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LONDON, Oct. 3, 2011 -- BT today announced a series of investments aimed at doubling its business in key Latin American countries over the next three years. By recruiting 250 new staff, increasing its professional services capabilities, opening new centers of excellence and implementing a wide range of network and customer service improvements, BT will better support global customers investing in this region and help large Latin American companies (the "multilatinas") expand globally. BT's research has identified an addressable market for the company in the Latin American region of $18.5 billion as at 31 March 2011, growing at a rapid 7% per annum.

BT already serves around 1,300 organizations in the region, including a number of global multinational companies. BT has this year signed a number of high profile contracts with Latin-American companies.

Jeff Kelly, CEO BT Global Services said, "Latin America is showing great dynamism and ability to grow in the face of a turbulent global economy. Our global customers recognize this. Right now, they are expanding and investing in the region. At BT we also understand that large Latin-American companies, the "multilatinas," are rolling out ambitious strategies of globalization. These powerhouse players need consistency across their global operations, in their home bases and all over the world. That is exactly what our investments allow us to deliver to them."

As part of the new program, BT will hire around 250 new employees in the region, including highly skilled professional services specialists to support customer needs and deliver BT's enhanced portfolio of products and services. Through BT's professional services capabilities, global delivery model and strong partner relationships, customers active in Latin America will benefit from industry  expertise.

BT will also extend the coverage of its networks in the region by increasing the number of its MPLS points of presence by around 20% and by launching Ethernet services in 21 new cities. By combining these with satellite capabilities which currently connect 37,000 sites, together with its recently improved data center infrastructure, BT will offer its customers a network capability in the region, capable of connecting their most remote locations to deliver business critical applications and services as efficiently as possible. Latin American companies growing globally will fully benefit from BT's ability to provide IP VPN services in 197 countries/ territories, Ethernet VPN services in 28 countries and an Applications Performance Management service around the world.

BT will deploy three new Centers of Excellence to better support its client requirements in the region. The new centers of excellence will be in Rio de Janeiro (satellite technologies, products and services), Bogotá (security and data center services) and Mexico City (IP telephony and contact centers).

BT will also launch more than 30 new products or services across the region. BT will increase the reach of the BT Inbound Contact services with new nodes and will be building a new extension of the BT Cloud Contact platform to give customers access to a "pay-as-you-go" cloud contact center in the region. The BT One Video immersive video-conferencing offer will be enhanced with new video bridges. The BT One Cloud hosted unified communications service will be launched together with BT One Voice to deliver a single, consistent service, which can be deployed very quickly to customers' operations as they expand in the region. The existing portfolio and the new launches will be supported by the BT Assure managed security services.

BT also has a wide range of industry specific solutions, including propositions customized to the financial services sector, which are currently being deployed in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, and will soon be extended to the rest of the region.

BT will launch wholesale solutions tailored to the needs of other regional telecom operators, designed to help enhance and extend the range of services they provide to their own customers.

Today's announcement is part of a wider ongoing investment program supporting BT Global Services' growth strategy. Previous announcements include a successful growth program in Asia-Pacific, improvements to BT's global portfolio and network capabilities, investments in professional services resources, and the development of four strategic global sector teams to better serve multinational customers: banking & financial services, government & health, consumer packaged goods and manufacturing, logistics & pharmaceuticals.

Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: http://www.marketwatch.com

About BT:
BT is provider of communications services and solutions for everybody in the UK and for corporate customers in the rest of Europe, with global reach through partnerships. BT provides services for all UK customers, network services and solutions for communication companies, worldwide business solutions, internet services, and advanced research and technology.