AT&T Cuts Consultant Liaison Program

AT&T's actions are not totally unique, because several major enterprise communications systems suppliers--Avaya, Nortel, and Siemens--also reduced their consultant staffs this year/

AT&T recently sent an email letter to consultants that it will "no longer continue to provide a dedicated Consultant Liaison support team." The program was praised by AT&T, saying it "delivered high quality service to the Consultant community over the years." AT&T did not clearly state the reason it is cutting the program, although the act was foreshadowed when it previously cut team membership from two to one. AT&T's actions are not totally unique, because several major enterprise communications systems suppliers--Avaya, Nortel, and Siemens--also reduced their consultant staffs this year, although no one else totally eliminated their dedicated program like AT&T.Through this year's third quarter, AT&T's net income was a mere $10.463 billion on revenues of almost $93 billion. Something to think about: ShoreTel revenues for the same time period were about one thousandth (0.001) the AT&T figure, and net income stupendously less than $10.463 billion, but they are able to finance a dedicated consultant support program.

What will AT&T eliminate next, live operators and customer service agents? Oh that's right, almost all of them are already gone. Since the stock price is down 35% during the past year how about they downsize some high salaried executives. What do you think?AT&T's actions are not totally unique, because several major enterprise communications systems suppliers--Avaya, Nortel, and Siemens--also reduced their consultant staffs this year/