Major corporate customers

Our target customers are corporate customers and government organisations around the world. These include major financial institutions, oil and gas companies, manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, retailers, and all other organisations with significant global requirements, together with large national and international public sector and governmental organisations in particular local markets. Revenue from this customer group grew by 7% to £7,573 million in 2008 and accounted for 37% of total group revenue.
     Our strategy is to get closer and become more important to our major corporate customers by offering high-value services and propositions that can directly improve their business performance. We take on the management of our customers’ mission-critical networks and IT assets and processes. This helps them to grow, reduce their costs, manage their relationships with their customers, optimise their supply chains, develop risk resilience and operate competitively, sustainably, securely and within the relevant regulatory frameworks.
     In an intensely competitive market, we have set ourselves apart from straightforward network product and service providers by developing propositions, through our professional services business, that consistently add value to our customers’ businesses, including investing and innovating in partnership with them. In addition to local, national and international communications services and higher-value broadband and IP products and services, we have developed a comprehensive portfolio of services focused on unified communications, CRM (customer relationship management), systems integration, security services and applications, outsourcing, managed mobile services and applications hosting.
     We have contracts with over 60% of the Fortune Global 500 companies – including Credit Suisse, Fiat Group, Volvo, BMW, AstraZeneca and Inbev – and over 65% of the FTSE 100 companies. In addition, we work closely with government organisations such as the UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and National Health Service (NHS), the European Commission and NATO.