BRITISH Telecom - the world's oldest telecommunications company now known simply as BT - has been named as the "global leader of global leaders," in a new survey carried out by analysts specialising in the technology, information, communications and telecoms sectors of industry.

This is the conclusion of experts from the Ovum telecoms, IT services and software company that is part of the London-based Datamonitor Group that provides analysis services for 5,000 of the globe's leading companies.

Ovum's findings are based on independently audited research drawn from more than 400,000 interviews a year with top industrial decision makers. A spokesman said: "We provide clients with independent and objective analysis that enables them to make better business and technology decisions."

Commenting on Ovum's latest Enterprise Strategy Scorecard report, BT said its Global Services division was identified as the world's leading player from an evaluation of every major telecoms-led global services organisation.

Analysts found BT's global services were ahead of its main US and European rivals, leading the market in product innovation and customer service offered to both multinational companies and government organisations.

The principal analyst at Ovum, David Molony, explained: "BT Global Services is winning global contracts from companies headquartered all around the world, giving it a real edge. Customers, including multinational companies, were very positive in their evaluation of the support they get from BT Global Services.

"There is clear evidence that BT recognises the need for a strategic commercial framework to deliver network services; an appreciation of what creates a service-oriented infrastructure and how to deliver best-in-class service. They have global accounts teams and a professional services programme driven across the whole organisation, and continuous innovation throughout the network, including the virtual data centre and managed videoconferencing services."

The chief executive officer of BT Global Services, Hanif Lalani, said the Ovum scorecard had identified and measured his organisation's strengths, adding: "It proves just how much difference it makes when service providers put customers first.

"We are working to continuously improve customer satisfaction and service by further mapping out organisation and service capabilities even more closely to customer needs, and we continue to streamline and simplify our processes to benefit our customers," he added.

The Ovum scorecard report evaluates services providers in the four business areas of market impact, user experience, revenue profile and strategic vision.

Companies are scored in each area by how well they have been doing in the past 12 months and how well they are expected to do in the year ahead. BT scored highest in user experience, joint highest in the market impact and revenue transformation categories, and shared second-highest score for management vision. Overall, BT scored highest across all categories.

The Global Services division of BT delivers a combination of communications and IT services to more than 10,000 organisations and governments worldwide. Customers include a quarter of the global Fortune 500 and it is the largest supplier of networked IT services to the UK government.

It offers networked IT services over its global 21st-century network, covering 172 countries with 60 data centres. The division employs 35,000 people around the world and its income for 2007 was 7.3 billion pounds.

BT, whose origins go back to 1846, has evolved from a domestic UK monopoly and in recent years has made a string of acquisitions to enforce its dominance in the field. Most notable of these was the take-over of Radianz, the then network arm of Reuters; global network operator Infonet; managed security market leader Counterpane; the US IT consultancy INS; and Asian systems integrator Frontline.

In addition to Fiat, BT Global Services manages the global networked IT estate for industrial leaders such as PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever. It also provides the backbone network for Visa across central Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as the European network for global pharmaceutical company Wyeth, the global data network for China Shipping, and the in-bound voice services for China Airlines. BT is now on course to provide the communication services for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.