Keeping our costs down

We continue to benchmark ourselves against the best in the industry to determine where efficiencies can be generated. We remain focused on financial discipline and on delivering efficiency programmes to generate sustainable cost efficiencies.
     Cost transformation programmes delivered £625 million of savings in 2008 and we expect to deliver around £700 million in 2009. Many of these programmes are closely linked to ‘right first time’ initiatives, which have the dual benefit of reducing our cost of failure as well as enhancing the customer experience.
     We have, for example, continued to enhance the ways in which customers interact with BT. The number of transactions completed via bt.com rose by more than 90% in 2008. At 31 March 2008, we had 3.6 million customers receiving e-bills, almost 1.9 million of whom do not receive paper bills. In response, we have planted one million trees over the past three years.
     We remained focused on reducing the number and complexity of our systems and processes (Our IT systems and networks estate). Other key programmes relate to innovative procurement and sourcing.
     We continued to explore the possibilities of flexible and agile working. At 31 March 2008, 23% of BT people doing what are conventionally thought of as ‘office jobs’ did not have a dedicated desk of their own. Rather, they used a combination of homeworking and/or flexible workstations which can be shared by multiple users.
     We also made progress in 2008 in our drive to streamline our organisation and eliminate duplication. This will remain a priority in 2009.

	£625m efficiency savings in 2008