• The Joint Venture between BT and OnePhone Holding AB leverages ECT applications to offer converged fixed-mobile virtual PBX services to small and medium-sized businesses in the UK. In just seven years of operation, BT One Phone rapidly acquired subscribers, attaining both profitability and substantial revenue growth.
• Fredrik Zetterlund, founder and former Executive Vice President and Group CTO of OnePhone Holding, says that agile and cost-effective co-development with ECT facilitates BT One Phone’s rapid growth in a wide range of segments.
• Chris Sims, Managing Director of SoHo (Single/Small office, Home office) within BT Enterprise, sees BT One Phone as a key example of BT Enterprise’s progress in developing a convergent service portfolio which is one of its key goals.

Munich, September 27^th, 2021 ECT (European Computer Telecoms AG), provider of low-code technology and agile co-development dedicated to better business outcomes for CSPs and their customers, has been partnering for over 13 years with OnePhone Holding AB, a Swedish company formed to commercialize converged communications solutions. BT One Phone provides innovative converged virtual PBX (VPBX) services to the UK’s small to medium-sized businesses and is a joint venture (JV) between BT, the UK’s leading telecommunications and network provider, and the OnePhone Holding. This September, BT is finalizing the full ownership of the JV after purchasing the remaining 30% share of the Holding for 97M GBP. The latter is reportedly based on two independent company evaluations which determined the JV to have a total company value in excess of 320M GBP. BT One Phone’s revenues grew +38% for FY19-20 and the company is profitable. ECT provided the core technology, co-development and support behind BT One Phone’s VPBX product.

BT’s Motivation for the Buyout

As reported by TelcoTitans.com’s BTWatch, Chris Sims, Managing Director of SoHo (Single/Small office, Home office) within BT Enterprise “talked-up… BT One Phone, which virtualizes the PBX and is driving contract durations up substantially in the sector.” Sims pointed to the JV “during a 2019 Enterprise Business Briefing as a key example of BT Enterprise’s progress in developing a converged services portfolio – one of the division’s top strategic priorities.”

The Technology Behind This Success Story According to OnePhone Holding

“With ECT, we developed and provided market-leading services cost-effectively,” said Fredrik Zetterlund, founder and former Executive Vice President, and Group CTO of OnePhone Holding. “This facilitated market entry and rapid growth in a wide range of segments, from small enterprises to large government contracts. In several cases, ECT’s agility was key to securing new business, whether due to changing needs or requirements of a specific customer segment”, added Zetterlund, making reference to a contract won by BT One Phone with the help of ECT, with which BT provided an individualized solution to Her Majesty’s Prison Service during the pandemic. Using low code, ECT was able to individualize the OnePhone product in a matter of days and provided the solution as part of ECT’s complementary efforts to support subscriber acquisition and retention.

“During more than a decade, ECT supported our technology transition from legacy to IP, from 2G to 4G/5G and from hardware to software-based functionality,” said Fredrik regarding modernization of their services during a long and successful partnership with ECT. “Crucially, ECT delivered very high performance in terms of resilience, stability and availability, which in our experience is unparalleled,” continued the OnePhone Group CTO. “This reliability is fundamental to sustaining a leading cloud-based telecoms service while also growing fast.”

ECT looks forward to continuing the BT One Phone success story for many years to come. ECT CEO, Marshall E. Kavesh, stresses how “everyone at ECT is extremely proud of the success of OnePhone Holding and BT One Phone. It is yet another example of how CSPs create real shareholder value by offering their own unique and individualized enterprise services instead of just reselling third-party products. This is the better business outcome, for which we are always striving with our low code technology and our collaboration with CSPs.”

About ECT (European Computer Telecoms AG):

ECT is a tech company dedicated to better business outcomes for communications service providers (CSPs) and their customers. With our Telecoms Low-Code Application Platform (T-LCAP), Packaged Business Capabilities (PBCs), ready-to-use apps and agile co-development, we enable CSPs to compose, enhance and individualize telecoms services and products implemented within their telecoms network. We believe that business customers are ready to pay a premium price for reliable, individualized services, continuously evolving in cooperation with their trusted CSP. Toward this end, we collaborate with CSPs long-term and continuously, responding agilely to new and changing use cases, requests from individual customers, and emerging opportunities. Research and development are also a top ECT priority: we consult closely with leading analysts, implement emerging technologies and products early, and then test their viability together with the CSPs in our ecosystem. In addition to our own direct sales and service, primarily in Europe, we also partner with Nokia Networks which offers our products and services worldwide. Together with our clients and our partner Nokia, we at ECT enjoy meeting challenges and creating opportunities.

Founded in 1998, ECT is an unlisted German public company with its headquarters in Munich, Germany and wholly-owned sales and service subsidiaries in England, The Netherlands and the USA.

For more information about ECT, please visit ect-telecoms.com.

London – The startup named Pop VoIP has been backed by its parent company – Pop Telecom – and aims to unite business related data with phone calls and create a platform that harnesses the capability that enables home workers, mobile phones and offices act in unison through a single connection. The system offers the gateway to team conversation and overcomes the difficulty of having to send messages to individual members of a team. This feature allows instantaneous communication with team members and all chats are backed-up on the system cloud-based storage.

Low cost communication, made from Pop VoIP platform and virtual integration with CRM tools and commerce solutions has been a key driver in the company’s success. Advanced PBX features increase the retention of call flow. Pop VoIP also boasts a virtual receptionist that allows quick transfer of customers to the right employee and saves the time that would otherwise be required for a manual receptionist to retrieve the concerned message and relay it on paper in person. Acquisition of freephone numbers from multiple countries allows the recruitment of new agents and expansion of the company to become a global provider with beefed up customer support. International calls can be routed anywhere in the specified country thereby expanding customer base without requiring the capital to move or build new offices.

The system uses packet-switched protocols through computer networks and has superseded the need to use cables for calls since data is transmitted via the internet making it easier for users to connect with their loved ones and friends. Monthly broadband solutions are an integral element of Pop VoIP which averts the need to purchase expensive circuit switches from local telephone supply. The signals relayed by the system can be transmitted from any VoIP compatible network. A simple setup with local network allows access to the VoIP system and several beneficial features. VoIP has climbed the ladder in the telecommunications industry in recent years. Features like conference calling, instant messaging, and call recording from a VoIP system and several other VoIP packages to suit small or large businesses and even for personal usage have become the dominant way of accessibility in this modern era.

About Pop VoIP

The freedom and liberty by granting the ability to move freely throughout the office yet continuously maintaining the availability and quality of the service is one major advantage of Pop VoIP that cannot be overlooked. Unlike any other telephony provider, Pop VoIP solves the problem of costly fees and limitations by providing a two-in-one, easy-to-use system while maintaining a highly-accessible and feature-rich service. Pop VoIP is continually evolving — having an open-access around the globe with offices in London and the USA making us an international business. Pop VoIP subscribers are empowered to a full-cycle expense manageme

Contact: 

Conner Curran
Managing Director
Office: 03301180204

Website: popvoip.co.uk

PredictiVu, India’s first of its kind analytics firm and one stop solution for CMOs and marketers, specialized in correlating marketing campaign performance with proprietary retail purchase data, digital trends, customer preferences, media spend at immense granular level to deliver near real-time business intelligence insights 10 times faster than traditional methods, today announced the formation of its Advisory Board, comprising distinguished industry leaders from Telecom, e-commerce, Consumer Goods, IT and Consumer Research. Lloyd Mathias, Idi Srinivas Murthy, Jessie Paul and Rajesh Kurup are on the advisory board and will provide guidance and direction to the founding team at PredictiVu to enable growth and build advanced marketing intelligence solutions that empower CMOs.

“We are honoured to have such distinguished industry veterans joining our Advisory board. This is indeed a key milestone for PredictiVu and comes at a perfect time when marketers are seeking faster, accurate, deep dive data analytics, insights delivery and granular interpretation of multiple data sources into an easy to consume visualization tool, from the market intelligence industry. We believe our advisors’ strategic counsel and advice will empower PredictiVu to address market challenges and introduce advanced solutions for the market more prominently”, said Kunal Sarkar, Vice President, PredictiVu.

Lloyd Mathias, Angel Investor & Business Strategist and SAB member, PredictiVu said, “PredictiVu has extreme potential to lead the next level data interpretation need that would require faster, flexible, reliable, consolidated, and comprehensive business intelligence approach.  Being a part of the advisory board to strategize their business prospects, guiding them to address the key market gaps and solving enterprise consumer challenges, will be certainly very exciting.”

Idi Srinivas Murthy, Independent Consultant and SAB member, PredictiVu said, "PredictiVu is poised to lead the data-based business intelligence market, because it empowers marketing program decisions in almost real-time through its AI / ML modules and multi-dimensional mapping. It’s exciting to deliver strategic advice to this unique platform! Through my marketing career, I’ve seen that it is not the biggest spend that win – but the savviest adopters of new technologies, ideas and insights. We hope our vision will be beneficial for the growth of the company.”

 Joining the PredictiVu Strategic Advisory Board (SAB) are:

Lloyd Mathias is an Angel Investor, Business Strategist, and Board Member, and Advisor to companies in the technology and consumer space before which he was the PC marketing head of HP’s APAC region. In previous corporate roles, he was President & CMO of Tata Docomo, Country Sales Director for Motorola, Executive VP Marketing and Category Director for PepsiCo India and South Asia. Lloyd has also been Chairman of MRUC the publisher of the Indian Readership Survey and Co-Chairman of the Device Strategy Council, Mobility Development Group, USA. In 2007, he was recognized among the world’s top 15 marketers, by International list magazine – a list that celebrates international marketers behind outstanding cross-border campaigns.

Jessie Paul as an entrepreneur, investor, board member, and marketing leader with 26 years of expertise across strategy and modern marketing; she has helped grow organizations from startup stage to global scale. She advises companies on their digital evolution so they can reach customers in the new tech-enabled ecosystem while guiding them on how to maximize profitability with their go-to-market and positioning.  She is the CEO and founder of Paul Writer a marketing consulting firm that helps global and Indian clients with market entry, positioning and customer outreach. She was Global Brand Manager of Infosys during its hectic growth era, headed marketing for challenger brand Quintant (acquired by iGATE), and Chief Marketing Officer of Wipro Technologies during which it quadrupled its revenues to $4 billion.  Her first book, No Money Marketing: From Upstart to Big Brand on a Frugal Budget was a business bestseller in India, and an updated version has been accepted for publication by Bloomsbury in 2021. She is an independent director on the boards of Expleo Solutions, Royal Orchid Hotels, Bajaj Consumer Care, and CreditAccess Grameen Ltd.

Idi Srinivas Murthy is a senior-level corporate executive with expertise in marketing, growth strategies & integrated implementation; especially in consumer product, consumer-digital, health & tech-based sectors. Currently, he is an Expert Advisor to McKinsey & Co. and manages independent consulting projects. He is an active angel investor, and member of the Board of Directors of RenewBuy (D2C), India’s 2nd largest digital insur-tech player. His writings on consumer & category trends, entrepreneurship, and brand management have often been featured in reputed publications. In twelve years with the Coca-Cola Company, where he donned roles in brand marketing, bottler operations management & innovation commercialization, he also revived Coca-Cola TM post a devastating pesticide controversy in India and led Sprite’s Global Emerging Markets charter. In his stint as the Senior VP - Marketing at Snapdeal, he oversaw branding, online merchandising, digital marketing, user acquisition & retention plans, and public relations.

Rajesh Kurup is a veteran with 25 years of experience and one of the pioneer consumer researchers in the IT/Tech space in India. In his previous stint he has worked with Kantar Milward Brown, TCS as an Associate Vice President and IMRB International as Group Business Director. His expertise lies in Customer Satisfaction Studies for clients in the Banking and Automotive sector, statistical modelling, advanced market research methods such as multivariate analysis for decision making, Conjoint; Conceptualization of consumer behaviour models, excellent formal training and exposure to qualitative research.