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Oscar's outlook
Being president of BT Global Telecom Markets (GTM) is a great opportunity and one that I relish. GTM is in an unrivalled position to help carriers and operators remain competitive in what is currently a difficult economic environment, but there is no single solution for all our customers. Each of you is unique. Since I took over the lead of GTM, I have talked to many of you about how we can best help you drive your business.
International wholesale telecommunications is a fast-moving market. BT's recent business transformation survey showed that almost three-quarters of operators are consolidating their networks so that they can offer new and better services to their customers; most of the remainder are developing their strategies to transform their networks and businesses.
While Voice over IP continues to grow, the drop-off in traditional voice is not happening as fast as predicted. However, the necessity for transformation remains constant; we need to evolve to succeed.
Any operator who plans and undertakes a transformation must make some critical decisions that affect the success or failure of the whole project. By leveraging the knowledge gained during its own transformation, BT can help you thrive in a constantly changing world.
Over the past few months, I've gained some valuable insights into current trends for operators.
First, we are all looking for new ways to handle our legacy networks and businesses. Our margins are under pressure and traditional revenue streams are declining; therefore, to reduce costs, we increasingly look to achieve scalability and to outsource.
A recent study of telecom operators by Frost & Sullivan says "service providers are working on their networks to cut costs and provide new services to their subscribers". According to analysts at the research firm, with an NGN network, service providers can deploy new services faster and at the same time make their core networks efficient and cost effective with IP-based architectural simplicity. An NGN network helps providers become multi-play providers and achieve increased subscriber market share with lower churn rates.*
We can see the beginning of consolidation of network infrastructures and the emergence of suppliers for traditional volume and legacy capacity. Earlier this year, Telefónica and Vodafone announced a strategic programme to share mobile network assets across selected European operations. By reducing network costs, both companies will be able to continue to invest in developing innovative products and services for customers.** More recently, BT itself and supplier Alcatel-Lucent won a Global Telecoms Business Innovation Award for their achievement in legacy network transformation. The award recognised the international dimension of their contract for the management of BT Global Services' legacy network platforms, through the transfer of the operations of those networks to Alcatel-Lucent.
Second, those of you who are currently transforming say you need know-how, insight and help for the implementation of your transformation projects. You plan to build your transformed network structures through efficient sourcing strategies for new-wave technologies and products.
Business transformation - enabled and in part driven by the move to converged IP networks - remains important even for global service providers, and challenging as well. That was the word from the IT and network leaders of four of the world's largest carriers - AT&T, BT, Vodafone and Telstra - at the Management World show in Orlando.***
The Frost & Sullivan report cited above emphasizes that a seamless NGN transformation is important to provide competitive edge to service providers. 'Service providers should follow a well-planned migration path to have a smooth transformation process with minimum disruption to current subscribers, timely launch of new services, and a lean business model to gain the most out of investments.'
In GTM we are not only transforming ourselves to become a new-wave wholesale business but are helping many operators around the world to run their own transformations to the IP world via our BT Telconsult capabilities. See the article on the BT Telconsult Strategic Transformation Consulting Practice - "Transformation by numbers" in this issue of Global Telecom News.
Third, the migration to new-wave services is gaining traction and that is significantly changing the wholesale market. An IDC analyst recently wrote, "In these tough economic times, much of the talk in the telecom sector is focused on how telecom operators are expanding into neighboring markets such as media and IT services in order to offset declining revenues from connectivity markets - the focus of these efforts being on getting more wallet share from consumers and business clients.****
In response, BT works to create a feature-rich portfolio of new-wave wholesale services for you, from VoIP to Interoperability to value-added services, while also covering flexible bandwidth and network interconnect in the IP world.
I believe that innovation is key. And I believe we in GTM offer the perfect combination of expertise and vision to enable you to succeed. We are leveraging the power of BT and the capabilities of our BT Wholesale business in the UK. We can share with you the lessons learned there through the roll-out of the 21CN.
By the way, Total Telecom recently announced that BT Wholesale is short-listed for one of its prestigious World Communications Awards in the Best Wholesale Carrier category. Other divisions of BT are on the short list for Best Customer Care, Best New Service and Best Technology Foresight. The winners will be announced in London on 25 November.
In closing, I'd like to mention briefly the major voice services agreement that BT signed recently with Tata Communications Ltd. It will allow both parties to partner for growth and benefit from their respective broad-reaching global networks and advantageous cost structures. We will also have access to Tata Communications' world-class routing capabilities and on-line management systems, providing greater economies of scale that will stimulate growth and competitiveness in the international calls market. For more information about this agreement, see "Let's talk Voice" in this issue of Global Telecom News.
And to talk about how we can help you, please contact us.
With best regards,
Oscar
Oscar Ruiz
President
BT Global Telecom Markets
Biography
Oscar Ruiz became president of Global Telecom Markets in the second half of 2008. He joined BT as director of 21CN products and after a year was appointed director of group portfolio evolution and strategy.
Prior to BT, Oscar was a junior partner at McKinsey & Company, where he acquired considerable international experience and an in-depth knowledge of the telecommunications and banking industries.
Oscar is fluent in English, Spanish and French. He holds a degree in telecommunications engineering and earned his master of business administration (MBA) from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management in the US.
Oscar's favourite way to spend his rare free time is skiing, especially at Kitzbühel in Austria.
*Frost & Sullivan
**Telefónica and Vodafone joint press release
***Telephony Online
****IDC
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