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From the desk of William Bruce
In April I had the pleasure of visiting the Middle East and Africa again, this time with Oscar Ruiz, president of GTM, and Steve Kelly, vice president of GTM E*MEA. BT is directing a sharp focus on the region, and Oscar and Steve’s visit demonstrates BT's commitment to it and to you. During our 12-day trip, I introduced them to a number of our key customers, including some of you, and I want to thank you for the welcome you extended to us.
Partnership emerged as the main theme of our meetings. Nearly all operators are experiencing massive change in their environment from competition and technological advancement. In turn that leads to higher customer demand for quality of service, price and choice. As a telco itself, experiencing this transformation in its home market, BT is uniquely positioned to help other operators to manage transformation in their markets.
Several other common themes came up in our meetings:
- Global connectivity
- Regulation
- Enterprise services
- Organisational change and business transformation
- Operational efficiencies
In all these areas, BT has capabilities and expertise to assist you to achieve your goals and strategies. We can help you accelerate the process through our experience and learning as a telco operating in one of the most competitive and deregulated markets in the world.
I'm quite excited about our recent engagements in the Middle East and I'd like to share two of the stories with you. In both of them, GTM support has been key to the success of operators who needed to optimise their efficiencies and accelerate the roll-out of new services.
In one case, we managed the successful implementation of a new 3G network. It was delivered in record time and enabled the customer to increase speed-to-market for services and improve return on investment.
In the other example we are implementing a workforce management turn-key solution to improve efficiencies and productivity in the customer’s field service operations. This will lead to reduced costs through improved systems; it will drive sales and most importantly improve the customer experience - all key metrics for any operator!
In Southern Africa we met with customers across our industry from incumbents to new fixed and mobile entrants and ISPs. All face different opportunities and challenges in their drive for success. What an exciting market this is!
Around the general theme of global connectivity, we talked in particular about how operators can partner to extend their global reach and better serve their end users. The number of new cable systems coming into the region provides diversity for service offerings and with it dramatic cost reductions in international capacity. BT has investments in many of these systems and can offer a variety of connection options and managed services. We had many discussions around ‘enterprise services' and how BT could help operators drive new propositions into these markets and also help shape the organisational design to support this initiative.
I'm already looking forward to my next visit to the Middle East and Africa and hope to see more of you then. Steve Kelly will visit again in September, when he speaks at the EMEA Service Provider VIP Summit in Istanbul.
Meanwhile you may be interested in these articles about our new IP Mobile, Global IPX, Ribbit and other Interoperability-related services.
You may also want to meet my colleague BT Telconsult general manager Colin Brooks, who is interviewed in this issue of Global Telecom News.
My colleague GTM head of marketing Stephan Deutsch gave an interview in June to the Dubai Eye radio station 103.8 on its morning business programme. He answered questions about the global availability of our IP Exchange platform, which BT announced in a recent press release. You can listen to the interview on the radio station’s website.
If there is anything I can do for you, don't hesitate to contact me.
Best personal regards,
William
William Bruce
Head of GTM Middle East & Africa
Biography
As head of BT's Global Telecoms Markets (GTM) operation in Middle East & Africa (MEA), Will Bruce leads the regional sales team to address the needs of carriers, licensed operators, service providers and mobile operators and to deliver on GTM's mission to customers in MEA.
Will has a wide understanding of the MEA wholesale market, having worked directly with regional customers for 10+ years.
Since joining BT as a finance manager in 1987, Will has held a variety of positions ranging across business development, commercial and sales in both the retail and wholesale divisions. Previous to BT, Will spent seven years with Reuters focussing on the MEA and Asia regions.
Will is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
Will balances his time between the excitement of working in MEA, his passion for sport and his family: his wife Alison and three children, Alex, Jonathan and Rory.
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