9:45 AM -- Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT) reported a somewhat depressing first quarter Friday with little to cheer about in any of its many markets. (See Deutsche Telekom Shrinks in Q1.)

The one bright light, though, was T-Systems International GmbH , its enterprise services division. Its first-quarter revenues of €2.3 billion (US$3.3 billion) are up 6.1 percent compared with a year ago, while new orders are up more than 20 percent.

Further success was recorded in the increasingly strategic cloud services market, most notably the five-year deal with oil giant Shell. (See T-Systems, Microsoft Team for Shell.)

In addition, DT noted, "the first signs of progress are also starting to show in the connected car and healthcare fields."

The enterprise divisions of the large carriers that are tackling some of the toughest challenges (from a technology and business case perspective) currently, whether it's cloud services, smart meter management or business mobile data security. T-Systems looks to have done its homework in some key areas and may be the company to watch for European services innovation.

— Ray Le Maistre, International Managing Editor, Light Reading