Years ended, or as at, 31 March		2002		2001
Group turnover		£4,476	m	£3,468	m
Group operating loss		£(353	)m	£(309	)m
No. of employees ('000)		16.4		18.8
Note - before goodwill amortisation and exceptional items

BT Ignite is our business services and solutions division, serving customers worldwide.

Its strategy is to deliver managed networks and communications solutions to multi-site corporate customers with activities in one or more European countries, including customers who operate globally with needs in Europe.

BT Ignite, along with BT Retail in the UK, positions us as a leading provider of managed communications services and solutions to corporate customers with substantial European operations.

Meeting customers' needs
BT Ignite provides customers with:

A unique services portfolio, with significant reach and depth
Its European network covers 56,000 kilometres, linking to 300 large towns and cities, with 20 hosting centres spanning the continent and Europe's largest IP virtual private network capability.

It also has a worldwide network of partnerships, joint ventures and distributors to meet customers' needs in the USA and Asia.

BT Ignite's customers are increasingly international in their activities and require advanced, IP-based, high-performance services, with full functionality, delivered to all of their locations.

One example is multi-protocol label switching (MPLS), which BT Ignite was the first to launch internationally. MPLS-based, IP virtual private networks (VPNs) are the next generation of data networks for corporate customers, supporting voice, data and video applications. These networks offer more flexibility and greater service performance.

A customer-driven portfolio
BT Ignite's services and solutions portfolio is built around the needs of multi-site businesses. It includes:

• desk top equipment and software;
• web hosting services;
• network equipment and software;
• managed network services;
• transport and connectivity;
• integration services;
• network operations services; and
• network and business consulting services.

Extensive experience in delivering solutions and value-added services
Revenue in BT Ignite Solutions was £1,828 million in the 2002 financial year, up 17% on the previous year with some accounts growing by 50% in the 2001 calendar year. Gartner analysts estimate that BT Ignite Solutions has 6.5% of the UK integrated communications market.

BT Ignite Solutions has around 5,000 employees and operates in over 20 countries through joint ventures and associate relationships. Syntegra, which provides global systems integration and consultancy expertise, employs around 5,000 highly-skilled people across the globe, with particular strengths in financial services and government.

BT Ignite has embarked on an aggressive plan to build on its UK solutions base and extend its skills, knowledge and expertise into its continental European sales and service teams.

Core to the needs of multi-site business customers is global account management and BT Ignite offers a single point of contact for sales and service for all its major customers.

Business realignment
During the year, BT Ignite was realigned to ensure that it retained its focus on multi-site corporate customers, and ceased activities that might distract from this strategy.

On 31 March 2002, we successfully transferred the management of our former Concert customers to BT Ignite (and BT Retail).

The Concert MPLS VPN platform, with its global presence in Europe, USA and Asia, is being integrated with the BT Ignite European platform, to enhance reach and coverage.

BT Ignite's global reach services (Frame, ATM, IP-VPN) extend to and across North and South America. This means that BT Ignite's products are delivered seamlessly from Europe to its own locations in the Americas, and delivered locally through standard, non-exclusive interconnect and supply agreements with regional carriers.

Global service is provided via a network of service and management centres around the world, on a 24 hours a day, seven days a week basis.

BT Ignite will not make any new investments in SME or consumer businesses in Europe, including either the building or buying of infrastructure, or acquiring new customer bases. It will, however, continue to participate in existing SME and consumer businesses, as long as they are profitable.

Cash management
In 2002, BT Ignite reduced its capital expenditure by 35%, compared with the previous financial year. Operating free cash flow improved by over £400 million.

Customers
By focusing on the needs of multi-site business customers, BT Ignite has been able to improve customer service and increase efficiency. Examples include:

• BT Ignite's innovative e-business tools and applications include the Commerce One auction service, which enables companies to tender for supply contracts via a dedicated internet portal. This has helped Whitbread Group make procurement savings estimated at 15%;
• Hitachi (Europe) recently changed its business processes and systems. For this project, BT Ignite provided programme management, change management and strategic advice on a one-stop shop basis. The project included business process and organisational analysis, specialist intranet consultancy and design and implementation skills;
• Syntegra provided voice trading technology for 1,400 people in Merrill Lynch's new, state-of-the-art, London trading room - Europe's largest trading floor; and
  
• for GlaxoSmithKline, BT Ignite developed a network solution, designed to offer high availability and flexibility to maintain competitiveness, speed up time to market, improve cost effective management of research and development processes, and enable more efficient implementation and auditing of new regulations.