BT Promotes Open Innovation at World Innovation Forum

NEW YORK, June 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- BT (NYSE: BT) took the stage today at World Innovation Forum 2011 (WIF) in New York City to share its vision of open innovation and how its own technology enables collaborative innovation "at the speed of life" for many of the world's leading organizations.

Introducing one of WIF's main keynote sessions, Bas Burger, President for Global Commerce at BT Global Services, highlighted BT's credentials in the domain of open innovation, pointing to the benefits of leaving behind old fashioned secrecy and silo thinking, and of engaging broader communities in the creation and development of ideas.

"Innovation is the lifeblood of continued success for any organization. Organizations must innovate at the speed of life," Burger said. "That speed is set by our customers' lives, in their personal or professional lives, and, of course, in the lives of their businesses. We have to think in an inter-dependent, collaborative way across disciplines. Innovation at the speed of life means that customers embark on a long and productive working relationship with us, confident that we'll continually innovate and bring new ideas about how together, we can improve their business."

Open innovation is embedded across all of BT's internal and external business processes, from developing new ideas to organizational improvement. The process underlying BT's open innovation strategy is an end-to-end framework. In essence this is a seamless integration of innovation activities at every step along the value chain, from spotting a possible market opportunity and conceptualizing a new product or service to the development of a supporting distribution and marketing infrastructure.

Burger also stated that "Although proud of our own innovation heritage, we understand the critical role we play in the way others innovate. The world leading innovators understand the process toward innovation transformation begins with optimization of networked IT infrastructure.  Only when this has been done, can these leaders start to deploy the transformational collaboration tools that are the key enablers of innovation at the speed of life."

BT is currently engaged in a number of collaborative innovation projects with its customers and suppliers. BT technology and BT's R&D collaborative platform are enabling open innovation in global industry sectors such as consumer packaged goods, logistics, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, global banking, financial services, government and public health.

World Innovation Forum 2011 brings together ideas and insights from a unique group of experts and practitioners, offering perspectives on how innovation is being implemented across a variety of different fields. It provides access to a wide range of practical insights and learning for all to take away and apply in their organization.

BT's Innovation credentials, white papers and case studies are accessible on http://www.btplc.com/Innovation/index.cfm

Note to Editors:

As part of its commitment to global customers in key industry sectors, BT Global Services announced in December 2010 four strategic sector teams to better serve its customers: global banking & financial markets, government & health, consumer packaged goods and global commerce. Customers active in these sectors benefit from a range of industry focused assets in product portfolio, solution designs and infrastructure as well as sector specific customer management and service teams. Bas Burger leads the Global Commerce sector team, covering the logistics, manufacturing and pharmaceutical industries.

About BT

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

In the year ended 31 March 2011, BT Group's revenue was 20,076 million pounds Sterling with profit before taxation of 1,717 million pounds.

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.bt.com/aboutbt

SOURCE BT