BT 2003 Annual Report Download - page 17

Business review
16 BT Annual Report and Form 20-F 2003
over e20 million, to provide fixed-voice, data and
internet services. The ministry, which has more than
400 sites throughout Spain, provides administrative
support to government at the central, regional and
local levels.
&In April 2003, we signed a three-year contract with
high street bank HBOS plc to manage its voice and
data services.
&Syntegra signed deals worth in excess of
£800 million, including a ten-year strategic partnership
with Essex County Council – one of the biggest
partnerships of its kind ever established by a
county council.
Business realignment
On 1 April 2002, the management of BT’s contracts
with former Concert customers was transferred to
BT Global Services and BT Retail.
During 2003, the Concert MPLS virtual private
network platform, with its global presence in Europe,
USA and Asia, was integrated with the BT Global
Services European platform, to enhance reach and
coverage, on schedule and within budget.
BT Global Services also achieved greater
integration of its European businesses through
continued product harmonisation, network and
customer service centre consolidation and
people realignment.
Global reach
In Europe, BT Global Services owns operations in:
Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands,
Spain, the Nordics and Central and Eastern Europe.
We deliver services to customers in Italy through our
joint venture Albacom and I.Net (our applications
hosting company). In the Americas and Asia Pacific,
we deliver service to our customers through a
combination of direct sales and services operations
and strategic partners.
BT Global Services’ network-based services (Frame
Relay, ATM, IP-VPN) extend to and across North and
South America, and the Asia Pacific region. This means
that BT Global Services’ products are delivered
seamlessly within and from Europe to our own locations
in the Americas, and delivered locally through
interconnect and supply agreements with regional
carriers. In the Asia Pacific region, we deliver services
locally to customers via a network of partners in the key
commercial centres of Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore
and Australia, and provide reach across the region
through other regional operators.
Global customer service is provided via service
and network management centres around the world,
24 hours a day, seven days a week. As part of BT
Global Services’ programme to deliver a standard
operating environment across our operations,
all network operations are in the process of being
consolidated into a single network control centre in
Brussels. This centre will manage BT’s networks across
16 European countries, and through functions such as
shared incident management and fault resolution,
performance monitoring, and seamless customer
service, help customers maximise the use of
their infrastructure.
Other businesses
As at 31 March 2003, BT held stakes in a number
of other businesses, including:
&stakes in four satellite entities – Eutelsat, Inmarsat,
Intelsat and New Skies.
&a 16.6% stake in L G Telecom, a mobile cellular
telephone operator in the Republic of Korea.
&an 11.9% stake in StarHub, the enlarged fixed and
mobile communications operator and pay-TV operator
in Singapore, formed by the merger in June 2002
between StarHub and Singapore Cable Vision (BT’s
stake was previously 18% in StarHub alone).
&a 23% stake in Albacom, a fixed communications
operator in Italy.
Research and development and IT support
BT Exact is BT’s centre of excellence in IT and
networking technologies, providing the specialist
technical skills that BT needs to extend the reach of our
broadband services, operate our networks efficiently
and deliver world-class customer service.
BT Exact also works with BT Retail, BT Wholesale
and BT Global Services to address the more complex
needs of our customers, extend our portfolio of
products and services and ensure that our customers
gain full advantage from the opportunities created by
new technologies.
Specialist technical services are also offered directly
to telecommunications equipment manufacturers and
suppliers of the software applications used in the core
of the world’s public communication networks. For
example, BT Exact works with companies such as
Alcatel, Juniper Networks, Lucent Technologies and
Marconi to provide independent assessments of their
products’ performance and suitability for use in public
communications networks.
All these aspects of BT Exact’s business are based
on expertise and insight created through our research
programmes, which focus on the next-generation
internet, advanced data services, information and
network security, software systems to support the
management and integrity of networks worldwide,
and the future impact of advanced communications
on lifestyles, education and healthcare.
The work undertaken by BT Exact is part of an
investment of £380 million in research and
development that BT made in the 2003 financial year.
This compares with £362 million and £364 million
invested in the 2002 and 2001 financial
years, respectively.
The intellectual property created from this work
is valuable and BT Exact is responsible for the
exploitation, management and defence of the patents
that result from our research and development work,
and has a policy of commercial exploitation of our
technology through patent licensing (including a
contract with ipValue to secure revenues from US
and Canadian companies), and the incubation of
new technology companies.