BT 2014 Annual Report Download - page 29

26 The Strategic Report
Delivering our strategy
We engage with our people in dierent ways to improve the business.
For example, 783 teams entered our annual Customer Challenge
Cup competition working on projects to improve local processes and
service for customers. The teams identied an £80m benet from
cost reduction, cost avoidance and revenue generation, which will also
improve customer satisfaction.
Using employee input, we are transforming the way we provide human
resources support. A redesigned online portal will give easy access
globally to the services people need, saving administration time.
Pay and beneƬts
We compare salaries with other companies in our markets to make sure
our packages are competitive. In the UK, pay for the vast majority of our
engineering and support people is determined by collective bargaining,
with fair terms and conditions for all. Managers pay and bonuses are
linked to business performance and their personal contribution.
Our executives are oered long-term incentives to align their reward
with the creation of shareholder value. The amount ultimately received
depends on BTs performance over a three-year period. In accordance
with our regulatory obligations, incentives for senior leaders in
Openreach are tied to its business performance rather than that
of the wider group.
We also provide pension and retirement benets in addition to statutory
retirement arrangements.
<ou can Ƭnd details of the BT Pension Scheme and other retirement
plans on page 69
Sharing in success
Around 60% of our people take part in one or more of BTs savings-
related share option plans (saveshare), which operate in over
25countries.
In August 2013, almost 12,000 people beneted from saveshare,
receiving, on average, BT shares worth almost £5,000  a gain of
around £2,800. In August 2014, over 22,000 people in our 2009
ve-year plan could each receive shares worth over £48,000 on
average (based on the share price as at 31 March 2014). We believe this
will be one of the largest ever payouts by a UK plc for an all-employee
saveshare scheme.
Our assets and resources
These are what we need to help us deliver
our strategy. Many of them set us apart from
our competitors and give us an advantage
in our markets.
Brand and reputation
Our brand is one of our most important assets. We have seen further
external recognition of this over the last year.
In 2013 we were included for the rst time in the global Brand survey,
conducted by WPP. It ranked BT as the seventh most valuable brand
in the UK and the 94th most valuable brand in the world. The survey
measures customer perception, reputation and future potential and
placed the value of our brand at US9.5bn.
Since then, the value of our brand has grown by 61%. The latest Brand
ranking, released in May 2014, puts our brand value at US15.4bn.
Our partnership with ondon 2012 strengthened our brand, helping
people to see BT in a dierent, more positive light. Building on that
platform, this year saw further major developments which improved
perceptions of our brand. These include the launch of BT Sport and
our high prole and rapid rollout of bre broadband across the UK.
Together with our investments in the high-growth regions of the world,
many commentators and customers have begun to see BT dierently.
Networks and platforms
Networks
Our networks are the foundation of the products and services our
customers rely on around the world.
The scale and reach of our global network, which provides service to
more than 170 countries, is a key competitive dierentiator. Our major
global asset is our multi-protocol label switching (MPS) platform,
which is designed to carry dierent network services over one common
infrastructure. From this platform we oer our most popular virtual
private network (PN) services to corporate customers.
We continue to expand our global IP Exchange footprint (GIP). We have
over 400 networks connected globally to it and this year we launched
a new node in Miami. IP Exchange now supports D voice services and
we plan to add new features such as 4G mobile connectivity and global
wi- roaming. This service, which supported over 14bn voice minutes
worldwide this year, received the Queens Award for Enterprise 2014
Innovation in April 2014.
We have an extensive broadband satellite network. This helps us serve
our multinational customers when they need connectivity in remote
locations. ong-term leased bre and points of presence (PoPs) support
additional international services.
Within individual countries, we have extensive networks in the UK,
as well as in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland
and Spain.
We oer our widest range of network services, access technologies
and coverage in the UK. Our xed-line network is one of our most
valuable assets and our bre broadband investment is key to sustaining
its value for the UK. We have over 5m BT Wi- hotspots to which our
broadband customers have unlimited access. We are also continuing to
grow our Ethernet footprint in response to strong demand and growing
data trac.