Putting the service into global services: services integration, not network management, is the mantra of BT Global Services. CEO Andy Green speaks with group editor Robert Clark about the failure of network-centric Concert, and business potential from serving today's distributed global MNCs - One-To-One - Brief Article

Telecom Asia, Nov, 2003 by Robert Clark

We've been driving that technology I think faster than anybody in the world. Certainly in the US it's very slow to take up considering that it's really a corporate technology. So ourselves and Equant/France Telecom have sold much more of it--we're the leader of the world--than AT&T and MCI, because basically it's a tough sell. If you're an incumbent telco, it's a tough thing to sell because it gives customers significant extra value for money.

We've been using that to drive our revenues up. We've been growing our solutions business at 16%-17% per annum, our products group at 10% per annum, as a result of just driving that technology.

Could you segment your main product and service areas?

The four things we concentrate on selling here in the region are: CRM systems--we've got a big conference which we're running here today.

That's all about collecting calls--we've got one of the most advanced voice networks in the world, using the MPLS network to create the data flows to and from--all the way through to full outsourcing of call centers.

The second thing is, conferencing is a big thing at the moment, particularly with SARS and travel issues, a big demand for conferencing, in particular no-booking conferencing.

The third and the core is IP-VPN. We've been talking about VPN and running those networks. We can run the outsourcing around any part of that.

Those would be the key things we sell in this region.

We also have a big business here and around the world in systems integration for the corporate finance sector, particularly in dealing rooms--that's Integra.

Do you do anything in the wholesale business?

We're not really in the Reach and Asia Netcom space at all We're more likely to buy from them than compete with them. We're a corporate networking organization. It's all about services, it's about management of the customer experience.

Obviously we are in the wholesale market in the sense that we connect all our customers to each other and we buy and sell calls to everybody in the world. And occasionally we'll be in a particular location where we've got a big fiber across a particular piece of ocean and we'll sell some capacity on it, but it's not our core business.

Are you investing anything in the region?

We've already got one of the most advanced pan-regional voice networks, and we've been investing in an 11-node data network with MPLS. We've got sites up in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, and we're putting sites into China, Malaysia, India, Taiwan, Korea.

These are basically IP POPs?

Yes. Our position is distinctly different from AT&T's, who have said, "Let's build a network all around the world and then go fill it."

We are a network integrator, so when we win the Unilever contract, it's a billion dollar contract to manage all their voice, data and mobile around the world--we're out in Vietnam and everywhere--managing their network and transforming their network, binding components from other players and integrating them together, and our strategy for rolling out networks primarily is based on when we get in enough business we put in new nodes to reduce the cost. So in a sense we don't give you long-term predictions on what we're going to do. We grow our business and then put in the capital afterwards. We find that a very effective approach.