BT is also partnering with SugarCRM to provide their CRM product to users.

Some might see these moves as being outside a Telco’s sphere of business, but even plain old telephone services are SaaS of a sort, providing more SaaS products to their existing customer base makes sense.

BT also has the opportunity to combine their own communication products into the SaaS offering so that a salesperson can, for example, click to call from within SugarCRM, or an accounts receivable clerk can send a debtor SMS reminder through Netsuite.

I understand that BT is not only on-selling, but also providing customisation and support services for the solutions they’re offering.

It’s a great model which will help replace some revenue BT is losing to telco competition, and build themselves into a services provider for the new century.

A great move and one to watch for in our own market.