Press Release
a.p.solve Wins £20 Million, Five Year Contract With BT and Secures International Growth Funding
- £20 million, 5 year support and maintenance contract enables BT to further reduce operational overheads and deliver improved customer service
- a.p.solve completes spin-out from BT Brightstar with £multi-million international VC funding for business growth and expansion
8 May 2003: Today, at a launch event in central London, a.p.solve announces a £20 million deal with BT and completion of its transition to independent status with significant international venture-capital funding for business growth and expansion.
The five year contract with BT, worth over £20 million, is to provide BT's service organisation, which comprises 22,000 engineers across BT's Retail and Wholesale departments, with support and maintenance for its TASKFORCE field workforce automation solution. TASKFORCE, which was originally developed within BT and productised over the last four years within BT Brightstar creating a.p.solve, is enabling BT to deliver improved customer service, while reducing its dispatch control costs by 76%, by replacing the existing basic scheduling technology that was originally deployed within BT.
Pierre Danon, Chief Executive Officer, BT Retail comments, "In a highly competitive and cut-throat service industry, managing the balance between cost of delivery, level of service and customer expectation, can mean the difference between business growth and lost customers & market share. Customers are increasingly unwilling to accept incomplete service, delivered at inconvenient times by inappropriately skilled engineers. TASKFORCE is the solution which is enabling us to optimise our field force, bringing increased levels of service to customers while cutting operational costs."
This contract win follows the successful completion of a ten year technology development and business growth plan, which has also culminated in the formal spin-out of a.p.solve from BT's corporate technology accelerator, Brightstar. a.p.solve has received £multi-million investment funding from NVP Brightstar, the newly created technology venturing partnership, formed by BT's research and technology business, BTexact Technologies; Coller Capital, the UK-based global private equity secondaries investment manager; and New Venture Partners, the US-based venture capital firm.
The spin-out is a win-win for all parties. BT will benefit from the commercial roll-out of TASKFORCE, will further reduce its operational overheads and will benefit from future product evolution that will incorporate other, real-world customers' requirements.
As far as the outside investors are concerned, such as NVP, they are taking a company with an installed base of customers, a proven business plan and industry-proven management team. NVP adds growth funding, strategic leadership and will attract onward investment where needed. Finally, a.p.solve becomes an independent organisation, with solid financial backing as well as a proven and stable product.
Rob Rosenberg, Partner at NVP, comments, "We are very excited about our investment in a.p.solve. A great many companies depend on mobile fieldforces but lack the tools to manage them effectively. Particularly in the Telco, Cable, and Utility markets, companies have an urgent need to simultaneously improve service and reduce costs dramatically in order to stay competitive. a.p.solve's real world experience managing 20,000 BT field engineers each day and driving 36% field productivity improvements demonstrates the power and compelling value of its flagship TASKFORCE product."
About a.p.solve
a.p.solve's mission is to transform the way corporations with mobile workforces operate, reducing cost and achieving operational efficiencies while empowering the organisation to deliver superior customer service.
Based in Ipswich, UK, a.p.solve develops, markets, sells and supports TASKFORCE, a pioneering intelligent fieldforce management solution, aimed at organisations with mobile workforces of 200-plus engineers. Focusing on companies operating in the telecommunications, cable and utility services industries, TASKFORCE today manages tens of thousands of mobile workers, allowing large organisations to provide a rapid, same-day response, at a significantly reduced cost.
Developed at a cost of more than £100 million and 1000 man years of effort, TASKFORCE uses inbound, real-time information to drive the mobile workers' daily activity. Patented artificial-intelligence-based technologies dynamically and automatically deal with a complex mix of planned, reactive and demand-driven work orders, optimising the co-ordination of each job's location with the skills of the mobile workforce.
a.p.solve works with a broad range of global partners to deliver the proven competitive advantage to the world's best service companies.
Media Contact:
Cristian Parrino
a.p.solve
Tel: +44 (0)1473 605900
Email: cristian.parrino@apsolve.com
www.apsolve.com
Jo Timmins / Dan Roche
The itpr Partnership
Tel. +44 (0)1932 57 88 00
Email: danielr@itpr.co.uk
www.itpr.co.uk
