BT International today announced the launch of UC Edge, a new managed service that gives multinational organisations’ CIOs a simpler, more flexible solution to manage their rapidly evolving AI-powered workplace collaboration strategies.

Many multinational organisations rely on a patchwork of collaboration solutions inherited through mergers and acquisitions or selected to meet different regional business needs, including sovereignty — be that data sovereignty, operational sovereignty or technical sovereignty. This mix of technologies can slow down transformation, increase costs and leave IT teams wrestling with complex, overlapping systems.

Now live, with initial customer deployments in highly regulated industries, UC Edge cuts through all of that. It lets organisations add or change AI-powered collaboration solutions and platforms quickly without restarting procurement or rebuilding compliant voice services.

An expansion of BT International’s Global Voice platform, it brings voice, collaboration and number management into one, vendor agnostic service. It works seamlessly across collaboration platforms, contact centre solutions and SIP services. IT teams can tailor the experience for each user, team or country while managing all their collaboration services through a single model.

Built as a single global communication layer, UC Edge’s intelligent voice routing automatically directs calls to the correct platform — no manual number alignment, no portal changes, no routing requests. IT teams can also move users between platforms with zero disruption and far less operational effort.

Denise Lund, IDC Research vice president worldwide UC&C and telecom, said: “As multinational organisations modernise their communications, they increasingly demand the flexibility to adopt best-of-breed and vendor-agnostic collaboration solutions that align with diverse business and regulatory needs. BT International’s UC Edge empowers enterprises to seamlessly integrate and manage multiple platforms, reducing complexity while enabling choice and agility.”

Matt Swinden, managing director of strategy & product at BT International, said: “Many multinationals are juggling legacy collaboration platforms, regional needs or simple user preference. With UC Edge, customers get one contract, one commercial model and one global product delivered seamlessly — giving them the freedom to use the platforms they want without the integration burden. So, when users ask: ‘Can we talk?’ the answer will always be ‘Yes!’”

ENDS

Notes to editors

BT International’s Global Voice platform
BT International’s Global Voice platform carries more than 16 billion calls a year across 70+ countries, integrating with leading collaboration solutions. As a SIP‑powered, cloud-first platform, it provides a strong foundation for future voice-and-AI innovations.

Key features of UC Edge

• One global product for all voice and collaboration services — reduce vendor sprawl and hidden costs with one partner, one contract and one global commercial model
• Enable sovereignty, compliance and regulatory alignment across every market without having to manage it market-by-market
• Strengthen resilience and business continuity with a globally consistent voice layer
• Modernise without lock in, supporting multi-vendor environments and protects for future change
• Bring new sites and users online in minutes, not months
• Learns and routes new numbers automatically through intelligent routing

Sovereignty

Data sovereignty ensures data is governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which it was generated, with clarity over where it is stored and processed. Operational sovereignty relates to how services are run, including who operates them, from where, and under what governance and accreditation. Technical sovereignty is about long-term control and resilience, including the ability to operate, adapt and remain secure without undue dependency.

BT today announced a partnership with HPE to offer customers a new managed service powered by HPE Aruba Networking delivering improved performance, flexibility and control of local area networks (LANs). It combines BT’s global reach and extensive experience in the design, deployment and management of in-building wired and wireless connectivity with the latest HPE Aruba Networking LAN solutions. 

Many legacy LANs struggle to support hybrid workers’ expectations when accessing apps in offices, branches, warehouses, factories or campuses. This is exacerbated by increasing use of bandwidth-hungry video collaboration tools. Colleagues also expect consistent and reliable Wi-Fi connectivity around the building. The increasing number of connected devices, including internet of things (IoT), adds further complexity and cyber security risks.

BT’s new HPE Aruba Networking Managed LAN service will allow customers to securely modernise connectivity to support changing workstyles and keep apace of IoT demands. 

As a first step, BT audits the LAN to identify what is already in place and what could be re-used and anything that should be replaced. HPE Aruba Networking provides interoperable technology that can avoid the need to replace the entire network. BT will work collaboratively with the customer to manage costs by providing a staged approach to modernisation with benefits realised at each stage.

BT then evaluates how to secure and protect connected devices. It simplifies visibility by giving customers a single dashboard hosted in the cloud. This centralises reporting, analytics, security, scalability and resilience in one platform to help customers deliver a consistent end-user experience. It can also identify redundant devices using unnecessary power and automate network and energy optimisation.

Andrew Small, director of voice and digital work, Business, BT Group, said: “It’s clear that legacy in-building networks can’t handle modern hybrid working and IoT devices, never mind what comes next.  That’s why we’re expanding customer choice of managed LAN solutions by partnering with HPE Aruba Networking. This will offer the visibility, flexibility and security customers need to deliver productive, trusted wired and wireless connectivity.”

“Global customers that are building their connectivity strategies are focusing on modern enterprise networks that are secure, agile, responsive to business needs and simple to operate, while being powerful drivers of transformation,” said Phil Mottram, executive vice president and general manager, HPE Aruba Networking. “HPE Aruba Networking is at the forefront of reinventing how customers and partners can consume or deliver business-outcome focused networking, and by integrating our AI, security, automation, and Network as a Service capabilities, our global managed LAN service with BT is an example of how the network is helping customers achieve their business objectives.”

Two technology trends have emerged — the move to hybrid working and the relentless shift of business applications and services to the cloud, both of which fall under the umbrella of digital transformation.

For many businesses and employees, collaboration platforms such as Webex have been the face of their company’s digital transformation. Adoption of the technology has grown sharply since 2020 and is revolutionising not only ways of working but what’s considered to be a workplace. 

With offices re-opened, businesses and employees are presented with a new question: do we want to “return” to pre-pandemic ways of working or do we invest and push ahead with digital transformation and put those platforms onto a firmer technological footing?

Cloud-enabled collaboration is fundamental to sustaining productivity. But so too is the need for consistency across the business. This means giving everyone, everywhere, at any time — and on any device — full access to the apps and services they need to collaborate effectively and securely. It involves investing in platforms and connectivity to support all workplaces, whether on-site or remote. 

It’s with these drivers in mind that we have expanded our broad collaboration portfolio with the full power of Webex. We’ve enriched our existing Webex Meetings offering to include the new Webex Events, Webinar and polling capabilities. And this year we launched Webex Calling and Webex Contact Centre for both UK and international customers, providing them with scalable, unified cloud-based platforms.

Our Webex Calling and Webex Contact Centre solutions leverage the reach of our voice network and the comprehensive support of our managed service to provide feature rich, scalable cloud-based voice and contact centre offerings. Moving voice to the cloud gives organisations the flexibility to enable true hybrid working for their people, whilst eliminating the cost and complexity of legacy infrastructure.

Brian Stout, vice president of global collaboration sales, Cisco, commented: “These launches form the latest chapter of our three-decade long partnership with BT. BT’s new portfolio of Webex services give our joint customers everything they need to collaborate. Together we can now provide customers with a range of scalable enterprise-grade managed cloud collaboration and customer experience services, which have been purpose-built for hybrid work.”

As businesses try to find a balance between ‘everyone and everything from home’ and ‘everyone back in the office’, in true Goldilocks fashion, the middle path feels ‘just right’. Hybrid working is here to stay.    

Today, we’re marking Microsoft’s announcement of the general availability of Operator Connect for Microsoft Teams with the launch of an entirely new BT-branded global managed voice service.  

It’s at the cutting edge of future voice services innovation. Delivered directly through Teams, it securely integrates telephony, engineered for quality of service, with the very latest in digital collaboration.

For customers, it will provide pace, simplicity and reach, helping them accelerate their digital transformation by enabling new productive, hybrid workstyles built around Teams.

Voice and telephony services have been around for a long time. If you’re a CIO, the chances are you’ve got a mixed bag of voice technologies and services, fixed and mobile, spread across your organisation which may differ from country to country or even site by site. At the same time, your colleagues’ use of Teams has been soaring since the start of the pandemic.

At BT, we’ve seen the number of customers using our managed Teams service almost double in the past year. And according to Microsoft, total calls on Teams surpassed 1 billion in a single month for the first time earlier this year.

Having seen the benefits of digital tools and workstyles, your colleagues now expect to use them to their full potential. They prefer the ergonomics of simply clicking to talk via the Teams app than using a separate phone or voice service. They assume they’re secure and expect a reliable, quality service. And this is as true in the office as at home — and on the move.

Operator Connect for Microsoft Teams with BT offers a simple and secure way of calling in Teams via BT’s global voice network backed with assured end to end service controls for high quality, low latency voice conversations. It’s an entirely new way for multinational organisations operating in different countries to choose and enable their voice services and it doesn’t matter if you’re an existing BT customer or not.

Ripping up the rule book for an established technology like voice is never easy. When you do, it’s good to have experts on hand — two great enterprise technology, cloud and security brands recognised as leaders in their respective fields. It also helps if your service provider has already invested in a technology platform to remove the complexity of change and offer simple choices.

As BT and Microsoft look forward to delivering Operator Connect for customers across the world, Omar Abbosh, corporate vice president of industry solutions at Microsoft, said: “Operator Connect with BT calling plans is the first step in the realisation of our new strategic partnership with BT and meeting the needs and demands of today’s customers.”

BT announced today an extension of its long-term strategic agreement with Syngenta, one of the world’s leading agricultural technology companies.

Syngenta helps improve global food security by enabling millions of farmers to make better use of available resources. As part of the extended strategic agreement, BT will support Syngenta’s requirements for flexible and adaptable consumption of services covering advanced networking, connectivity and security solutions, while aiming to create additional opportunities for joint innovation.

Through highly reliable services that enable collaboration and communication, BT will help Syngenta Crop Protection and Syngenta Seeds focus on being a market leader with world-class science and innovative crop solutions that help farmers sustainably grow more from less.

BT will continue to provide a full range of networking and communication services, as well as cloud security, to support Syngenta’s operations across more than 400 locations in 60 countries. These include key agriculture markets in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Brazil, China, India, Egypt and Ukraine.

In addition, this renewal provides the foundation for an ongoing relationship and potential to explore new ways BT could enable Syngenta’s growth and sustainability ambitions.

Nadja Risse, director of healthcare and life sciences at Global, BT, said: “Since 2000, BT has been a key enabler of Syngenta’s successful digital journey and we are honoured to continue our long-standing relationship with one of the most innovative global leaders in the sector. As we launch more and more digitally native services in our portfolio, BT will look to help empower Syngenta to achieve its ambitious sustainability goals and unlock opportunities to transform farmers’ lives through data and science.”

BT today announced it is expanding its multinational customers’ choice of cloud-based audio and video collaboration managed services with the addition of Zoom Meetings to its portfolio. It follows the signing of a new carrier agreement between BT and Zoom Video Communications, Inc.

The agreement means BT becomes the first global provider to offer a fully managed Zoom Meetings service featuring a choice of connectivity and integration with its global voice network. The service also includes end-to-end experience monitoring and enhanced security.

Connectivity choices include internet, global SIP, PSTN or MPLS. BT also offers security options such as encrypting communications, protecting customers’ user IDs, secure, private and resilient MPLS connectivity, dedicated network gateways and user adoption programmes, which educate users on secure best practice.

The agreement also enables BT to offer Zoom Rooms, Zoom’s extendable software-based conference room system.

Ryan Azus, chief revenue officer, Zoom, said: “We chose BT as a global managed service partner because it’s a trusted and established leader in the world market with in-depth enterprise voice, video, security, cloud and networking expertise. Our new agreement will help large enterprises fully experience the benefits Zoom Meetings, Zoom Phone and Zoom Rooms offer. This partnership will also expand Zoom’s global footprint and enterprise sales capabilities.”

Andrew Small, director, Global portfolio, BT, said: “We’re keeping it simple for customers, helping them create secure and productive digital workplaces for their people, wherever they are. Our new managed service allows global enterprises, typically with complex network and IT infrastructure, to consume Zoom Meetings in a simple, consistent and secure way with optimised experiences for their people around the world.”