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The extended e-business and communications solutions portfolio that the two companies are offering is expected to increase Esat Business revenues by IEP5 million a year.
The new portfolio of solutions will see BT Ignite offer a range of applications covering e-commerce consultancy and platform development, customer relationship management (e-CRM), systems integration, call centres, facilities management and application development.
In the UK BT Ignite already offers many of the solutions and services it will now offer in Ireland and across Europe. The company claims it will be able to keep costs down on the range of services since most of the applications are already developed. "Fundamentally banks operate in Ireland the same way they do in the UK, so our services should carry over into Ireland and other markets quite readily," Neil Rogers, president of BT Ignite Solutions told ElectricNews.Net.
"One of the interesting things about the solutions business is that it's not capital intensive," Rogers said. He went on to say that in order for the company to engage in the movement to markets outside of the UK, the company would invest in staff and support services.
Rogers also said the market in the UK had been very receptive to BT Ignite's solutions product set. He claimed that the company expects to derive 80 percent of its income from IP (Internet Protocol), e-business and e-CRM. As of the first quarter ended 30 June, the company derived 60 percent of its income from IP services. In that same period turnover for these services amounted to STG656 million and grew by 20 percent year on year.
In fact BT Ignite Solutions currently has a formidable position in the UK market. The company supports more than 80 percent of all UK credit card transactions and manages more than 90,000 e-commerce transactions a day. Furthermore it delivers systems dealing with more than STG120 billion in on-line fund transfers every day.
Richard Cooke, chief executive officer of Esat Business, told ElectricNews.Net that he believed the set of services offered by the two companies was unique in the Irish market. He said that initially Esat and BT Ignite would target between 15 and 20 companies located in Ireland as potential clients. Over time Esat expects more firms to be receptive to the suite of services.
This co-operation between Esat and BT Ignite is likely to cause industry speculation on the possible rebranding of Esat Telecom, which is owned by BT.
On that issue Cooke said, "I never say never, but at the moment, there has been no decision to rebrand." He added, "One only has to look at what is happening in the market to see it is happening in other areas, but we don't want to destroy the strong brand value Esat already has."
BT Ignite is BT's international broadband and solutions business, which operates in 102 countries worldwide. In the past BT Ignite had offered some services in association with Concert, BT's joint venture with AT&T.
The troubled Concert venture has recently forced BT to announce a STG500 million write down in half-year results, and the venture itself is losing around STG40 million a month. Speculation in the industry is that the venture will soon be abandoned, with BT and AT&T each withdrawing their support and assets.
Rogers admitted that was a possibility but said no decision had been made and said such a move would have little impact on BT Ignite Solutions.
Earlier this month BT Ignite announced that Alfred Mockett would be resigning as head of BT Ignite after 10 years with the company. Mockett will leave at the end of November to run an unnamed US-based company. He will be replaced by Andy Green, currently chief executive of BT's retail Internet unit, Openworld.
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