BT Advise, knowledge that delivers on a global scale

BT today announced the formation of BT Advise, which brings together the BT Global Services experts who deliver consulting, systems integration and managed services around the world under one team and one name. Customers will benefit from engaging with a team comprising 4 500 highly skilled professionals who will apply industry-leading processes and methodologies with improved consistency. BT Advise will be further reinforced through hiring programmes aligned to a pipeline of new customer contracts with many of the world's leading private and public organisations.

BT Advise delivers consulting, integration and managed services through global practices organised around the BT Global Services core capabilities, such as security, customer relationship management, unified communications, mobility, managed network services, managed IT services and business technology. BT Advise also provides consulting services to other telecoms operators. The BT Advise practitioners will help customers more effectively access the many innovations developed specifically for BT's priority sectors such as government, health, global banking and financial markets, consumer packaged goods, logistics, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.

A BT Advise Academy is being founded to provide the rigorous approach to professional accreditation required by its customers. It will build up a learning culture based on knowledge communities sharing global best practices, with a mission to attract and retain the brightest talent.

BT already advises many of the world's most reputed corporations and government organisations and is recognised as one of the world's leading providers of communications-centric advisory services. Joel Stradling from industry analyst house Current Analysis said: “BT has a significant global professional service capability, enabling it to address complex projects and network outsourcing deals.” Sandra O'Boyle, also from Current Analysis, continues: “BT Global Services' in-house consulting and professional services strengths are a differentiator. BT has done a good job of packaging these into 'Quick Start' engagements around key areas such as mobility, security, unified communications and IT operational efficiency.”

BT Advise is led by Luis Alvarez, President BT Global Services, and Ray Stanton, Vice-President BT Advise, in BT Global Services.

Alvarez said: “Many of our customers face complex challenges and expect solutions that flex and meet that complexity. They deserve the best choice of technology and vendors, combined with global consistency. They require knowledge that delivers. Consult, design, build and run is what BT Advise is all about. Our professional services teams are already recognised as being world-class. They have proven themselves through the years by guiding major customers through extremely complex technology programmes worth billions of pounds. Today, we are bringing together all those assets and all those skills, uniting them around excellent knowledge management tools and the certified processes trusted by our customers. This puts us in a leadership position in our industry, and will help BT Global Services and its customers develop business faster and better.”

BT Advise brings together professional services practices and resources distributed all around the world, with substantial teams based across Europe, Asia and the Americas. They are further reinforced by BT's investments in personnel and centres of excellence in Asia and Latin America, as well as partnerships to execute IT services for customers expanding in the Middle East and Africa.

Further information:

Enquiries about this news release should be made to the BT Group Newsroom on its 24-hour number: 020 7356 5369. From outside the UK, dial (+44) 20 7356 5369. All news releases can be accessed at: http://www.btplc.com/News.