Innovate. With purpose.
I’ve always been inspired by BT’s history of innovation. We can trace our
roots to the very first communications company, the Electric Telegraph
Company, founded in 1846. Ever since then we’ve never stopped
innovating, and technologies pioneered by BT have truly built the
modern world.
In 1984 our research team at Adastral Park perfected the use of single
mode optical fibre. Today this technology plays a role at the heart of all
global networks, including our own – a network that reaches customers
in more than 170 countries.
BT’s global presence means that we innovate globally too. Our worldwide
scouting network, combined with strong relationships with leading
universities, allows us to find the best innovations from across the globe,
blend them with our own capabilities and in-house research, and create
new possibilities for our customers. We then work hand-in-hand with
them to develop the right solutions for their business, wherever in the
world they operate.
BT’s own world-leading research into optical fibre and next-generation
broadband, new mobile technologies, even the future of TV, enables
us to develop the cutting-edge solutions that keep the UK, and our
global customers, ahead of the competition. We’re constantly building
on our 4,560-strong patent portfolio, helping us to create exciting
new products and to deliver the excellent service levels that our
customers expect.
Our continued focus on research and innovation is enabling us to
connect people, businesses and communities in ways not previously
possible. This is what makes our work together so important. It’s why I’m
proud to work for BT.
This brochure gives you a taste of what we’re doing to make this happen.
I hope you find it as inspiring as I do.
Clive Selley
CEO BT Technology, Service & Operations and BT Group CIO
3
How BT
innovates
Using the power of
communications to make
a better world
For more than a century now, we’ve looked to
innovation to bring us new products and services,
improved customer experience, efficiency gains and
to unlock exciting new opportunities.
Our very origins can be traced back to an entrepreneurial fusion of business and
innovation.
On June 12th 1837 William Fothergill Cooke (an entrepreneur and business man)
and Professor Sir Charles Wheatstone (an academic) filed a patent for the world’s
first practical electric telegraph.
These collaborators were excited by the commercial potential that the
recently discovered phenomenon of electricity and magnetism could offer for
communications.
From there, we can follow the development of a trailblazing company which has
created, embraced and exploited technological innovation to change the world.
We conducted the world’s first wireless transmission across the Atlantic in 1926,
built the first electronic programmable computer in 1943 and opened the world’s
first digital telephone exchange in 1968.
We laid the first submarine single mode fibre cable in 1981 and the first
commercial single mode fibre system in 1984 – the product of research at
Martlesham in the early 1980s.
More recently, in 2003, it was our VDSL interoperability testing that helped
establish the global standard for the VDSL technology that is powering today’s
fibre programme. Our leadership in optical fibre continues today – with our 2014
demonstration of transmission at 3Tbps over 370km.
Today our labs are leading the world in deriving standards for the next generation
of fast copper systems and a new approach to ultra-high capacity core networks.
Our current BT purpose statement – using the power of communications to make a
better world – is a rather snappy summary of something that has been in our DNA
as a company from the very start.
Dr Tim Whitley
MD Research & Innovation, MD Adastral Park, BT
4
5
BT’s global research &
innovation scouting
How BT innovates
Cambridge
University
Cambridge, UK
• BT works across multiple
departments and at a variety of
levels, reflecting both BT’s own
varied needs and the structure of
the University itself
• This includes BT supporting a
number of PhDs at the Cambridge
computer lab
• Cambridge and BT are also
university partners in the UK
Quantum Communications Hub
EBTIC (Etisalat BT
Innovation Centre)
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Global scouting
Israel
• Second only to Silicon Valley,
Israel is a hotbed for world leading
technology innovation. It’s the
Israeli scouting team’s task to
search and filter the best
• EBTIC is a joint research and
innovation centre established by
Etisalat, BT and Khalifa University
of Science, Technology and
Research
• It aims to advance intelligent
systems technologies for the
Next Generation Networks (NGNs)
and NGN-enabled ICT applications
and services
Tsinghua
University
Beijing, China
Global scouting
Silicon Valley, USA
• BT’s Global Scouting team looks
for innovative technologies and
services, emerging business
models with early adoption
and examples of customer
experience best practice across
the commercial world
• The team work with all BT’s lines
of business, and across all levels of
the organisation. It meets with at
least 400 companies each year
3
nd
2
rd
Indian-UK Advanced
Technology Centre
India
• One of the world’s leading global
centres for technology innovation
– BT works in consortia to
maintain an interdisciplinary focus
that brings together thought
leaders from industry, government
and MIT faculty, researchers and
students, conducting research in
multiple areas
• Areas of focus include cloud
computing, distributed data
storage and streaming, algorithms
and machine learning, security
and privacy, and visualisation
largest investor in
R&D in the UK over
past ten years
largest fixed-line telecoms
R&D investor in the world
over past ten years
£502m
14,000
6
MIT
Boston,
Massachusetts
invested in R&D in
2014/15
scientists & technologists
employed worldwide
£2.8bn
spent on R&D over
the last five years
4560
patents in our
portfolio
• The India-UK Advanced Technology
Centre is a collaborative
programme funded by the UK’s
Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council (EPSRC), the
Government of India’s Department
of Science and Technology (DST)
and industrial partners in both
countries including BT
• The programme’s three main
research activity areas are:
applications and services, core
network systems and protocols,
and heterogeneous wireless
access networks
• The premier technical university in
China brings Chinese technology
into BT as well as providing
extra research and management
resource to the company
• The collaboration means BT and
its customers benefit from access
to Chinese academic expertise
in new technology and an
understanding of the impacts on
the Chinese economy and society
Adastral Park
• BT’s global engineering HQ
• 3000 BT people
• 700 partner people
• 74 high tech companies
• Focal point of BT R&D
• BT is No1 UK ICT sector
investor in R&D
• Source of key IPR
• UK operations
centre
• Hosted 1100 VIP customers,
civil servants and policy
makers through 200 events
in 2014/15
• Largest test & integration
facility in Europe
• Around 5000 students
and teachers engaged
from 190 schools
in 2014/15
7
Innovation
starts with
ideas
Open for business
Over the last ten years BT’s ‘open innovation’ model
has consistently delivered world-class results for
our customers.
It’s an approach that involves us working in close collaboration with our
customers. Together, we explore the possibilities, potentials and practical
applications of new technologies and how they can make these technologies
work effectively for their business.
Some of the technologies are created here at BT. Others will be the very latest
exciting developments from the world’s leading innovation hotspots.
Often the collaboration is extended as we bring in strategic partners or specialist
innovators such as universities, government organisations, standards bodies and
technology companies to help us achieve our goal.
Our open innovation model has become a fine-tuned, well-oiled workflow with
a proven track record in helping to accelerate the pace of transformation in our
customers’ businesses, protecting them from digital disruption, and fast-tracking
commercial success.
There’s no doubt in my mind that being ‘open’ allows BT to innovate in the most
progressive way and has made us a world leader in developing and exploiting
innovation globally.
Jean-Marc Frangos
MD External Innovation, BT
8
9
Innovation starts with ideas
Powerful partnerships
DE
M
IC
I
ND
ACA
RY
T
US
Search and deploy
Search
and deploy
Hothousing – the coolest way
to problem-solve
BT’s innovation scouting team
scans for ideas and expertise
generated by third party organisations
including venture capitalists, start-up
companies, traditional and new-style
telcos located around the globe.
Our hothouse events bring people together to
discuss common challenges and identify opportunities.
This gives them the chance to collaborate, debate
and develop their ideas.
In fact, we now have a presence in
all the world’s innovation hot-spots
including Silicon Valley, Israel, Japan,
Korea, India, China and throughout
Europe. And in the heart of ‘tech-city’
in London, our BT Infinity Lab allows
us to co-innovate with start-ups.
And we’ve become pretty good at it. In fact, hothousing has revolutionised the way
in which we develop our projects and meet customer needs. In some cases we have
seen a 75% improvement in new product (concept to market) delivery time.
Our scouting teams are perpetually
busy seeking out and evaluating
everything from brand new
technologies, trends in the market,
and game-changing business
propositions.
IN
CUSTO
M
E
RS
TORS
A
V
NO
This dedicated scouting capability
magnifies the innovation-generating
capabilities of our organisation by an
astonishing x1000.
G OV
BT’s innovation
timeline
10
Three-day competitive
innovation event
1837
ERN M
E
ENT INITIATIV
Wheatstone and Cooke file the
first patent for the five needle
electric telegraph.
Months of work
done in days – rapid
acceleration of ideas
RingCentral
BT’s innovation scouting team
spotted the potential of RingCentral,
a provider of cloud-based unified
communications solutions.
The team developed and maintained
the relationship with the US-based
firm in July 2014, before the BT
CloudPhone, based on RingCentral’s
technology platform, was launched to
our business customers.
S
1846
Multiple teams up to
80 people
We’ve also successfully launched
several independent start-up
companies through the corporateventuring partnership unit,
New Venture Partners, in which we
are a limited partner.
The Electric Telegraph Company
is founded – the world’s first
public telegraph company, and
BT’s earliest predecessor.
1891
The Post Office laid the first
submarine telephone cable
between the UK and France.
Clear end-to-end
design and ownership
of implementation
1896
Marconi demonstrated his ‘telegraphy
without wires’ from the roof of the Post
Office Central Telegraph Office in London.
11
Innovation starts with ideas
Looking on the bright side
A key part of our open innovation model is our
long-standing research partnerships with over
40 leading universities and business schools
around the world, giving us unique access to
the brightest minds in academia; multiplying
the benefit of our research.
Our researchers, scientists and engineers collaborate with their peers
at leading centres including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), Cambridge University, Tsinghua University in Beijing, and our joint
research centre in the UAE (EBTIC). Our academic partnerships help us
solve today’s challenges and shape the future for us, our customers and
our partners.
Steve Whittaker
Head of Strategic US Academic
Research Partnerships, BT
“Innovation is a contact sport. Our vibrant
and diverse network of partnerships enables
us to apply leading edge research and fresh
thinking to the opportunities that the
future offers us.”
Hothouse assists with ‘red button’ goal
Successful development of the very latest in interactive red button services on
BT Sport channels has been made possible by hothousing.
Hothouse events were established to help evaluate some potential live, interactive
services, that were essential for viewers watching BT’s Champions League matches
via YouView set-top boxes.
Bruno Invernizzi
BT Global Account Director for BNP Paribas
Hothouse helps bank redesign
their branches
When one of Europe’s largest banks wanted to design what their future branches
would look like, they came to BT, and we did it together in a hothouse.
The hothouse brought together BNP Paribas people from all over Europe, many
of whom who hadn’t worked together before, and enabled them to collaborate
and generate lots of new ideas, which will change how they provide services for
customers in their branches.
“The hothouse team really helped to
prepare and perfectly animate this
event thanks to their methodology,
their patience and their flexibility.
The event strengthened our
relationship with BNP Paribas,
particularly with representatives from
France and Belgium, and was a great
start to future successes.”
Photo credit: John Phelan
1899
12
First public automatic
telephone exchange opened
in the UK.
1927
The birth of British TV. We supported John
Logie Baird in the development of television,
carrying his early broadcasts over telephone
lines from London to Glasgow.
1936
The iconic K6 red telephone
box is introduced to
commemorate King
George VI’s Silver Jubilee.
1943
Post Office research engineers designed
and constructed Colossus, the world’s
first programmable computer, to break
codes at Bletchley Park.
13
Innovation starts with ideas
Show and tell
We love inviting customers to our Adastral Park innovation days.
They are a great chance for customers to meet with our experts,
explore the latest technologies and become inspired by the power
of the possible when they visit our amazing customer showcases.
Connected Industry and Retail
BT Pulse
Featuring innovations in energy and resources (oil, mining,
gas), utilities, construction, manufacturing, automotive
and logistics, and of course, the retail sector. The showcase
introduces new ideas around virtual/augmented reality,
radio-frequency identification (RFID), acoustic sensing,
3D scanning, Internet of Things, robotics, smart vehicles
and hydrogen fuel cells.
BT Agile Bank
Brings to life technologies to be used within the branch
as well as behind the scenes in contact centres or trading
environments. It demonstrates how biometrics can be
applied to customer relationship management systems to
improve brand loyalty and increase revenue.
14
Doing good business
This showcase demonstrates how embracing
communications technology is good for business,
society and the planet.
The Connected Home
Helps to uncover the opportunities of high bandwidth to
the home where entertainment, energy management and
security can all harness the benefits of faster broadband.
How innovation can create a better world of healthcare.
This showcase demonstrates technologies that are being used
now and in the future to help with care at home, patient care
within hospitals, tracking of medicine and more.
The Government and Community
Looking at Internet of Things technology to support smart
city initiatives, which create a better life for people and drive
economic growth. This showcase also includes innovation in
security – physical and cyber.
The Street
Examining innovative ‘street furniture’ that BT is using to enable
faster broadband network technologies – for example, G.fast.
Customer Innovation and Design
A room where solutions from Cisco, Microsoft, Polycom,
Plantronics are all augmented by innovations from BT.
Demonstrations are separated into three areas: Collaboration
– how technologies can be integrated together in a true
complex multi-vendor estate; Cloud – to demonstrate
the latest cloud technologies and their role in the modern
enterprise IT environment; Network – the enablers for the
eNSI (enriched Network Service Integrator) model.
15
World class
research &
technology
Pioneering research that’s all
about the customer
Our research programmes are carefully designed
to support the strategic aims of the whole of BT’s
business and, even more importantly, to deliver the
absolute best for our customers.
We work with the very best technologists from all over the world, drawing
research & technologies from partnerships with universities and academia,
start-ups, strategic partners, Government bodies, other telcos and key
customers. We apply our own deep research skills & expertise, combined with
our business and market know-how, to deliver innovative solutions that better
serve our customers.
Key areas of focus include the pioneering work we are driving with partners and
standards bodies, in network technologies to enable our customers to get the
data speeds they need at a competitive cost.
Then there’s our business and operational transformation research programmes.
These have led us to transform the way we serve our customers and manage
our networks.
Our industry-shaping research into the critical technologies of our time –
ranging from security, cloud computing, the Internet of Things to mobility, TV &
content and big data – is pioneering new products and services across BT Group.
Our research is also rightly recognised across the globe. We win industry awards
for our innovations, which often include world first achievements.
For me, BT enjoys this powerful reputation because of the enthusiastic
dedication of our researchers to make a difference through applied research.
This is open innovation in action.
Chris Bilton
Director of Research & Technology, BT
16
17
World class research & technology
Faster, further, cheaper – network research
In 2014 BT and Huawei achieved a superchannel speed of 3 Terabits per second (Tbps).
An incredible feat made even more impressive by being sent over an
existing fibre link (between BT’s Adastral Park site in Suffolk and the
BT Tower in London), using commercial grade hardware and software
in a real-world operating environment.
To put that speed into a real context, it’s the equivalent of
transmitting around 100 HD films in a single second.
We think this record shows how our core fibre optic infrastructure is
capable of working even more efficiently in the future.
The demand for higher bandwidth grows by around 40 per cent
every year. From film streaming to mobile apps, the different ways
we consume entertainment, stay in touch and do business, all puts
pressure on internet service providers.
The high speeds we’re achieving across our existing infrastructure
means more of our customers can enjoy high-speed broadband
without interruptions or delays, and without paying much more for it
either. Faster. Further. Cheaper.
Dr Kevin Smith
Head of Transmission, Futures
and Innovation Technology, BT
Dr Kevin Smith has been with BT
for the last 25 years.
His team were instrumental in
setting the record-breaking data
transmission speed.
“We fundamentally proved in our
experiments that we can get
50 per cent more traffic over a
single piece of fibre than we
previously thought possible.
A great result. We’re immensely
proud of that achievement. ”
Life in the G.fast lane
BT’s research into G.fast technology has changed
the industry.
Watch my video online at
www.bt.com/annualreport
G.fast helps meet the growing need for speed by maximising data capacity over
copper. It uses a combination of higher radio frequencies, plus advanced ‘crosstalk’
noise cancellation techniques to make ‘ultrafast’ broadband speeds possible.
Our technical trials of G.fast technology have shown there is the potential to deliver
speeds of up to 500Mbps to most homes within a decade.
3Tbps
The real world
superchannel
speeds achieved
1956
18
BT’s fast-track network research programme means that the UK has the technology
it needs to remain a European broadband leader, and even join the ranks of world
leaders such as Japan and South Korea.
40%
Growth in higher
bandwidth demand
every year
The first transatlantic telephone
cable (TAT 1) was laid.
Trevor Linney
Head of Access
Network Research, BT
1962
The Post Office Satellite Earth Station took part
in the first transatlantic television transmission
made via an artificial satellite – Telstar.
1965
“BT is a recognised global leader in access
network research. I’m proud that our
work since 2007 to develop ‘ultrafast’
broadband has been making waves
worldwide, and is helping BT deliver
the next generation of future-proofed
broadband speeds.”
The Post Office Tower (now the BT Tower) is
opened in London, the hub of a microwave radio
network to meet increased demand for telephone
and television broadcasting.
19
World class research & technology
Image courtesy of Smart Parking Limited, in partnership with Milton Keynes
All part of the service
Internet of Things
Thanks to our research initiatives, we’ve been able to deliver improved levels of service to our
customers in a number of different ways. Here are a few examples:
For some time now BT researchers have been examining the potential of a more connected
society made possible by the Internet of Things (IoT).
Pioneering work has included working closely with the Government to
look at how IoT can be used across the transport sector.
App boosts productivity
“Hi, I’m Vidhya. I’m a senior researcher,
leading projects on network analytics
and autonomics. My role is to challenge
existing ways of thinking. We’re making
our networks more intelligent: to prepare
for applications of the future; respond to
evolving customer demand; and improve
the way they experience our service”
With millions of customers to support, getting the right engineer,
with the right skills, to the right location
at the right time, can be a
major challenge.
To dispense with the enormous amounts of paperwork each job used
to generate, we created our Openreach Next-Generation Field Apps.
Vidhya Karthikeyan
Loaded onto smartphone devices, now issued to 14,000 of our field
engineers, they make sure each engineer has the information needed
to do a great job for their customers.
Since its launch, the suite of Field Apps has transformed our
operational efficiency, while showing that we’re always ready to
embrace new technology and thinking, giving our team of engineers
the extra time and space they need for each customer.
Brandenburg – fixes faults fast
Developed by the research teams at BT’s laboratories in Adastral Park
near Ipswich, Brandenburg is a clever set of diagnostic techniques
that helps BT engineers go out to repair faults – rather than spend
time finding them.
The tool interprets complex performance data from the broadband
and fibre access networks to identify the root cause of a problem.
It’s proved to be incredibly effective at diagnosing ‘hard to find’ problems.
The software understands information in much the same way that
a human expert would. This allows us to provide a very precise
diagnosis so we know what the problem is and what we need to do
to fix it.
1968
20
Post Office Telecommunications
launched the world’s first
digital exchange in London.
Senior Researcher, BT
Keeping on track
Aperture is a business process mining and visualisation tool that
helps BT ensure its processes run as smoothly as possible.
In BT we use the tool, developed by our researchers, to analyse the
journeys our customers take through our processes and systems,
such as the ‘home-mover’ order process.
Whilst we can easily determine if orders have been delivered on time,
delivered late or cancelled, it’s not so easy to determine the precise
trail that an order followed if it deviated from the ‘happy path’.
The tool mines customer journey events captured by our systems,
such as status update messaging, and inbound calls from customers,
to construct a visual representation of how the process is actually
working. This helps us to target improvements to customer service.
Networked devices that can sense other devices and interact and
communicate with them could provide better information about the
road network. This could allow drivers or hauliers to plan their journeys
better. It could also help motorists avoid traffic snarl-ups or assist the
police in handling traffic incidents.
Information centre
Sensors installed in each of the station’s parking bays detect the
arrival and departure of vehicles and send this information wirelessly
to lamp post-mounted solar-powered repeaters. The data is sorted
and transmitted to the MK Data Hub.
Resulting analysis was made available to motorists via the council’s
public information dashboard, as well as on a Google maps overlay.
Big savings
Milton Keynes Council, together with the Open University and
BT had
the bright idea of forming MK:Smart to accelerate the
development of Milton Keynes as a smart city.
The heartbeat of the MK:Smart project is the MK Data Hub, a
sophisticated data management platform that collects and analyses
swathes of city data, such as energy, water and transportation
information.
The hub acts as an ‘Internet of Things’ data aggregation and
accessibility focal point for all those involved in MK:Smart, including
app builders and service developers.
Ins and outs
Watch this space
A pilot was launched to manage the use of short-term parking spaces
at Milton Keynes railway station. Parking is a big issue in the city,
and even though around 7,000 existing spaces are empty at any one
time, people don’t always know where to find them.
The estimated benefit from full deployment across Milton Keynes
will be a capital saving of at least £105 million, with reduced fuel use
and vehicle emissions.
“Hi my name is Maria and I’m the head of
the mobile core networks research team.
I’ve been involved in a number of exciting
projects like BT Fusion and BT Smart Talk in
the past, and I’m currently working on BT’s
future mobile strategy. I’m looking at how
we can offer an excellent and seamless user
experience to our customers across multiple
access networks including 2/3G, LTE, wi-fi,
as well as fixed access networks, wherever
they are.”
Maria Cuevas Ramirez
Head of Mobile Core Networks Research, BT
Process visualisation has been responsible for numerous process and
system improvements that have been incorporated into BT’s wider
customer order systems.
1968
Post Office Telecommunications research
engineers processed glass pure enough to
be of practical use in optical fibre cables.
1978
Post Office Telecommunications launched
Prestel, the world’s first viewdata network and a
precursor to the internet.
21
World class research & technology
Cloud of clouds
Dr. Simon Thompson
Head of Practice, Big Data &
Customer Experience, BT
“We’re using Big Data to understand and
improve the experience our customers get
from our network and entertainment services.
We’re using it to find and eliminate nuisance
calls, fix misbehaving broadband lines
and improve our football coverage.
Big Data research in BT is developing the tools
that will enable enterprises to understand,
protect and sweat their data assets.”
Here are just some of the awards
we’ve won recently for our research
and innovation:
• Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation
for IP Exchange
• TM Forum Excellence Award
for BT’s Compute Management System
• UK IT Industry Awards
for Young IT Professional of the Year – Alex Healing
•Cybersecurity 500
UK’s top security vendor
• International Federation for Information
Processing Silver Core award
Theo Dimitrakos
• Celtic-Plus Innovation Award
for G.fast
Today, more and more global businesses are
running diversified IT environments over
which they typically consume an increasing
number of cloud or data centre services.
A typical scenario being that they’ll have their own private network,
they’ll be interconnected with a third party service such as Amazon
Web Services or Microsoft Azure, plus they could be linked into BT’s
cloud offerings.
Our research into the ‘hybrid cloud’ concept has involved us
working closely with some of the world’s leading vendors looking at
technologies and services in the field of infrastructure management,
service management, global network optimisation, application
performance acceleration and security.
Networks of the future
BT has been taken a leading role
in the research, development
and standardisation of Network
Functions Virtualisation (NFV).
NFV is a new approach to
implementing network
infrastructures. Essentially,
it’s about replacing hardware –
for example, firewalls and edge
routers – with software.
NFV will allow network operators
to provide customers with network
services more rapidly and on a much
simplified network infrastructure.
It does this is by delivering
software-based versions of network
capabilities, which run on the kind of
servers found in cloud computing.
Connect with confidence
From this work we have developed the technology platform from
which BT Global Services has successfully launched its next generation
‘Cloud of Clouds’ services. These allow large organisations around the
world to connect easily and securely to the applications and the data
they need, independently of where they are hosted.
Big insights from Big Data
NFV spells good news
for customers
Network Functions Virtualisation
represents a seismic change in
the way communications services
can be provided. It improves the
customer experience by providing
a highly reliable, cost-efficient
network, quickly, when and
where it’s needed – one that can
be quickly adapted to changing
requirements.
Our research into Big Data technology has
led us to become a sponsor of the CSAIL
Big Data initiative at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT).
Big Data Analytics: it’s all about
unlocking the value
Dr. Ben Azvine, Head of Practice, Security Research & Innovation, BT
You often refer to the ‘democratisation of data’?
Yes. It’s wonderful that we all have the means to capture, handle and share billions
and billions of rows of data. But turning that data into something of value for
everybody – not just data scientists – that’s what really matters.
And that’s where your research into visual analytics comes in?
People react to images a lot more naturally than they do to text or rows of numbers.
I ’m looking at ways we can turn data into pictures to create visual, interactive
‘playgrounds’ where sales and marketing teams, IT and networking managers or
security professionals, for example, can go into a ‘data jungle’ and hunt for things.
How important is innovation in cyber security?
We hear stories about cyber security in the media on a daily basis. Technology is one
of the main weapons used to breach defences of companies and people’s homes,
leading to financial loss and worse. Innovation is critical to counteracting this
developing threat. Our innovation is helping to simplify the future of cyber security,
for our own network, and for our customers.
How does Big Data help?
When applied to security, Big Data gives us a real edge. For example, a tool BT
developed – Saturn – underpins BT Assure Analytics, the company’s fast-growing
suite of security products. Customers benefit from real-time data, situational
awareness and a clear understanding of cyber threats. It provides early warnings of
suspicious behaviours and allows a quick response.
It’s a place where we can interact and work closely with the world’s
leading Big Data researchers.
Thanks to our involvement in this programme we’ve helped to produce
a plethora of novel Big Data technologies and solutions. These include
BlinkBD, a data query engine and BD Wipes.
Can this technology can be applied across different sectors?
Absolutely. We’ve worked with retailers to show how our visual analytics can
identify which sales and marketing promotions have been successful. We’ve also
helped mining companies find out what causes some of their mines to be less
efficient than they should be.
1982
22
Adastral Park’s satellite dishes beamed
television signals for Europe’s first
satellite transmission service.
1985
Mobile phone services
introduced in the UK by
Vodafone and BT Cellnet.
1990
BT’s long distance network
became the first wholly digital
major network in the world.
1995
We tested our video on demand service between
Ipswich and Colchester using asymmetric digital
subscriber line (ADSL) over copper cables, with a
set-top box from Apple.
23
From concept to
competitive edge
BT has developed a strong track record of success
in working collaboratively with our customers to
produce innovative solutions that really benefit
customers’ businesses.
We start by engaging with both existing and potential new customers through
innovation workshops, which help them think through what they mean by, and
expect ‘innovation’ to deliver.
Delighting our
customers
During this ‘concept’ phase we might explore opportunities based on exciting
new technologies or offer improvements to existing solutions.
What we’ve found is that small innovations can often refresh a particular service
– possibly in an unexpected way.
Competitive edge
As a result, our customers will benefit from new capabilities that improve
performance and/or reduce cost, with an aim of delivering business value and
potentially giving them competitive edge in their markets.
Then, in the ‘design & delivery’ phases, innovation concepts start to become
a reality.
As we go through the ‘optimisation’ phase with the customer, we maintain the
momentum and continue to innovate by improving designs, introducing new
ideas and often trying alternatives.
Inevitably the time comes to help customers revitalise their IT estate and plan for
the next generation of innovative technologies.
We use the depth of understanding that we’ve developed with the customer
through the lifecycle, working closely together to evaluate emerging business
challenges, changing market conditions and technological advances to
determine the next steps in the customer’s journey.
Steve Masters
Vice President , Customer Innovation and Solution Design, BT
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Delighting
Delighting
our
our
customers
customers
Connected car takes care in an emergency
Managing complex global supply chains
Interconnecting global telecoms companies
BT worked closely with Bosch to develop an eCall system that could
help provide rapid assistance to motorists in an emergency.
BT Trace is a great example of how we can help our customers
through the creative use of technologies and infrastructure.
IP Exchange overcomes the technology and commercial complexities
of joining together different telecommunications networks.
The solution uses sensor technology to trigger a series of
communications sessions which help individuals in distress.
Essentially, Trace is BT’s portfolio of supply chain solutions.
These solutions are designed to help organisations overcome the
challenges of managing increasingly complex global supply chains.
It’s a service that enables voice, data and video traffic, carried over
a variety of communications networks, to be easily ‘translated’ from
one to the other.
BT Trace now includes a cloud-based solution that will provide a
single, accurate view into complex supply chains in near real-time,
to see how and where changes need to be made and enable
customers to improve operational efficiency.
Using BT’s global IP data network spanning 170 countries, IP Exchange
provides the connectivity, voice quality, security and service level
guarantees, that network operators from around the world demand.
If an incident occurs, a sensor detects the issue and a machine-tomachine (M2M) transaction initiates a call from the vehicle.
A person-to-machine (P2M) transaction identifies the driver and
connects them to an agent in BT’s Cloud Connect platform.
The agent’s person-to-person (P2P) transaction results in help
being sent to the driver via a P2M transaction.
This solution addresses EU legislation for driver safety and security.
It’s a stand-out example of BT using communications to create a
better world.
The service has been trialled and tested with TNT Express, one of the
world’s largest express delivery companies. The service developed
by BT in close collaboration with TNT was implemented to help
drive operational efficiency, improve customer service and optimise
reverse logistics.
BT’s was awarded a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation for its
work on IPX – just one of many awards the company continues to win
around the world for its pioneering endeavours.
Here are just some of the awards
we’ve won recently for our customer
innovation:
• Global Telecom Business Award
for Business Service Innovation
for Patch Optimisation
• CMI Management Article of the Year
for ‘Morale: unravelling its components and
testing its impact within contact centres’
• UK IT Awards Best Infrastructure Innovation
of the Year
for BT NetDesign
• Logistics Carbon Reduction Scheme (LCRS) Award
for Most Innovative Fleet Management
• Global Telecoms Business Award
for Field Service Innovation
“We have shown that greater visibility across the supply chain
increases efficiency and flexibility. There is no doubt that a
single view across all systems and data speeds up processes and
identifies significant events, allowing us to respond in new and
better ways to our customers, and they, in turn, deliver a better
service to their customers.”
Steve Brown
Divisional General Manager of TNT Special Services
1999
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BT pushed commercial optical fibre transmission
to 80 Gigabits per second. Our labs demonstrated
the world’s fastest regenerator – a photonic digital
network component.
2002
BT’s new business systems
allowed the launch of the UK’s
first commercial broadband
internet access service.
2006
BT created the world’s first
fully-automated ‘spam
buster’ system.
2010
BT launched the first
smartphone app to make
the phone book available
to mobile users.
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Delighting our customers
Healthcare in Cornwall
Over 15 million people in England have a long-term condition.
They make up a quarter of the population, yet use a disproportionate
amount of resources: 50% of GP appointments, 70% of hospital bed
days, and 70% of the total health and care spend in England.
Care organisations are looking for better ways to manage long-term
conditions and improve the quality of people’s lives.
BT Cornwall’s telehealth service allows patients with long-term health
conditions, to monitor and manage their medical conditions from
home, rather than in a clinical or social care setting.
Nurses monitor readings and respond to alarm triggers outside of the
acceptable range. The nurses then discuss readings with the patients
and recommend appropriate intervention.
A Cornwall patient survey showed that:
90%
69%
felt it reduced their visits
to their GP or made them
more appropriate
£255k
of projected net savings
(a 6:1 return on
investment)
New innovative ways of delivering healthcare empower patients and
carers, enable fast action to be taken, reduce avoidable admissions –
and make better use of already stretched primary care resources.
2011
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The Home Hub 3 wireless
broadband router automatically
avoids interference from other
electronic devices or wiring.
of people believed that
they benefited from their
telehealth service
2012
BT passed the 10 million homesmark for fibre broadband provision.
BT leads the way in Ultra High
Definition TV
BT has set the pace for live ultra high definition (UHD) broadcasting
since 2013. It filmed Rio Ferdinand’s testimonial match from Old
Trafford in 4K.
In August 2015 we launched Europe’s first 4K channel – dedicated
to BT’s sports coverage – BT Sport Ultra HD.
Our first UHD live TV broadcast was for the FA Community Shield
match between Chelsea and Arsenal at Wembley.
The BT Sport and TV & Content teams designed, developed and
tested the UHD infrastructure and new (G5) set-top box. We used
one of our newly built UHD outside broadcast comms trucks to
provide the live feeds for the match and monitored the links during
the game to make sure everything went smoothly.
2014
World’s fastest fibre optic transmission
on single-mode fibre in a real world
environment – 3 Terabits per second.
2015
BT announced large scale trials of groundbreaking G.fast technology, delivering ultrafast
broadband speeds of several hundred Mbps.
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A world of
possibilities
We never stand still
Innovation drives everything we do and it has since BT
first started back in 1846. This is something reflected
in the recognition we’ve received in winning six very
prestigious Queen’s Awards for innovation.
But we never stand still.
Because coming up with new ideas and developing new technologies is core to what we
do at BT.
We want to push technology further. We want to improve people’s lives in welcome,
relevant and affordable ways. We want to help make our business customers even more
successful through the power of communications.
That’s why our work will continue.
Dr Tim Whitley
MD Research & Innovation, MD Adastral Park, BT
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A world of possibilities
Coming up on TV…
The way we interact with and view
television will change even more
radically over the next decade.
The future of mobile…is fixed
The distinction between fixed and
mobile networks is diminishing and will
eventually disappear.
TV content will be broadband-driven and consumption of it
will be on smart TVs, closer to computers than televisions.
So, we’ll have the world to choose from, but also an even
greater ability to individualise the way we view it.
Dealing with the explosive demand for data now and in the future
means we are going to need technologies that span traditional
fixed and mobile networks to address the challenge.
Of course, we’re in the thick of this. We are looking closely at
how broadband can help people get the TV they want, in the
manner they want.
BT is looking very closely at ways in which we can apply radio
techniques to the business of transmitting data over copper in
order to take performance to the next level.
Our aim is to help content providers, ranging from
programme-makers to interactive games-makers, deliver
what’s required by people at home or on the move.
We are using advanced signal processing methodology in
initiatives like G.fast and vectoring which give us the realistic
prospect of delivering speeds of up to a gigabit per second over
copper.
Similarly, mobile technologies such as LTE complement wi-fi
really well. By mobile-enabling the edge of the fixed network
– for example by putting femtocells into the home, we can give
consumers a consistently great experience.
BT’s approach is to develop a ‘best of both worlds’ solution
where fixed meets mobile – the freedom of movement of mobile
together with the capacity and throughput of a fixed network.
Taking a quantum leap
We’re exploring what quantum
technology can do in our world.
For example, can we create ultrafast communications,
distributed across the country and made totally secure by
fundamental physics?
And can we provide a quantum signature, making it impossible
to impersonate you?
Well, we’re working on it.
Watch the video online at
www.bt.com/annualreport
A breakthrough in Quantum Key Distribution (QKD)
technology has been successfully demonstrated for the first
time at BT’s Adastral Park. The trial saw an advanced data
encryption key transmitted across a live ‘lit’ fibre network,
marking the next frontier in secure data transmission.
Information sent in a quantum state is safer and more secure
because any attempts to intercept it are easily detected.
This type of encryption technology provides an extra degree of
sophisticated security that could be used by the likes of banks
and credit card companies.
2015
32
BT announced new role for Adastral Park supporting
cutting edge research into quantum communications
technologies, with potential to transform network security.
2015
In August 2015 BT launched Europe’s first 4K channel –
dedicated to BT’s sports coverage – BT Sport Ultra HD.
33
Five key trends for the
future of work
Dr Nicola Millard, Customer Experience Futurologist, BT
What will work look like in the future?
Well, I’ve identified five trends.
Firstly, there’s the changing Demographic of the workforce. By 2020 we’re going
to have five generations of people at work at the same time – each with a different
attitude to work and to the technology we use.
The next trend I call the Death of Dolly. This is all about the disappearance of ‘9–5’
as in the Dolly Parton song. The concept of working 9–5 is disappearing fast thanks
to globalisation and the prevalence of smartphones.
And while Dilbert might not be dead, his cubicle could be. Technologies like
the cloud are untethering us from our offices. We’re moving from laptops, to
smartphones to wearable devices – in the future we’ll probably be wearing our
offices on our sleeves rather than commuting to them. The question is – will physical
offices only be known as the places where employees come to socialise about work –
but not to actually do any work?
“BT has been innovating with purpose since
1846. For almost 170 years, our technologies
have been bringing people closer together,
creating new possibilities and changing lives.
I’m excited about what the next 170 years will
bring, and the role that BT will play, using our
innovation, the strength of our collaboration,
and the power of communications to make a
better world.”
Clive Selley
CEO BT Technology, Service & Operations and BT Group CIO
The next trend is the Death of Distance. Virtualisation is gradually eliminating the
need to commute or for global companies to send employees around the world
on business. Certainly, the technology is just about there (video conferencing for
example). But what barriers remain and how can they be overcome by technology?
Finally we have Dr No. This trend is around the consumerisation of work because we
are behaving more like consumers when we walk into the office. We’re using apps
that help us do our jobs, external social media to collaborate with colleagues.
But the instinct of IT departments is to say ‘no’ to employees, ‘you can’t do that’.
So how do we make bring your own (BYOD) device safe and secure?
Tackling questions like this and understanding the impact of these trends help BT
to develop products, services and solutions to make us all productive and happy at
work – whatever our job happens to be.
Find out more at
www.btplc.com/innovation
or tweet us @BTIngenious
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