BT Retail takes consultancy path

BT Retail is transforming itself into a professional services company in a bid to shift its focus from a voice seller to the internet data market.

CEO Pierre Danon said the division is stepping further into the consultancy arena as it tries to abandon its image as a fixed-line voice company and drive up revenues.

Danon said: "It is very difficult to see this business going forward and growing while it still
looks to this market."

The key to BT Retail's growth is professional services in the outsourcing, CRM and IP virtual private network arenas, which will be delivered via its resellers with the aid of BT Ignite.

Although these data services currently account for just £2bn of revenues, Danon claims he can increase the stake by an additional £1.5bn by 2005.

The division's position in the voice market is not growing by substantial yearly increments any more, he said, despite it providing the BT Group with around £10bn in revenues per year.

He admitted the focus on data services and consultancy will signify a change of strategy for the company but denied BT wanted to be another IBM.

"There is room for a big telco to play in adjacent markets. We're already doing it - in
government contract outsourcing our consultancy arm, Syntegra is just half a percentage behind EDS's stake in the sector at 11.5 per cent," he said.

BT Retail includes its efforts in broadband and mobile solution provisioning in its new data scheme.