BT Launches New Voice Solution Tailored To The Financial Services Market

IRVING, Texas, March 5, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- BT today announced it is launching BT One Voice Radianz, a new service that unifies voice, mobile and data services and delivers them to members of the BT Radianz Cloud, the world's largest secure networked community for the financial services industry.

While BT has been at the forefront of providing innovative IT products and services to the financial services market for more than 30 years, this is the first solution from the wider BT Global Services portfolio that is being made available to Radianz Cloud community members, which include leading banks, brokers, exchanges and clearing firms.  Companies choosing the unified communication solution will be able to access the service via their existing Radianz Cloud connections, expanding the range of specialist financial markets applications already available to community members. 

One Voice Radianz removes the need for financial markets firms to have a separate network connection for their unified communication services at sites connected to Radianz Cloud, reducing capital and operating costs.  It is currently available in 13 countries, with plans to extend to a further 24 in the coming months.  The solution allows companies to bring fixed-line and mobile phone calls 'on net'*, generating savings of up to 25 per cent on international calling charges.   

Because One Voice Radianz is adaptable and can work alongside current technology, Radianz Cloud community members can move from traditional voice technology to bring together voice and data using Voice over IP at their own pace.

Tom Regent, president, global banking & financial markets, BT, said: "The BT Radianz Cloud is the world's largest secure networked community for the financial services industry. An innovative cloud service in its own right, it has developed a reputation for being the platform of choice for financial markets customers to access thousands of applications from BT and more than 400 independent third-party providers across the entire trade cycle. It's important that we continue to innovate to help financial markets firms improve their agility as they strive to increase revenues, reduce costs and improve service to their customers. That's why we continue to invest in our portfolio and enhance the services we provide to the BT Radianz Cloud community.

"Today's announcement is the first in a series of planned enhancements to the BT Radianz Cloud that we'll be making over the coming months. It underlines our commitment to continue to lead the way in innovating in financial services technology and networking for the benefit of our customers."

Bill Fearnley Jr., senior analyst at Celent, said "In increasingly globalized financial markets, staying connected is critical to remaining competitive.  Market participants around the world need a communication infrastructure that helps them make faster and more informed decisions.  With integrated voice and data solutions such as BT One Voice Radianz, financial firms can leverage the combination of services for faster deployments and savings on international voice and data services."

Significantly for financial markets traders, One Voice Radianz also integrates with BT Unified Trading -- the software-based cloud-compatible multimedia and voice collaboration solution, which includes BT Netrix trading turrets.  One Voice Radianz allows traders to make everyday business calls from Netrix turrets, removing the need for separate voice connections and telephone networks.     

Now, all a trader's specialist voice services -- including 'dedicated private wire' connections, 'hoot' and 'intercom'** as well as their usual business telephony -- are brought together onto the Netrix turret via the Radianz Cloud.  This helps firms interact, collaborate and trade securely.  One Voice Radianz and Unified Trading are complemented by BT's call recording portfolio, which helps address regulatory compliance.

*'On-net' refers to taking the calls off the public network and moving them on to the secure BT One Voice Radianz cloud platform.

** 'Dedicated private wires' directly connect a trader to their clients and other parties.  
'Hoot' and 'intercom' allow internal messages to be relayed to the trader over their trading turrets.  It can be used to listen to the morning call or to receive important market announcements throughout the day.

All news releases can be accessed at our web sites: http://www.globalservices.bt.com/us/en/news and http://www.btplc.com/news

Notes to editors

BT One Voice 
BT One Voice brings voice, mobile and data to every desktop in any organization with a single global network that gives the same reliable service wherever the user is located, with a focus on making things simpler and generates substantial cost savings. BT One Voice is the first step for companies to bring all communications together with unified communication and collaboration (UCC) services. The service is available in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Republic of Korea, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

BT Radianz Cloud 
BT Radianz Cloud supports the world's largest secure networked financial community which enables financial market participants globally to exchange market information, trade with each other and clear and settle transactions.  Community members include banks, brokers, investment managers, clearing houses, payment processors, exchanges and financial information vendors from around the globe.  Thousands of member-sites around the world that are part of the BT Radianz Cloud community access services and applications from more than 400 providers, all delivering thousands of application-based services that are critical to the everyday functioning of the financial sector.  

BT Unified Trading  
BT Unified Trading is a powerful, cost-effective, software-based cloud-compatible trader voice, multi-media and collaboration solution and includes the BT Netrix family of voice trading turrets.  It has been designed to give market professionals the flexibility to interact, collaborate and trade securely – and with greater compliance – via multiple communication channels, across their enterprise and with their clients and counterparties.

BT Netrix 
The award-winning BT Netrix is a state-of-the-art trading turret designed for the rigorous demands of the trading floor. It is used by one in three traders worldwide, amounting to more than 68,000 traders in over 800 trading firms across over 60 countries, entrusting their mission critical communication to BT.

About BT 
BT is one of the world's leading providers of communications services and solutions, serving customers in more than 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband, TV and internet products and services; and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, BT Retail, BT Wholesale and Openreach.

For the year ended 31 March 2013, BT Group's reported revenue was £18,103m with reported profit before taxation of £2,315m. 
British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York. 

For more information, visit www.btplc.com

SOURCE BT