As seen in the April 27, 2009, COMPTEL Connection

BT Americas
BT Global Telecom Markets
2160 East Grand Avenue
El Segundo, CA   90245

Q: What does your company do and how long has it been in operation?

BT is one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries.  BT Global Services serves the multi-sited global corporate market as well as the global provider market. 

For more than 20 years, BT has provided solutions in the U.S. and Canada that help enterprises effectively use technology to drive business growth.  The expertise of our employees enables us to help customers globalize their businesses in innovative and sustainable ways.  Through strategic development, strong alliances and a diverse collection of best practices and methodologies, BT has emerged as a leader in networked IT services, providing professional services and consultancy, managed services and full outsourcing for business and IT transformation.

BT has the experience and knowledge to design, manage and operate solutions that overcome business challenges and create sustainable value. We know it is important to work with a provider who understands the nature of your business.  We have built an eco-system of collaborative relationships with companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, EMC and HP, enabling us to deliver integrated solutions that are flexible and focused on the things that will make your business succeed.  In tailoring our global networked IT services to the needs of our customers, we offer a unique combination of global reach with local experience and knowledge, global account management and excellent customer service.

We provide solutions to more than 1,000 customers in the U.S. and Canada in all major industries, including telecommunications.  

BT Global Telecom Markets (GTM) is the carrier services unit of BT Global Services. It serves communication providers, carriers and telecom operators around the world to enable their success in a constantly changing world. GTM positions itself as a 21st century provider of capacity and capabilities. While continuing to provide traditional premium wholesale solutions, it also offers Enhanced Platform Solutions and Network and Business Transformation backed by the offerings of BT Telconsult, GTM’s dedicated consulting unit.

Q: To what do you attribute your company’s success in the communications industry?

BT is the world's oldest communications company, with a direct line of descent from the first commercial telecommunications undertaking in Europe.  The Electric Telegraph Company, established in 1846, was the first outside the United States to exploit leading edge telegraphy technology and introduce electrical communications to an astonished world.
 
Today, technology is more central to BT's business than ever before as innovation - the combination of technical know-how with commercial acumen - becomes even more crucial in a competitive world.

Broadband, convergence and mobility are among the watchwords for concepts that are changing radically the way companies and people do business.  The successful companies of the future will be those which exploit their technology to underpin their business, generate revenues and minimize costs.

For BT, the willingness to embrace new relationships, both technical and commercial, have been and remain key to maintaining its influence on the development of the communications industry.

Q: What have been the biggest obstacles your company has faced in the marketplace?

We take a very focused approach to creating awareness and educating and influencing customers, prospects and our third party advisors. We direct our resources to target accounts and awareness campaigns. The six US-based acquisitions in the last several years, including INS, Counterpane Internet Security, Infonet, Radianz, WireOne, and Ribbit have helped increase our awareness as well.

We are also aggressively addressing our influencer communities, including media, analysts and consultants communities. We are now ranked in Gartner’s leading North America Magic Quadrant for Managed and Professional Network Services and their Remote Access and Mobility Magic Quadrant.  We also ranked as a leader and shortlist recommendation in Datamonitor’s MNS report. 

Most importantly, we are winning large, global deals in the US, including Procter & Gamble, Unilever, InBev and PepsiCo during recent years.

Michael Boustridge, the CEO for the BT Americas and Asia Pacific regions, has brought in several new leadership team members with solutions and consulting backgrounds.

Large companies often find it hard to respond quickly to customer needs.  At BT we have made it our goal to become number one for customer service. We have implemented a number of different programs and measures company-wide that allow us to understand more directly the real experience our customers have from start to finish.  A program called “right first time” measures whether we are keeping our promises to our customers and meeting or exceeding their expectations, which helps us work toward continual improvement in this area. 

Q: What do you see as your greatest challenges going forward?

BT must maximize revenue opportunities with existing and new services to successfully grow and sustain our business.  We must aggressively compete on service quality and cost efficiency and look for general sustainability in all operational aspects of our business by creating business value in the short, medium and long-term for our customers, partners and shareholders.

Q: What have been some of your company’s most recent achievements (new customer wins, new service/product deployment, etc.)?

We provide solutions to customers in the U.S. and Canada in all major industries, and have been selected as a trusted partner by many large enterprises including Unilever, PepsiCo, Reuters and Procter & Gamble.   Here are examples of what we are doing for a few major brands in the US:

The Bank of New York uses BT high bandwidth long distance connectivity to offer uninterrupted service whatever the eventuality. 

By replacing its legacy Frame Relay infrastructure with a BT MPLS global network DyStar has improved performance, enabled business expansion and saved costs. 

BT innovation consultants help Energizer see new avenues to sustainable business growth. 

BT Global Telecom Markets recently announced its US launch of BT Dynamic Line Management and BT Field Force Optimization Services:

BT Dynamic Line Management (DLM) helps operators to deliver agile, optimized, and customer-driven solutions to DSL subscribers. An operator with BT DLM can expect to realize significant cost saving while concurrently improving service capabilities and expanding network reach, without additional network equipment.

BT Field Force Optimization Services deliver a fully integrated service for mobile field workers to support them in carrying out their day-to-day activities as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Q: Why is it important for your company to be a COMPTEL member?
 
The U.S. telecommunications market is not a level playing field that is open to fair competition.  This is the result of premature deregulation of dominant U.S. telecommunications providers, over-consolidation without necessary safeguards being taken to protect competition and a rollback of antitrust protections in the telecommunications industry. 

We value the opportunity to work with other COMPTEL members to influence regulation and legislation that supports open and fair competition and business.

Membership in COMPTEL also gives BT the opportunity to meet our customers in an informal networking environment where we can share ideas and approaches for addressing the issues that face us all.