This aquaculture multinational has been through several mergers and acquisitions. It wanted to restructure its unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) capabilities to build stronger global teams for competitive edge, while at the same time, better control costs.

Following an assessment of UC&C market offerings, the multinational opted to work with Orange Business because it stood out for its secure global infrastructure and ability to deliver best-in-class services. The multinational was also attracted by the ability to pick and choose applications from a service catalog.

The power of enterprise collaboration

Initially, Orange deployed Business VPN globally to help centralize operations, along with managed LAN on some of its sites. Orange also rolled out Business Talk to provide a dynamic fixed-line voice service for high-quality calling between its sites and any destination in the world.

Following on from this, the multinational asked Orange to integrate the UC&C capabilities of Microsoft Skype for Business into its infrastructure. This would provide greater business agility by allowing employees to communicate regardless of device. The multinational wanted Skype for Business deployed on its Microsoft Azure private cloud infrastructure to meet its data security requirements.

The Skype for Business system provides collaboration options ranging from desktop videoconferencing to immersive room-based systems. The company pays on a per-user basis with 24/7 service management. The fully-managed solution includes an ITIL-compliant service catalog, which improves efficiencies and predictability of service delivery. In addition, all services are backed by SLAs for high application availability, voice and video worldwide.

With profiles that can include IM, presence, conferencing and telephony, the collaboration platform enables the multinational to bring employees into smart decision-making situations quickly, wherever they are and on whatever device they are using. Orange provides the company with a single point of contact for deploying and maintaining both its equipment and its software needs.

Security has been further improved with Zscaler’s Web Protection Suite. The SafeNet Authentication Service (SAS) Outlook Web Access Agent provides two-factor authentication for systems running on Microsoft Information Server, including Outlook Web Access, to increase security.

In addition, Orange has deployed Flexible SSL, powered by Orange Cyberdefense, to enable users to work remotely as if they were in the office. The secure cloud solution allows mobile employees or partners to access the multinational’s information system. Users are authenticated, and transactions between the user and the multinational are encrypted.

Built for team collaboration

Restructuring IT was an important step in the multinational’s transformation. The decision to standardize on Skype for Business has been the multinational’s most successful IT project to date, providing a common platform across the organization.

The Skype for Business solution was up and running from day one. It provides easy-to-use access and collaboration tools for employees wherever and whenever they are needed, enhancing the user experience, and increasing overall productivity. It has also delivered a rapid return on investment, due to reduced calling charges, and an end to costly PBX maintenance contracts.