Incumbent telecommunications operators such as BT, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom in Europe have been suffering increasing competition which is threatening revenues from traditional voice services. Smaller operators (e.g. C&W and Colt), Internet-based firms (e.g. Google and Yahoo), cable TV firms (e.g NTL: Telewest) and satellite TV firms (e.g. Sky) are among the competitors in an increasing convergent market. In order to survive and grow in this competitive environment, the incumbent telecom operators are investing in delivering integrated solutions to large customers. The business of integrated solutions demands different capabilities from the ones required for the traditional voice services. This paper investigates such capabilities and the application of the platform strategy, common in the IT market, in order to reorganise the incumbent telecom operators towards a customer-centric approach, and to cope with the wide range of competitors. Through the analysis of successful delivery of integrated solutions as major projects undertaken by BT Global Services, a business unit of BT in the UK, the paper concludes that one major customer-centric strategy of BT is to engage with large customers, building their networks as platforms, and co-evolving with its own platform called BT 21st Century Network (BT 21CN). Such platforms present both the features of reusability of subsystems and interfaces, and the exposure to third party firms with the aim to drive industry innovation.
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机译：欧洲的BT，Deutsche Telekom和France Telecom等老牌电信运营商一直在遭受日益激烈的竞争，这正威胁着传统语音服务的收入。规模较小的运营商（例如C＆W和Colt），基于互联网的公司（例如Google和Yahoo），有线电视公司（例如NTL：Telewest）和卫星电视公司（例如Sky）在日益趋同的市场中都是竞争对手。为了在竞争激烈的环境中生存和发展，现有的电信运营商正在投资为大型客户提供集成解决方案。集成解决方案业务需要与传统语音服务所需功能不同的功能。本文研究了这种功能以及IT市场中常见的平台策略的应用，以便将现有的电信运营商重组为以客户为中心的方法，并应对众多竞争对手。通过对英国电信英国分公司BT Global Services承担的作为主要项目的集成解决方案成功交付的分析，论文得出的结论是，英国电信以客户为中心的主要战略是与大客户互动，建立大客户网络。平台，并与自己的称为BT 21st Century Network（BT 21CN）的平台共同发展。这样的平台既具有子系统和接口可重用性的特征，又具有旨在推动行业创新的第三方公司的责任。
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