The Intelligent Systems Research and Innovation Centre

In this millennium, computers are destined to pervade all aspects of our lives from the mundane to controversial tasks and, together with the convergence of telecommunications, IT and media, there will be a very dynamic demand for truly intelligent software systems.

The first industrial revolution gave us machines that enhanced our physical abilities. The information revolution used machines/computers to reap global information as raw fodder for our minds. In the next stage new software systems will introduce valuable levels of true intelligence which will magnify, extend and leverage the very mental abilities we consider unique to humans.

Vision

Today's business environment has become 'information-rich and time-poor'. Organisations have streams of information, with tools to capture it and make it available. But high pressure in business allows us little time to read everything and to analyse data that might help decision making. The big challenge for a 21st century enterprise is how to build in intelligence to enable its business to gain the full benefits of the 21st century digital networked economy.

'iBusiness' - also known as 'intelligent Business' - is the vision that drives the Centre's research and innovation programme. iBusiness sees the enterprise as an information organism, with networks that pervade its operations, streaming intelligence to where it is needed, and is able to manage the information intelligently with filtering and decision-making tools. It allows the enterprise to react and adapt naturally to normal changes, leaving managers free to think strategically and imaginatively, while employees are empowered to get on with their work.

The Centre focuses on artificial intelligence and intelligent systems technologies as a sound technical foundation for BT's drive to deal with fundamental challenges in key areas such as customer service excellence, ICT, broadband and 21C networks, and intelligent service management.

Applying expertise

Our success is built on our own technical expertise in computer science, intelligent systems, computational intelligence, control, electronics, and telecommunications, as well as collaboration with experts in BT's other research centres, with academia and with other organisations. Many of our researchers hold visiting fellowships or lectureships with universities, both in the UK and overseas, or are members of international advisory committees.

Our world-class research is recognised by the many nationally and internationally acclaimed awards and paper reviews received from organisations including the Royal Academy of Engineering, the IEE, the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences, and the British Computer Society.

We have a wealth of experience and research into the development and application of artificial intelligence technologies, and an underlying technological approach that results in new solution-technologies for business management, through which we hold the potential for delivering significant value to BT and industry as a whole.

Our work focuses on two themes. Under the first - intelligent service management - we are focusing on key challenges surrounding service operations, service strategy, service mass-customisation, and just-in-time service configuration. We are identifying ways to automate working practices more intelligently, in order to reduce operating costs across BT. Our projects seek to automate resource management while ensuring that accurate and timely information is delivered to the people who need it. This work has special interest to operational activities across BT, and is also highly applicable to improving the way in which customers can interact with BT's services.

Under the theme of intelligent business analytics we are turning data into business benefit. Data analysis is at the heart of decision making in many industries today. The complexity of businesses means that in order to measure business performance, managers need to undertake considerable analysis of data gathered in vast quantities, on a regular basis. With the development of an intelligent business analytics platform, intelligent software technology has produced several novel techniques that replicate the human decision-making process. These latest advances are playing an important role in automating the analysis process and enabling business users, as well as data analysis experts, to turn data into information into action more quickly and in an automated manner.

Value today

We seek innovation in BT's business practices that will lead to future revenue and cost savings. Our firm belief in fast-track development has allowed us to actively seek routes to internal and external markets via BT divisions or strategic partners, and we have ensured our results reach the appropriate market space as early as commercially and operationally possible.

Since 1995, we have been working in collaboration with BT Retail and BT Wholesale to develop, trial and deploy a number of systems addressing issues including decision optimisation, understanding customer satisfaction, time management and scheduling for mobile workforces.

BT Retail and BT Wholesale have used our intelligent time estimation management system (ITEMS) to update the travel factors of BT's Work Manager system, which we also developed.

Our dynamic scheduler technology at the centre of BT's Work Manager system required world-class research. It is now a core part of BT's field operation systems and has already saved BT millions of pounds.

Contacts with academia and industry

We have rich connections with academia including the U.K. universities of UCL, Southampton, Imperial College, Bristol, and Essex. Beyond the UK we have links with world-class research centres such as the University of California-Berkeley, MIT Media Lab, the Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg, and Monash University.

We also maintain links with BT's other businesses, with industries and other organisations including education bodies, EPSRC, DTI, MoD^?, and the European Commission.

Further information

For further information, please contact ISRC secretary