Cook’s Collaborative Edge

There’s been a lot of speculation that there is very significant revolution underway at BT. Given the events of the past week I am certain of this. As I ponder the significance of this, all I can think of is it’s like the mindset behind Telepocalypse becoming the driving force behind the UK’s incumbent Telco. This is where the telco’s of the world must go. Congratulations to all! Here is why I am excited:

On Sept 27 on JP’s blog:

After nearly ten years at Dresdner Kleinwort, I shall be leaving the bank at
the end of this week. [snip] I’ve never worked for a competitor in my life, either by accident or design.That trend serendipitously continues, and from 1st October I am taking over
as CIO, Global Services, BT.

So - what on earth is going on here? Well we read:

BT today (on April 26 2004 ) announced the appointment of Al-Noor Ramji as chief information officer of BT Group and chief executive officer of BT Exact. As BT Group CIO he is responsible for the creation of a single IT unit within BT, a transformation that’s bringing together various internal IT resources into a single entity.

Here’s the org chart

[Cook: fuming because i can’t code the jpeg to appear here correctly.]

Anyway in lieu of the diargram: BT Group is at the top with Al-Noor as CIO. Underneath reporting to BT Group are the business units: BT Retail - BT Global Services (JP Rangaswami CIO) - BT Wholesale - Open Reach - and BT Exact with Al-Noor as CEO.

The previous link explains: “BT Exact is BT’s research, technology and IT operations business. It helps BT and its customers gain maximum advantage from communications technology, etc.”

“BT Group is in the process of expanding from mere telecom services into global networked IT services. This move, which is expected to take five years, requires restructuring IT practices and building an all-IP network, called the 21st Century Network. BT hopes the network will be a one-stop shop for multimedia communications. Customers will begin migrating onto the new network this year.” More is to be found here.

Matt Bross is CTO, BT Group. Al-Noor CIO, BT Group and in the Aug 2006 issue of Optimize we learn

“BT Group has made significant strides in this area over the past 18 months, thanks in large part to a highly productive CTO-CIO working relationship. We each have clear directives from the CEO: The CTO is responsible for driving innovation at the company, while the CIO is tasked with executing BT’s strategy, working with lines of business to decide which IT solutions go to market.” snip

“IT has moved from being an internal support system to becoming a strategic business driver at our company.” snip

Ramji: “Matt and I have three key responsibilities where close collaboration is essential. The first is deciding how much of the legacy to take into the new environment. The second is determining opportunities for reuse—that is, how we can apply the network and systems we’re building now toward new services and markets in the years ahead. Justifying IT costs naturally depends on demonstrating long-term utility and ROI. This is where Matt’s input is invaluable—he’s a fantastic champion of new technologies during their riskier pre-business phases, with foresight beyond BT’s immediate systems needs.” snip

“Our third responsibility is determining whether the pace of innovation is fast enough. Matt and I sit on the review boards of all four of BT’s primary service divisions. Each includes staff from the CTO’s office, and all divisions collectively draw IT staff resources from a single pool of professionals—a group we call One IT. This CTO-CIO involvement lets us work directly with our colleagues to align technology implementation with strategic business goals.” Snip

Bross: “It’s my longstanding opinion that there’s no such thing as a disruptive technology, only disruptive use of technology. This is what makes the CTO’s role increasingly important in the enterprise—the ability to match useful technologies not only to near-term technical needs, but also to the company’s long-range business objectives. Forging a successful CIO-CTO partnership therefore begins with developing a common vision.”

Ramji: “There often comes a time in a business’ evolution where incremental network upgrades no longer meet long-term needs. BT reached this point in 2004, when we began construction of a totally new, $18 billion IP-based network to let the company expand beyond the borders of the United Kingdom and serve customers in 170 countries. The goal was to create a flexible foundation for new services that would support BT’s growth and meet customers’ needs for at least the next 50 years. Now in its third year, BT’s 21st Century Network (21CN) is becoming a reality, due largely to the close collaboration between our CIO and CTO operations.”

Cook’s Edge: So there’s the story.

JP is brought in to head global Services. Al-Noor gets the huge benefit of a younger protégé and friend who also possess one of the most brillian mind’s in this business. Al-Noor Ramji was Global CIO at Dresdner from 1996 - 2001. JP worked for Al-Noor during this time. When Al-Noor left and went to Qwest, JP stayed on at Dresdner and took over Al-Noor’s old position.

Note the following text where Al-Noor perplexed analysts in June of this year by calling Google a competitor of BT. JP would get this in a flash.

“BT is ready to make the necessary changes in order to take on Google, according to the telco’s chief information officer.”

“Al-Noor Ramji told delegates at the Gigaworld IT conference in Lisbon that BT needs to keep pace with Google, which has ” morphed” from a search engine into a business straddling the consumer technology area.”

“We see Google as our biggest threat,” said Ramji. “They don’t mean to, it’s almost incidental.”

He acknowledged that Google comes from a “different world” but is expanding fast to meet consumers’ needs.

“However Ramji claimed that BT “can do anything Google can do”, hinting that the telco would move beyond its traditional role as telecoms supplier.”

“I’ve learned that technology is the easiest thing to do,” he said. “The transformation of the company is most important.”

“Among the challenges facing BT, according to Ramji, is its expansion into television over IP with BT Vision.”

“BT’s upcoming service, unveiled in March, has secured deals with companies including Endemol, BBC Worldwide, Paramount and Warner Music Group to license programming and develop content.”

Analysts were cautious about Ramji’s statements, however. “I think he’s a little bit ahead of his time,” said Lars Godell, of industry researchers Forrester.

The rest of the analysts appalingly dense remarks may be found
here.

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