CenturyLink 2015 Annual Report Download - page 5

2015 SUMMARY ANNUAL REPORT AND 2016 ANNUAL MEETING DOCUMENTS 3
over the past eighteen months are part of that focus
on improved execution. In addition, we have declared
the following key operational objectives to drive
outstanding performance and an exceptional
customer experience.
We will maximize market penetration of enabled
network and adjacent services. We have to drive
higher levels of revenue growth to support the
investments we are making in our business. As
we move into 2016 and beyond, we are renewing
our focus on reducing churn among our existing
customers and more deeply penetrating the market
with the products in which we have already invested
and enabled. We expect these efforts to enhance our
growth and improve our return on invested capital.
We will create exceptional customer experiences.
Better execution is about more than our service
capabilities; it also requires that we provide an
excellent customer experience. Our near-term focus
on improving the customer experience is aimed at
reducing the interval between the time of sale and the
time we deliver service to our customer. Extended
intervals can create poor customer experiences,
increase churn and challenge our ability to grow. We
have teams dedicated to significantly reducing these
service intervals in 2016.
Longer term, we envision a future where the
procedural provisioning and management of the
services we deliver are automated and self-service.
One early example of realization of that vision is our
“CenturyLink On” product. This service enables
customers in multi-tenant environments to use their
own devices to establish access to our broadband
network, connect VPNs and MPLS connection points
and order additional video, security and network
management services, all with the convenience of
direct credit card billing. This is the type of automated,
customer-driven service model in which we are
investing for the future.
We will invest with discipline and a network-first
focus. Our renewed focus on providing best-in-
class broadband access is reflected in a refreshed
approach to our capital investment program. Network
enablement has always been our principal focus, but
over the last several years we have also invested in our
colocation business and strengthened our cloud and
managed services capabilities.
For CenturyLink, the greatest potential returns on our
capital investments are in building and delivering the
broadband service and capacity in our markets, and
our commitment to balance capital investment with
return of cash to our shareholders means that we must
prioritize investments in areas where we believe we
can drive the greatest returns. However, we continue
to believe that cloud-based product offerings and
service delivery platforms are also critically important
to our future.
We will continue to invest in the cloud platforms that
enable the managed private cloud services that our
business customers demand as well as those that
represent the foundation of the automated customer
service offerings we believe will drive an exceptional
customer experience. We are also developing less
capital-intensive growth opportunities through
expansion of our managed and IT services businesses
and partnering for delivery of many cloud-based
This combination of growth opportunities, financial strength and the
consistent return of cash to our shareholders makes CenturyLink a
compelling investment opportunity.