Insight & strategy products and services should go next, according to White. Keeping things fresh Insight is clearly a partner and adviser within the business, and this also applies to how BT works with its agencies. The company has a hybrid model, with some insight conducted in-house typically its customer experience research, analytics and marketing intelligence but the majority of its market research is conducted by a core group of agencies and consultancies: Amethyst, Basis, Decision Technology, Incite, Ipsos, Populus, Sparkler, Strive and The Customer Closeness Company. We see these businesses as strategic partners, says White. Theyre almost an extension of the BT insight team, and they are hugely important to the performance of my team and us as a business. She looks to the companys agencies to challenge them and push the team to be more innovative. Its super easy for us to get caught up in the business-as-usual the politics and priorities of BT so how 40 do they help keep us fresh? One of the ways this takes shape is that the core group of agencies comes in and showcases work from other firms, within confidentiality limits helping stimulate ideas across the team, says White. Additionally, quarterly meetings are held to talk through business priorities and share work from across the insight team to help BTs agencies understand its challenges. Holding us to account is really important its very easy to say theyre a strategic partner but if Im not treating them in that way, then they need to call me and my team out on it. For White, who held insight leadership roles at British Gas, Capital One and Centrica before joining BT, the companys biggest challenge is also its opportunity the team needs to be involved in a range of different parts of what is a fairly complex organisation. This means, as a team, we work on a really wide variety of topics. I love the fact that throughout the day what we are working on really varies it makes for a stimulating and challenging environment. Advertising for the new BT Halo proposition