UK Large business & public sector
There’s a basic fact behind every purchase you make – you want it to work.
Whether it’s a washing machine, a car or a broadband service, you want it to work.
And the effort you have to put in to making your purchase work will influence how you feel about the company that sold it to you. [Read more...]
I attended the SOLACE (Society of Local Government Chief Executives) Scotland annual conference down the River Clyde at Seamill last week, representing BT as a Gold partner along with three of my colleagues. The theme was ‘Public Services of the Future – what next for Local Government?’ — Which is a moot point now that the Scottish Government has decided on the referendum date for independence?
Nicola Sturgeon, the Deputy First Minster, spoke to the assembled CEOs and senior officers about their role in transforming local government, and made great pains to point out that health and local government need to be joined up and work together to introduce and increase efficiency in the public sector. Sharing resources and services is the way to go. And while she did admit it was not her place to tell CEOs how to run their businesses; it was also too easy to defend the status quo. [Read more...]
Earlier this month Pierrette de Leeuw Koumans referred to comments on the annual CIO survey of CIO.com, stating CIOs are gaining stature as business strategists. The comments seemed to show a less rosy picture of the involvement of IT and the CIO in the overall business strategy. And, indeed, unfortunately IT is not looked upon as a skilled and respected partner in the business. [Read more...]
As you know we’ve just been positioned in the ‘Leaders’ quadrant of Gartner’s Global Network Service Providers Magic Quadrant for the ninth time*.
As well as that Gartner also rated us as “outstanding” in overall product viability in its new Critical Capabilities report for Pan-European Network Services*, which is something we’re really proud of. [Read more...]
At the second New Ways of Working conference for the Scottish public sector, it was clear to me that the industry has become one of the leaders in adopting new ways of working.
The concepts of home working, flexible working and remote working are business as usual now and common practice. And the conference showcased how some of the latest technology is helping to meet current and future challenges. [Read more...]
People power has long been a rallying call for change, and at Healthcare Computing 2013 it was no different.
But the difference was that it was technology and information that were being talked about as being at the heart of what Tim Kelsey, national director for patients and information at NHS England, calls “unleashing the power of people”.
Healthcare Computing, held in Birmingham this week, brought together healthcare organisations, suppliers and partners to share best practice learn new skills and network. [Read more...]
How long does it take to switch bank accounts? Ten days? Two weeks?
According to the Payments Council the current “best time” achieved by account holders to successfully switch to another bank is 18 days and it can take as long as 30. And this isn’t just in the UK. Mystery shoppers taking part in a survey carried out across the 27 states of the EU last year found trying to change banks is a very tricky business indeed.
“This transformation in the market can be used to innovate
product offerings to attract customers” [Read more...]
Every business wants to have loyal customers – but loyalty is always a rather strange concept in business. We often only discover that a customer isn’t loyal when they never speak to us again! We’ve had ‘customer recommendation’ and ‘customer delight’ as benchmarks for loyalty for a while – but happy customers may still go to the competition, so measuring satisfaction might not be the best way to test loyalty.
A survey of 75,000 customers published in 2010 in the Harvard Business Review made a startling statement – you don’t have to delight your customers, you just need to make it easy for them! This seemingly went against all the common wisdom about customer satisfaction that had gone before it. [Read more...]
There’s a temptation to write about Steven’s Spielberg’s summer blockbuster Jaws , but actually this blog shall remain firmly on land (for most of the time)! Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) requires investment to deploy the necessary components to build a solution…the question is what is actually being built?
Recently our CEO Luis Alvarez gave an inspirational talk to the leadership team on the Next Generation of Global Services. He shared his vision on how we are going to evolve to better serve our customers. Part of Luis’ vision is developing new business capabilities. But it is also about approach, building a new mind-set that can make a huge difference – as one construction worker says to another “we’re not just laying bricks, we’re building a cathedral”. And stealing further from his blog the author Joel Barker, author and lecturer said: “Vision without action is merely a dream; Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.” [Read more...]
We’re at it again, and just four months after being positioned in the ‘Leaders’ quadrant for Gartner’s Asia-Pacific Network Service Providers Magic Quadrant*, BT is delighted to have been positioned in the ‘Leaders’ quadrant for the Global Network Service Providers Magic Quadrant* for the ninth time.
Magic Quadrants provide a graphical competitive positioning of four types of technology providers, where market growth is high and provider differentiation is distinct: [Read more...]
