BT 2012 Annual Report Download - page 28

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Strategy
the number of products that customers buy from us, driving up
consumer average revenue per user (ARPU)
 maintain differentiation against competitors, and continue our
dual-brand strategy with Plusnet – We include a range of features
free with our BT Broadband services to differentiate us from other
suppliers. The Plusnet brand addresses the cost-conscious consumer
with a simple broadband offer
 launch higher broadband speeds and create new services that
exploit these speeds – Our BT Infinity service meets customers’
growing demand for improved speed performance. Our higher
speeds set us apart from ISPs only offering DSL services, and allow
us to compete more effectively against Virgin Media’s fastest
cable speeds. Where fibre is not yet deployed, we have been
migrating our retail broadband customers onto our next generation
copper-basedproduct
 grow and enhance our TV services – Our TV service is differentiated
from traditional pay-TV competitors as it is more oriented to video
on-demand and catch-up TV, and is more interactive. We will
improve our service adding a number of features over the coming
years. In 2013 we plan to launch our YouView service, which
combines free digital channels with free on-demand content from
public service broadcasters delivered over broadband. We are also
investing in multicast infrastructure to deliver additional channels
over our IP network.
Being the ‘Brand for Business’ for UK SMEs
Our aim is to become the first choice for SMEs in all their fixed and
mobile communications and IT needs.
In fixed communications for SMEs we face significant competition in a
fragmented market but we believe we have many advantages including
national coverage, a broad portfolio of products and services, and
strong sales channels in all segments of the market. We are looking
to improve the products and services we sell and how we sell them to
protect and grow our market position.
We are also looking to improve the way we offer mobile services and are
developing capabilities to combine fixed and mobile services as part of
an integrated offer.
During the year we withdrew from selling IT hardware to other resellers
and have focused on selling a combination of services and hardware to
our end-customers.
We will focus in the future on services to support our customers
as they move to new models for delivery of their IT, such as cloud
computing. These will increasingly involve managed hosting of
data and applications and greater integration between IT and
communicationsservices.
BT Global Services – a global leader
We are already a leader in the market for managed networked
IT services. We have been recognised by Gartner, Inc., a leading
information technology research and advisory company, as being
in the leaders quadrant in their recent analysis of global network
serviceprovidersa.
We believe we have four key differentiators which make us stand out in
the marketplace:
 global assets, people and technology
 industry experience and solutions
 innovation and new solutions, based on our strength in the UK
 professional services people and capabilities in BT Advise.
Our strategy is to make use of these differentiators to create competitive
advantage. We are investing globally to make improvements in the
areas our customers tell us are important to them. For example, we
improved sales coverage in the UK, invested in our network in key cities,
built out propositions across the four industry sectors we target, hired
professional services people across the world in key portfolio areas and
invested in key growth geographies.
We will build our global reputation in managed networked IT
servicesby:
 expanding our global business by investing in high-growth regions
such as Asia Pacific, Latin America and Turkey, the Middle East and
Africa, recruiting more people and improving our portfolio and our
network infrastructure
 developing our relationships with our customers by building and
enhancing industry-based solutions focusing on our four strategic
industry sectors
 innovating around our core portfolio of product families by
investing in growth areas including MPLS, Ethernet, UCC, CRM,
security, mobility and cloud services, as well as professional services
capabilities
 substantially improving customer experience by reducing the
number of customer incidents, making our operations more efficient,
and improving overall customer satisfaction with our service.
The wholesaler of choice
We aim to be the wholesaler of choice in the UK and in the international
telecoms services market.
There are two dimensions to what we mean by ‘wholesaler of
choice’. The first refers to our ambition of being the obvious choice
for customers based on the products we sell and the quality of the
service we deliver. The second dimension is that customers can choose
to engage with us as a wholesale supplier in a number of ways, for
example, through Openreach for access products, or through BT
Wholesale for value-added products.
During the year Openreach saw growth in its copper base and the first
LLU operators buying its fibre-based broadband service. BT Wholesale
saw growth in the Wholesale Ethernet and IP Exchange markets but a
decline in revenues associated with transit and wholesale broadband
due to the migration to LLU.
Looking ahead to 2013, we expect a variety of issues, such as regulatory
charge controls and other regulatory pressures to continue to have an
effect on our wholesale business. We are working to identify growth
opportunities that will help mitigate the impact.
Our strategic priorities
a Gartner, Inc. “Magic Quadrant for Global Network Service Providers”, 24 April 2012. Authors Neil Rickard ID Number G00226786. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its
research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organisation and
should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
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