Believing in better

CXO’s Joaquím Schmidt meets British Sky Broadcasting’s Chief Technology Officer Didier Lebrat to learn how technology provides the backbone of operations and delivers a unique customer experience.

“Sky Broadband boasts 1.8 million customers”
-Didier Lebrat, British Sky Broadcasting’s Chief Technology Officer

With its pay-TV, home telephony and broadband services, Sky is on a three-pronged charge to offer its customers the very best entertainment and home communications products and services in the UK. And with this multibillion-pound company so heavily reliant upon technology, it is little wonder that the decision was taken to create the role of Chief Technology Officer two years ago. Frenchman Didier Lebrat, previously CTO of Vodafone Italy, was appointed to drive growth through technology and deliver new products and services for the company's nine million customers. In fact, there isn't a single aspect of the company's Technology operations that doesn't come under his watchful eye. Since his arrival the company has focused hard on making its technology investments work hard for its customers.

"Everything we do is about improving customer experience and making sure we are ahead of the competition," says Lebrat. "My role is to make sure that we organise the technology function in a way that is going to deliver the business strategy and so there is a need to be fluent in our business activities." Lebrat, who heads up a team of 1500 Technology staff and 500 contractors is a firm believer in technology leaders being in tune with his or her company's corporate vision and the direction it's heading. This is re-enforced by an increasing number of techies being set free from the 'back office' and elevated to the C-suite in recent years as IT becomes intrinsically intertwined with business processes and operations. It seems that being business savvy is part of parcel of the role of CIO and CTO.

"For me, it is absolutely key to understand the business strategy with the rest of executive team and work out where we are going; then turn that into technology," Lebrat explains. "Likewise, it is totally pointless to come up with great technology solutions if they don't meet the needs of the customer." He adds: "We are very proud of our successful tradition for groundbreaking products but I am also very keen to make sure that we do not innovate just for the sake of it. The risk in a technology organisation is to go for the next big thing and end up with bits of exciting technology that are not really relevant for your business at this point in time." Lebrat suggests that any new technology Sky rolls out needs to be supported by a proper business case - be it the short or medium term.

Hands full

Coinciding with CXO's meeting with Lebrat is a particularly busy period as he orchestrates a number of technology projects for the benefit of the company and its customers. On the broadcast side, an internal team and outside suppliers are completely upgrading and re-writing the set-top box software to "provide a different experience for customers". And of course, a major development in the past two and a half years has been the roll out of Sky's high definition (HD) television services as subscribers upgrade to channels beaming crystal clear images into their living rooms. Sky currently has 28 HD channels, set to rise to 30 by Christmas, showing around 10,000 hours of content a month - the widest choice in Europe. "There is nobody else who is matching this choice for customers in HD - it's a very big differentiator and we are seeing great demand for this service," states Lebrat. Sky currently boasts nearly 600,000 HDTV subscribers.

From an Internet portal perspective, the sky.com website has had its software re-written to make the site faster and smoother. The result has been a significant increase in traffic, while the popular and content-rich Sky Sports and newly re-launched Sky News websites have helped drive internet users to the different portals. Sky itself has been a broadband supplier since 2005 - a relatively short time compared to its main rivals - but has rapidly risen to become a top five player and the fastest growing provider in the UK, something that Lebrat says makes him feel very proud. In terms of customer numbers, Sky Broadband is now in 1.8 million homes, or 20% of Sky's customer base. Lebrat describes Sky's broadband network as being "22^nd century". "I say 22^nd century because we have the latest full-IP technology, which allows us to provide a number of new functionalities very easily and quickly."

Internally, Sky has been engaged in a two-year programme to consolidate 13 data centres into just two - one in Southampton, in the south of England, and the other in Amsterdam. So is this a cost-cutting exercise? "No, it is more about better cost efficiencies, which means we save on support costs and power - so it's green too," Lebrat enthuses. "The way Easynet, part of the BSkyB group, designs these data centres is much more efficient than we used to. We use virtualisation for improving the efficiency of our server estate and storage by sharing between different applications rather than one box, one application model that we used to have here. So there are definitely significant savings while delivering better reliability and scalability." The CRM systems have also been getting an upgrade, with an application launched recently based on service-orientated architecture (SOA). This provides new functionality on the CRM systems. "When you manage nine million customers you need to make sure that you can provide the best experience - both during customer activation and afterwards, as well as great service through the call centres and online."

Obstacles

Handling all of these projects from start to finish means that Lebrat needs to have a holistic view of all aspects of the business. "I don't think there is anyone who can be an expert on all of these domains at the same time," he remarks. And all of these aspects come with own unique challenges that have to be overcome. "We could fill the whole of CXO with the challenges that we face everyday here," he exclaims. Increasing complexities is one example. "The fact that we are multi-product and using a broad range of technologies means that the complexities are certainly increasing. And the simpler it is made for the customer, the more complex it is in the background. Making sure that this complexity is not transparent at the customer's level is constant priority. We always want customers to enjoy a seamless experience" Another is the longer timelines required to develop new technologies, which makes it crucial for Lebrat and his team to remain one step ahead of the marketing plan so the right technology platforms are in place to support business strategies.

However, cost is one area that cannot be ignored. It's all about ensuring that investment is used as efficiently as possible and that projects have a clear and acceptable level of ROI. Lebrat says: "We make sure that every investment that we make is properly scrutinised and justified so that don't spend anything that will not provide a proper return. The scrutiny on investment is higher than ever." Sky constantly reviews the way it operates and who it partners with to drive the right balance between quality, speed of service and cost.

As the interview draws to a close, Lebrat leans back in his chair and chats openly about the buzz he gets from being CTO of a company like Sky. Seeing new products become a reality gives him a great feeling, he reveals. "The real satisfaction is knowing that, when I see a Sky product advertised as I drive through London, my team made it happen. Everything we do in technology will eventually translate into new a customer product or experience." But he says the biggest buzz is being able to provide a unique experience for customers. "It is really exciting being in charge of such a broad function and being to deliver end-to-end solutions that are so important for the business and our customers. We believe in better and we make it happen."

Technology master

Before joining Sky in 2006, Didier Lebrat worked at Vodafone Italy as Chief Technology Officer where his function covered the design, implementation and operations of network and information systems. He was previously CTO of Orange for five years. His previous experience was with Bouygues Telecom, the French mobile operator, where he had the initial responsibility of implementing the network operations organization from scratch. His scope of responsibility was eventually widened with customer facing activities such as billing and collection. He spent the first 12 years of his career with Sita/Equant a global telecoms operator, where he led the network operations and customer service with staff presence on three continents. He is married with three children.

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Sky's key milestones

1989 Sky launches with a 'Direct to Home' satellite television service via the Astra satellite with four free-to-air channels including Sky News, Europe's first 24-hour news channel.

1990 Sky and rival broadcaster BSB agree to merge and form BSkyB.

1991 Sky Sports launches its first channel.

1992 Sky signs UK£304 million deal for exclusively live coverage of the new FA Premier League. BSkyB makes an operating profit for the first time.

1995 Enters the FTSE 100 Index

1998 Sky launches offering the UK's first digital TV service, offering 140 channels.

2000: Sky News launches as the world's first interactive TV news service.

2001 The five millionth subscriber is signed up. Sky+ hits the market, putting customers in control of how they watch TV.

2003 James Murdoch becomes CEO, replacing Tony Ball. Sky passes milestone of 7 million television customers.

2005 Sky reaches eight million television customers - around one in three homes in the UK. Sky News and Sky Sports News are streamed live to mobile phones as part of the new Sky Mobile TV service. Sky plans expansion into broadband with acquisition of Easynet.

2006 Sky+ HD becomes the UK's first nationwide HD TV service. Sky Broadband is launched, bringing more choice and value to the sector. Sky makes movies, sport and entertainment available for download to PCs. Jeremy Darroch becomes CEO, with James Murdoch moving to the role of Non-Executive Chairman.

2007 Sky acquires the leading set-top box supplier, Amstrad, to drive innovation for customers alongside supply chain efficiency.

2008: Sky reaches 9 million television customers and is confirmed as the fastest growing broadband and home phone provider in the UK, with well over a million customers for both Sky Broadband and Sky Talk.