Is AT&T Making Waves By Supporting Small Business?

AT&T

recently disappointed investors with fourth quarter EPS and revenue results. Although the company was a victim of the T-Mobile break up fee, it was also unable to recover revenues due to poor margins from iPhone sales. Despite the setbacks, how has AT&T been improving its public image? A group of VCU Brandcenter advertising students won the overall challenge by taking the top spot in the final round of competition, going up against winning teams from the other sponsored divisions. The VCU team, which developed a cloud-based smart platform solution for small businesses, had earlier secured their spot representing the AT&T* division by beating out 60 teams from around the world. "After interviewing a handful of small business owners, we quickly learned that many didn't understand the full value that cloud services could provide," said the VCU team spokesperson Jennifer Clinehens, a creative brand management student at VCU Brandcenter. "Thanks to AT&T, our team was given an early look into the kinds of considerations that real businesses must address when deciding to incorporate cloud computing. This helped us to develop a tool from the small business owner's perspective, something that gave them the opportunity to take control of their information." Participating teams in the AT&T division were challenged to present a detailed plan for addressing questions on emerging technology and how AT&T can better connect its cloud-hosting services with mobility applications to meet the needs of small businesses. The VCU team proposed an innovative new tool to help small business owners take the mystery out of cloud computing. The solution would function as a "digital business partner," simplifying cloud and mobile applications to increase productivity and efficiency, while providing small and midsize businesses with the analytical firepower of a larger company at a fraction of the cost. VCU's team, consisting of an art director, copywriter, creative technologist and creative brand manager, will share the grand prize of $20,000. The first, second and third place winners were announced today during a special event in New York. All the teams will ring the New York Stock Exchange closing bell this afternoon. AT&T is currently trading at about $29.33, down about 3% for 2012.