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Teamwork rescues contract
Wednesday October 01st 2008. Posted: 16:22
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Putting BT in pole position – from left, BT Operate compliance and safety liaison officer Keith McGlennon, Andrew Payne, Openreach manager Tom Rodney and John Monaghan
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A seven-strong pan-BT team has put the company in pole position for a £400 million contract with the nuclear industry after rescuing a 15-year contract with its flagship site Sellafield in Cumbria.
In January 2006 BT gave a series of legally binding commitments - the Undertakings - to regulator Ofcom that led to the creation of Openreach. This meant BT had to change the way the £1 million a year on-site service contract at Sellafield was managed. Historically, BT’s engineers working at the nuclear site had been able to carry out all jobs requested by the customer - jobs which, following the Undertakings, were split between Openreach and BT Operate. An exemption from the Undertakings allowed the historical working practices to continue until BT’s contract with the customer expired - and BT Operate and Openreach needed to work together to ensure the best way of supporting the customer’s network. When the contract expired, a new one wasn’t signed, resulting in team members being temporarily pulled off site - but they refused to be beaten, said Michael Fortune, BT Operate field manager for Lancashire and Cumbria. “It was a mammoth task to manage expectations,” he said. “The rules had changed and the guys took it upon themselves to understand those rules, change the customer’s perception and get it right first time. “The team looked at the issues affecting the site and sought advice and guidance from the BT Operate Undertakings and compliance team. This helped it come up with a solution to allow Openreach to come into the contract in a compliant and seamless way.” BT Operate’s Sellafield liaison officer John Monaghan - who had been working on the contract since the start in 1993 - volunteered for a secondment to Openreach for an interim period to perform the tasks Openreach was now responsible for. The team - including BT Operate engineer Andrew Payne - also designed and implemented new processes that would allow the Openreach part of the contract to be carried out without any impact or extra cost to the customer. John said: “This has been all about customer service. By engaging the right people for guidance and advice, we have avoided losing the Sellafield contract.” Sellafield extended BT’s contract when presented with the new single service and was so “over the moon” with it, it has now signed a new two-year contract. These processes have paved the way for BT to bid for a new national nuclear IT contract across the country’s 23 nuclear sites - worth potentially £400 million - in 2010.
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