CIO/CTO SPEAK BT: 'On the R&D front there is a shift from internal to open innovation'

What
is your opinion about India with respect to software?Â


India is changing from a global supplier in IT to innovation leader
and this is facilitated by a large number of entrepreneurs focusing on
communication technologies and information technology space. And these
entrepreneurs have been constantly innovating and scaling their processes.
Therefore to get a rounded view from different locations like Delhi, Bangalore,
and others, entrepreneurs have to increase connectivity services so that they
can have world-class connectivity and thereby completely focus on innovation.

What
is the development on 21st Century Network (21st CN)?Â


21st CN is a significant investment for BT and it will enable the
company to target 160 countries, thereby address the global market much moré
rapidly and quickly. Even emerging companies in India can address the global
market for rapid development of product and creation of new services. Indian IT
companies will help us in the execution process and this is both beneficial for
India as well as BT.
Â

In 21st CN, we are focusing on three core areas: customer experience,
service velocity, and cost. First, customer experience is changing and it is
moving towards multi-site and multinational environment. Second, service
velocity is created for relevant services applicable either for a small region
or global basis for new services. Third, significant cost incurred by BT for
creating that environment will help enterprises create multi-site, multi-country
network. For eg in large global financial solutions, the cost structure behavior
is predictable and reliable. And the performance and reliability is high for a
multi-site, multinational network as they are totally dependent on it. Â

In 2006, BT plans to invest in some of the infrastructure components that
will help in creating services and providing service velocity. The company has
launched many common capabilities which are reusable like BT Fusion, a converged
service between broadband, IP, and mobile world. And this provides better
communication at a lower cost than what was there before.Â

BT
has cost efficiency program target of around £300 to £400 per year. What is
the contribution that your division is making to achieve this target?

First, in the emblem of cost reduction, all departments have undertaken cost
reduction, so is my division. On the R&D front, there has been a change in
the way we innovate, and the shift is from internal to open innovation. In the
open innovation model, we set the platform, seek innovation globally and harvest
them in BT for our shareholders and customers. So, from a global point of view,
we do innovation and get increased output at a lower cost.

Second, the network architecture and system business for 21st Century
Network will have a direct impact on shaping of billions of pounds of
investment. BT's vision is the creation of a digital network economy where
physical borders are immaterial. This new digital network will help us in
defining and leveraging core competencies of what we can do, what can be
outsourced. With IT services getting better and better with innovation and core
competencies of partners, we plan to leverage on our partner's capability and
achieve our global plan with world-class innovation.    

BT believes in standard based implementation and is building NGN
architecture around 21 CN. This is an open platform and we have been
representing it in standard bodies like 3GPP2 and ITU by publishing views on how
fixed and mobile communications will change in future. We are developing system
and architecture that will help in providing information globally and also
provide economies of scale. And in turn, help in creating services relevant to
enterprise customers in a shorter duration of time. So, with BT block plus
innovation, we will make a global network that will support tens ofÂ
thousands of global networks and help solve problems in real time. And
there are a lot of innovative companies in India, which will address their
market faster as corporates need services at the earliest.Â

How
would you rate security of 21st CN when it gets deployed in future?

We provide international service for majority of our customers. We secure
our customers from millions of attacks on a weekly basis. We also have the
expertise to build and defend cyber challenges in global Internet and keep pace
with those challenges. We escalate best practices applied in each domain and
region and provide assurance as well as confidence to our customers to do
business with BT.

In the case of 21st CN, each and every step has security woven into its
fabric and we have to lean both in breadth as well as in depth. We have the
portfolio of managed security server, managed firewall, managed offerings to
business with financial and government services departments. We also do a lot of
security services for NASA, so security will be well managed for the new digital
network.

BT
has taken a lead in terms of fixed mobile convergence through 21st CN. What are
your plans on the research front? 

Our research is based on a framework called Innovation Continuum, and
we believe in open innovation. Open Innovation will help in creation of new
products cloned or copied quickly to the marketplace. It is sustainable and
provides differential value. On the innovation front, we work with people
internally as well as externally and it is done globally as regular work is
going on in other countries. For eg, if a company has a poor architecture, it
loses value; if the architecture is brilliant but if the implementation is poor,
one destroys value; and if the architecture is brilliant plus productive, then
one is concerned; if all of those are there and plus there is process, then one
gets millions of valuation. But you lose value once it is productized. So, the
point is to create a long-term sustainable and differential value. One may not
achieve value through innovation but the process that we follow helps us in
achieving new products with improved efficiencies. It also helps us in
incorporating new features that are more process driven and more agile. And so
one can service its customer much moré quickly by cloning the product as per
their requirement.  

We are also working on research, and thereby transforming accountability.
In last three years, external venturing has led to brilliant ideas. So we take
those innovation and move it outside of the company by bringing private equity
in public so that these products are globally relevant.  Â

On the hybrid research front, we are taking help of universities. And
long-term research is being undertaken inside BT labs for effective
collaboration in future.  

So, there is a complete restructuring in the research space to accommodate
innovation and manage the needs of business in terms of cost reduction and
revenue generation.

What
are the concerns that BT has for present day CIOs? Â


For making services available globally, one has to source globally
and deliver services with a right balance, as one size does not fit all. For
delivering services, one needs a right business model on a reduced budget and
faster lifecycle. The challenge is how quickly one can solve problem and bring
enterprise value to their business. Another challenge is how to respond to real
time business pressure and bring flexibility through IT infrastructure for
tackling convergence.

Pravin Prashant  Â


pravinp@cybermedia.co.in