Paris, March 30, 2009

 

 

Eighteen months after the launch of Business Together with Microsoft, Orange Business Services complements the “family” solution with enterprise telephony features.

 

The Orange offer Managed Microsoft OCS with Enterprise Telephony supports advanced telephony features within Microsoft applications by integrating Cisco IP telephony. According to industry analysts, Orange is "first to market" with a packaged service offer. This service represents a further step toward unifying all communications.

 

According to Peter Hall, Principal Analyst at Ovum, in the February 2009 report Unified communications strategies of global telcos:  "In terms of current offers, Orange has the greatest clarity in articulating its global strategy. The company's approach to new solutions is to plan them for global rollout from the outset. Amongst the global telcos, Orange has the broadest scope of UC solutions today in terms of vendors supported on a global scale, having global accreditation for Avaya, Cisco and Microsoft and being at an advanced stage in building out its global support for Alcatel-Lucent. The company also has strong commitment to offering the broadest range of fully-managed offerings, with premise-based, hosted and hybrid models available for most of its solutions."

 

Used by 450,000 end-users, Business Together by Orange Business Services helps employees to collaborate efficiently regardless of their location. With this new packaged unified communications service, employees use a single end-user client – Microsoft Office Communicator – to unify instant messaging, e-mail, telephony, mobile phone and others.

 

With integrated Cisco IP phones, employees can access advanced telephony features, such as presence and click-to-call, within Microsoft Office Communicator, Outlook, Office suite and SharePoint. Presence allows employees to see another user's communications capabilities and availability before calling or messaging and enables colleagues to quickly find the right resources in order to collaborate more efficiently.

 

Key business benefits of Managed Microsoft OCS with Enterprise Telephony are:  reduced voice costs, cost-per-user pricing with no capital investment, reduced travel, minimized human delays, and increased worker productivity resulting in improved business processes. 

 

“Multinationals are looking for ways to effectively respond to the current economic challenges by reducing costs while increasing worker productivity,” said Laurent Kocher, senior vice president, Global Services, Orange Business Services. “Business Together achieves both goals helping our customers to become more efficient and gain a competitive advantage.”

 

 

Orange is the key brand of France Telecom, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators. With 123 million customers, the Orange brand now covers Internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the Group operates. At the end of 2008, France Telecom had consolidated sales of 53.5 billion euros and a customer base of more than 182 million customers in 30 countries. These include 122 million mobile customers worldwide and 13 million broadband Internet (ADSL) customers in Europe. Orange is the number three mobile operator and the number one provider of broadband Internet services in Europe and, under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.

 

The Group's strategy, which is characterized by a strong focus on innovation, convergence and effective cost management, aims to establish Orange as an integrated operator and benchmark for new telecommunications services in Europe. Today the Group remains focused on its core activities as a network operator, while working to develop its position in new growth activities. To meet customer expectations, the Group strives to provide products and services that are simple and user-friendly, while maintaining a sustainable and responsible business model that can be adapted to the requirements of a fast-paced and changing eco-system.

 

France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) is listed on Euronext Paris (compartment A) and on the New York Stock Exchange.