Perhaps the biggest barrier to be overcome by companies looking at investing in overseas markets is the fear of the unknown. How will the company know what its business will look like in five years time? Will the UK and European market accept its products and services? Will the initial capital investment pay off?

In recognition of these concerns, BT has launched the 'Venture Smart' initiative. There are 2 broad approaches:

• For companies wishing to test the market without committing to a large-scale capital investment, BT will host the operation (for example, a customer contact centre) within its own or partners' premises, recruit and train the staff and implement the necessary technology. The investor can defer capital expenditure in real estate, hardware and software, management time, recruitment and utility charges.
  
  
• Where a company is already convinced that the market is proven, there is a venture smart approach where BT designs, build and operates a new site on the company's behalf. In this instance, BT absorbs the upfront capital investment, while the client company can reserve the opportunity to buy the operations from BT in the future. Service Level Agreements and Guarantees will be jointly developed to ensure high levels of quality, and the client company can decide either to involve its own senior management in recruitment, training and operations, or to take a hands-off stance.

For both of these broad types of solution, BT can package the billing aspects to suit the client's needs, agreeing a payment based on, for example, price per call centre agent position per month. In addition to lower capital investment and reduced risk, there is increased flexibility so that companies can scale up (or down) their operations in tune with market demands.

BT is confident that it has developed a compelling and innovative proposition in Venture Smart, and that this will encourage more overseas companies to use the UK as a springboard into the European marketplace.

To find out more about Venture Smart contact:

Email: elocations@bt.com
www.bt.com/btelocations
Tel: +44 (0) 1977592194

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