BT's often outspoken and visionary Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Matt Bross has left the BT building. According to a story in LightReading, Bross' decision was for personal reasons and not related to the company's recent organizational restructuring. Interestingly, Bross's departure came shortly after the BT Group decided to merge the BT Innovate Group with BT Design, which is charged with developing new services. The combination of these two groups created the new BT Innovate and Design.
It appears that BT is neither planning to replace Bross or appoint a new CTO. Instead, the service provider has appointed current CIO Al-Noor Ramji, who currently oversees BT Innovate and Design, to oversee BT's technology strategy. Graham Finnie, chief analyst for Heavy Reading, said that the service provider's decision to appoint Ramji could be a model that other service providers may emulate.
While "the CTO still has the upper hand in most telcos" in terms of taking technology decisions and driving the network strategy, "the power is shifting towards the CIO... as the center of gravity in telcos shifts toward IT. This move looks like a reflection of BT's strategy to position itself as a company that's providing the network as a service, using next-generation OSS and opening up its network to third parties."
For more:
- LightReading has this report
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