

(Internship Report) Pass

Presentation & Viva Voce Pass

Final Result

Evaluation of Report and Presentation Sheets Exams Software Entry of Result

Result Compiled By: Result Verified By: Entered By: Submitted By:

Name:

Signature:

Date:

Dear student,

Your report has been evaluated & you are declared as “pass”

so now you should prepare your PPTs. & submit those once

new assignment (for PPTs) will be opened on LMS. Also be

ready for your viva session for which we will call (via email at

your VUID) you shortly. So, visit your official ID frequently.

Prepare for presentation & viva voce in the light of guidelines

given in lesson #07 on VULMS.

Prepare well your training program, critical analysis, SWOT

analysis, conclusion and recommendations.

Nadia Bashir (bc100200574) MKTI620 Internship Report

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Pakistan Telecommunications Limited (PTCL)

PAKISTAN TELECOMMUNICATIONS

SUBMITTED BY: NADIA BASHIR

STUDENT ID: BC100200574

SESSION: 2010-2014

SUBMISSION DATE: 29TH JANUARY 2014

VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY OF PAKISTAN


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Letter of Undertaking


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Internship Certificate


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Acknowledgement

First and foremost I would like to thank the All Mighty for bringing me this far in my academic

career and helping me surpass all kinds of road blocks that I experienced. After which I would

like to applaud and thank my family, friends and organizational co-workers for bearing with me

and supporting me throughout my journey. I would especially like to thank those who

contributed to this report and managed to become an important part of it.


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Executive summary Briefly mention introduction of the company, the crux of your training program, critical analysis, SWOT, conclusion and

recommendations in executive summary.

Do not write that “at the start I have don this at the end I have done this…” It looks like an outline of your report. Write

what the organization is about? What you have done there? What you have concluded by your work experience and

observation.

Executive summary is the micro image of your overall report but not the outline of the report. Conclusion should be also

mentioned herein executive summary in last paragraph but briefly and concisely.

Note: Improve it accordingly before presentation and no need to submit it again because you are declared as pass.

This report is a representation of the time I spent working at PTCL Headquarters, operating as a

regular intern. Aside from the basic history of the organization, the report constitutes of the

thorough organizational structure of PTCL, along with the details and a critical analysis of the

chain of command that flows throughout the organization. It also highlights a detailed account

on each of the 8 individual departments within PTCL and their basic business dealings.

During my internship I operated at PTCL’s headquarters based in Islamabad, in their Human

Resource and Marketing Department. This report provides a summarized description of the HR

department, along with an extremely thorough description of the Marketing department.

The basic purpose of this report is to reflect my understanding of the marketing operations at

PTCL; consequently it highlights the tasks that were assigned to me as well as my personal

observation of the workings of the organization and concludes on a meticulously organized

SWOT analysis. At the end I have designed a few recommendations that PTCL should take in

consideration in order to further prosper in future.


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Table of Contents

1. Overview of the organization .......................................................................................... 10

a. Brief History ...................................................................................................................... 10

b. Nature of the Organization................................................................................................. 11

c. Product Lines and Brand Portfolio of the Organization .................................................... 11

d. Branding Strategies ............................................................................................................ 13

e. Main Clients ....................................................................................................................... 13

f. Key Competitors ................................................................................................................ 14

2. Organizational Structure ................................................................................................ 16

a. Organizational Hierarchy Chart ......................................................................................... 17

b. Number of Employees ....................................................................................................... 18

c. Introduction of all Departments ......................................................................................... 19

1. Technical Department ................................................................................................. 19

2. IT Department ............................................................................................................. 19

3. HR Department ........................................................................................................... 19

4. Business Zones Operations Department (BZ Ops)..................................................... 19

5. Commercial Department ............................................................................................. 19

6. Business Development Department (BD Department) .............................................. 20

7. Procurement Department ............................................................................................ 20

8. Finance Department .................................................................................................... 20

d. Comments .......................................................................................................................... 20

3. Plan of Internship Program ............................................................................................ 21

a. Introduction of the Head Office ......................................................................................... 21

b. Starting and Ending Dates of Internship ............................................................................ 21


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c. Respective Training Departments ...................................................................................... 21

4. Training Program ............................................................................................................ 22

a. Operations and Activities Performed ................................................................................. 23

b. Tasks Assigned .................................................................................................................. 24

5. Structure of the Marketing Department ........................................................................ 27

a. Department Hierarchy ........................................................................................................ 29

b. Number of Employees Working in the Marketing Department ......................................... 29

c. Marketing Operations ........................................................................................................ 29

6. Functions of the Marketing Department ....................................................................... 31

a. Segmentation strategy ........................................................................................................ 31

b. Target marketing strategy .................................................................................................. 31

c. Product planning, development & management ................................................................ 31

d. Positioning ......................................................................................................................... 32

e. Pricing strategy .................................................................................................................. 32

f. Distribution strategy........................................................................................................... 32

g. Promotional strategy .......................................................................................................... 33

7. Structure of the Sales Department ................................................................................. 34

a. Department Hierarchy ........................................................................................................ 34

b. Number of Employees Working in the Sales Department ................................................. 35

c. Sales operations ................................................................................................................. 35

8. Functions of the Sales Department ................................................................................. 37

a. Sales Methodology............................................................................................................. 37

b. Selling Technique .............................................................................................................. 37

c. Sales returns procedures .................................................................................................... 38


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9. Customer Services Department ...................................................................................... 39

a. Process of Developing Relations with Customers ............................................................. 39

b. Techniques of Retaining Customers .................................................................................. 40

c. Techniques of Attracting New Customers ......................................................................... 42

d. Ways of Handling Different Customers ............................................................................ 43

10. Critical Analysis ............................................................................................................... 44

11. SWOT Analysis of the Organization .............................................................................. 46

a. Strengths ............................................................................................................................ 46

b. Weaknesses ........................................................................................................................ 46

c. Opportunities...................................................................................................................... 47

d. Threats................................................................................................................................ 47

12. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 48

13. Recommendations for Improvement .............................................................................. 49

14. References ......................................................................................................................... 50

15. Appendix ........................................................................................................................... 51

Participation Data 1................................................................................................................... 51

Participation Data 2................................................................................................................... 53

16. Glossary ............................................................................................................................ 54


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Table of Contents (Figures)

Figure 1 –Product Lines ................................................................................................................ 12

Figure 2 - Key Clients ................................................................................................................... 14

Figure 3 – Key Competitors .......................................................................................................... 15

Figure 4 - Organizational Chart .................................................................................................... 17

Figure 5 - Total Number of Employees in PTCL ......................................................................... 18

Figure 6 – Structure of Marketing Department............................................................................. 28

Figure 7 - Marketing Department Hierarchy ................................................................................ 29

Figure 9 - Sales Department Hierarchy ........................................................................................ 34

Figure 8 – Structure of Sales Department ..................................................................................... 34

Figure 10 - PTCL Reconnect Landline Poster .............................................................................. 41

Nadia%20Bashir_bc100200574_Virtual%20University_%20Internship%20Report.doc#_Toc378621473







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1. Overview of the organization

a. Brief History

According to information available over the internet, over the past 20 years, due to its

constant evolution in terms of technology and global relations, the telecom sector in Pakistan has

become almost unrecognizable. The reason that out telecom industry has gone under such drastic

changes is because world over the telecom market is governed by thorough competition

alongside privatization on a huge scale. Similarly, on a national level Pakistan has managed to

compete with the global market because of its thorough growth in the cellular mobile technology

and network communication.

On 1st April 1774 the sub-continent experienced the establishment of its very first postal

service under the brand name of the Indian Postal Service. However at the time of independence,

the postal operations were exclusively dealt by the Pakistan Post & Telegraph which had

basically adopted its postal activities and services from the Government of India Telegraph act in

1885. The organization continued its operations up until 1962. Until a time when Pakistan Post

& Telegraph underwent a business take over at the hands of Pakistan Telecommunication

Corporation (PTC).

According to the online report issued regarding the privatization of Pakistan via the

Privatization Commission of Pakistan website, it was in 1990 that under the PTC Ordinance

(issued on December 15, 1990) T&T transformed entirely into a Government corporation

(Commission, n.d.) with the sole purpose to take over operations from the Pakistan Post &

Telegraph Department. After a year of successful operations the government of Pakistan finally

decided to privatize the operations of PTC. The commission also claims that in 1994 while still

in the process of privatization the Government of Pakistan decided to test the domestic and

global viability of the organization and hence under the rules and regulations of the ordinance,

PTCL was created on January 1, 1996 and subsequently took over all operations of PTC

excluding the 5% assets along with the government business that was transferred to National

Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) (Commission, n.d.). In consequence of this the

Government of the country itself owned about 88% of the organization however, the rest of the

12% was governed by private investors. Ever since PTCL has been operating to thoroughly meet

developmental and socio-economic challenges in an attempt to improve the overall economy of

Pakistan.


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b. Nature of the Organization

PTCL is basically a consumer based organization that focuses on the basic brand strategy of

providing customers with top notch services and products. Hence the basic principles of the

organization are exclusively constructed on the basis of a customer oriented approach. Their key

products and services can be divided as:

Business Services

Carrier Services & Wholesale

Home & Personal Services

PTCL being a consumer durable organization that provides potential customers with

products and services such as telephone lines, EVO tablets, EVO dongles, broadband, landline,

Smart TV and Vfone services.

c. Product Lines and Brand Portfolio of the Organization

As provided by the organization’s official website, PTCL caters to a number of product lines,

in-fact, the organization’s product portfolio is specially tailored in order to help business

corporations achieve the highest possible levels of productivity by making good use of PTCL’s

powerful and presence-enabled applications (PTCL, Business, 2013). And hence PTCL’s

product lines largely constitute of three categories which are further divided into varying

products.

Wireless Services & Products

I. Vfone

II. Calling Cards

III. Payphones

IV. Evo

i. Evo dongle

ii. Nitro

iii. Wingle

iv. Evo Cloud


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Wireline Services & Products

I. Smart TV (Smart Services)

II. Broad band

III. Landline

Exclusive Corporate Consumer Services

I. Universal Access Number (UAN)

II. Leased Bandwidth and point to point leased lines

III. Call Centers

Figure 1 –Product Lines


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As part of their brand portfolio, presently PTCL is exclusively looking over operations of

Ufone. Aside from that, off the record, according to one of their vendor’s, Faizan Bokhari, the

organization exclusively owns broadband rights for the only three underwater lines available to

Pakistan, however distributes these services to other telecom organizations such as Nayatel and

Wi-Tribe.

Aside from that, PTCL has a number of varying products that it offers to clients in the

corporate world, small business owners as well as those that simply want to avail their

networking services at home. Consequently to match and cater to each individual need of these

clients. According to their website, PTCL is that one organization that exclusively stands for

“global communication” and “mobilizing the world for the future” (PTCL, PTCL Brand

Philosophy , 2013). PTCL’s logo “Hello to the Future” itself stands for their futuristic approach

towards communication in Pakistan.

d. Branding Strategies

PTCL as of present is the largest and the fastest growing telecommunication brand in

Pakistan. Employing effective marketing techniques since its launch, PTCL has successfully

managed to establish its brand name in our local telecom market. Over the years PTCL has

adapted a number of branding strategies hence there is no one specific branding strategy, but

instead it has tailored together a multitude of strategies. For instance, all of PTCL’s Wire line

products fall under the Umbrella strategy, whereas its wireless products like EVO fall under the

Line Extension strategy.

e. Main Clients

PTCL caters to all major corporate sector organizations, allowing them communication

services not only within their respective organization but also across cities and countries. Aside

from that PTCL also offers its networking services to a massive number of key industries in

Pakistan.

On a consumer level the organization offers thorough networking services to a huge pool of

local civilians that are as many as 500,000 broadband consumers in around about 605 cities via

its home based network services. Aside from that through varying other services it also helps

small business owners to establish and expand their business operations.


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f. Key Competitors

Irrespective of being the leading telecommunication and networking organization in

Pakistan, PTCL still faces a certain competition at hands of other multinational

telecommunication organizations that have over the years expanded into Pakistani land. PTCL’s

leading competitors involve the following organizations:

China Mobile first established itself in Pakistan in the early days of 2008 and consequently

established its first project under the brand name Zong. According to an article published in the

Tribune magazine, with 15.66 million subscribers the company is posing a serious competition

for PTCL (Desk, 2012).

Similarly, as reported by Mobilink’s Pakistan based homepage, with 36 million subscribers

(MobilinkGSM, 2013) Orascom Telecom's subsidiary Mobilink acts as a strong competition

against PTCL operations.

Telenor a Norwegian multinational telecommunications company started operating in 2005

and of present the company’s website claims that it holds 32.344 million mobile subscriptions

(Telenor, 2013) giving it a slight edge over PTCL as reported by the organizational website.

Figure 2 - Key Clients

Key Clients

Local Consumers Corporate Clients


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With 17 million subscribers and a network coverage of about 6800 destination (WaridTel,

2013), an Abu Dhabi based organization; Warid Telecom’s official website establishes that it is

also acting as an active competition for PTCL.

PTCL

Mobilink

Warid

Telenor

Zong

Figure 3 – Key Competitors


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2. Organizational Structure

PTCL constitutes of a number of varying diverse, high-performance employees that

constitute as an important part of the basic workforce. However, just like every other

organization PTCL is also divided and sub-divided into a number of organizational levels.

According to the AM Saleem Khan Swati, the organization can essentially be divided according

to three basic managerial levels: Top Management (CEO, EVP, and SEVP’s), Middle

Management (GM, SM, Operational Manager, and AM) and The Non-Managerial Staff

Members. (Swati, 2014)


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a. Organizational Hierarchy Chart

President/CEO

Chief Technical Officer

EVPs (IP & MMBB, Network Ops, Technical, Network Plg & Strategy)

Chief Information Officer

Chief HR Officer

Chief Business Operations Officer

Chief Marketing Officer Chief Business Development Officer

Chief Digital & Corporate Services Officer Chief Customer Care Officer

Chief Procurement Officer

Chief Financial Officer

EVP BSS & ESS Applications

EVPs (Leadership & OD, HRO, Talent Mngt & Learning, HR Services) EVP (Business

Zone)

EVPs (Accounts Services, Financial Plg & Treasury,

Revenue, Revenue Assurance)

GMs (IT Governance Planning & Strategy, IT

Demand Planning and Management)

EVPs (Wireless Business, Marketing & Comm, Commercial, Wire line

Business)

EVPs ((CS & WS), IBR, Chief Strategy Officer,

Legal)

EVP (Corporate Sales)

GMs (Corporate Sales, Terminal Sales, Digital Services & Portals,

Business Development Corporate Services, Corporate Services &

Business Division, Corporate Business Analysis, (IPTV & VAS)

EVP (Quality Assurance)

EVPs (Procurement, Supplies & Logistics)

Chief Internal Auditor

GM Product Innovation

GM (Access Network)

GM International Network Service

GMs (Coordination, Network Rehabilitation)

GMs (Legal, Corporate Strategy, Regulatory

Affairs, International Carrier Relations)

GMs (Customer Care, Quality Assurance)

GMs (Accounts and Financial, Budgetary

Control, Revenue Accounts, Purchase, Casting

and Regulatory Services) GMs (Supplies, Contracts)

GMs (Commercial, Consumer Sales, Wireless Services)

GMs (Recruitment, PTCL Academy, Corporate Admin Coordination)

GM’s (Technical, Network Ops, System Engineering, Wireless)

Figure 4 - Organizational Chart


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b. Number of Employees

As reported by PTCL’s HR Specialist, Saqib Idrisi claims that the workforce of the

organization can be divided as per the following categorization:

CEO 01

Senior Executive Vice President 07

Executive Vice President 22

General Managers 128

System Analysts, Managers, CS, SE, DE, SAO, DM, SRO etc 21,842

Total Employees

*Including permanent and contract based employees 22,000 (approx)

Figure 5 - Total Number of Employees in PTCL

(Idrisi, 2014)


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c. Introduction of all Departments

PTCL’s Islamabad headquarters comprise of a number of departments that are exclusively

operating according to their each individual function. Because of its massive organizational

structure, the company is thoroughly departmentalized. Saleem Khan reports that the key leading

departments and their functions can be described as following:

1. Technical Department

The technical department at PTCL is basically responsible for the development and

upgrading of the organization’s basic media which includes the primary wire line core

infrastructure all across Pakistan along with all sorts of network operations. Hence it is this

department’s responsibility to fix any particular problem or fault that there might be in the

primary core network.

2. IT Department

The IT department is exclusively deals with the internet, intranet, LAN, WAN, Metropolitan

Networking technologies which run practically all across the organization itself as well as

throughout the country. Aside from that the department is also responsible for purchasing and

customizing off-shelf softwares for future use within the organization.

3. HR Department

The Human Resource department at PTCL provides comprehensive human resource

management to the organization. The HR department considers employees an important asset

and hence provides them with all sorts of facilities as well as organizational help that they might

need.

4. Business Zones Operations Department (BZ Ops)

The department is basically accountable for establishing and maintaining Business to

Consumer communication. The BZ department practically delivers the final product to end

consumers. It delivers the product from the exchange directly to the end consumer.

5. Commercial Department

Responsible for generating most of the company’s revenues, the Commercial department is

basically accountable for advertising PTCL products and services and hence securing a sufficient

number of loyal consumers. In a manner of saying it is thoroughly responsible for creating and

administrating a product right up from its conception, down until its final completion.


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6. Business Development Department (BD Department)

The department deals with all sorts of bilateral relations with other varying telecom

organizations and international business relations. It is also responsible for all cross border tariff

decisions and dealings. The department is also exclusively responsible for individual customer

services and wholesale dealings.

7. Procurement Department

The department is responsible for dealing with all system biddings such as computer

hardware as well as for managing all sorts of varying technical contracts. Only recently through

this very department PTCL has signed laptop contracts with Toshiba and Fjitsu.

8. Finance Department

The department is responsible for all budgetary functions such as assets, liabilities, loans, debts,

etc. It also deals with all sorts of accounts and financial operations in the long run.

(Swati, 2014)

d. Comments

Departmentalization

The departmentalization at the organization is very detailed and well defined. Each

individual employee works within his respective department according to his/her assigned list of

responsibilities and duties as per the job description.

Chain of Command

With their successive line of managers, PTCL offers a flawless chain of command.

Though the communication at the company is thoroughly free flowing, and every individual is

required to follow a certain level of communication protocol, to an extent some people do tend to

ignore the basic protocol.

Positional Authority

With their massive line of managers, PTCL bestows decision making authority to project

manager of each individual department. However, if a certain problem cannot be resolved at a

lower level it is then referred to the senior most authority.


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3. Plan of Internship Program

I initiated my internship at PTCL’s headquarter based in Islamabad during fall. My working

duration lasted for around 6 weeks during which time I managed to gain and learn a whole lot

about organizational operations and the key fundamentals of their Marketing and Human

Resource departments.

a. Introduction of the Head Office

Situated at the heart of Islamabad, I did my internship at PTCL Headquarters situated

between the National Book Foundation and AGPR head office.

PTCL Headquarters,

Block-E, Sector G-8/4,

Islamabad-44000, Pakistan.

Fax: +92-51-2263733

E-mail: [email protected]

Web: www.ptcl.com.pk

b. Starting and Ending Dates of Internship

My internship was scheduled to occur over a period of six weeks. My internship initiated on

the 16th

December, 2013 and continued up until the 27th

January, 2014.

c. Respective Training Departments

Every intern that enters into PTCL’s internship plan is first introduced into the HR

department; hence I initiated my internship by working in the Human Resource Department.

Here I managed to circulate the entire cycle of hiring, managing and separation of potential

employees. However, after spending some time in the HR department, I was later transferred to

PTCL’s Market Communication department as according to my major in Bachelors in Business

Administration. Hence I concluded my internship operating in PTCL’s Market Communication

Department.

mailto:%[email protected]

http://www.ptcl.com.pk/


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4. Training Program

I received my selection for internship letter on 13th

December, 2013 through e-mail. It was

forwarded to me by Mian Iftikhar Ahmad, who is also Manager Training Foreign at PTCL.

According to my selection letter, I was requested to report at the head office on Monday 16th

December, 2013.

Upon my arrival on the said date, I was interviewed and questioned by Mr. Imran Qayyum

who is basically the Senior Manager of the HR Department at PTCL HQ. After verbally going

through my academic qualifications and skills set, he described me my role as an intern and the

key responsibilities I will be taking care of. He then instructed Mr. Saqib Idrisi to teach me basic

office protocol and assign me my respective tasks.

For the first few days I sat alongside Mr. Syed Imran (Manager HR, HQ PTCL) thoroughly

observing basic office protocol. However, once I was introduced to the basic chain of commands

and employees according to their each individual functionality I was assigned my respective

tasks within the HR department over the first three weeks of my internship.

However being a marketing major, at the end of the first three weeks I was transferred to the

Market Communication department, which is also based within the premises of PTCL

Headquarters. There I was primarily introduced to Mr. Aqeel Shigri who is the Senior Manager

Marketing Department. He updated me on the basic operations of the Marketing department.

After which he further introduced me to Mr. Ather Waseem who had only recently started

operating as the Management Trainee. Thereon Mr. Waseem handed me various tasks and group

activities to perform during the concluding three weeks of my internship.

Doing my internship at PTCL allowed me to thoroughly grow at a professional level. It

taught me a whole lot about organizational operations along with effective application of the

concepts I embraced all through my years at university.

Although I worked at PTCL for a mere 6 weeks, nonetheless I managed to grasp concepts

and learn operational activities that are likely to have a lasting impact on me as a professional.

Being such a huge organization, through their internship program I learned the organizational

secrets that give PTCL the edge over all other telecommunication organizations.


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a. Operations and Activities Performed

HR Department

Syed Imran explained that the HR department at PTCL is basically responsible for

effective people management at work. The department takes care of forecasting basic human

resource requirements, along with employee recruitments as well as selection. Aside from that

the department is also responsible for job postings for future recruitments as well as employee

postings around the country. Employee screening prior to hiring, promotion, performance

evaluation, training and dealing with employee separation from the organization are also vital

parts of the department’s responsibilities. From basic motivation to achieving a certain level of

inter-employee coordination, people operating in the HR department deal with all sorts of

employee management tasks. The department is also accountable for effectively organizing and

employing human capital for individuals operating within PTCL.

MarComm Department

Similarly, Aqeel Shigri explained that the MarComm Department is responsible for

generating a massive chunk of PTCL’s revenues, the Commercial Department, more commonly

recognized as the Market Communication department is essentially an important part of the

organization. In charge for basic market research and development, the department is thoroughly

responsible for presenting organizational products and services to the end consumer. More

specifically the department is responsible for national as well as international communication

along with promotional activities around the country.

After collecting sufficient information regarding consumer needs and demands, the

MarComm department respectively forwards the concerned feedback to the organization’s

management who then develops products and positions them such that not only are they

thoroughly viable to the customer but also fulfils their basic needs hence giving value to

consumer needs and demands. The MarComm department at PTCL plays an important role in

business development, long term growth as well as future expansion in the respective industry.


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b. Tasks Assigned

File Scanning

PTCL is presently in a transitional phase where on the organization is transferring all its

paper documentation into electronic systems. Though all recent hires and layoffs have been

thoroughly recorded onto the SAP software, however, PTCL being such a huge organization, it

has track records of employees who have been working with the organization for the past 10 – 20

years. Consequently, soon after my confirmation as an internee, I was assigned to scan these age

old files with state of the art scanners and then transfer the documentation on to computerized

databases. I managed to scan at least 6 files which individually constituted of about a 100 pages

before I was transferred onto the next task.

E-Filling

SAP is a customized German based software allowing organizations to manage their

basic employee data. My second assignment was to collect hard copy files of all new hiring’s,

and transform them into softcopies on the SAP (Systems, Applications and Products) software.

As per software requirement I had to specifically locate joining dates within personal files,

calculate probationary periods and categorize employees according to their respective

organizational ranking. The basic head count was approximately 50 files of new hires that

occurred during late 2013. I primarily assigned each file with an individual EPI (employee

personal identification) number and subsequently entered employee data into the system. I also

had to report back to my supervisor for important documentation that might be missing from the

personal files, such as degree certificates and interview evaluations This e-based employee

information system is further fruitful when the respective authority is trying to extract

information on a certain employee, by converting paper documentation into computerized data

not only is PTCL employing efficiency but also saving on a whole lot of potential time that could

be used taking care of other more important tasks.

File Management

With the beginning of the New Year, each employee at PTCL is entitled to an annual

increment to their basic salary. Subsequently, while each employee is individually e-mailed with

the news of their increment, at the same time their personal files at the EDBMC (employee

database management cell) is updated with paper documentation. Our job was to maintain and

categorize employees according to their respective entitlement to the annual increment. We

updated files for Management Trainee’s (MT), Assistant Managers (AM) and Senior Managers

(SM). After which along with the help of other internees, individually I was responsible for

updating a total approximate of about 250 employee files with annual increment documentation,


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however, collectively we managed to achieve our set target of around 1000 increment letters that

were .

Out-Processing

Each employee that resigns at PTCL goes through a process of thorough out-processing.

This is where on PTCL confirms that the said employee has resigned and puts his/her resignation

under the proper processing protocol. Aside from updating files for people that had resigned in

the past month, individually I was responsible for calculating Final Settlements through Gratuity

and Leave Encashment as well as Service Records that were extracted from personal files and

SAP. The out-processing process also constituted of updating Notifications, Resignations as well

as Clearance Settlements into each individual employee file.

Clearance Documentation

While working at PTCL each individual employee is entitled to attain work necessities

such as technical hardware and softwares. However, upon separation from the organization each

employee is obligated to return all facilities and hardware products back to the company that he

had acquired during his tenure. After preparing a list of all the hardware devices that were

returned by resigning employees, my job was to up-date clearance forms in personal files that

stated that everything has been returned by the employee and he/she can leave.

Social Media Trends

With the progressive development and increasing popularity of social networking, more

and more organizations are shifting their marketing practices over the internet. Similarly, PTCL

as an organization also manages a facebook page as well as a YouTube channel. However,

because of the recent ban on YouTube, I could not get thoroughly acquainted with their channel;

however, I was required to devise social media report based on the company’s facebook page.

The report basically included the total number and types of users that had liked the page along

with the response rate on posts by the page. In conclusion the report discussed strategies

regarding how PTCL could increase page activity and attract more users.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

By law every organization is required to maintain a social stature, where on it does not

violate any ethical or legal laws. Similarly, PTCL is also required to thoroughly follow a code of

conduct that does not allow the organization to violate any of the laws that might harm the

environment or its consumers at large. I was required to write a paper on the basics of social

corporate responsibility along with what strategies PTCL uses when designing their basic

framework of CSR towards its consumers. The report also included an in-depth review of how

PTCL keeps in line CSR protocol when advertising its products and how it could further improve


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campaigning practices. It was basically a proposal which was later checked and remarked by the

general manager of the marketing department.

Press Releases

I was assigned by my assistant manager to extract at least 10-15 press releases published

in newspapers off the internet. I was required to arrange them date wise along with the

newspaper’s name. Moreover, he wanted me to thoroughly go through them and analyze the

basic structure and theme that PTCL used when publishing in newspapers. From which I

concluded that aside from most of their advertisements being thoroughly green, all

advertisements carried the PTCL logo, were easy to comprehend and promoted PTCL products

proficiently.

Article Writing

My last task was to write articles for PTCL. Primarily I was assigned to research and

compare mobile rates vs. PTCL rates and note them down in article form. Then I devised an

article that basically revolved around the early days of privatization at PTCL, taking into account

numerous accounts from regular and contractual employees. Lastly, I wrote an article on the

importance of PTCL’s reconnecting campaign, and how it could further be promoted in the

market.


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5. Structure of the Marketing Department

Like all other departments at PTCL, the structure of the Marketing Department is somewhat

similar to that of all the other organizational departments. For instance the department is head by

the Chief Marketing Product Innovation directly reports to the CMO, the rest of the GM’s report

to their respective EVP’s.

There are essentially four EVP’s in the department: Wireless Business, Marketing and

Communication, Wire-line Business, Public Outreach and Corporate Communication,

Commercial. There are essentially 4 GM’s, however, GM product innovation reports directly to

CMO. The rest of the three GM’s (Wireless, Commercial, Consumer Sales, Public Outreach and

Corporate Department) report directly to their respective EVPs.


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CEO

Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

EVP Wireless Business GM Product Innovation

EVP (Marketing & Comm)

EVP (Commercial)

EVP (Wireline Business) GM (Wireless Services)

GM (Public Outreach &

Corporate Comm.)

GM (Consumer Sales)

GM (Commercial)

SM

SM

SM

SM

Manager

AM

Manager

AM

Manager

AM

Manager

AM

Figure 6 – Structure of Marketing Department


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a. Department Hierarchy

According to information obtained from the SM Aqeel Shigri, in the MarComm department

all key important decisions come from the Chief Officer Marketing, which are further carried out

by EVP marketing, General Manager Marketing, Senior Manager, Manager and at the end of the

chain of command are the assistant managers.

b. Number of Employees Working in the Marketing

Department

As reported by Ather Waseem, there are approximately 10 individuals who are exclusively

operating in the marketing department (Waseem, 2014).

c. Marketing Operations

The marketing department at PTCL is basically responsible for forwarding

consumer demand to top management. It is according to the feedback received from the

Chief Officer

Marketing

EVP Marketing

(MarComm)

General Manager (MarComm)

SM

AM

Manager

Figure 7 - Marketing Department Hierarchy


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marketing department that the organization is finally able to develop products and services

in accordance with consumer needs.

The MarComm department is specifically responsible for developing and

executing specific incentives and benefits that are thoroughly consumer oriented.

However, aside from that it is also accountable for all sorts of communication whether it

be national or at an international scale; promotional activities, outdoor commercialization,

media and public relations, performance measurements, campaign planning and

budgeting, and persistent development of marketing systems and data. Aside from that the

department also recommends respective development and maintenance policies for the

organizational products and services. The department also caters to an effectively

operating research and development program which is largely responsible for corporate

and consumer needs and demands.

The department is also responsible for researching target markets, segmenting

them according to demand, developing strategies for their respective focus groups, testing

potential products within the focus group, advertising their products and eventually

placing their product within the segment market. This also involves pricing the product

according to the consumers purchasing ability. Once the product has been successfully

placed, the department is responsible for taking note of purchase and return rates along

with potential products complaints and such. This department basically reports directly to

the business development department at PTCL. Lastly it is answerable for generating a

final report on product success or failure in their said target market.

Faizan Bokhari told me that though PTCL does not conduct business with any

other outside entity, however, as part of the marketing operations it does to an extent cater

to vendor management (Bokhari, 2014).


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6. Functions of the Marketing Department

a. Segmentation strategy

PTCL basically segments its market based on Consumer Sales and Corporate Sales. Where

certain campaigns and products are developed keeping in line their everyday consumers, while

others are designed and introduced into the market as according to the needs of their corporate

clients.

b. Target marketing strategy

Target market defines the basic group of customers towards which an organization aims to

market its end products and merchandise. However, PTCL has no particular target market

strategy; instead all of their promotions and product advertisements are based according to the

needs and wants of their respective focus group. Irrespective of that, according to their Sales and

Distribution manager, Salman Ali Bajwa, PTCL essentially targets users who basically want to

connect with the rest of the world while still being able to avail high speed internet whilst being

on the move (Bajwa, 2013).

c. Product planning, development & management

Once PTCL has thoroughly settled on a specific target market, it then goes on to designing its

final product. For instance only recently PTCL has begun planning for introducing their CDMA

based phones.

After the planning phase, PTCL is going to develop this new technology by effective

marketing at the hands of their CSR (customer services representatives), in which they will

highlight key important features of the phones, such as how these phones are cheaper as

compared to landlines as well as how they don’t require any sort of underline wiring.

After development and successful introduction of their product into their segmented focus

group, PTCL manages its products through effective problem solving techniques. After which,

representatives from the organization are likely to return to consumers for feedback and solve

any technical issues that they might be facing at the time.

(Bokhari, 2014)


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d. Positioning

Being an organization that is highly risk averse, PTCL does not position its final products

into the market without assessing future returns. Hence, in order to sell their product PTCL

primarily targets its respective focus group, consequently prior to positioning their final product

into the market, PTCL takes into consideration potential outcome depending on the results and

feedback received from the said focus groups and hence eventually positions its final product

into the market. However, Salman Ali Bajwa also said that the basis for their final positioning

largely relies on the availability of high speed broadband network in Pakistan (Bajwa, 2013).

e. Pricing strategy

Being a monopoly, in order to successfully establish its products and services into the

market, PTCL needs to adapt a pricing strategy that agrees with its general consumers.

Consequently, as of present PTCL makes good use of the price skimming strategy and the

market penetration strategy (Bajwa, 2013). That is, while some of its products are exclusive for

their corporate clients, such as exclusive rights to broadband services, however, there are other

services that are basically introduced in an attempt to gain a competitive edge over other service

providers and hence secure a strong market position, such as student packages offered at

penetration pricing. Aside from that for its basic consumers that simply cannot afford most of

PTCL services, PTCL has an installment plan for paying service charges.

f. Distribution strategy

PTCL primarily distributes its products through Mega National Distributors while

encouraging National Distributors for lifting bulk stocks through Bulk sales discounts. Aside

from that it distributes its end products to consumers through retail outlets established

nationwide (Bajwa, 2013).

However, since PTCL cannot open a service shop at every other locality, consequently, it

distributes its services and products through district partners. It has certified distributors through

whom PTCL distributes its final products to reach end consumers in remote localities and such

(Bokhari, 2014).


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g. Promotional strategy

For effective promotion, PTCL has managed to employ a number of promotional strategies.

For instance it has effectively managed to print and distribute flyers and brochures while

effectively promoting new promotional offers and products. Moreover within the market PTCL

has also managed to set up experience zones like kiosks at local markets. Aside from it also uses

the following strategies:

• It offers Slab Based Upfront commission in an attempt to encourage bulk lifting

of stocks by potential consumers.

• Aside from that it also offers a separate Slab based backend commission to

encourage National Distributors for maximum consumption of stock.

• PTCL also offers Time to time Trade Promotions to consumers.

• Along with Sales Team Incentives.

• As well as Sales Competitions to achieve a maximum number of sales.


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7. Structure of the Sales Department

The Sales Department basically constitutes of SEVP Commercial who has the absolute

authority to make final decisions. Under the SEVP and Director is the EVP Sales. EVP Sales is

then responsible for delegating tasks between GM Commercial and GM Consumer Sales.

a. Department Hierarchy

Just like all other respective departments of PTCL, the chain of command in the Sales

Department also constitutes of a very similar hierarchal structure. Where the final decisions

come from the EVP Sales, he delegates work to the General Manager who then hands

responsibility to the Senior Manager who subsequently hands over work to the Manager and the

AM, and who if need be hands it over to the Non-Managerial Staff.

Figure 9 - Sales Department Hierarchy

EVP Sales

GM Marketing

SM AM

Non-Management

Staff

Manager

SEVP and Director

EVP Sales

GM (Commercial) GM (Consumer

Sales)

Figure 8 – Structure of Sales Department


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b. Number of Employees Working in the Sales Department

According to PTCL’s HR Specialist, Saqib Idrisi, there are approximately 125 employees

operating in the Sales department at PTCL (Idrisi, 2014).

c. Sales operations

The Sales Department at PTCL is responsible for a number of vital operations; however its

basic job is to ensure effective maximum sales of varying consumer packages and devices.

Employees within the department are in charge of indentifying potential markets and hence

informing the rightful authority for product distribution. A sales employee will primarily

indentify the market and then investigate loopholes that might result in a sufficient increase in

the total number of sales. With the help of this information the sales department establishes a

distribution channel and makes good use of varying media vehicles in an attempt to maximize

sales.

Business Development

The business development sector of the sales department is responsible for developing

corporate products. They basically make sales presentations to buyers that are thoroughly

interested in purchasing from PTCL. At the same time they are also responsible for strategy

development and provide business solutions to corporate clients.

Business Intelligence

Sales operations at PTCL also constitute of executing business development. They

basically take note of everyday sales, keep a check on trends and sales traffic in the market and

assess the impact a competitor is likely to have on the organizational product. The department is

also responsible for analyzing the basic warehouse environment, hence ensuring that the

operations are running smoothly. One of the key sales operations that fall under business

intelligence is that the department generates every day sales report for sales analysis in future.

Effective Data Collection

In order to give feedback to the product development department, it is part of the sales

operation’s duty to collect sufficient data regarding customer wants and needs. These things

basically involve product purchase details, customer preferences and statistics on the number of

sales per product.

http://mbamarketingproject.blogspot.com/2010/05/ptcl-project.html


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Training

Training the existing sales team is a thoroughly important part of everyday sales

operations. Every staff member and employee needs to be made well aware of company products

and services in order to convince customers for product purchase. Each employee undergoes

training presentations which basically describe product prices, product value, specifications and

numerous other aspects which are directly relatable to product knowledge at large.

For effective employee output, every now and then the sales department arranges for

respective training sessions as well. Aside from a presentation, this session also involves a

thorough practice and instructions on how the staff is required to handle and deal with everyday

customers.

Sales Plan

Sales Operations are also essentially responsible for effective execution of sales plan.

Primarily developed and initiated in outreach and distribution department, however carried out

through the sales department.


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8. Functions of the Sales Department

A sales department at any organization has a number of functions that they are exclusively

responsible for. They primarily identify and select respective distribution channels, training

potential sales persons in selling techniques and product knowledge as per the goods they are

selling is also the responsibility of the sales department and lastly the sales department is

essentially responsible for supervising respective sales operations all through the organization.

The sales department also holds sufficient responsibility of taking care of all salesmen

operating in the field, which are primarily responsible for pursuing potential customers and

persuading them to purchase their respective organizational product.

a. Sales Methodology

With the company vision of maintaining and further growing as the leading ICT service provider

in the telecom industry, PTCL thoroughly strives to achieve absolute consumer satisfaction along

with thorough maximization of shareholder values. Hence as narrated by Mr. Bajwa the basic

sales methodology at PTCL is to distribute their products while employing a multitude of sales

methodologies. Sales are done through multiple sales channels of PTCL listed below:

• Distributor channel (Local and International Distributors)

• OSS (One Stop Shop) channel

• Direct sales channel (Stalls/Kiosk)

• Telesales (Customer Sales Representatives personally call potential consumers on their

contact numbers)

• Field Sales Force

b. Selling Technique

In order to successfully achieve their sales target, PTCL employs a number of techniques.

Consequently, PTCL does not employ a singular selling technique. But instead it sells its final

products through Franchise/Distribution channels, Retail channel development, Engagement of

FSA (Sales Field Force for Door to Door Sales), Tele Sales through PTCL Call Center,

ATL/BTL Activities (Advertisement, Press Adds, and Banners), Product Visibility through

Hoardings, Shop Fascias, Availability Flags and eventually through Corporate Sales.


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c. Sales returns procedures

When purchasing from PTCL, on request customer sales representatives personally come to

your house prior to purchase. For instance when I wanted to purchase my WIFI broadband

device, I was not certain whether I will be able to receive enough signals at my residence or not,

consequently, I requested the customer sales person to come and check prior to installation. He

informed me that if my device refused to get signals I will be able to return it on the spot.

Where postpaid devices are refundable, prepaid devices on the other hand once bought

cannot be returned. But if a customer faces any problem after purchase, if within the warranty,

both prepaid and postpaid devices can be replaced. Where for postpaid devices a customer can

simply register a complain at the organization and wait for a service man to come take care of it,

for prepaid devices on the other hand one needs to personally visit one of the PTCL franchises or

its One Stop Shop (OSS).

At the organization PTCL has an individual office which exclusively deals with complaints.

With a customized complaints management system, PTCL is able to receive and sort problems as

according to their category and or priority.


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9. Customer Services Department

The key responsibility of the Customer Service department involves thoroughly investigating

and resolving consumer hardware or software problems.

With approximately 154 customer service centers, the specific responsibility of this particular

department within the PTCL authority is to:

a. Accommodate System Billing

b. Act as Sales Outlets

c. Take note of Complaints and Enquiries

d. Take care of Regional Level Operations

a. Process of Developing Relations with Customers

As per my observation and market research over the internet, being a market monopoly

PTCL does not have to worry about developing new relations. However, because of increasing

competition in the past years, in order to persistently maintain an edge over all other

organizations their website has published a number of projects initiated by PTCL that can also be

interpreted as successful attempts to develop relationships with potential consumers through

varying techniques:

Tele-Presence

An innovative new technology introduced by PTCL, allows consumers to experience a

rich audio as well as high definition video “in person” virtual experience. Primarily targeting

their corporate clients with this strategy, PTCL has managed to provide potential consumers with

cutting edge business solutions hence developing lasting relationships with the corporate world.

Sponsoring Events

In order to thoroughly make consumers aware of their services as well as with frequent

promotional offers PTCL often indulges in sponsoring well organized events. In 2008 PTCL

sponsored the first ever Business School Competition in Pakistan organized by LUMS (PTCL,

2013).

Charities

PTCL frequently indulges in charity campaigns such as cash donations to the SOS,

scholarships for the disabled, the Benazir Income Support Program, etc.


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Environmental Friendly Operations

In February 2009, PTCL adapted new environmental friendly techniques and persisted

that other organizations in Pakistan go green as well; ever since project initiation, PTCL has been

working thoroughly hard in an attempt to becoming a paperless enterprise.

PTCL Established IT Center

The brainchild of Mr. Walid Irshaid (PTCL, 2013), PTCL is setting a state of the art Center

of Excellence for Internet Technologies at NUST Islamabad. It is developing new relations not

only with NUST, instead with every single individual that steps into the university campus.

b. Techniques of Retaining Customers

Like all other organizations PTCL also indulges its consumers in techniques that allow the

organization to retain old customers. For this very purpose, PTCL is obligated to initiate

techniques that will help satisfy age old loyal customers, such as:

Low Cost Packages

PTCL tries to accommodate the basic needs of all of its consumers. Consequently, where

one consumer who is interested fast internet along with unlimited downloading, can avail EVO

3G’s unlimited package for Rs. 2100; but another person who is more interested in the basic

unlimited downloading can avail the very same package for Rs. 1199 with a slightly reduced

downloading speed.

Student Packages

Students don’t have the kind of affordability like corporate clients or business employees,

hence in order to retain the student segment PTCL has begun offering student packages which

are low budgeted with similar services to their everyday packages.

Bundle Offers

To retain its Smart TV viewers, PTCL has started offering bundle services such as three

in one services at a limited cost.

Seasonal Discounts

Previously the EVO wingle cost consumers about Rs. 2,500; however at their recent

discounted price it costs customers a mere Rs. 1,250.


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Helpline Numbers

With helpline numbers operating 24/7 PTCL is able to accommodate existing customers

by solving their problems over a simple phone call.

Customer Service Centers/ One Stop Shops

However, when the organization is not able to accommodate consumers over a telephone

line, they have exclusively set up service centers and one-stop shops which customers can

conveniently visit when facing a problem.

Reconnect Campaign

Only last year PTCL launched its reconnect campaign. Initiated in an attempt to invite

customers, those who had previously discontinued usage of PTCL products and services, in order

to return back and reconnect with the PTCL family.

Figure 10 - PTCL Reconnect Landline Poster


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c. Techniques of Attracting New Customers

In an attempt to attract potential new customers, PTCL thoroughly indulges in effective

campaigning, such as:

Double Edge Promotion

For Vfone, PTCL has started offering double edge promotion in an attempt to attract new

customers and consequently benefit their business partners.

New Packages

Every now and then PTCL introduces to its clients new and improved internet as well as

call packages at lowered rates and better quality standards. Not only does this attract a huge pool

of new clients, but at the same time it keeps happy all of their existing clients.

Service Expansion

In collaboration with Microsoft Windows, PTCL has managed to expand its existing

services and deliver shared web hosting on the MS Windows Server System.

New Campaigns

Every now and then PTCL launches a new campaign to attract potential customers. Due to

the law and order situation in Pakistan, a huge pool of customers have been subjected to cellular

blockades in the past, consequently, last year PTCL launched their Landline Link campaign in an

attempt to streamline individuals to use landline connections instead of cell phones.


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d. Ways of Handling Different Customers

Being a commercial entity, PTCL needs to maintain a proper stature in the industry.

Consequently when faced with difficult customers employees are instructed to treat potential

customers with utter respect. As according to company policy they are required to:

Listen

Each CS representative is required to patiently listen to what the customer has to say.

They need to thoroughly hear the consumer out without getting into an argument.

Build Rapport

Once the representative has heard the customer out, he is required to build rapport with

the consumer by showing sufficient empathy; the representative is required to put himself in the

customer’s shoes.

Calm Communication

Even when faced a difficult customer who might resort to yelling or screaming, the

representative is required to maintain his calm stature and while the customer might raise his

voice, the representative is required to reply ever more calmly.

Remaining Pleasant

The customer might be having a bad day. The representative is required to make the

customer feel better in any way possible consequently, he is required to remain and respond as

pleasantly as he can manage.

Never Take Things Personally

Representatives at the CS department of PTCL are instructed to not take anything

personally. No matter what the customer might say the representative is required to remain calm

and respectful as instructed by the company policy.

Fulfill Promises

When a representative makes a promise, he is required to fulfill it to his fullest capacity.


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10. Critical Analysis

PTCL is an organization that presently enjoys market monopoly in the

telecommunications market. It is essentially the first organization that has managed to already

develop and establish a 3G network for its loyal consumers. It was absolutely overwhelming to

work for an organization established on such a vast scale with such a massive workforce. It did

not come as a surprise that with so many efficient departments PTCL is able to so conveniently

able to manage all of its organizational functions so smoothly. I feel that the only reasons PTCL

has been able to govern the political market for so long is because of their persistently struggling,

competent and thoroughly experienced workforce. I have thoroughly experienced multitasking

first hand while working at PTCL, and hence I believe that employees at PTCL essentially excel

the art of being able to do more than a singular thing at a time.

Each of my degree courses contributed to my internship to a certain level. However, in

particular I could thoroughly relate to the following courses and their elements:

International Marketing

Ethical and Moral Standards

Pricing for International Markets

Introducing Services into International Markets

Marketing Management

Market Competition

Distribution Channels

Quality of Goods and Services

Advertising and Promotion

Focus Groups

Promotional Offers (Discounts & Bundle Offers)

Effective Advertisement

Aside from these I felt that business communication also contributed to my understanding

of basic office jargon along with the protocol being followed throughout official communication

channels. I believe that our university has rightly taught us these subjects to specifically be able

to conveniently adjust in the business market to better comprehend organizational structures.


45 | P a g e


I believe that all the courses that I studied throughout my four years have managed to

help me in one way or another. Even subjects like CS101 contributed to my internship and

played a thoroughly vital role in helping me complete my internship, especially since I was able

to better handle organizational operations due to this thorough knowledge as compared to if I had

not studied all these courses. I tried my level best to implement all that I have learned,

throughout my degree, to my practical life.

However, I do feel that had I taken regular classes at university or interacted with fellow

students on a daily basis, or even if there was a larger batch of interns to compete against I would

have been able to more thoroughly grasp organizational operations as well as further polish my

individual understanding as well as knowledge of the practical world.


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11. SWOT Analysis of the Organization

Over the years PTCL has managed to secure itself a steady number of loyal consumers hence

making it one of Pakistan’s leading organizations that basically established the basis of our

telecommunication sector. However, irrespective of the fact that throughout Pakistan the

organization is thoroughly recognized and the services extensively used, at the same time the

organization suffers certain lacks and hence can be subjected to competitive threats and

weaknesses. The SWOT analysis of the organization can be summed as under:

a. Strengths

PTCL enjoys market monopoly.

PTCL is operated by a string of thoroughly skilled workforce.

The organization effectively operates at thoroughly low labor costs.

Because of its successful services over the years the organization is responsible for high

profitability and revenues.

PTCL has state of the art distribution and sales networks.

At present PTCL is the largest operating landline network in Pakistan.

Thoroughly invests in its research and development sector.

b. Weaknesses

The organization suffers from extra employee overhead due to excessive hiring practices.

PTCL faces a certain level of difficulty when trying to foster professionalism due to the diversity

of cadres.

Everything at PTCL is campaign based; there is not one basic strategy for product sales and

distribution.

Lacks the effective training needs analysis resulting in a lack of motivation amongst employees

The organization is likely to stick to old legacies.

Lacks retention policies hence many senior officials are forced to leave the organization taking

with them a whole lot of valuable experience.


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c. Opportunities

PTCL has the opportunity to form new partnerships with other telecommunication companies in

today’s deregulated market.

With the introduction of global marketing, PTCL is able to reach consumers beyond national

boundaries along with establishing long distance infrastructure.

PTCL supports vast infrastructure and real estate assets which can be leveraged even further.

Due to reduced tele-density PTCL has the opportunity to work on consumer demand.

With the help of effective ICT measures PTCL has managed to produce multitude lines of new

products gaining a competitive edge over other telecommunication organizations.

d. Threats

Due to very quickly climbing inflation rates, PTCL is thoroughly experiencing reducing demand

for its services.

The instable political situation in our country is resulting in a distressed situation for PTCL.

Because of the energy crisis situation in our country, PTCL is unable to perform to its absolute

functional capacity.

Due to the rapid increase in the rates of cyber crimes, PTCL frequently suffers from security

issues.


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12. Conclusion

After thorough data analysis and sufficient data collection while working at PTCL, my report

concludes that where the HR department of the organization is essentially responsible for a

motivated and positive work environment, the market communication department on the other

hand is exclusively responsible for attracting, securing and retaining potential consumers with

effective product development and execution. PTCL did not turn into a market monopoly over

night; instead it put in a sufficient amount of investment of time as well as money to secure such

a massive consumer base. However, with increasing market competition as well as consumer

demand, it is likely that PTCL will be forced to alter their age old policies and subsequently

retain their client base.


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13. Recommendations for Improvement

PTCL is presently in the process of converting hard copy files into soft copies, however, even

then there is sufficient need for process improvement especially since every time there is need

for updating a personal file the process needs to be primarily initiated on hardcopy then later

transferred onto the system.

PTCL needs to define proper employee retention strategies as according to individual skill sets.

Needs to improve methods of TNA (training needs assessments) for thorough employee

utilization. Aside from that the company also needs to initiate training courses more frequently.

PTCL is in dire need to foster professionalism in all of its departments.

Employees are professionally stuck in a monotonous state, hence needs to initiate and implement

on-job rotation for better productivity.

In order to enhance their skill sets and to overcome employee grievances proper counseling

mechanism should be defined.

Even though through SAP PTCL is integrating all organizational departments under a singular

umbrella, there is need to automate numerous other manual operations in order to save on

potential costs and time.


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14. References

Commission, P. (n.d.). Telecom. Retrieved December 30, 2013, from Privatisation Commission:

http://privatisation.gov.pk/telecom/history.htm

Desk, W. (2012, May 10). Mobile subscribers in Pakistan cross 118 million mark. Retrieved

January 15, 2014, from Tribune: http://tribune.com.pk/story/376707/mobile-subscribers-in-

pakistan-cross-118-million-mark/

Bajwa, S. A. (2013, January 20). Sales Department at PTCL. (N. Bashir, Interviewer)

Bokhari, F. (2014, January 21). Marketing Operations at PTCL. (N. Bashir, Interviewer)

Haider, M. (2012, July 27). PTCL plans to slash workforce by more than 50pc. Retrieved

December 30, 2013, from The News: http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-123014-

PTCL-plans-to-slash-workforce-by-more-than-50pc

Idrisi, S. (2014, January 18). Number of Employees Operating in PTCL. (N. Bashir, Interviewer)

MobilinkGSM. (2013). About Us. Retrieved January 11, 2014, from Mobilink:

http://www.mobilinkgsm.com/about-us/

PTCL. (2013). Business. Retrieved December 30, 2013, from PTCL:

http://www.ptcl.com.pk/page_category.php?pd_id=10

PTCL. (2013). PTCL Brand Philosophy . Retrieved December 30, 2013, from PTCL:

http://www.ptcl.com.pk/pd_content.php?pd_id=216

PTCL. (2013). Corporate Responsibility. Retrieved January 17, 2014, from PTCL:

http://www.ptcl.com.pk/pd_content.php?pd_id=43

Swati, S. K. (2014, January 15). Organizational Structure & Department Introduction. (N.

Bashir, Interviewer)

Telenor. (2013). Telenor Pakistan. Retrieved January 11, 2014, from Telenor:

http://www.telenor.com/about-us/global-presence/pakistan/

WaridTel. (2013). Press Release. Retrieved January 11, 2014, from Warid Telecom:

http://www.waridtel.com/about/media/archive/warid-takes-service-excellence.php

Waseem, A. (2014, January 16). Structure of the Marketing Department. (N. Bashir, Interviewer)


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15. Appendix

Participation Data 1

Organizational Structure & Department Introduction Interview

I arranged a personal interview with Mr. Saleem Khan Swati in order to about the basic

organizational structure of PTCL.

How do you define the basic structure of the organization?

Well, the basic structure starts off from the CEO, moves on to the SEVPs, then there are the

EVPs, GMs, SMs, Managers, Assistant Managers and eventually at the bottom of the

organizational food chain are the non-managerial staff members.

Can the non-managerial staff and assistant managers communicate directly with the

SEVPs and EVPs?

We like to pride ourselves in having an environment more than just friendly. In a manner of

speaking, we define ourselves as more of a family. But needful to say that every individual at the

office is subjected to and is obliged to follow the basic protocol , but you see when it comes

down to verbal communication we like to keep it simple and on good terms hence yes, if need be

we allow free flowing communication.

Do you think it causes a certain level of miscommunication when there are so many chains

of command to report to? Or like there are so many people you have to go through before

finally getting your message across to one of your key seniors does that result in your

message being only partly conveyed?

No. Because you see everything that happens at our organization is communicated through e-

mail or memos, and like everything is in black and white. For future references we print entire e-

mails so that there is sufficient proof of what happened.

Do you think so many levels of authority help in work distribution?

We have people coming in and working for us from all across Pakistan. We support and cater to

diversity at all sorts of level. I believe that with such diversity it is important to have this many

levels of authority. You see it eliminates hostilities; where one person is comfortable talking to

one GM, the other person might be more comfortable with the AM.

How many departments do you cater to? Can you describe each one?

We have a total of around 8 departments.


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The Technical Department deals with the development and upgrading of the organization’s

media. Like the wire line core infrastructure all across Pakistan.

The IT Department handles the internet, intranet, LAN, WAN, Metropolitan Networking

technologies.

The Human Resource department at PTCL provides comprehensive human resource

management to the organization.

The Business Zones Operations Department handles all our B2C communication and delivers

goods from the exchange to the end consumer.

We like to call our marketing department the Commercial Department, largely because aside

from advertising our products it deals with essentially everything that happens to be related to

the consumer market.

Our Business Development Department caters to all our bilateral relations with other telecom

organizations and manages all our international business relations.

Then there is our Procurement Department that basically deals with all the purchasing and selling

of office hardware along with keeping up with technical contracts.

Lastly, our Finance Department deals with all budgetary functions taking place within the

organization.


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Participation Data 2

Number of Employees Operating in PTCL Interview

I arranged an interview with Mr. Saqib Idrisi in an attempt to gain information regarding the

number of employees presently operating at PTCL.

In reference to a recent article published in The News International, is the company in

trouble? More specifically are the employees in trouble?

The company has never done better business as compared to in recent years. The company is

presently one of the key leading telecom organizations in Pakistan. To answer your question, no,

the company is not in any kind of trouble.

What is the total number of employees that you have?

As of present we have approximately 22,000 employees working for us.

According to my research the total number of employees is far more than what you just

defined. Over the internet it says you have around 30-40 thousand employees?

That’s just exaggeration. Who ever published that definitely did not have the right figures.

You see, there’s the one CEO, approximately 7 SEVP, 22 EVP, around about 128 GMs and the

rest of the 21,842 constitute of analysts, managers, CS, etc.


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16. Glossary

EVP – Executive Vice President

SEVP – Senior Executive Vice President

SM – Senior Manager

GM – General Manager

AM – Assistant Manager

EDBMC – Employee Database Management Cell

EPI – Employee Personal Identification

SAP – Systems, Applications and Products

TNA – Training Needs Assessment

Documents

Virtual University of Pakistan - Ningapi.ning.com/files/WRH9ovbTZmD7yUk*Qx7LgHrDkT9eWTYHUs01rhe1… · Nadia Bashir (bc100200574) MKTI620 Internship Report 5 | P a g e Pakistan Telecommunications