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Orange Business Services boosts its Telepresence portfolio

Paris, July 08, 2010
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Agreement with Cisco, trials underway between Orange customers and customers of other operators, and new "as-a-service" offer available soon

Orange Business Services is encouraging immediate adoption of Telepresence by offering Telepresence Community, a solution that now provides direct access to Cisco’s 800 Telepresence rooms, on a free trial basis; promoting interoperability with other global providers; and launching an offer “as-a-service” in the near future.
Having already established itself as a leading global provider of fully managed Telepresence solutions, Orange Business Services strongly believes customers will increasingly adopt video as a B2B service with customers, partners and suppliers using the immersive virtual meeting experience.
“Through Telepresence Community, our B2B Telepresence solution, opening our network and customer base to work with enterprises connected to other operators’ networks will create a global video community,” said Marc Blanchet, senior vice president, Global Communication Services, Orange Business Services.

direct access to the Cisco community: 27 multinationals, 800 rooms around the world
Orange Business Services, the leading global partner for Cisco Telepresence in the period March-May 2010, has signed an agreement with Cisco to access its service platform.  Customers in the Orange Telepresence community will have access to an additional
800 private and public Cisco Telepresence rooms around the world, as well as to companies already connected via Cisco.
To encourage the B2B use of Telepresence, Orange Business Services is inviting its customers to use the Telepresence Community solution free of charge until April 1, 2011, without any commitment.

agreements to be signed with other global operators
With Orange Business Services, customers benefit from the largest Telepresence network, accessible in 140 countries, and the only one certified by Cisco in 46 countries. In order to give its customers the opportunity to maximize their return on investment in Telepresence, Orange Business Services is pursuing an active partnership policy with several global operators.

This interoperability is already in place with one partner, recently enabling a customer of Orange Business Services, a leader in the pharmaceuticals industry, to use Telepresence to successfully connect to one of its partners that uses a different operator.
“We aim to have at least three major interconnections in place before the end of the year and will continue adding to the community as required by the demands of our growing customer base,” commented Marc Blanchet.

pooling infrastructure to reduce costs: Telepresence in the cloud
In parallel, and consistent with the aim of promoting accessibility and the development of services, Orange Business Services is currently working on pooling Telepresence infrastructure in hosted and managed mode in order to offer Telepresence as a service. This means companies will benefit from a turnkey solution managed end-to-end, for less cost since it is charged based on use.
The expertise of Orange Business Services in managed services has been recognized once again with the award of “Cisco Managed Services Master Certification Worldwide.”

Telepresence at the heart of companies’ economic and environmental challenges

As French Minister of State for the Digital Economy Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet emphasized on her blog following the first Telepresence debate held on June 9 by Orange Business Services: "This conference was in itself an illustration of what Telepresence can achieve. It avoids many long and costly journeys which managers in globalized companies often need to make. This not only represents a major saving but also an obvious gain in terms of sustainable development. I can also imagine the possible effects of such a tool on remote working." (source:  http://nkm-blog.org/troublante-Téléprésence)
The debate entitled "The rise in digital communications: a lever for emerging from the crisis” was organized in partnership with Cisco and involved 50 Orange Business Services customers spread over six sites in France and abroad.
Companies are increasingly turning to videoconferencing solutions, whether to reduce travel costs, ensure business continuity in the event of a natural disaster (such as the volcanic ash cloud), or reduce their environmental carbon footprint. This trend has been clearly observed by Orange Business Services:  the number of Telepresence calls to tender doubled between the second quarters of 2009 and 2010.
press contacts
Orange Business Services
Global: Estelle Assaf, +33 1 55 54 00 05, estelle.assaf@orange-ftgroup.com
Americas: Dara Hailes, +1 904 249 2569, dara.hailes@orange-ftgroup.com

Orange
Erika Gelinard, +33 1 44 44 93 93, service.presse@orange-ftgroup.com
© France Telecom - Orange 2012