TalkinCloud and the channel at large may be all abuzz about Microsoft Office 365 and the Lync Online unified communications offering it contains. But Orange Business Services, the service provider arm of France Telecom-Orange, has unveiled Business Together as a Service, a cloud-hosted unified communications offering of its own.
According to Orange, its UC offering benefits from the company’s managed service expertise and worldwide reach — and especially its recent partnership with SITA for a global cloud. The other major partnership that plays into Business Together as a Service, according to Orange’s press release, is Cisco Systems, as it’s built on the Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution.
Business Together as a Services consists of “telephony, unified messaging, IM with presence, conferencing (audio, web and video), support for mobile devices and contact center options.” Moreover, customers only pay for the services they use, so home offices can assign different users access only to the SaaS collaboration tools they need. For security’s sake, Orange is promoting its IP VPN functionality.
Here’s what Paul Molinier, VP of Orange Business Services Unified Communications & Collaboration, had to say about Business Together as a Service’s value proposition in the press release:
”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.”
Six French customers, including Xerox General Services and Orange Labs, are already using Business Together as a Service ahead of its official European launch later in 2011, with a general worldwide availability expected in 2012. And TalkinCloud will be sure to keep a close eye on Orange Business Services Business Together as a Service (what a name!) going forward.
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