Best Managed Services Provider | BT Global Services |
| Last year's winner: | Orange Business Services |
| Business segments: | Managed data services, hosted contact centers, converged LAN, virtual data center, unified communications |
| President: | Michael Boustridge |
| Key shareholders: | BT Plc |
| Keys stats: | (Fiscal Q3 to 31 Dec) revenue £118m, down 3%, EBITDA £123m; 3,000 points of presence in 173 countries, including 17 in APAC; over 5,000 enterprise customers in APAC |
The managed services market has always been a differentiation game to an extent, with so many players offering similar kinds of services. But the metrics of differentiation are changing as enterprises look to cut costs as their telecom needs become more complex, says this year's top-rated Managed Services Provider, BT Global Services.
"We've always said that enterprises should focus on their core business and leave the telecom and associated stuff to us, but in reality that didn't hit the sweet spot as much as it should have," says Kevin Taylor, managing director of BT Asia-Pacific. "But over the last year, you had CFOs trying to cut costs, and multinationals came to realize that telcos could do services better in managing their telecom and associated infrastructure, and the value-added services around it."
Specifically, Taylor says, "The whole game is changing to sort out the 'spaghetti' that the in-house organizations have developed and add value to it."
In essence, he explains, telecom requirements for enterprises are getting more complex, from converged LAN, Ethernet and managed support security to unified communications, hosted contact centers and virtual data centers.
"Add them up, and you see the logistics - companies can't afford to get up to speed on all this and invest capital in it," Taylor says. "They're not going to throw lots of capex at this anymore. They're coming to us directly now."
Which is why, when evaluating the managed services landscape, enterprises are no longer looking for one service or another but something more comprehensive, Taylor adds.
"We're not talking to them about point-to-point solutions with a managed router now, we're talking about much more complex solutions. That's a trend that will continue," says Taylor. "I don't think people care about POPs anymore - they just expect them to be there. The whole game has changed into a value-add game."