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Karl Pedder hasn鈥檛 had his own desk for seven years. BT鈥檚 head of property services has worked from home, from clients鈥� offices and from 鈥渢ouchdown鈥� points at the company鈥檚 premises around the UK. 鈥淭he days of people sitting behind desks are long gone,鈥� he says. 鈥淭his way, I can go and meet people face to face but, once we鈥檝e established a relationship, we don鈥檛 have to spend time on trains or driving to meet each other. I don鈥檛 have to go back to the office just to check my messages, I can get them anywhere.鈥�

It sounds like a precarious way to run a 拢1bn business, which is what BT鈥檚 property interests amount to. But since its business is communications and technology, you鈥檇 expect it to be leading the trend towards flexible working. And if you want to impress Pedder, you need to move with the times, too. BT Property spends roughly 拢100m every year on its own buildings, and more providing datacentres for its business clients, through its framework suppliers and by going direct to the market (see 鈥淏T and the industry鈥�, bellow). It is also re-engineering its entire network, which frees up space in its exchanges that can be let to clients.

In the late 1990s, BT developed a lot of new space around large cities, but now Pedder says it鈥檚 focusing on how its staff can work closer to their homes rather than 鈥渄ragging them to palaces around the M25鈥�.

The change started in 2001, when BT signed a 拢2.3bn sale-and-leaseback deal with Telereal for almost all of its 6,500 UK buildings. It outsourced the facilities management to a Carillion-led consortium until 2008. From a property staff of 1,500, there are now just 120 鈥� quite a reduction in desk space. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a different regime,鈥� says Pedder. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really affected our property strategy.鈥�

Pedder鈥檚 team does the admin stuff on the FM contract but it doesn鈥檛 get involved in the day-to-day running 鈥� the consortium talks directly to BT鈥檚 board while the property team is more concerned with workplace strategy.

Pedder鈥檚 colleague Bob Mott is head of operational strategy at BT Property, but his area of expertise is networks. 鈥淲e still have 130 office buildings, but in the longer term it鈥檚 really the operational estate 鈥� the telephone exchanges 鈥� that are our significant cost base and asset.鈥� BT has one telephone exchange at every nine miles in the UK, because of the limitations of copperwire technology. It has begun turning those exchanges into datacentres. 鈥淟ooking to the future,鈥� says Mott, 鈥渢here鈥檚 a big opportunity for space freed up in telephone exchanges to be used to provide all sorts of new services.鈥�

We鈥檙e recognising how people work already, not trying to change their way of working. We鈥檝e not been dictatorial

Karl Pedder, head of property services at BT

But back to the offices, which is what Mott and Pedder are really enthusiastic about.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an exciting time for traditional property at the moment. We鈥檙e seeing fundamental changes inside BT,鈥� says Mott. 鈥淲e鈥檙e in an extremely competitive market, and that means we have to be able to change very quickly.鈥�

No IT project at BT is allowed to last more than 90 days. Mott says: 鈥淚f you can鈥檛 deliver it in 90 days, then we鈥檙e not doing it. So you need to pull teams together for 90 days, then a new team needs to form for the next project. The dynamics of that office and the workplace structure you need to support it are completely different to a traditional office with fixed desks.

鈥淎 very large proportion of our people, particularly in professional grades, are totally mobile. So you need touchdown points [in offices], lots of meeting space, and you need to have suitable space to pull people together for 90 days. We鈥檙e seeing demand for meeting space going through the roof, but demand for fixed desks coming down.鈥�

Underpinning all this, of course, is the technology. BT will spend 拢10bn over the next five years on a 鈥�21st-century network鈥�, which according to Mott, 鈥渨ill transform the UK鈥檚 telecommunication infrastructure鈥�. Another 250 communications companies use the network to provide services. It鈥檚 switching its telecom networks to web-based systems that will provide faster internet connections and new services.

Pedder and Mott are both evangelical about the opportunities this will bring. 鈥淚n the future,鈥� promises Mott, 鈥測ou鈥檒l just need one device. It鈥檒l work as a phone or a BlackBerry-type thing. Then, when you鈥檙e at home, it鈥檒l move on to your fixed line without you having to do anything. And when you鈥檙e in the office, if you walk up to any terminal, it鈥檒l recognise you and automatically configure to your own preferences so it鈥檒l just be like switching on your computer at home.

Pedder says BT is focusing on how its staff can work closer to their homes rather than 鈥榙ragging them to palaces around the M25鈥�

鈥淵ou won鈥檛 need any storage or hard drives on the computer because it will all be done securely on the network. The whole of the work environment will change absolutely fundamentally, radically,鈥� he says, words tumbling over one another in his zeal.

At its research centre in Ipswich, BT is developing video-conferencing technology that will feel, they promise, as real as us sitting around this table now. This requires huge bandwidth, which is where the 21st-century network will come in. At the moment, the fastest broadband you can get is 8MB. It鈥檚 hard to imagine how our experience of the internet will change when, as Mott and Pedder promise, you鈥檒l be able to call up your provider from home and request a 50MB connection for, say, half an hour while you download a film or converse with your business partners in New York.

Pedder is quick to insist that he doesn鈥檛 want to drag his colleagues kicking and screaming into the future 鈥� he鈥檚 not going to eject anyone from their desks before they鈥檙e ready. 鈥淲e鈥檙e recognising how people work already, not trying to change their way of working. We鈥檝e not been dictatorial.

鈥淲e were going to have a hotel concept where you walk in the door on the day and you鈥檙e allocated your workstation. But we don鈥檛 think that鈥檒l work; it鈥檚 better to have homebases where people in the same area of work sit. We can get benefits by reflecting how people work now without necessarily changing their way of working. A lot of people say they鈥檝e got a desk but actually in practice they鈥檙e never at that desk. Sometimes they don鈥檛 recognise it.鈥�

The people who need a bit of encouragement to embrace 20th, let alone 21st-century technology are BT鈥檚 contractors 鈥� an opportunity BT is hoping to capitalise on with its 鈥淪mart Property鈥� set of services for construction, FM and property management. 鈥淲e鈥檙e still missing a trick. Often it鈥檚 simple things. It doesn鈥檛 have to be a big solution,鈥� says Pedder. And he and Mott are off again on the joys of instant messaging, webcams, video-conferencing.