BT, the UK’s largest telecommunications company, has announced plans to restructure its business by consolidating its Global and Enterprise divisions into a single unit called BT Business. The aim of this move is to cut costs and improve the performance of underperforming businesses.
As part of this restructuring, BT will eliminate various product portfolios and management and support positions, with the goal of saving £100 million by 2025. The combination of the two divisions is expected to increase simplicity by eliminating unnecessary duplication and allowing the company to offer a single service to both corporate and public sector clients.
This restructuring comes after the company announced in April that it would rebrand all of its consumer operations as EE, with BT becoming the flagship brand for its corporate units. In addition, the enterprise division has experienced a series of poor quarters, with a 23% drop in the first half of the fiscal year, while the global division, which serves international and multinational corporations, fell by 5% over the same period.
Bas Burger, the current CEO of BT’s Global division and a BT employee since 2008, will become the CEO of BT Business on January 1st. Rob Shuter, the CEO of BT Enterprise, will leave the company. From April 1st, 2023, BT Business will be reported as a single unit.
“By combining the two units, BT Business will bring the Group’s combined assets, products, capabilities and brand to the service of all of our 1.2m business customers who will benefit from faster innovation and delivery. Bas is an excellent leader and I’m confident he will build on the plans already underway and drive the combined business back to growth,” said BT Group Chief Executive Philip Jansen.
