BT has announced the opening of a new managed customer service centre located in Belfast, Northern Ireland, following a one million pound investment in the new facility.

The new centre will proactively monitor the networks of BT’s large corporate and public sector customers across the country, including Primark and the Government of Northern Ireland’s NI Direct programme, with the aim of resolving issues before the customer is even aware of a potential problem. The centre provides critical services for organisations 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, across a wide range of products and services.

BT’s tailored, managed customer service solution combines all aspects of a customer’s IT estate, such as networking, IT and data services, security, and unified communications – from multiple vendors – into a single service wrap. Customers can choose from a range of value-added services, including proactive network management, enhanced reporting and project management – delivered by a single BT helpdesk.

BT has also designed and developed a new online customer portal which gives organisations direct access to current and historic data about their own network. This allows customers to better understand their network capacity and usage while the new online service also allows them to produce their own reports quickly and easily.

BT has recruited 20 new technical engineers who will be based at the new centre. They will join a specialist group of 150 IT experts trained to handle a wide range of customer requests. The team is responsible for meeting the IT requirements of around 700 of BT’s corporate and public sector customers around the UK.

The centre has also been awarded IL3 security accreditation, which requires enhanced security to protect sensitive information and is a common requirement for Government departments and agencies. This means that BT’s customers can be assured the environment in which BT manages their network meets these exceptionally high security standards.

BT’s MD for Customer Service, Trafford Wilson, said: “The opening of the intelligent Network Operations Centre – or the iNOC as we call it – is the next big step in BT’s plans to overhaul its service to public sector and business customers through investing in our people and world-class technology. The combination of our IT specialists and this great new centre will allow us to continue to provide a world class service to our customers.”