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BT scouts scour the globe for innovative tech
Tracking down advancements wherever they may be

By Tim Ferguson

Published: Thursday 16 November 2006

BT has hit on a novel way of sourcing technology to support its ever-expanding product line and next-generation 21st Century Network (21CN).

The telco has developed a 'scouting' process with staff deployed around the world to search for clever pieces of new tech to use in its products.

Currently seven BT scouts operate around the world with one each in Israel, Japan/Korea and Greater China, which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan. The remaining four scouts work in the US.

The scouts meet with start-up companies and academics to identify trends and champion technologies which could be useful to BT. They also have a wider role of developing technology strategy and prototyping promising tech.

Through this process the company comes across around 1,000 new technologies per year, then seriously discusses using around 400.

Since the scouting process was put in place in 2000, an average of one significant piece of technology sourced from or developed abroad has been introduced into the company every quarter.

Mike Carr, director of research and venturing for BT, and one of the first employees to act as a scout, admitted it's not a strategy you hear about every day. He told silicon.com: "It's unusual I guess, for a company like ours."

Carr said that with the communications industry moving so fast, companies need to launch new products at least every six months to compete. The global scouting process is a good way of doing this, he said.

The scouting teams, he said, are out there asking questions like: "Have you got any great services we can put on [the 21CN] or any great technology that can help us?"

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One of the first BT products developed from 'scouted' technology was the broadband home hub, which was developed with a US start-up called 2wire. Carr said this deal allowed BT "to rapidly move into wireless broadband in the consumer market".

A more recent innovation to be adopted by BT as a result of its scouting scheme is its user-generated audio and video podcasting portal, which launched October and is based on technology from US content site Podshow.

Although not included in the formal scouting programme, the company also works with what Carr called the "fantastic computer scientists" of India to develop BT technology. Much of the work for 21CN has been carried out through Indian companies, he said.