Description
Document describes British telecom ecommerce and website document focuses in operation, oragnisation, new product development NPD, access node, metro node, code node, inode, premises ets,
B2B Marketing Project
E-commerce practices and website of British Telecom.
1
Contents
Contents..................................................................................................................... 2 Introduction................................................................................................................ 3 Methodology:.............................................................................................................. 4 Literature Review:......................................................................................................4 Organisation & Operations BT Wholesale :.................................................................7 Structure:...................................................................................................................8 New Product Development :.....................................................................................10 Applications.............................................................................................................. 13 Premises.............................................................................................................14 Access Node.......................................................................................................14 Metro Node.........................................................................................................14 Core Node.......................................................................................................... 15 iNode..................................................................................................................15 Network Interconnections: .......................................................................................17 INTERCONNECT........................................................................................................ 17 NETWORK DESCRIPTION...........................................................................................18 WHOLESALE CONTENT CONNECT.............................................................................19 KNOWLEDGE BASED DIAGNOSTICS..........................................................................19 CUSTOMER TRAINING...............................................................................................19 References :............................................................................................................. 20
2
Introduction
B2B ecommerce is an important part of any online business. Leaving aside the simple transfer of funds many businesses need some combination of:
• • • • • •
creditworthiness assessment. guarantee of quality and delivery of goods. safeguards against fraud. fast collection of funds, with ability to vary the collection period. reporting: approval of sale, invoicing, delivery, payment. procedures to handle disputes.
One aspect of B2B marketing and sales that has not fully developed is the area of B2B ecommerce. While ecommerce for business-to-consumer sales continues to experience double-digit growth rates, B2B ecommerce requires different software and systems to fully satisfy B2B customers. The reason for the complexity in B2B ecommerce software and systems is that many B2B customers have negotiated special quantity pricing for many products sold by a B2B company. In addition, many of these products are not stocked in inventory, and the payment terms for each B2B customer can vary widely. As customer relationship management (CRM) software systems grow to include B2B ecommerce features, we will see B2B companies including B2B ecommerce on their Web sites. This will have a dramatic impact on reducing the cost of sales and increasing the profit margins for these B2B companies as they take advantage of the efficiencies of B2B ecommerce. With the emergence of business process management and of service-oriented architecture, the focus has shifted to the development of e-services that integrate business processes and that diversify functionalities available to customers. The potential of electronic commerce and its information technology also has attracted some telecommunication corporations—for example, Chunghwa Telecom, Singtel Telecom, and AT&T, BT. They have built their electronic commerce environment on the Internet, too. Most of these worldwide telecom corporations have many kinds of operations support systems in their backend environment. In the past, enterprises had to integrate their telecom services manually, so that they could work together. However, this integration required considerable time and cost, and it worked only for the specific services that were manually linked. Adding additional services required even more effort. And then, enterprise application integration (EAI) solved these kinds of problems by working via point-to-point interfaces. This project is aimed at studying various B2B ecommerce practices adopted and followed by British Telecom. British Telecom is one of the largest telecommunication providers in the world. IT caters not only to small customers but large companies also to provide telecom solutions to them. Earlier majority of the business was done traditionally. But emergence of e-commerce led BT to adopt B2B practices through their website ‘btwholesale.com’. Btwholesale.com is a major gateway for many 3
companies to avail services through BT. All the customers maintain an account on this website to avail telecom solutions provided by BT.
Methodology:
The Project would be carried out by various ways: 1) Secondary data and analysis through the study of BTwholesale.com website 2) Indepth interviews of employees working in BTWholesale ecommerce website. 3) Indepth interview of the clients using the services of BTWholesale depending of the feasibility.
The secondary data would be carried out through studying the BTWholesale site in detail and understanding its functions. The Interview with the employees would be carried out in telephony and the processes and functionalities would be understood with the help of net meet demos. Information from the BT clients currently availing the services would also be beneficial in understanding the perspective from the client side. Also the reasons of choosing BTWholesale over other competitors would be clear
Literature Review:
BT Group plc (formerly British Telecommunications plc, abbreviated to British Telecom, and still occasionally referred to as such) is the privatized former state telecom operator in the United Kingdom. It is the dominant fixed line telecommunications and broadband-internet provider in the UK, and also operates in more than 170 countries around the world. It is headquartered in the BT Centre in the City of London. BT Group is also one of the largest communication companies in the world, with over a third of its revenue now coming from its Global Services division. BT Wholesale engages in wholesaling. The company offers products, services, and solutions to communications companies in the United Kingdom. It provides business continuity management, co-location and hosting, data, customer premises equipment, interconnect, Internet, mobility, voice network, broadband, fixed network, and managed services and outsourcing products. The company also offers availability checkers, billing, faults, networks, orders, private content, and quotes 4
applications. It serves communication providers, service providers, and Internet service providers. The company is based in Wolverhampton, the United Kingdom. BT Wholesale operates as a subsidiary of BT Group pl. BT has many years of experience in providing UK communications companies with a comprehensive range of wholesale products, services and solutions. According to BT Chairman Sir Maichael Rake the main motto of BT Wholesale is to provide a complete solution for telecommunications to the companies across the world and hence he states the Bt-wholesale offerings as : “BT has many years of experience in providing UK communications companies with a comprehensive range of wholesale products, services and solutions. Created in 1997, BT Wholesale continues this commitment and provides a dedicated focus within the BT Group to support all of our wholesale customers. Their numbers have grown considerably since the early days of privatisation and we now count among them virtually every one of the 600+ organisations that are currently operating in the UK communications marketplace – and to ensure we are always meeting their needs we have evolved our product portfolio as the market has transformed and grown. We have risen to the challenge of new technologies, driving developments to meet fresh customer demands and creating new products to address the fast-converging marketplace. We have encouraged and facilitated greater market competition by opening up our network to all Communications Providers through Local Loop Unbundling (LLU – now available through Openreach) and by giving them the means to choose how best to deliver their services to their customers. So today our portfolio features more than 3500 items: from single components to total end-to-end managed services. From products and services for our customers’ own operational and business use to ‘white label’ solutions that they can market under their own brand to achieve their growth ambitions. And it’s a portfolio that’s growing still. We recognize that ‘innovation’ is the 21st century business imperative. That’s why we’re the prime mover behind the creation of 21CN – the UK’s 21st century network – and why we’re constantly monitoring – and anticipating – market trends, listening to our customers’ feedback and developing new ideas to provide you with all you need to meet the challenges of new markets and new opportunities, sharpen your competitive edge, reduce your cost base and attract and inspire new customers. We’re confident that few other organizations in the UK market can match our heritage or the quality, depth or breadth of the experience and expertise we offer at BT Wholesale. Become our customer, share it and you too can find greater success. “ Various products offered by btwholesale to businesses are as below : Broadband Brand stands for quality, reliability, innovation and an outstanding customer experience. So Bt’s comprehensive range of broadband services are designed to match. Conventional or next generation, all are optimized for mission-critical business use plus the extra reassurance of Service Level Agreements and high levels of availability.
5
Contact Centre Solutions When market’s demanding ever-higher standards of customer service, BT helps to deliver. From an extensive range of system, equipment, CRM tools and hosted solutions, designed to complement and enhance every contact channel and strategy.. Converged Voice Whatever type of voice services, BT has the solutions customers want as providers guide and support them through the step-change from PSTN to IP-based services. High quality, high reliability, high performance: providers can rely on all these across a portfolio that includes everything from calls, lines and interoperability options to switches and WANs. E-Catalogue Looking for communications equipment from world-leading manufacturers to grow the portfolio and satisfy the customers’ evolving needs, Save time and save money by buying online from one source. The BT Wholesale eCatalogue offers everything from broadband routers and IP phones to firewalls and Ethernet switches, all at keen prices and available for fast and easy ordering 24/7. Hosted Applications BT offers a suite of online applications and SaaS (Software as a Service) options – from remote data storage and network firewalls to IP address management. It’s a fast and simple way to add to the capabilities with exactly what the market wants. Integrated Data and Connectivity Meet own operational needs and customers’ demands for high performance, resilience networking solutions through BT’s extensive portfolio. It offers a choice of legacy and next generation leased line, Ethernet, IP VPN interoperability services, available nationally and at cost-effective prices to extend the reach and grow its markets. Managed Network Solutions high wide and help
Put the network infrastructure, management, maintenance and development into expert hands by outsourcing to BT. With a heritage in running and developing one of the UK’s largest communications networks, BT can offer you unrivalled technical know-how and practical experience across all technologies, legacy and next generation, plus substantial manpower resources on a national scale. White Label Managed Services Go to market quickly and easily with the ‘bundled’ communications solution that customers find so attractive; combined with priority commitments of high standards of service quality, and customer care. Wireless Data & Mobility Connectivity on the move is the new imperative – not just for business customers but increasingly on a mass-market scale. BT offers cost-effective, low risk solutions to help you capture the market’s demands for mobile broadband and WiFi.
6
Organisation & Operations BT Wholesale :
7
Re-organisation of BT Wholesale Products & Strategy Changes to governance & processes to reflect Code of Practice requirements Changes to scorecards and incentive schemes Training, reminders and guidance Regular compliance checks Process in place for reporting any potential non-compliance A new more open approach to industry
Structure:
8
The team is split into three discrete groups which each works on pricing for only one product group. At team meetings: All participate when discussing ‘how’ we do business not ‘what’ we do. VNS/UNS people leave the room before CNS topics are discussed .We have separate CNS, VNS and UNS distribution and attendance lists to ensure proper separation. WPAG agendas and minutes are also split into separate sections. Pricing papers cannot contain any cross portfolio analysis outside of the originating product group. MD Products & Strategy and FD are the only two people allowed to take a wider cross portfolio view across BTW. BT must still comply with the Undertakings and competition and regulatory law in general. The real key is to ensure our people behave in accordance with both the letter and the spirit of the Undertakings Over 99% of BT Wholesale managers have read the Code of Practice and completed the CBT training. They are running road shows which use role plays to focus on the rules on sharing Commercial Information & Customer Confidential information and influencing Commercial Policy. They plan to train 2300 managers in total and have added extra events because of the high level of demand. They have issued guidance notes on Commercial Information/Customer Confidential Information/Commercial Policy to the Products team. They are developing specific guidelines for each of the common function teams. The BTW Undertakings programme team have responded to 32 queries from Products people over the last 2 months
The Main strategy followed by BTW being a good wholesaler is : • • • Open and transparent Fit for purpose products Proactive
Concept of Equivalence of Inputs : The same products and services for BT and others. Same timescales, terms and conditions (including price). Same systems and processes. Operating with the same reliability and performance. Same commercial information. Subject only to:-Trivial differences, Differences in credit vetting, payment, contract terms on termination, safe working, security, Other differences agreed by Ofcom.
9
New Product Development :
• BT has always operated a single product development process designed to ensure SoRs from all customers are treated on equal terms. BT delivers the Undertaking requirements around the separation of CNS and VNS. BT ensures 100% compliance with the process. Major benefits of this includes : Single, transparent process consistent with equivalence of input. Separate focus and management of SMP products (CNS) and products of commercial significance (VNS) Undertakings process discipline reinforced by ? ? • Code of Practice and associated management training Revised terms of reference for Gating bodies (define attendance and information sharing)
New Products Requirements Forum established ? ensures compliant and single point of entry to the product development process improves integration with product plans
? •
Key process documentation templates and guidelines revised 10
•
Ofcom Regulatory SoR Process unchanged, now operates in Openreach and BT Wholesale.
11
12
Applications Structure of BTW 21CN :
The 21st Century Network (21CN) programme is the network transformation project of the UK telecommunications company BT Group plc. It will see the UK incumbent's telephone network move from the present AXE/System X Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to an Internet Protocol (IP) system. As well as switching over the PSTN, BT has revealed plans to deliver many additional services over their new network, such as on-demand interactive TV services.
21CN is the name given to BT’s 21st century network programme. Recently, BT set out a timetable for implementing its vision of a 21st century network - a truly customer-focused network enabling communications in a range of formats across an IP-based network. It is a time of great change and opportunity in the telecoms industry with the move to broadband and the growth of convergence. Making the most of the commercial opportunities requires an infrastructure that can support and deliver such services efficiently. 13
21CN will be the means to deliver new and compelling products and services. BT Wholesale’s customers, consumers, businesses and the economy at large will benefit, but BT cannot maximize this opportunity alone. The new network is based on an architectural model of 5 network nodes. These are:
? ? ? ? ?
Premises Access (MSAN) Metro Core iNode
Premises The premises node includes residential, Small-Medium Enterprise (SME) and Enterprise. The presumption is that all these will have high speed connections to the network, delivered over copper (in the form of ADSL or other DSL technologies) or over fibre, as either PON or direct fibre in the case of large enterprises. The sole exception to this presumption is for legacy PSTN, where provision will continue to be made for analogue voice. Access Node 21CN introduced the concept of the Multi-Service Access Node (MSAN). This logical node takes the various access technologies (mentioned above) and, where possible, aggregates these onto a single backhaul network technology. This includes converting analogue voice into Voice over IP (VoIP) using the MSAN as a Media Gateway (MGW). The aim is to implement a few hundred access nodes. Note that these will not have any IP routing capability, but will essentially be Layer 2 Ethernet devices. Metro Node The backhaul network will terminate on the metro nodes. At this point the IP-based services will be implemented, and the metro nodes are the first location where IP traffic is routed. Call control (via a softswitch or an IMS CSCF) will be implemented here, although the softswitches and the IMS components won't be described as a part of the metro node - they are parts of the iNode. The metro nodes are also Provider Edge (PE) routers in MPLS terminology, encapsulating the IP traffic in MPLS
14
tunnels for transmission over the core. The aim is to implement around 100 metro nodes. Core Node The core nodes are MPLS switches, with the MPLS traffic carried over optical (DWDM) transport. They are completely unaware of customer IP traffic, and only switch based on MPLS tags (all customer IP traffic is encapsulated with an MPLS header by the Metro node PEs). Native IP is only used by the Core nodes for protocols such as MP-BGP, an IGP, LDP, and RSVP to exchange routing and label information between all Core and Metro nodes. The aim is to have approximately 10 core nodes. iNode The iNode is the name for the logical node that provides the control for the services implemented using the other 4 nodes. BT has announced that it intends to create an IMS based iNode capability, although its initial PSTN replacement will not be an IMS implementation. The iNode will implement a set of standardized functions common capabilities - that deliver layered services. Common capabilities include session management, authentication, profile, address book, presence and location. Combinations of these capability primitives will be used to deliver different service types and functionality. The iNode is built upon the AXE_telephone_exchange TSS (Telephony Softswitch Server) and is currently using HP Alpha processors (APZ 212 50) as well as the ISBlade in the APZ logic. After extensive field testing and countless iNode soft revisions in the South Wales Pathfinder area all current logical and intelligent network services now operate in conjunction with the existing PSTN and the MPLS network. Suppliers: In April 2005, BT announced that it had selected 8 suppliers for its 21CN roll out. These were:
? ? ? ? ?
Fujitsu (MSAN) Huawei (MSAN and core optical) Alcatel (Metro) Cisco (metro and core MPLS) Siemens (metro, using Juniper components) 15
? ? ?
Lucent (core MPLS, using Juniper components) Ciena (core optical) Ericsson (iNode)
Flow of the contracts in BTW :
16
BT announced that its initial roll-out of the network would take place in the South Wales area, near Cardiff, beginning in November 2006. This initially involved the migration of 350,000 customers from the old PSTN to the new network. It announced that it expected 50% of its customer base to have been migrated by 2008, and the migration to be "substantially complete" by the end of the decade. Clearly the 2008 date for 50% migration was not met : see the last paragraph of this section. BT was going to transfer customers on its IPstream product in the West Midlands area (circa 650 exchanges) to the 21CN equivalent IPstream product between October and December 2007 before transferring them over to ADSL2+ products in early 2008.In October 2006, the first call was made on a migrated test line between 21CN and today's networks. On 28 November 2006 the first 100 voice customers in Wick were switched onto 21CN. On 14 September 2007 BT announced that Entanet, BT Wholesale and BT Retail were chosen for the first service trial in the West Midlands. BT also planned to launch ADSL2+ services from early 2008. BT's plans appear to have been subject to major revision. Their "21 CN news" (via the "BT 21 CN" link in the External links section of this article) shows that there is "a focus on the implementation of new services ahead of replicating legacy services". It was noticeable on January 19 2009, that the latest reported milestone achievement was as long ago as July 31 2008. The reporting of progress on the BT 21 CN website is now (early December 2009) much more up-to-date, but the emphasis is now very much on Broadband improvements
Network Interconnections: INTERCONNECT
With interconnection, the aim is to Grow BT’s customers' and its own businesses by working together in partnership, delivering agreed customer requirements within regulatory constraints. Actively seek out opportunities that will add value and increase revenues. Establish efficiencies through a culture of shared learning and working together. 17
Ofcom defines interconnection as "...The physical and logical linking of telecommunications networks used by the same or a different organisation in order to allow the users of one organisation to communicate with users of the same or another organisation, or to access services provided by another organisation. Services may be provided by the parties involved or other parties who have access to the network."
• •
Appointed commercial and technical account managers. Signed an interconnection agreement with BT
NETWORK DESCRIPTION
This page gives access to BT's Network Description, which gives an overview of BT's Public Switched Telephony Network (PSTN). It also gives access to Network Information Publication Principles (NIPP) Annex B, which from March 2004 has been provided separately from the NIPP data files.
Registered users can obtain more detailed information about BT's PSTN from NIPP. NIPP is detailed information about BT's Network that is provided in accordance with Ofcom's Network Information Publication Principles. The information is published quarterly and is only available to registered users. Operators who have an Interconnection agreement with BT and require access to NIPP should speak to their BT Commercial Manager or Technical Account Director/Manager to arrange registration to enable access to NIPP.
18
WHOLESALE CONTENT CONNECT
Content Connect is a product BT Wholesale is intending to develop to address the significant take-up in services over Broadband such as the BBC iPlayer.
The average bandwidth consumption of end users is increasing causing a significant rise in Communication Provider backhaul costs. Content Connect intends to address this issue by making the delivery of video over broadband more cost effective by deploying content storage closer to the end user. Content Connect will also enable Communication Provider’s to charge Content Providers for content delivery thus allowing the Communication Provider to be part of the value chain
KNOWLEDGE BASED DIAGNOSTICS
Knowledge Based Diagnostics (KBD) is a new test & diagnostic tool for CPs developed as a GUI presentation and an XML interface, it employs BT Wholesale's network test capability in a new way with “One Touch” test & diagnostics. It supports an initial test to identify where the fault is e.g. on the local access or at the IP connectivity layer. Subsequent tests are highly focused to the line condition and it is supported by new improved diagnostic flows.
CUSTOMER TRAINING
This online training system provides BT customers with interactive, graphical and easy to run e-learning courses. Courses cover popular BT Wholesale products and a number of eBusiness applications. The Academy Learning Management Portal from BT Wholesale offers a wide variety of free e-learning courses about our products, services and processes. Knowledge gained from these courses should help customers deal confidently and effectively with customer queries and ultimately help reduce the volume of rejections. Available all day, every day, the courses are highly interactive, graphical and easy to run. It is up to the customers whether you complete a whole package, a single course or dip into part of a course via the menu function for quick reference. Customers do not have to complete a course in one sitting as the course will automatically return them to where they left it. Additionally, they do not have to complete the course in a sequential order as the course menu function can be used 19
to pick and choose the particular units that are of interest to them; useful if they just want to refresh their knowledge or have a limited amount of time. After completion of a course they can test their understanding by taking a quiz for which there is a pass or fail result. An administrator function is also available to enable companies to track take-up of this training within their organisation.
References :
http://www.btwholesale.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_Wholesale http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp? privcapId=9329126 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VD0-4WM751S1&_user=2486509&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c &_acct=C000057527&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=2486509&md5=1f20f1c 3c5d70418207ee02d2eea5a5f http://www.academypublisher.com/jsw/vol03/no09/jsw03096067.pdf
20
doc_116250104.doc
Document describes British telecom ecommerce and website document focuses in operation, oragnisation, new product development NPD, access node, metro node, code node, inode, premises ets,
B2B Marketing Project
E-commerce practices and website of British Telecom.
1
Contents
Contents..................................................................................................................... 2 Introduction................................................................................................................ 3 Methodology:.............................................................................................................. 4 Literature Review:......................................................................................................4 Organisation & Operations BT Wholesale :.................................................................7 Structure:...................................................................................................................8 New Product Development :.....................................................................................10 Applications.............................................................................................................. 13 Premises.............................................................................................................14 Access Node.......................................................................................................14 Metro Node.........................................................................................................14 Core Node.......................................................................................................... 15 iNode..................................................................................................................15 Network Interconnections: .......................................................................................17 INTERCONNECT........................................................................................................ 17 NETWORK DESCRIPTION...........................................................................................18 WHOLESALE CONTENT CONNECT.............................................................................19 KNOWLEDGE BASED DIAGNOSTICS..........................................................................19 CUSTOMER TRAINING...............................................................................................19 References :............................................................................................................. 20
2
Introduction
B2B ecommerce is an important part of any online business. Leaving aside the simple transfer of funds many businesses need some combination of:
• • • • • •
creditworthiness assessment. guarantee of quality and delivery of goods. safeguards against fraud. fast collection of funds, with ability to vary the collection period. reporting: approval of sale, invoicing, delivery, payment. procedures to handle disputes.
One aspect of B2B marketing and sales that has not fully developed is the area of B2B ecommerce. While ecommerce for business-to-consumer sales continues to experience double-digit growth rates, B2B ecommerce requires different software and systems to fully satisfy B2B customers. The reason for the complexity in B2B ecommerce software and systems is that many B2B customers have negotiated special quantity pricing for many products sold by a B2B company. In addition, many of these products are not stocked in inventory, and the payment terms for each B2B customer can vary widely. As customer relationship management (CRM) software systems grow to include B2B ecommerce features, we will see B2B companies including B2B ecommerce on their Web sites. This will have a dramatic impact on reducing the cost of sales and increasing the profit margins for these B2B companies as they take advantage of the efficiencies of B2B ecommerce. With the emergence of business process management and of service-oriented architecture, the focus has shifted to the development of e-services that integrate business processes and that diversify functionalities available to customers. The potential of electronic commerce and its information technology also has attracted some telecommunication corporations—for example, Chunghwa Telecom, Singtel Telecom, and AT&T, BT. They have built their electronic commerce environment on the Internet, too. Most of these worldwide telecom corporations have many kinds of operations support systems in their backend environment. In the past, enterprises had to integrate their telecom services manually, so that they could work together. However, this integration required considerable time and cost, and it worked only for the specific services that were manually linked. Adding additional services required even more effort. And then, enterprise application integration (EAI) solved these kinds of problems by working via point-to-point interfaces. This project is aimed at studying various B2B ecommerce practices adopted and followed by British Telecom. British Telecom is one of the largest telecommunication providers in the world. IT caters not only to small customers but large companies also to provide telecom solutions to them. Earlier majority of the business was done traditionally. But emergence of e-commerce led BT to adopt B2B practices through their website ‘btwholesale.com’. Btwholesale.com is a major gateway for many 3
companies to avail services through BT. All the customers maintain an account on this website to avail telecom solutions provided by BT.
Methodology:
The Project would be carried out by various ways: 1) Secondary data and analysis through the study of BTwholesale.com website 2) Indepth interviews of employees working in BTWholesale ecommerce website. 3) Indepth interview of the clients using the services of BTWholesale depending of the feasibility.
The secondary data would be carried out through studying the BTWholesale site in detail and understanding its functions. The Interview with the employees would be carried out in telephony and the processes and functionalities would be understood with the help of net meet demos. Information from the BT clients currently availing the services would also be beneficial in understanding the perspective from the client side. Also the reasons of choosing BTWholesale over other competitors would be clear
Literature Review:
BT Group plc (formerly British Telecommunications plc, abbreviated to British Telecom, and still occasionally referred to as such) is the privatized former state telecom operator in the United Kingdom. It is the dominant fixed line telecommunications and broadband-internet provider in the UK, and also operates in more than 170 countries around the world. It is headquartered in the BT Centre in the City of London. BT Group is also one of the largest communication companies in the world, with over a third of its revenue now coming from its Global Services division. BT Wholesale engages in wholesaling. The company offers products, services, and solutions to communications companies in the United Kingdom. It provides business continuity management, co-location and hosting, data, customer premises equipment, interconnect, Internet, mobility, voice network, broadband, fixed network, and managed services and outsourcing products. The company also offers availability checkers, billing, faults, networks, orders, private content, and quotes 4
applications. It serves communication providers, service providers, and Internet service providers. The company is based in Wolverhampton, the United Kingdom. BT Wholesale operates as a subsidiary of BT Group pl. BT has many years of experience in providing UK communications companies with a comprehensive range of wholesale products, services and solutions. According to BT Chairman Sir Maichael Rake the main motto of BT Wholesale is to provide a complete solution for telecommunications to the companies across the world and hence he states the Bt-wholesale offerings as : “BT has many years of experience in providing UK communications companies with a comprehensive range of wholesale products, services and solutions. Created in 1997, BT Wholesale continues this commitment and provides a dedicated focus within the BT Group to support all of our wholesale customers. Their numbers have grown considerably since the early days of privatisation and we now count among them virtually every one of the 600+ organisations that are currently operating in the UK communications marketplace – and to ensure we are always meeting their needs we have evolved our product portfolio as the market has transformed and grown. We have risen to the challenge of new technologies, driving developments to meet fresh customer demands and creating new products to address the fast-converging marketplace. We have encouraged and facilitated greater market competition by opening up our network to all Communications Providers through Local Loop Unbundling (LLU – now available through Openreach) and by giving them the means to choose how best to deliver their services to their customers. So today our portfolio features more than 3500 items: from single components to total end-to-end managed services. From products and services for our customers’ own operational and business use to ‘white label’ solutions that they can market under their own brand to achieve their growth ambitions. And it’s a portfolio that’s growing still. We recognize that ‘innovation’ is the 21st century business imperative. That’s why we’re the prime mover behind the creation of 21CN – the UK’s 21st century network – and why we’re constantly monitoring – and anticipating – market trends, listening to our customers’ feedback and developing new ideas to provide you with all you need to meet the challenges of new markets and new opportunities, sharpen your competitive edge, reduce your cost base and attract and inspire new customers. We’re confident that few other organizations in the UK market can match our heritage or the quality, depth or breadth of the experience and expertise we offer at BT Wholesale. Become our customer, share it and you too can find greater success. “ Various products offered by btwholesale to businesses are as below : Broadband Brand stands for quality, reliability, innovation and an outstanding customer experience. So Bt’s comprehensive range of broadband services are designed to match. Conventional or next generation, all are optimized for mission-critical business use plus the extra reassurance of Service Level Agreements and high levels of availability.
5
Contact Centre Solutions When market’s demanding ever-higher standards of customer service, BT helps to deliver. From an extensive range of system, equipment, CRM tools and hosted solutions, designed to complement and enhance every contact channel and strategy.. Converged Voice Whatever type of voice services, BT has the solutions customers want as providers guide and support them through the step-change from PSTN to IP-based services. High quality, high reliability, high performance: providers can rely on all these across a portfolio that includes everything from calls, lines and interoperability options to switches and WANs. E-Catalogue Looking for communications equipment from world-leading manufacturers to grow the portfolio and satisfy the customers’ evolving needs, Save time and save money by buying online from one source. The BT Wholesale eCatalogue offers everything from broadband routers and IP phones to firewalls and Ethernet switches, all at keen prices and available for fast and easy ordering 24/7. Hosted Applications BT offers a suite of online applications and SaaS (Software as a Service) options – from remote data storage and network firewalls to IP address management. It’s a fast and simple way to add to the capabilities with exactly what the market wants. Integrated Data and Connectivity Meet own operational needs and customers’ demands for high performance, resilience networking solutions through BT’s extensive portfolio. It offers a choice of legacy and next generation leased line, Ethernet, IP VPN interoperability services, available nationally and at cost-effective prices to extend the reach and grow its markets. Managed Network Solutions high wide and help
Put the network infrastructure, management, maintenance and development into expert hands by outsourcing to BT. With a heritage in running and developing one of the UK’s largest communications networks, BT can offer you unrivalled technical know-how and practical experience across all technologies, legacy and next generation, plus substantial manpower resources on a national scale. White Label Managed Services Go to market quickly and easily with the ‘bundled’ communications solution that customers find so attractive; combined with priority commitments of high standards of service quality, and customer care. Wireless Data & Mobility Connectivity on the move is the new imperative – not just for business customers but increasingly on a mass-market scale. BT offers cost-effective, low risk solutions to help you capture the market’s demands for mobile broadband and WiFi.
6
Organisation & Operations BT Wholesale :
7
Re-organisation of BT Wholesale Products & Strategy Changes to governance & processes to reflect Code of Practice requirements Changes to scorecards and incentive schemes Training, reminders and guidance Regular compliance checks Process in place for reporting any potential non-compliance A new more open approach to industry
Structure:
8
The team is split into three discrete groups which each works on pricing for only one product group. At team meetings: All participate when discussing ‘how’ we do business not ‘what’ we do. VNS/UNS people leave the room before CNS topics are discussed .We have separate CNS, VNS and UNS distribution and attendance lists to ensure proper separation. WPAG agendas and minutes are also split into separate sections. Pricing papers cannot contain any cross portfolio analysis outside of the originating product group. MD Products & Strategy and FD are the only two people allowed to take a wider cross portfolio view across BTW. BT must still comply with the Undertakings and competition and regulatory law in general. The real key is to ensure our people behave in accordance with both the letter and the spirit of the Undertakings Over 99% of BT Wholesale managers have read the Code of Practice and completed the CBT training. They are running road shows which use role plays to focus on the rules on sharing Commercial Information & Customer Confidential information and influencing Commercial Policy. They plan to train 2300 managers in total and have added extra events because of the high level of demand. They have issued guidance notes on Commercial Information/Customer Confidential Information/Commercial Policy to the Products team. They are developing specific guidelines for each of the common function teams. The BTW Undertakings programme team have responded to 32 queries from Products people over the last 2 months
The Main strategy followed by BTW being a good wholesaler is : • • • Open and transparent Fit for purpose products Proactive
Concept of Equivalence of Inputs : The same products and services for BT and others. Same timescales, terms and conditions (including price). Same systems and processes. Operating with the same reliability and performance. Same commercial information. Subject only to:-Trivial differences, Differences in credit vetting, payment, contract terms on termination, safe working, security, Other differences agreed by Ofcom.
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New Product Development :
• BT has always operated a single product development process designed to ensure SoRs from all customers are treated on equal terms. BT delivers the Undertaking requirements around the separation of CNS and VNS. BT ensures 100% compliance with the process. Major benefits of this includes : Single, transparent process consistent with equivalence of input. Separate focus and management of SMP products (CNS) and products of commercial significance (VNS) Undertakings process discipline reinforced by ? ? • Code of Practice and associated management training Revised terms of reference for Gating bodies (define attendance and information sharing)
New Products Requirements Forum established ? ensures compliant and single point of entry to the product development process improves integration with product plans
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Key process documentation templates and guidelines revised 10
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Ofcom Regulatory SoR Process unchanged, now operates in Openreach and BT Wholesale.
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Applications Structure of BTW 21CN :
The 21st Century Network (21CN) programme is the network transformation project of the UK telecommunications company BT Group plc. It will see the UK incumbent's telephone network move from the present AXE/System X Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to an Internet Protocol (IP) system. As well as switching over the PSTN, BT has revealed plans to deliver many additional services over their new network, such as on-demand interactive TV services.
21CN is the name given to BT’s 21st century network programme. Recently, BT set out a timetable for implementing its vision of a 21st century network - a truly customer-focused network enabling communications in a range of formats across an IP-based network. It is a time of great change and opportunity in the telecoms industry with the move to broadband and the growth of convergence. Making the most of the commercial opportunities requires an infrastructure that can support and deliver such services efficiently. 13
21CN will be the means to deliver new and compelling products and services. BT Wholesale’s customers, consumers, businesses and the economy at large will benefit, but BT cannot maximize this opportunity alone. The new network is based on an architectural model of 5 network nodes. These are:
? ? ? ? ?
Premises Access (MSAN) Metro Core iNode
Premises The premises node includes residential, Small-Medium Enterprise (SME) and Enterprise. The presumption is that all these will have high speed connections to the network, delivered over copper (in the form of ADSL or other DSL technologies) or over fibre, as either PON or direct fibre in the case of large enterprises. The sole exception to this presumption is for legacy PSTN, where provision will continue to be made for analogue voice. Access Node 21CN introduced the concept of the Multi-Service Access Node (MSAN). This logical node takes the various access technologies (mentioned above) and, where possible, aggregates these onto a single backhaul network technology. This includes converting analogue voice into Voice over IP (VoIP) using the MSAN as a Media Gateway (MGW). The aim is to implement a few hundred access nodes. Note that these will not have any IP routing capability, but will essentially be Layer 2 Ethernet devices. Metro Node The backhaul network will terminate on the metro nodes. At this point the IP-based services will be implemented, and the metro nodes are the first location where IP traffic is routed. Call control (via a softswitch or an IMS CSCF) will be implemented here, although the softswitches and the IMS components won't be described as a part of the metro node - they are parts of the iNode. The metro nodes are also Provider Edge (PE) routers in MPLS terminology, encapsulating the IP traffic in MPLS
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tunnels for transmission over the core. The aim is to implement around 100 metro nodes. Core Node The core nodes are MPLS switches, with the MPLS traffic carried over optical (DWDM) transport. They are completely unaware of customer IP traffic, and only switch based on MPLS tags (all customer IP traffic is encapsulated with an MPLS header by the Metro node PEs). Native IP is only used by the Core nodes for protocols such as MP-BGP, an IGP, LDP, and RSVP to exchange routing and label information between all Core and Metro nodes. The aim is to have approximately 10 core nodes. iNode The iNode is the name for the logical node that provides the control for the services implemented using the other 4 nodes. BT has announced that it intends to create an IMS based iNode capability, although its initial PSTN replacement will not be an IMS implementation. The iNode will implement a set of standardized functions common capabilities - that deliver layered services. Common capabilities include session management, authentication, profile, address book, presence and location. Combinations of these capability primitives will be used to deliver different service types and functionality. The iNode is built upon the AXE_telephone_exchange TSS (Telephony Softswitch Server) and is currently using HP Alpha processors (APZ 212 50) as well as the ISBlade in the APZ logic. After extensive field testing and countless iNode soft revisions in the South Wales Pathfinder area all current logical and intelligent network services now operate in conjunction with the existing PSTN and the MPLS network. Suppliers: In April 2005, BT announced that it had selected 8 suppliers for its 21CN roll out. These were:
? ? ? ? ?
Fujitsu (MSAN) Huawei (MSAN and core optical) Alcatel (Metro) Cisco (metro and core MPLS) Siemens (metro, using Juniper components) 15
? ? ?
Lucent (core MPLS, using Juniper components) Ciena (core optical) Ericsson (iNode)
Flow of the contracts in BTW :
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BT announced that its initial roll-out of the network would take place in the South Wales area, near Cardiff, beginning in November 2006. This initially involved the migration of 350,000 customers from the old PSTN to the new network. It announced that it expected 50% of its customer base to have been migrated by 2008, and the migration to be "substantially complete" by the end of the decade. Clearly the 2008 date for 50% migration was not met : see the last paragraph of this section. BT was going to transfer customers on its IPstream product in the West Midlands area (circa 650 exchanges) to the 21CN equivalent IPstream product between October and December 2007 before transferring them over to ADSL2+ products in early 2008.In October 2006, the first call was made on a migrated test line between 21CN and today's networks. On 28 November 2006 the first 100 voice customers in Wick were switched onto 21CN. On 14 September 2007 BT announced that Entanet, BT Wholesale and BT Retail were chosen for the first service trial in the West Midlands. BT also planned to launch ADSL2+ services from early 2008. BT's plans appear to have been subject to major revision. Their "21 CN news" (via the "BT 21 CN" link in the External links section of this article) shows that there is "a focus on the implementation of new services ahead of replicating legacy services". It was noticeable on January 19 2009, that the latest reported milestone achievement was as long ago as July 31 2008. The reporting of progress on the BT 21 CN website is now (early December 2009) much more up-to-date, but the emphasis is now very much on Broadband improvements
Network Interconnections: INTERCONNECT
With interconnection, the aim is to Grow BT’s customers' and its own businesses by working together in partnership, delivering agreed customer requirements within regulatory constraints. Actively seek out opportunities that will add value and increase revenues. Establish efficiencies through a culture of shared learning and working together. 17
Ofcom defines interconnection as "...The physical and logical linking of telecommunications networks used by the same or a different organisation in order to allow the users of one organisation to communicate with users of the same or another organisation, or to access services provided by another organisation. Services may be provided by the parties involved or other parties who have access to the network."
• •
Appointed commercial and technical account managers. Signed an interconnection agreement with BT
NETWORK DESCRIPTION
This page gives access to BT's Network Description, which gives an overview of BT's Public Switched Telephony Network (PSTN). It also gives access to Network Information Publication Principles (NIPP) Annex B, which from March 2004 has been provided separately from the NIPP data files.
Registered users can obtain more detailed information about BT's PSTN from NIPP. NIPP is detailed information about BT's Network that is provided in accordance with Ofcom's Network Information Publication Principles. The information is published quarterly and is only available to registered users. Operators who have an Interconnection agreement with BT and require access to NIPP should speak to their BT Commercial Manager or Technical Account Director/Manager to arrange registration to enable access to NIPP.
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WHOLESALE CONTENT CONNECT
Content Connect is a product BT Wholesale is intending to develop to address the significant take-up in services over Broadband such as the BBC iPlayer.
The average bandwidth consumption of end users is increasing causing a significant rise in Communication Provider backhaul costs. Content Connect intends to address this issue by making the delivery of video over broadband more cost effective by deploying content storage closer to the end user. Content Connect will also enable Communication Provider’s to charge Content Providers for content delivery thus allowing the Communication Provider to be part of the value chain
KNOWLEDGE BASED DIAGNOSTICS
Knowledge Based Diagnostics (KBD) is a new test & diagnostic tool for CPs developed as a GUI presentation and an XML interface, it employs BT Wholesale's network test capability in a new way with “One Touch” test & diagnostics. It supports an initial test to identify where the fault is e.g. on the local access or at the IP connectivity layer. Subsequent tests are highly focused to the line condition and it is supported by new improved diagnostic flows.
CUSTOMER TRAINING
This online training system provides BT customers with interactive, graphical and easy to run e-learning courses. Courses cover popular BT Wholesale products and a number of eBusiness applications. The Academy Learning Management Portal from BT Wholesale offers a wide variety of free e-learning courses about our products, services and processes. Knowledge gained from these courses should help customers deal confidently and effectively with customer queries and ultimately help reduce the volume of rejections. Available all day, every day, the courses are highly interactive, graphical and easy to run. It is up to the customers whether you complete a whole package, a single course or dip into part of a course via the menu function for quick reference. Customers do not have to complete a course in one sitting as the course will automatically return them to where they left it. Additionally, they do not have to complete the course in a sequential order as the course menu function can be used 19
to pick and choose the particular units that are of interest to them; useful if they just want to refresh their knowledge or have a limited amount of time. After completion of a course they can test their understanding by taking a quiz for which there is a pass or fail result. An administrator function is also available to enable companies to track take-up of this training within their organisation.
References :
http://www.btwholesale.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_Wholesale http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp? privcapId=9329126 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VD0-4WM751S1&_user=2486509&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c &_acct=C000057527&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=2486509&md5=1f20f1c 3c5d70418207ee02d2eea5a5f http://www.academypublisher.com/jsw/vol03/no09/jsw03096067.pdf
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doc_116250104.doc