BT accelerates African growth

BT has announced a new phase of investments into the rapidly growing economies of Asia Pacific, Turkey, the Middle East and Africa (AMEA) with the objective of accelerating its expansion in high growth markets.

By hiring more people in the region, launching more competitive capabilities across a larger number of countries and delivering a differentiated service experience, BT will be in a strong position to capture opportunities in a total AMEA market evaluated at around 32 billion GBP.

This new phase of investments builds on the success of earlier programmes announced in 2010 for the Asia Pacific region and in 2012 for Turkey, the Middle East and Africa. Earlier this year, BT brought those regions together into a single integrated market unit to better address the needs of a new generation of regional multinationals and big domestic players that are increasingly expanding from China and India into the Middle East and Africa. The combined geography is expected to generate 44% of the global GDP growth by 2025, with 3 billion people expected to enter the middle class over the next decade.

Developments announced today will include the following:

• 400+ new people focused on regional business growth across all key markets, including Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Turkey.
• New hires will include industry specialists focused on sectors such as logistics, healthcare, consumer packaged goods and financial services, and professional services experts based in 11 countries.
• These hires will be additional to the 600 positions announced earlier this year for BT’s Global Development Centre in Bangalore and to the 600 hires expected for BT’s new Global Shared Service facility in Kuala Lumpur announced in April.
• Securing new value added services licenses in various countries, enabling an extended portfolio offering.
• Better infrastructure through five new IP and Ethernet Points of Presence starting with India and Turkey, four Network-to-Network Interfaces (NNIs) with the first in Indonesia, and an enhanced satellite capability to support remote coverage and disaster recovery.
• Stronger portfolio capabilities in the fields of security, cloud, unified communications, mobility and contact centres.

source: www.biztechafrica.com

BT to provide communications network to kinross gold corporation

BT  announced that it has signed a three-year deal with Kinross Gold Corporation, a Canadian-based gold mining company, to provide a communications network connecting sites in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Chile and Spain.

Since 1993, Kinross has grown through the merger and acquisition of a number of smaller, specialized gold mining interests. This created a challenge in developing and managing a centralized network infrastructure that can grow and house common applications. Kinross chose BT Connect, a suite of network services, to bring together and manage the communications network.

David Cefai, CIO Vice President Information Technology, Kinross Gold Corporation, stated "Centralized management of IT infrastructure and consolidation of applications for easier management is key to our strategy. BT presented a solid plan to us that creates robust, flexible, scalable infrastructure that will give us the platform for all our communication applications."

BT Connect services can be delivered in 198 countries and territories, and are constantly improved in terms of coverage, bandwidth and cost effectiveness. Those services are available in locations from towns and cities to the remotest of locations using a range of technologies from Ethernet over fibre to satellite and 3G. Such network capabilities are of particular interest to companies active in industry sectors such as global mining, oil and gas.

Bas Burger, president, U.S. and Canada, BT Global Services said, "Understanding a company's strategy and helping them create a global network that positions them for growth is what BT does best. Our experience working with global customers, especially in the mining, oil and gas industry, enables us to bring the best solutions to Kinross."

BT provides customers active in the global mining, oil and gas sector with a diverse range of services, from IP VPN connectivity to corporate and remote mining sites to bespoke solutions for oil platforms and exploration vessels. BT's solutions address the whole ecosystem of the sector, serving customers upstream and downstream, ranging from companies involved in the exploration, extraction and processing of natural resources to utilities, manufacturers and other large consumers of natural resources.