BT's Simon Godfrey explains how a focus on people, places, and ideas can transform the UK public sector
The UK industrial strategy with its themes of: Ideas, People, Infrastructure, Business Environment and Places is an excellent foundation upon which to build a strong, dynamic, resilient and thriving UK. It will take the combined resources of the Public and Private sectors collaborating across boundaries and thinking together, if we are to deliver upon the full potential available to our country.
BT is part of the UK’s fabric, we have a long legacy in supporting the country and are a proud supplier of critical fixed and mobile solutions to a wide range of public sector organisations, from small to large. We are fully committed to being a good corporate citizen, delivering valuable services and value for money, and supporting the Public Sector as it faces significant challenges. Enabling brilliant teams, delivering innovation and mobilising people to deliver their best is an important value for our organisation.
To help the UK achieve its full potential we believe that BT’s expertise, skills, knowledge and passion is vitally important and being able to make this available to our customers is key. We will be doing more, and will leverage the many talents of our organisation for the benefit of the UK. We are focusing our energies to build better public services on three themes: People, Places and Ideas.
People
Success is driven by people, and in the complex world of public service it’s a team effort where skills, qualities and diversity blend to give the best outcomes. At BT we have a fantastic body of knowledge which we wish to make available to our Public Sector customers. We want to create a real step change in information and knowledge sharing, where the sector learns from us and us from them. This will manifest itself in the creation of many more access and entry points at all levels and across all disciplines. It’s started by BT supporting the Operational Delivery Profession, sponsoring the CSW Leadership Lecture, and will permeate across other professions and departments throughout the year.
Places
Places are where we work, but this no longer means a building that one works in, it can mean many things. Mobile working, flexible working, hot desking and space sharing are all part of the modern working environment. At BT we’ve been “mobile” for a long time and we are currently sharing these lessons and providing great solutions to diverse customers throughout the sector. We have great tools and technologies along with much experience to ensure that public servants can operate in a reliable, consistent, safe, secure and resilient fashion no matter where they choose to be. We believe BT’s voice is key in helping to shape the way we work for tomorrow and for the years ahead.
Ideas
This is where the UK excels, many great inventions and innovations have occurred here, and the challenge is that much of this is happening in smaller organisations without the resources, access or capital to scale as quickly as their great ideas would allow. So at BT we are creating the environment to get these ideas in front of our customers and as an example we are in our fourth year of the Infinity Award, supported by the Cabinet Office and GDS. We will provide the winners with the space, the expertise, the networks and the contacts to enable their vision. We want to do this more and more and ensure that BT as a great British company leverages the SME talent within the UK for the benefit of public and private sectors alike.
Summary
We are serious about ensuring that BT will deliver more for the UK, helping our customers to achieve a smarter digital future. We will continue to protect the infrastructure of this country and we will do more and leverage what we can to ensure that the UK succeeds in an ever changing and increasingly challenging world.
So our strategy is fundamentally simple, it is to improve how people work together, where they work and what they use to do their work. At all times ensuring that they are safe and secure in the knowledge that BT is the trusted partner enabling a step change in the way Government meets the needs of the Citizen in a 21st Century, driven ever faster by the power of communication technologies.