Beijing move reflects interesting times

For a few weeks in 2008 the global spotlight was centred on Beijing as it held its spectacular and flamboyant Olympic Games. Once the party was over, many people shifted their focus elsewhere....

For BT's Chinese research centre, however, the Beijing experience begins in earnest in 2009 as it settles into its new residence in the capital city, a move that reflects a refinement of its long-term priorities to match the changing market.

The China Research & Development Centre was initially established by BT at the end of 2007 in Shanghai, in southern China, near many of the customers based in the country.

Much of the team's time is spent working with the top universities, mostly Beijing-based. Longer term the centre also wants to build on nascent relationships with key government departments, which are also established in the capital.

Therefore, given how much of its future work seemed likely to be in Beijing, closer proximity became a priority as the strategy for the next five years was mapped out.

Jie Zhang is head of the research centre. She says the small team's role is split between two primary objectives - collaborative research and technology transfer possibilities.

She explains: "It is important for BT to undertake joint research projects in China with academic institutions, organisations such as the China Research Institute and with the research units of BT's local customers and suppliers. We seek out these opportunities and act as a link to BT's programmes in the UK."

Open innovation

Given China's much talked about rapid economic growth, there are also significant opportunities to extend BT's open innovation model, which enables patents and IPR not commercially sensitive to BT to be made available for other organisations to license.

Jie adds: "Over the past year we have been starting to build up a potential technology transfer portfolio. There are lots of enterprises and new start-ups looking to catch up with international trends in the same field. They want to use the most advanced technology, which is where we can fit in."

"Our expertise is in identifying the right companies and technologies to work with and acting as a conduit from West to East, communicating technology and business knowledge on behalf of BT. We are the pathfinders, laying the road ahead of the expert UK technical team and patents team to carry out the detailed commercial and technical work."

This approach is already looking set to reap benefits. The team is close to an agreement to share specific IPR that will help one Chinese corporation become a leader in its field and significantly reduce its operational costs, with appropriate rewards to BT in return.

Other centre activities include the successful student work placement scheme with Shanghai University and the valuable support provided to account teams for new customer proposals and customer relationship management.

Jie explains: "We work as a supporting function to other lines of business, such as identifying a technology that might enhance an existing product for a customer. We also try to analyse future challenges for BT customers two to three years ahead and to identify solutions in advance, which can result in improved customer satisfaction and new contracts for BT."

Economic importance

The centre also provides valuable market knowledge and trend analysis to all of BT in the form of regular updates, which are valuable given China's economic importance in the wider region; it is second only to Japan in terms of IT market size.

Over the next five years Jie is hoping to increase headcount to expand the work of the research centre. At present her team does not do actual technology development work, which is concentrated in the UK and Malaysia.

Jie believes that it is important to take further time to identify the right technology research areas in China that can supplement, rather than overlap with, BT's existing activities.

This is no easy task in a market that, while of significant interest and importance to the West and organisations such as BT, is changing rapidly and often remains full of mystery to the unfamiliar observer.

However, for the team at the China Research & Development Centre, negotiating barriers and plotting the best route ahead are exactly the challenges that pathfinders are sent to overcome.