AT&T BusinessDirect® FAQs/Video

AT&T BusinessDirect® Portfolio

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What is the AT&T BusinessDirect^® Portfolio?

AT&T provides you with a suite of online and system-to-system tools. You can think of the AT&T BusinessDirect® Portfolio as your "virtual telecom department" that helps you manage your communication services conveniently online, improve productivity, improve the speed and accuracy of transactions, optimize network efficiency in near real time, and reduce your costs.

How can my business benefit from the AT&T BusinessDirect® Portfolio?

The AT&T BusinessDirect® Portfolio helps you:

• Manage your telecom services conveniently with point-and-click Web-based tolls and the flexibility to access the AT&T BusinessDirect® Portal from virtually anywhere.
• Improve productivity by allowing you to report and manage your trouble tickets online.
• Improve the speed and accuracy of transactions by entering them into an automated workstream which eliminates delays.
• Reduce costs by spending less time tracking orders, identifying fraudulent usage, and waiting for repairs.
• Optimize network efficiency by using online tools that help optimize network performance in near real time. In the case of AT&T Toll-Free Service, you can take immediate action to redirect calls or balance traffic among multiple call centers.

Why is it beneficial for me to use the AT&T BusinessDirect® Portfolio capabilities instead of working with a live person?

When you use a Web-based tool rather than talking to a customer service representative by phone, you:

• Will not have to wait on hold while your call is in queue to be answered.
• Will be able to resolve telecom issues at any time of the day from virtually any location.
• Will enter your transactions into an automated workstream, which eliminates delays and should result in greater speed and accuracy.

Suppose I'd rather pick up the phone and have a customer service representative help me. Can I still do that?

Yes, that option is still available and the choice is yours. However, many of our customers prefer to do business over the Web at times that are convenient to them, including outside normal business hours.

Can you give me examples of the types of companies that use the AT&T BusinessDirect® Portfolio?

The AT&T BusinessDirect® Portfolio is used by companies of all sizes, from multi-national corporations to small proprietorships. And, it is used by companies in virtually all industries, including banking, airlines, freight transport, financial services, retail, manufacturing, transportation, lodging, and insurance.

What sort of training is available? Can someone come to my office and show me how to use it?

You will have access to online tutorials for many tools. In addition, many of the online tools are self-explanatory and extensive "Help" sections assist new users in get started. No-fee TeleTraining for new users is also standard for some of the network-management tools.

What are some of the functions available through the AT&T BusinessDirect® Portal?

With the AT&T BusinessDirect® Portal, you can:

• Place orders online
• Report outages and manage trouble tickets online
• Reroute toll-free calls online
• Invoke disaster recovery plans online
• Pay bills online
• And more.

When did AT&T develop these capabilities?

AT&T introduced the AT&T BusinessDirect® Portal in late 1997, but many of the underlying capabilities existed prior to that time as stand-alone PC or mainframe tools rather than Web-based tools. For example, the capability to reroute toll-free calls has been available as a mainframe-based tool since 1991, as a PC-based tool since 1996, and as a Web-based tool since 1999.

What kind of track record does the AT&T BusinessDirect® Portal have in terms of uptime and security?

In terms of system uptime, the availability of the AT&T BusinessDirect® Portal as a whole for 2004 was 99.9%. And while this is indicative of solid performance, we have taken steps to further enhance system reliability. Those steps include:

• Upgrading the quality of routing hardware and software
• Automating disaster recovery servers

To provide platform security, the following procedures are routinely followed:

• All traffic between a user's browser and the AT&T extranet is encrypted using industry-standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology.

Extensive password protection policies are in place and enforced.