2007

Paris, May 15, 2007

 

 

Italcementi has enhanced its relationship with Orange Business Services by selecting Business Everywhere™ to connect hundreds of its mobile workers, either when they are traveling internationally or inside their own country.

 

Orange Business Services’ Business Everywhere™ brings employees on the move a range of managed mobility solutions to stay in touch with their business partners. It enables them to work efficiently anywhere in fully secure conditions, with the same level of comfort as in the office and with one single bill at the end of the month for all worldwide connections. Business Everywhere™ has proved essential to connect engineers, account managers and senior executives who travel frequently or work where there is often no fixed infrastructure.

 

Italcementi’s relationship with Orange Business Services has continued growing since the first network contract in 1998. A trusted relationship and history of providing good advice helped Orange Business Services to win a contract in 2002 to provide an international MPLS VPN to connect all of Italcementi’s overseas sites and mines into a seamless global network. In 2006, the contract was extended for two further years. Business Everywhere™ has been added on top of the current network services.

 

“We’ve been very impressed with the robustness of the network, and MPLS has allowed us to prioritize SAP over other less critical applications in the network," said Thierry de Turckheim, IT Global Operations director, Italcementi. “With this capability, we’ve been able to consolidate our SAP platform, thereby cutting operating expenses while boosting performance. What’s more, Orange Business Services has a strong presence wherever we want to go. It made sense to continue this relationship.”

 

On top of using Business Everywhere™ and networked SAP, Italcementi is investigating the possibility of converging all of its voice, mobile and data activity. By deploying IP telephony, it will be able to achieve significant operational savings, but also give employees the ability to hot-desk and work remotely.

 

“We are very pleased to expand our relationship with Italcementi and continue supporting the company’s growth plans,” said Mauro Dezi, vice president, Orange Business Services Italy. “We will continue to help Italcementi find new ways to improve productivity, especially through the innovative use of technology.”

 

 

Italcementi is the world’s fifth largest producer of cement and aggregates. Headquartered in Bergamo, it is one of the ten largest listed companies in Italy. Dominating the Italian and French construction markets, it has expanded its operations throughout the Mediterranean Rim into Spain, Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria and in the U.S. In all, Italcementi operates in 19 countries and employees 22,850 people at 61 cement plants, 15 grinding centers, 588 concrete units, 152 quarries and 3 stand alone terminals.

 

Cement is the core business, contributing 65% to the Group’s 2006 revenues of € 5,85 billion. It is complemented by the sales of sand and gravel extracted from quarries, otherwise known as aggregate, and concrete, a mixture of cement, aggregates, water, and specialist additives.

 

 

Orange Business Services represents the business communications solutions and services provided by the France Telecom Group as of June 1, 2006. They were previously sold under the France Telecom, Orange, Equant, Etrali, Almerys, EGT, Expertel Consulting, France Telecom Intelmatique, SETIB and Solicia brands.

 

The offers include converged voice, data and mobile services as well as IT expertise and managed services, all designed to transform business processes and improve productivity. Orange Business Services is present in 166 countries and territories and serves customers in 220.