UK Large business & public sector
When it comes to business continuity — whether we’re talking a large event, or some unforeseen circumstance — making sure your organisation is up to dealing with the issues it faces takes a lot of thought.
Organisations are often obligated to deliver a wide range of services in a situation where failure is not an option, and so it’s vital that they’ve thought about what happens when things don’t quite go to plan. [Read more...]
By Kevin Taylor, President, BT Asia, Middle East and Africa & Global Logistics.
In 2012 there was a watershed moment for the global economy when it was reported for the first time that there were more billionaires in Asia than in North America.
While the huge growth we’re seeing in Asia at the moment clear for all to see, Africa has lagged behind, yet to see the kind of boom that has defined the early part of the millennium for developing countries in the Far East. [Read more...]
At the beginning of this year, Jeremy Hunt, secretary of state for health, set out his vision of a paperless NHS by 2018. No-one doubts the scale of the challenge, and equally everyone is aware of the huge benefits it could bring. What is still being hotly debated is the how.
What will it take to achieve a paperless NHS will be one of the topics that delegates at the NHS Confederation annual conference and exhibition 2013 will be discussing. Taking place between 5-7 June 2013 in Liverpool and supported by BT, the conference is one of the largest healthcare events in the calendar. With the reformed health system now in operation, healthcare leaders from across the country and all sectors of the new NHS will be coming together to share their experiences. [Read more...]
The UK Government announced significant banking reform plans at Easter.
They come as the culmination of almost five years of fallout from the financial crisis, and include the UK’s interpretations of Basel III, along with measures to increase competition in banking and payments. The announcements coincided with the creation of the new regulatory regimes of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), which took over from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) from 1 April, 2013. But is it all going too far, too fast?
When the financial crisis hit, bank after bank was subsumed by leveraged debt. They had to merge, acquire, be bailed out, or go under. We all remember those dark days and their shadow hangs over us all today as we learn the meaning of the word ‘austerity’, with all its ramifications. Tectonic shift is taking place in finance all over the world – but different parts of the world are on different tectonic plates, and it is potentially seriously damaging to have some economies investing for growth, (namely the USA), whilst others (in Europe) shrink to survive. [Read more...]
The philosophy of ‘easy’ works for everyone
How easy was it to get the help you wanted today? That’s the concept of ‘customer effort’ in a nutshell – how much effort do people need to put in to get their problem solved by a company.
But it doesn’t only work for businesses that sell direct to consumers (B2C). It’s just as useful for business-to-business (B2B) companies. [Read more...]
Technology is certainly breaking down the barriers between work and home. It feels like our work life balance has gone to hell in a handcart. Now, it seems it is gate-crashing the bedroom with more and more of us checking email the last thing we do before the head hits the pillow. Can technology ever be romantic? Now, it’s hard to say this with a straight face but this question is being asked with the news that there is dramatic rise in the use of electronic devices in the bedroom. Let’s get one thing straight up front. I’m talking about laptops, tablets and smartphones.
I’ve always had a kind of romantic view of technology seeing it as liberating humankind from the drudgeries of everyday life, promoting global social cohesion and world peace through international commerce. However, I’ve never really thought of it as a way of being more romantic with my beloved. For the record I never take my devices to bed but maybe I should. A little suggested competition can’t be a bad thing, can it? Maybe under-cover tweeting would be a good thing. Sharing a video on YouTube of a stupid cat doing something daft could be intimate, couldn’t it? After all, they say laughter is at the heart of intimacy. We could instant message each other, saying goodnight with the stroke of a few keys. That would be great, wouldn’t it? I don’t think so. I really don’t want my mind filled with petty office issues last thing. Other than cheese and coffee I can’t think of anything more likely to give me a restless night. [Read more...]
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a short post that you can see here about my excitement waiting for the first set of outturns from our Net Good analysis. It is still a week or two too early to tell you the results – they will be featured in our Annual Report and Accounts and our Better Future report due out soon, but I can tell you that we are holding an event in London on June 18th to launch the programme.
Our CEO, Ian Livingston will be opening the event, and our CSO, Niall Dunne will be delivering the closing words. Along with our partners, The Climate Group, Carbon Trust and Small World Consulting, I will be describing the approach, and we hope there will plenty of discussion and feedback on the next steps. [Read more...]
It’s official that people who want to talk to government departments want choice about how they do that — even if they are more likely to choose the phone over any other channel.
That’s the findings of BT’s Autonomous Customer research, which suggests that people expect the same levels of service for government and public bodies as they do from the private sector — and they don’t want their choice of channels restricted. [Read more...]
By Mark Akass, CTO, Global Banking and Financial Markets, BT
If we look at the last 10 years, we can clearly see huge changes in the way we protect technology. The security ‘toolbox’ has grown in capability and is available to a bigger slice of the market place. This coupled with an explosion of technology providers, and an increasing need for firms to manage and keep an eye on the costs which come about when bringing said tools into action to fight each and every security threat. Only recently we witnessed Australia’s central bank admitting that it had played victim to repeated attacks from computer hackers. Was the fact that no data was lost or lasting damage done down to the effective use of the advanced tools available on the market today?
Undoubtedly we have seen certain highlights in the development of the security tool kit. Take a look at pattern matching of signature based threats1; to anomaly detection2 based on behavioural analysis; to increasing levels of sophistication in being able to identify potential threats in the context in which they are being transacted; to testing suspected transactions for executable code in real-time. The attacks may have become more advanced but then so have the tools developed to fight the war against them. [Read more...]
By Kevin Taylor, President, BT Asia, Middle East and Africa & Global Logistics
The real benefits of connectivity around the world will only be truly realised when everybody in the world has access to the global network, however remote they are. Which is why I’m delighted to announce our ‘Connecting Africa’ project, which will bring broadband internet access to communities across the continent.
We’ve been working with international children’s charity, SOS Children’s Villages, to connect twenty of the charity’s sites in twelve African countries via its global satellite network. [Read more...]
