Andor Faragó, General Manager European Regional Operations Center at BT Hungary, speaks at the opening ceremony.

The studio, which is embedded in BT’s existing European Service Center, will bring together the expertise of more than 100 qualified engineers, who will be responsible for the design and detailed planning of high performance networks and solutions for BT’s corporate customers. These include many leading multinational corporations with complex communications and IT infrastructure requirements, with areas of expertise including design of global voice and data networks, contact center and voice solution designs.

The new Technical Design Studio was created to provide a flexible, comfortable and inspiring work environment, with the purpose of encouraging employees to be more creative in the way they approach problems and design solutions. Interior designers paid special attention to lighting and acoustics, in an environment that supports both teamwork and independent work.

“BT’s new Technical Design Studio in Budapest shows that, beyond traditional shared service center activities, Hungary can also provide high value-add IT engineering services. This capability relies on the excellent professional qualifications and skills available on the local labour market. We are proud that BT’s European Service Center headcount has increased by 50% in just over a year and that 90% of local BT employees are Hungarian graduates with an average age of around thirty. This shows that BT is an employer of choice for the Y generation, and that the company helps motivate this highly qualified labour force to stay in Hungary, in line with the government’s job creation initiatives,” Dr. László Szabó, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said at the opening.

Chris Cochrane, CIO of BT Global Services, said: “I am really delighted to open our first Technical Design Studio in Budapest. We have been expanding our facilities and growing our teams in Hungary ever since we opened our Regional Operations Centers eight years ago. Our customers can rely here on remarkably skilled and motivated specialists…They will be designing complex solutions that are business-critical for our global customers, helping them be more competitive at a global scale. The studio in Budapest is an exemplar for us, and sets the standard for other parts of the world.”

BT’s Hungarian service hubs in Budapest and Debrecen provide a wide range of customer and business support services to more than 3,000 BT Global Services clients, including some of the world’s leading multinational companies. The Hungarian centers cover service delivery, customer service management, finance shared services, as well as various business support services.