Orange Business takes another step toward workspace of the future for global enterprises

packaged unified communications solutions and services boost business productivity

Orange Business is offering user-ready, packaged unified communications solutions and services for employees featuring integrated Polycom and Microsoft Corp. technologies. Orange Business designed new offers that include Polycom voice and video products that are optimized for Microsoft Lync 2010, the next-generation communications server, along with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

With these new unified communications solutions and services for employees, Orange Business is bringing global enterprises one step closer to the workspace of the future. Business productivity goes hand-in-hand with the workspace of the future and these new unified communications offers from Orange help companies realize these benefits. Employees benefit from richer collaboration tools on their desktop that provide a natural way of communicating through a single end-user client – Microsoft Lync 2010 – unifying instant messaging and presence with high-definition voice and video from Polycom.

Paul Molinier, vice president, Unified Communications & Collaboration, Orange Business, said:  “Consumerization of IT is a reality today. Employees require leading-edge communications tools and global enterprises require seamless, secure connections between people, teams and knowledge. The ultimate goal of both is to create a fluid work environment that encourages meaningful, efficient communication, whether employees are in an office or on the go. Our relationships with Microsoft and Polycom, coupled with our integration know-how, enable us to deliver solutions that truly help enterprises increase business and employee productivity, while maintaining security and lowering cost.”

 “Polycom works with industry leaders like Orange and Microsoft to deliver tightly integrated unified communications offerings to customers,” said Gary Rider, president of Polycom EMEA region. “Our solutions are interoperable and allow users to easily find and connect with others while benefitting from a high-quality UC experience. This combined offering enables customers to improve productivity, protect their existing investments, and lower their total cost of ownership using technologies unique to Polycom, such as H.264 High Profile, which cuts the bandwidth requirements for telepresence by half.”
“Orange Business, combined with Polycom devices optimized for Microsoft Lync Server 2010, provides an enterprise-ready suite of unified communications solutions,” said Yancey Smith, director of Product Management at Microsoft. “When combined with the global network reach, flexible hosting capabilities and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status of Orange Business, this represents an opportunity for large enterprises to implement unified communications quickly and realize productivity improvements at a lower overall cost.”

Orange offers Polycom’s extensive portfolio of products optimized with Microsoft Lync Server 2010, including: desktop and conference IP phones, high definition personal, room and immersive telepresence suite, and the CX5000 Unified Conference Station. Polycom is also a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.

To learn more about the Orange Business Polycom solutions for Microsoft Lync, view this video.

About Orange Business
Orange Business, the France Telecom Orange branch dedicated to B2B services, is a leading global integrator of communications solutions for multinational corporations. With the world’s largest, seamless network for voice and data, Orange Business reaches 220 countries and territories with local support in 166. Offering a comprehensive package of communication services covering cloud computing, enterprise mobility, M2M, security, unified communications, videoconferencing, and broadband, Orange Business delivers a best-in-class customer experience across a global landscape. Thousands of enterprise customers and 1.4 million users rely on an Orange Business international platform for communicating and conducting business. Orange Business is a four-time winner of Best Global Operator at the World Communication Awards. Learn more at www.orange-business.com

About Orange
Orange is the key brand of France Telecom, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators. With more than 131 million customers, the Orange brand covers internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the Group operates. At the end of 2009, France Telecom had sales of 44.8 billion euros (33.7 billion euros for the first nine months of 2010). At Sept. 30, 2010, the Group had a total customer base of 203 million customers in 32 countries. These include 144.5 million mobile customers and 13.3 million broadband Internet (ADSL, FTTH) customers worldwide. Orange is one of the main European operators for mobile and broadband Internet services and, under the brand Orange Business, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.

With its industrial project, "conquests 2015", Orange is simultaneously addressing its employees, customers and shareholders, as well as the society in which the company operates, through a concrete set of action plans. These commitments are expressed through a new vision of human resources for employees; through the deployment of a network infrastructure upon which the Group will build its future growth; through the Group's ambition to offer a superior customer experience thanks in particular to improved quality of service; and through the acceleration of international development

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

For more information (on the Internet and on your mobile): www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com, www.orange-innovation.tv

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Brand Services Limited, Orange France or France Telecom.

About Polycom
Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM) is a global leader in unified communications solutions with industry-leading telepresence, video, voice and infrastructure solutions built on open standards. Polycom powers smarter conversations, transforming lives and businesses worldwide. Please visit www.polycom.com for more information or connect with Polycom on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

NOTE: The product plans, specifications and descriptions herein are provided for information only and subject to change without notice, and are provided without warranty of any kind, express or implied.