BT offloads its finance department

NEWS BT is to outsource its accounts department to IT services firm Xansa as the ex-national telco continues to battle to reduce its costs. The scheme will see the transferral of 500 BT employees over to Xansa, with the details expected to be finalised by the end of the year. The financial details of the deal have not been disclosed. Xansa will look after BT's bought ledger, sales ledger and payroll accounting but will not handle billing. A BT spokesman said the deal will deliver cost savings and allow it to focus on its core business. He said: "Don't take this to mean we are going to start outsourcing every business function, but we are looking to focus on the parts of the business we're best at." In April this year it sold off its property portfolio in a bid to raise money and improve its focus. BT said it does not expect to see any redundancies under today's outsourcing scheme.