RNS Number:1136Z
BT Group PLC
25 July 2002


BT WINS £200 MILLION WORTH OF BUSINESS


BT today announced that it has won contracts with four major companies.

The deals, worth £200 million, were signed with banking giants HBOS and
Barclay's, BAA, and the leading plant and crane hire company, Hewden Stuart.

BT's biggest ever voice services contract has been signed with high street bank
HBOS.

A second major voice services deal worth £50 million has been struck with the
world's leading airport company, BAA.

The three year HBOS contract will cover the whole of the bank's voice telephony
service, guaranteeing the bank's targeted efficiency savings.

HBOS awarded the complete package to BT to ensure a consistent level of service
from one company and the ability to upgrade to 'new wave' technology in the
future. The bank, which was formed by the merger of Halifax and the Bank of
Scotland, will benefit from a substantial group saving across the whole range of
BT products and services.

The deal with BAA is to supply and manage all voice communications at Heathrow,
Gatwick and Stansted airports and BAA's corporate headquarters in London. As
part of the five-year deal, BT will deliver and manage voice communications and
paging services to BAA's 8000 employees.

This innovative outsourcing contract covers more than 15,500 extensions in areas
including Customs and Excise, the emergency services, retail outlets, check-in
desks and baggage handling.

BAA, together with its business partners, will benefit from one point of contact
for all voice queries across its different offices and airports. BT is providing
a 24/7 helpdesk service for all users, which can be used to place new orders as
well as report problems and clarify billing queries.

In addition to HBOS, a second banking giant, Barclays, has agreed a £39 million
contract with BT to manage the company's core local area network - BT's biggest
LAN deal to date.

Under the contract Barclay's entire LAN infrastructure will be outsourced to BT-
allowing Barclays to concentrate on its core business.

The deal, which has taken two years to come to fruition, will initially provide
24,000 LAN ports spread over 16 locations including the bank's London head
office. The win is an important one, as traditionally the LAN market has been
dominated by other suppliers.

BT was chosen over five other bidders for the contract, having already
successfully won a deal to supply wide area network (WAN) services to Barclays.
The contract opens up a huge potential for further growth, including extending
the LAN to Barclays' 2000 branches.

In addition, Hewden Stuart, the UK's leading plant and crane hire company, has
entered into an outsourcing contract with BT worth £13 million. BT are now
responsible for the delivery of Hewden Stuart's UK infrastructure, IT services
and systems maintenance. BT has supplied Hewden Stuart with Agile Office and
Contact Central packages.

Contact Central, which is a call-centre solution, has allowed the company to
consolidate five customer databases down to two, which means searching for
customer information is much quicker.

Agile Office, developed in partnership with Microsoft, means BT has assumed
responsibility for all of the Hewden Stuart's computers and maintenance allowing
them to focus on their core business.

BT are continuing to work closely with Hewden Stuart in helping to develop their
e-business and applications to support the growth of Hewden Stuart core
business.

Pierre Danon, chief executive officer of BT Retail, said: "We are delighted to
announce these new contracts, won against stiff competition which are further
evidence that BT is able to provide the communications solutions that the UK' s
major companies want to help them be successful in their own sectors.

"The HBOS deal is the biggest voice contract BT has ever won. These 'wins'
highlight the fact that we are continuing to focus on defending our core market
voice products, as well as making great strides into 'new-wave' market, which is
a key component of our revenue growth strategy."

BT Ignite - BT's business services and solutions division, serving customers
worldwide - developed the technology-driven initiatives.

Neil Rogers, president of BT Ignite Solutions, said: "Businesses across the UK
are choosing to work with BT owing to our expertise in both voice and data
technology. Through our work with existing customers, we have proved that we can
deploy and manage sophisticated technology solutions that will deliver
measurable financial benefits to a business."


Inquiries about this news release should be made to the BT Retail Press Office.
Contact Michael Jarvis on 020 73566045 or Jonathan Carter on 020 73564523.



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