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AT&T

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Company: AT&T Inc., Dallas, TX
Company Description: AT&T Inc. is a premier communications holding company whose subsidiaries and affiliates are the providers of AT&T services in the U.S. and around the world. Among their offerings are the world's most advanced IP-based business communications services, the nation’s fastest 3G network and the best wireless coverage worldwide, and the nation's leading high speed Internet access and voice services.
Nomination Category: Information Technology Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Information Technology Department of the Year

Nomination Title: AT&T Inc.'s IT Department

Tell the story about what this nominated department achieved since January 1 2008 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

AT&T’s IT organization is one of the largest in the world, utilizing more than
30,000 resources. The IT organization is responsible for technology that
transforms business processes and market offerings in ways that create value
and have a positive impact for AT&T’s business, customers, and partners. Last
year, IT delivered multiple high-priority service creation and enhancing
programs that supported revenue growth, reduced expenses, and increased service
quality.

In July 2008, IT assisted in the largest product launch in company history: the
launch of the iPhone 3G. Over the course of this launch, which included more
than 2.4 million iPhone 3G activations in the third quarter alone, there were
no IT system issues. An IT-developed automated eligibility checker streamlined
the ordering process, and a new self-service kiosk program made the in-store
purchasing process more efficient. As a result, more iPhone 3Gs were activated
on launch day than in the first 30 days of the 2007 iPhone launch.

For AT&T’s U-verse product, the IT organization delivered multiple high-
priority items that drove increased revenue, reduced expenses, and increased
quality. IT-developed applications enabled the launch of Total Home DVR for U-
verse, allowing customers to watch recorded programming on any U-verse-
connected TV in the household. In addition, IT helped to enable the conversion
to two high-definition video streams for U-verse TV customers. Overall, IT
supported a 300 percent U-verse subscriber increase and helped to enable the
achievement of one million U-verse customers.

In addition, IT delivered more than 250 enhancements to AT&T enterprise
services in 2008. The company’s AVPN global footprint was expanded to 55
countries and its AVPN Ethernet footprint was expanded to 28 countries. In
addition, IT worked to roll out IPv6 technology, a federal government mandate
that introduces IP address handling methodology and increases the size of the
IP address pool.

Internally, through AT&T’s IT Excellence program, the IT organization achieved
$1.03 billion in cumulative gross expense savings, exceeding its 2008
commitment, and positioning the organization to top savings goals for 2009.
Through continued post-merger application rationalization, 683 applications
were successfully retired.  In addition, through application optimization, IT
delivered savings of more than $44 million in 2008. Over the year, IT also
provided the company with an application availability rate of 99.99 percent,
achieving a cost avoidance of more than $1 million.

AT&T Mailing Solutions, part of the IT organization, completed the installation
of state-of-the-art bill enclosing equipment in 2008. The program, which
enables mail loads to be shared between sites, was utilized during Hurricane
Ike, migrating eight million mail pieces from the Houston site to sites in
California and Georgia, avoiding delay of billing and other mail pieces. The
culmination of this project increased mail throughput by 150 percent and is
expected to deliver a three-year savings of nearly $18 million.
               
Continuing the AT&T IT organization’s long history of invention and innovation,
2008 IT contributions to AT&T Intellectual Property included 153 patent filings
and 111 patents issued.

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://www.cio.com/cio100/detail/1806
http://www.infoworld.com/t/business/2008-infoworld-100-awards-796?page=0,1
http://www.computerworld.com/spring/p100/detail/105

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated organization/department:

As Chief Information Officer, Thaddeus Arroyo leads AT&T’s information
technology department. He is responsible for directing the company’s internal
information technology organization and infrastructure, including Internet and
Intranet capabilities, enterprise data centers, and developing applications
systems across the consumer and mobility markets, enterprise business segment,
and AT&T’s corporate systems. As CIO, Arroyo successfully advanced technology
initiatives while rationalizing AT&T’s enterprise application portfolio,
driving service platform rationalization and improving operational processes.
He was appointed to his current position in January 2007. Prior to joining
AT&T, Arroyo served as CIO at Cingular Wireless, and also held senior
leadership positions at Sabre Corporation.