Commitment to Quality

Quality is inherent in the way we do business, how we manage our processes and our people. This commitment sets us apart from our competitors

We connect the worlds of our customers by enabling effective communication, irrespective of geography, distance, time and complexity. It is our goal to continue to be an agile and effective services company delivering communications solutions that help customers lead the lives they want, and help businesses play their part in the digital networked economy.

BT Ireland have a reputation as an organisation that delivers excellent customer service, our commitment to quality is the very foundation of our brand, our values and our business strategy. Quality is inherent in the way we do business, how we manage our processes and our people. This commitment sets us apart from our competitors.

Company-wide commitment to quality – ISO 9001

Many of our customers including multinationals and government bodies require a commitment to formal independently validated quality processes. ISO9001 is company-wide and independently assessed. It ensures BT as a whole meets international standards in quality management. Our quality management system was first registered to ISO 9001 by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) in 1994. ISO9001 is one of the most widely recognised benchmarks of good management practice and has important commercial value. Even though all business units are involved in meeting the certification standard, an offshoot is that it is a key enabler in helping BT to continually improve customer service. ISO9001 is the umbrella certification for other quality certifications relating to specific business areas such as IT service management, information security management, business continuity management and environmental management.

IT Service Management Quality (for managed services) – ISO 20000

BT has a longstanding commitment to best practice within IT Service Management, nine years of ISO20000 certification sets us apart from our competitors. ISO20000 is increasingly a pre-requisite for bid processes. BT Ireland is ISO20000 certified for all our managed services customers including data centre, hosting and cloud business and for IT service contracts for major clients such as Bank of Ireland. BT is dedicated to ensuring that we continue to develop and improve our processes to best support our customers. Certification helps us benchmark how we deliver and improve our services, measure and assess performance, demonstrate ability to meet customer requirements and create a framework for an independent assessment. The ISO20000 processes are based on ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) framework but are independently audited against the standard by LRQA (Lloyds of London) twice a year and fully recertified every three years. ITIL is used to demonstrate compliance and measure improvement. It is a set of procedures, tasks and checklists used by organisations for establishing a minimum level of competency, allowing the organisation to establish a baseline from which it can plan, implement, measure and improve.

Information Security management – ISO 27001

As a communications and ICT company, BT is trusted to manage data on a global scale. Data governance is about how we ensure BT retains the trust placed in us, by managing data in accordance with the rules and the expectations of those whose data we handle. Data governance is an umbrella term. It includes: data privacy; data protection; customer data handling; data incidents and reporting; data and information retention; e-privacy; and lawful interception. Therefore it affects every area of our work, including how we deliver services, implement contracts, manage suppliers, win new business, and lead BT people. BT’s policy on data protection applies company-wide, our mandatory data protection training Courses ensure all our people clearly understand their responsibilities. Our certification to ISO 27001 demonstrates to customers and prospects alike that BT will protect its data in line with internationally acknowledged information security standards and, as with all of the ISO certifications, compliance is independently assessed every six months. BT was one of the first companies to recognise the strategic importance of combining ISO 9001 Quality Management with the added assurance of ISO 27001 Information Security. As an international security standard, it provides a model for setting up and running an effective Information Security Management System (ISMS)

Environmental Management Systems (EMS) – ISO 14001

Good environmental management saves money and improves efficiency, as well as making sure we do all we can to protect the planet. BT strives to reduce our impacts on the environment, our EMS is crucial in helping us manage this impact, such as reducing resources, emissions and waste from our facilities, cutting down on travel and reducing the lifecycle impact of our products. BT has been developing its EMS since 1989, we are certified to the International Standard ISO 14001. We use a web tool called enviroMANAGER™ to help us properly manage our environmental impact and provide greater visibility of our responsibilities and activities. The move towards a low-carbon economy is creating greater opportunities for BT to grow its business, while reducing environmental harm. BT products and services such as high-speed broadband, data centres, teleconferencing, remote working solutions, and smart metering are all helping people and organisations to live and work in a more sustainable way.

Business Continuity Management and Risk – ISO 22301

Business continuity ensures critical business functions will be available to customers, suppliers, regulators, and other entities. Business continuity is not something implemented at the time of a disaster; Business continuity refers to those activities performed daily to maintain service, consistency, and recoverability. ISO 22301 sets out a structure for BT to understand critical activities, threats, resources, risks and our obligations. It helps us determine strategies to mitigate any risks or threats. Through ISO 22301 BT implements full incident response structures to ensure minimal disruption to your services, thereby protecting our customers’ market share, reputation and brand. BT implemented the call centre platform for ECAS (Emergency Call Answering Service) which covers all 999 and 112 emergency calls, connecting callers to the appropriate Emergency Service (fire, Garda, ambulance and coastguard) 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks of the year. The service operates under strict legislation and is regulated by ComReg. The IT services programme for ECAS, also provided by BT is currently certified to ISO 22301.