Telecom Lead Asia: BT has opened a new global shared service facility in Kuala Lumpur.
Kevin Taylor, president for Asia Pacific, Middle-East & Africa, BT Global Services, said: “Our investment in Malaysia allows us to better serve our customers by leveraging local talent globally, and supports our expansion drive in high growth regions.”
The facility has two centers — global development center (GDC) and contract delivery shared service center (CDSS). BT has eight other GDC’s, which provides innovation and development of ICT solutions around the world. CDSS support the company’s managed network IT services contracts with its largest multinational customers.
The GDC is part of BT’s recently announced investment and diversification plan into the Asia Pacific region and the company will be in-sourcing key projects to staff in Malaysia in the new global shared service facility.
According to Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), a partner of the new facility, says the Shared Services and Outsourcing (SSO) industry has been an important part of Malaysia’s ICT-led aspiration to transform into a knowledge-based economy.
At present, there are over 233 MSC Malaysia Status SSO companies, made up of major local players and multinationals, which have set up operations in Malaysia, supporting various local and international services including Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO), Knowledge Process Offshoring (KPO) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).
In 2011, MSC Malaysia saw revenues of over RM9.14 billion (US$2.99 billion) in the shared services and outsourcing sector, with investments of over RM7.7 billion (US$2.52 billion), resulting in the creation of 59,000 jobs to date.
According to AT Kearney Global Services Location Index 2011, this strategy has positioned Malaysia in the global SSO map as one of the top three global SSO locations, after India and China for the last eight consecutive years..
BT has been operating in Malaysia for close to 20 years. In 2004, BT set up a research and development (R&D) facility.
BT says the new facility in Malaysia will enable BT to create 600-800 jobs in Malaysia over the next three years. These new jobs will include software developers, quality-assurance managers, technical leads, project managers and other support functions.
