Orange Business Services is introducing Business Together as a Service, a unified communication solution designed to enable an innovative way of working and collaborating. Business Together as a Service allows Unified Communications solutions to be offered via the cloud, using an “as a service" model that allows enterprises to quickly and cost-effectively access communication and collaboration tools any time, anywhere, on any device, the company said.
Based on the Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution, Business Together as a Service is already available in France where it is being delivered to six customers, including Xerox General Services and Orange Labs. It will be available to the rest of Europe later in 2011, and in all other regions in 2012.
Applications include: telephony, unified messaging, IM with presence, conferencing (audio, Web and video), support for mobile devices and a contact center option. Through what the company calls an easy-to-use portal, companies can select from five preset profiles to match different employee group needs and change the number of end user accounts up or down quickly and easily. This level of agility and flexibility allows companies to quickly open new offices, integrate a newly acquired company or react to changing business needs. Additionally, customers pay as they go, only pay for the applications their employees use, and they do not have to expend Capex or internal resources., according to Orange.
“Offering Business Together as a Service adds the flexibility and cost efficiency benefits of cloud computing to our existing Business Together offer," said Paul Molinier, vice president, Unified Communications & Collaboration, Orange Business Services. "Employees need productivity tools that make it easier and faster for them to get things done. Business Together combines Orange Business Services’ expertise with the powerful technologies of our partners to offer a wide range of global collaborative services. Business Together as a Service helps employees collaborate together more efficiently using a complete suite of best-in-class and on-demand tools."
