Hothouse accelerates Open Britain initiative

The Open Britain initiative was launched by the previous minster for the disabled Jonathan Shaw MP by asking leading Third Sector brands, government agencies and other relevant organisations to collaborate in the delivery of the shared vision and with BT to develop a platform which might enable the development of location based services for disabled people.

Open Britain positions the UK as the first country to take such a collaborative approach and it is hoped will deliver a valued 2012 legacy. The minister tasked Sir William Lawrence, chairman for Tourism for All with leading the initiative and urged all parties to work with BT and others to deliver this step change for disability access - underpinned by BT’s sponsorship role in 2012.

Driving forward

BT Innovate & Design has been working closely with the BT’s regional partnership director - South East, Peter Cowen to take the lead on technology, innovation and programme management to drive the project forward more effectively. BT has demonstrated thought leadership in all areas and gained the support of key external stakeholders, ministers and the key routes to market.

Part of BT’s approach to accelerate the development process was the organisation of a hothouse that involved the key external stakeholders and customers as well as BT people. The hothouse was a significant success and was attended by high level delegates from the key organisations, such as Sir William Lawrence, Chairman for Tourism for All, Jennifer Littman, MBE, chief executive of Tourism for All, and many more.

The hothouse was an opportunity to not only demonstrate BT’s technical thought leadership but more importantly BT’s effective and agile development methods and techniques that enable customers to innovate and tackle real business problems and devise real working solutions within very short timescales.

The hothouse saw the development of four working prototypes that enable the customers to see and experience in real terms, the propositions being built, discussed and evaluated, as well as to come up with new ones.

New way of working

Jennifer Littman, chief executive of Tourism for All said after the Hothouse: “To me it showed the power of collective working in a way that I had not experienced before - and what we might be able to achieve together, some of which will probably emerge from unexpected quarters”.

Peter Cowen, BT’s lead for Open Britain said: “The Open Britain programme represents a rare opportunity for true collaborative working in the formation and delivery of a significant vision and a valuable legacy for 2012, the only failure that can result from this initiative is not taking the opportunity forward”.

Since the hothouse, the project has been progressing at a level that has not been achieved before and has further strengthened BT’s credibility and reputation for innovation and leadership.