Real Times tag:realtimes.blogs.orange-business.com,2011-10-25:/6 2012-05-09T13:28:58Z Movable Type Pro 5.12 Three steps to successful internal social media tag:realtimes.blogs.orange-business.com,2012://6.441 2012-05-08T10:36:53Z 2012-05-09T13:28:58Z Although the adoption of social media tools for internal collaboration and knowledge-sharing purposes is not nearly as widespread as it is for more consumer-facing activities, uptake is nonetheless on the rise. To date, however, most implementations are only in the... Real Times http://www.orange-business.com Although the adoption of social media tools for internal collaboration and knowledge-sharing purposes is not nearly as widespread as it is for more consumer-facing activities, uptake is nonetheless on the rise. To date, however, most implementations are only in the experimental or pilot phase, while organizations work out how best to employ such offerings, establish a suitable business case and manage both the real and perceived risks. 

Social media still concerns some elements of senior management over loss of control and reputational damage. But for those organizations that get it right, the benefits can be great. Improved collaboration and knowledge-sharing can generate productivity increases as well as encourage more effective team work, particularly if workers are located in different parts of the world. 

Moreover, the ability to exchange ideas easily can lead to innovation, which may improve the organization's competitive advantage. Finally, an enhanced sense of community can likewise boost employee engagement, which serves to increase motivation and, again, can lead to productivity gains. As a result, in order to ensure that heads of IT get the most out of their internal social media deployments, we look at three key questions that they need to ask themselves. 

1. Why are we doing this? 

The 'build-it-and-they-will-come' model really does not work in a social media context, not least because introducing such tools can require significant modifications to staff behavior. This means that, rather than implement social media for social media's sake simply because it is a sexy new platform, it is crucial to be clear about aims and objectives and to understand how any given offering can benefit both the organization and its employees. 

Such benefits will form the basis of a business case, but it should not be established by the IT department alone. In fact, such projects should not originate from the IT department at all, but from the business after it has undertaken a requirements analysis and identified current 'pain points'. 

Rebecca Richmond, research and content director at research and training firm Melcrum, points out that the most successful implementations she has seen resulted from the creation of a 'collaboration' or 'engagement' committee. This included representatives from IT, HR, internal communications, legal and the business. Its aim was to identify bottlenecks and blockages in day-to-day activity and to come up with ways of addressing them. 

"The idea is to get a 360 degree view of what was happening because otherwise it's difficult to build something that people can use. It's important to note, however, that social media may not be the answer to every problem, although it is one of many possible channels to connect with staff," she warns. 

2. How do I keep costs low while justifying any expenditure that I make? 

Because the adoption of social media tools for internal use is only in the early stages and little best practice is available as yet, heads of IT should not only rely on their own experience in this area - if they have any - but also indulge in a bit of trial and error. 

One useful means of doing this is to undertake a number of small-scale pilot projects in different parts of the business, which could always be amalgamated into a single larger initiative at a later date. Another tip is to use low-cost, disposable technology, not least because the area is moving so quickly that what seems like the perfect tool today may be defunct or considered old hat in six months time. This means that it is useful to undertake a quarterly review as to what technology is hot in the outside world and how it might be used internally. 

James Evans, manager of Deloitte's content management practice, says: "Try to be a bit pragmatic and start small and grow to see if something works. You don't need the most polished, Rolls-Royce tools for a small-scale pilot and if it doesn't work just move onto something else. There's nothing wrong with that." 

Although the whole field of return on investment metrics is extremely immature across the entire social media spectrum, it may be possible to come up with simple softer productivity-based measures that can be used to cost-justify subsequent initiatives. 

Examples here include before and after comparisons of the amount of time that staff or senior managers spend looking for certain information on a weekly basis following the introduction of intranet-based online communities or how much call and email volumes drop as a result of implementing Yammer for real-time messaging. 

3. How do I encourage staff to use these tools responsibly? 

A key pitfall when introducing internal social media tools is underestimating the amount of change management that will be required to ensure that usage is effective. It will not be enough to simply upload a one-page quick-start guide onto the corporate intranet or make a fanfare at launch and then forgetting to follow up. 

It is better to ensure user involvement in setting project criteria from the outset, followed by subsequent education and training. This will help employees understand the personal benefit of such initiatives. 

As Paul McCrudden, an account director at communication specialists Imagination, says: "There's a slight tension between the idea of sharing and the individual social voice. You can't necessarily force someone to share knowledge or information if they don't want to, but you can show them the benefits both individually and to the business. Culturally, it's the best way to go." 

Evangelists or 'super-users' that colleagues can turn to if they have queries or hit difficulties are useful in this context as is buy-in from senior managers who are prepared to lead by example. The latter group's involvement is, in fact, crucial as not only will it give the initiative credibility, but employees also tend to mirror their bosses' behavior. 

Another important consideration, is to embed tools into business processes and procedures in order to make them an integral part of staff members' day-to-day working lives rather than just something tacked onto the side. But it is also vital that staff feel they have a safe space for their voice to be heard so that, for example, they can raise issues or get involved in discussions without being censured for making constructive suggestions. 

While what constitutes inappropriate behavior can be flagged up by extending existing security and technology usage policies - see http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php for guidelines - engaged personnel tend to move into self-policing mode, which means that high levels of monitoring activity should not be necessary. As a result, the importance of fostering such engagement in the first place cannot be underestimated. 

A version of this article appeared in Enterprise Briefing from Orange Business Services

]]> Unified communications driving workspace transformation tag:realtimes.blogs.orange-business.com,2012://6.440 2012-05-08T09:28:56Z 2012-05-09T13:40:42Z Unified communications is playing an important role in reshaping workspaces and helping employees redefine their methods of working. We provide a preview of a new whitepaper that is being published by Orange Business Services, Polycom and Microsoft, which explores this... Real Times http://www.orange-business.com Unified communications is playing an important role in reshaping workspaces and helping employees redefine their methods of working. We provide a preview of a new whitepaper that is being published by Orange Business Services, Polycom and Microsoft, which explores this trend further.

Technology has evolved. New solutions offer businesses new ways to enable their employees to become more productive, now.

In the office of today, for most of us, 'work' involves travelling to an office, to an assigned dedicated area of the building where a desk has been allocated for your use. In the office of tomorrow, for most of us, work will involve travelling to wherever our work environment is set up.  This is the theme of a new whitepaper "The Workspace of the Future, Today!", which will be jointly released by Orange Business Services, Polycom and Microsoft Lync.

preparing for the office of tomorrow

The report investigates how unified communications (UC) will play a pivotal role in helping businesses transform their company from being a pure office-based network of employees to one where employees can be reached anywhere on multiple devices.

Report author Ian Irvine, marketing manager for service providers at Polycom, explained: "Our vision is create a new work environment in which one solution links and unifies all communication and collaboration technologies together, enabling employees to reduce complexity, real-estate, and cost. But at the same time increasing efficiency, productivity, and collaboration between colleagues, partners and customers."

The reason for this shift in mindset is that workspaces have changed, accommodating new technology as an enabler for employees to communicate in many different ways. Employees want to be able to work anytime, anywhere and on any device - corporate or not. UC has had to adapt to realize this new need in the workspace of the future.

how unified communications is impacting businesses

In a UC environment, colleagues or customers will only ever be a click away. When a colleague comes online, another employee who wants to speak to them will instantly see their availability via a "presence" indicator on the UC console, and will be able to send an IM to them to initiate an online conversation. 

This can quickly transition to an email, a phone conversation, a video call, an exchange of data, a shared PowerPoint session, an ad-hoc  video-meeting call and desktop sharing/white-boarding session, or even to a multiparty video conference with other colleagues joining a virtual meeting room. 

Pre-planned communication between individuals or multiple parties can be scheduled, booked, and recorded over audio, video or both within seconds, regardless of where the employee or colleagues are at the time.

An important promise of the UC based workspace of the future is that from the moment it is installed, companies will be able to enjoy reduced operating expenses and significant cost savings. 

These will be achieved through a decline in typical office expenditure such as charges for telephony, training, recruitment, real estate and facilities.  Communication management will now be streamlined, eliminating support costs and business travel expenses.

Reduced operating expenses will not only then help generate a fast return-on-investment, but will also continue to facilitate significant savings that positively impact the bottom line for many years to come.

In addition, the positive impact that a click-to-communicate common UC environment could  have on businesses will be experienced in many areas, including enhanced business competitiveness; increased productivity and efficiency; business continuity planning; employee retention; reduction in carbon footprint and meeting auditing and compliance requirements.

making it a reality

Last year, Orange committed to making the vision of the Workspace of the future a reality as soon as possible and partnered with Polycom and Microsoft to develop a range of commercial UC services and solutions based upon Microsoft's Lync technology and Polycom's  RealPresence™ communications infrastructure.

The combined range of services include Professional Services to help you scope, design and implement the solution that best suits your needs - be it your own on-premise solutions, an Orange-managed service on your premise or Orange managed cloud services.
In summary, the office of tomorrow is becoming a reality. Work will not be a place you go, but what you do wherever you are. Your workspace will not be a cubicle or a desk, but the air and space around you, wherever that may be.

Watch this space for details of where to access the white paper in full, when it is published.


]]> M2M breaking new ground in 2012 tag:realtimes.blogs.orange-business.com,2012://6.439 2012-05-02T17:17:35Z 2012-05-08T10:43:12Z M2M is gaining in momentum in 2012 as more companies embrace its potential and seek to exploit its capabilities. From simple sensors to complex remote controls, M2M brings intelligence to embedded devices, industrial machines and vehicles. Virtually all industries can... Real Times http://www.orange-business.com M2M is gaining in momentum in 2012 as more companies embrace its potential and seek to exploit its capabilities. From simple sensors to complex remote controls, M2M brings intelligence to embedded devices, industrial machines and vehicles. Virtually all industries can benefit from automating communications with machines.

According to recent figures published by Visiongain, machine-to-machine (M2M) revenues will be worth $38.1bn in 2012 and it is poised to become an integral part of the telecoms landscape. The researchers say that M2M will have a potentially transformative impact on a vast number of industries. It will power services and applications that will help make work processes more efficient and consumer lives simpler. 

The growth is being supported by growing market maturity, says Strategy Analytics. Its report M2M 2012 Outlook: Towards Standardization, Cloud Platforms and Open Source predicts that M2M market consolidation will continue in 2012. Mobile operators will look to move up the value chain through partnering or by creating of M2M service platforms, it says.

new devices, services

Berg Insight estimates that shipments of cellular M2M devices increased by 35.3% to a new record level of 50.8 million units in 2011. Adjusted for churn, this resulted in net additions of 29.3 million M2M connections in 2011, taking the worldwide number of cellular M2M subscribers to an estimated 108.0 million.

Continuous innovations in new devices and services means firms are able to break into varied "machine-to-person" (the machine automatically gathers a person's data) and "person-to-machine" (the user controls what data is stored and distributed) areas. These systems issue alerts when data is abnormal and can be shared with officials where permission has been granted.  

This is particularly common in consumer electronics devices and bespoke m-health products.  These embedded devices, industrial machines and vehicles, are helping citizens benefit from automated communications with machines.

In m-health, Orange Business Services has developed an award-winning partnership with medical device company Sorin Group to develop remote monitoring. It offers a remote monitoring service for patients implanted with cardiac rhythm management (CRM) devices. This provides caregivers with specific information regarding device behavior and the patient's condition. These diagnostic capabilities will enable transmission of valuable alert messages, providing clinicians with relevant information and offering patients more peace of mind.

across all verticals

Other industries are also developing interesting new solutions. For example, Nespresso Business Solutions has enhancing its B2B coffee machine after-sales service maintenance with a customized machine-to-machine (M2M) solution from Orange Business Services. The coffee firm has launched two revolutionary B2B machine models - Aguila and Zenius, the industry's first connected tabletop coffee machines. These models use embedded SIM cards from Orange that enable the machines to communicate with the Nespresso Customer Relationship Centres. 

Orange Business Services has also recently agreed a partnership with testing, inspection and certification firm Cotecna, to offer M2M track and trace solutions, particularly for customs transit monitoring. Workers are given a long-lasting, adapted SIM that can cope with extreme conditions and can be used anywhere in the world. 

Already, this has resulted in the development of an exclusive turn-key transit monitoring solution, which has been successfully operating in the West African country of Togo since December 2011. This two-way communication enables remote machine diagnostic and preventative maintenance visits can be scheduled as required. 

push into consumer market

Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst, Yiru Zhong, says enterprise innovations like this are set to change the way consumers use machines over the course of the year: "2012 is expected to be a year when telcos will begin developing consumer M2M opportunities in addition to their current enterprise focus. Companies with a strong consumer brand and deep consumer digital offering could most readily capture this approach." 

This includes smart metering to help consumers manage their energy bills better and parking sensors on cars to prevent unnecessary accidents.

To find out more about the Orange Business Services approach to M2M, please go to: http://www.orange-business.com/en/mnc2/themes/m2m/index.html or view a booklet here: http://www.orange-business.com/content/mnc/m2m.pdf. Orange Business Services is recognized by Frost & Sullivan and Berg Insight as the European leader in M2M growth. Its International M2M Center is a global leader in borderless global M2M connectivity. M2M solutions from Orange are complemented by a seamless global network that provides IP access in 220 countries and territories and supports more than 2.5 million active M2M connections.

]]> Orange achieves new ISO and ISAE standards tag:realtimes.blogs.orange-business.com,2012://6.438 2012-04-04T16:29:43Z 2012-04-05T16:33:39Z Orange Business Services is the first global ICT player to achieve both the new ISO 20000:2011 standard for Service Management, confirming its alignment with ITIL V3 2011, and the new International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) No. 3402, which replaces... Real Times http://www.orange-business.com
"Achieving these global industry standards assures enterprises that our processes and managed services hold the highest marks in excellence," said Dominique Espinasse, senior vice president, Customer Services and Operations, Orange Business Services. "This level of international certification proves that Orange has the necessary controls and safeguards in place to meet the managed services requirements of our customers." 

Read more details in this press release.
]]> Mastering identity and access management tag:realtimes.blogs.orange-business.com,2012://6.437 2012-04-04T16:08:24Z 2012-04-10T13:20:42Z Real Times http://www.orange-business.com Managing user identities and controlling access are two separate but related tasks. Here are five critical tips for getting it right. 

Identity and access management (IAM) needs to be a key part of security strategy, particularly as organizations grow and IT architectures become more complex. Here are five areas to address when considering an IAM strategy. 

1.    Identity data infrastructure 

Before companies can manage their users' identities, they need a data infrastructure in which to store and administer them. This generally involves the use of directory and metadirectory systems, usually based on the LDAP (lightweight directory access protocol) industry standard for accessing directory data.

Decision makers should consider federated identity as part of the underlying data structure. This allows systems to automatically grant access to users of other systems. Federated identity systems assign permissions to each other, creating a web of trusted applications. But enterprises need to tread carefully when designing these systems to prevent complexity from increasing management overhead and limiting the flexibility to change application specifications or relationships. 

So, while federated identity can be used to integrate disparate systems together (including those inside a single organization), it is also necessary to assign the appropriate level of expertise to the design and maintenance of such a solution. 

2.    Define roles and entitlements 

Entitlement management and role-based access control are two important but still nascent techniques that will have a significant effect on access control. Systems that carry out these functions allow administrators to define multiple roles in an organization, along with a granular set of entitlements to system access. When combined, they allow user access to be very tightly defined. For example, someone with a junior accounting role might be able to access a particular database, but only until 6pm. Defining and maintaining these roles and entitlements requires significant input from business management, which can complicate the process especially as organizational requirements change. 

3.    Automate the provisioning process 

Identity management helps improve company-wide productivity and security, while lowering the cost of managing users and their identities, attributes, and credentials. This requires automation, but it also contains hidden challenges. Often, simply setting up a user name and assigning login credentials is not enough. Instead, multiple steps must be included in the provisioning process. Users might be assigned a sales region, for example, enrolled into a number of organizational teams, or given a list of company resources to which they have access. 

4.    Simplify access control 

Controlling access to systems is a separate but related task to managing identity. The user can only be authenticated if her identity is in the system, but the task of authentication poses a separate challenge. Users must be given easy access to systems to prevent them from circumventing access measures illicitly, and yet their credentials must be secure enough to avoid an attacker gaining the 'keys to the castle'. 

Enterprise single sign-on systems can provide users with access to multiple enterprise applications using just one set of credentials. For added security, consider issuing two-factor authentication tokens, in the form of a hardware-based token. 

5.    Audit 

To be complete, an identity and access management system should include a robust reporting capability, to meet the needs of auditors facing compliance obligations. Organizations should be able to provide audit trails showing which users had access to what resources, and what was done. This requirement is the basis for a growing symbiosis between IAM, and governance, reporting and compliance (GRC). 

With the complexity inherent in any comprehensive IAM effort, companies would do well to consider cloud-based services as a possible means of reducing deployment times. A competent and experienced IT operator can not only host the infrastructure necessary for managing both identity and access control, but can also provide consulting services to help integrate it effectively into a customer's existing IT architecture. And done properly, IAM promises to be a very useful operational asset. 

Read about security from Orange Business Services here. A version of this article appeared in Enterprise Briefing published by Orange.

]]> Ovum Industry Congress - May 23-24, 2012 tag:realtimes.blogs.orange-business.com,2012://6.436 2012-03-20T10:03:48Z 2012-03-20T10:24:14Z Real Times http://www.orange-business.com Orange Business Services is delighted to announce that we are sponsoring Ovum Industry Congress 2012, taking place this May at the Radisson Blu Portman Hotel, London. 

Following the spectacular success of Ovum Industry Congress 2011, which attracted over 250 senior-ranking delegates from the world of Enterprise IT, we are delighted to support the 2012 conference.

Discuss Cloud Computing with Orange
As globalization speeds up competition and reduces time-to-market, IT & Telecoms services can become either a roadblock or an enabler in the conquest of new territories, whether they are about geographic expansion, innovative lines of products or enhanced business processes. The hybrid or private cloud computing delivery model brings security and guaranteed performance in the network, along with flexibility, scalability and cost optimization in the applications.

Hear Axel Haentjens, Vice President Cloud Computing, Orange Business Services at the Ovum Industry Congress as he hosts an Application Lab on How Cloud Computing is Giving Flexibility to Global Business by Transforming the Way IT & Telecom Services are Delivered. 

Date and Time: 23 May 2012, 12.25hrs - OIC Agenda Day 1

Please also come and listen to Axel when he joins the panel discussion on the strengths and shortcomings of cloud computing with other leading cloud experts. 

Topics will include:
Opportunities and challenges faced when attempting to figure out which cloud vendors and offerings to pick and mix
How to integrate cloud offerings into hybrid IaaS solutions, and how to understand their strengths and cope with their current shortcomings

The impact of cloud computing on the enterprise infrastructure
Date and Time: 23 May 2012, 14.20hrs - OIC Agenda Day 1

Panellists:
Axel Haentjens, Vice President Cloud Computing, Orange Business Services
Tom Baker, Head of ICT, Sunderland City Council
Laurent Lachal, Senior Analyst, Software - IT Solutions, Ovum
Peter Elleby, Chief Technology Officer, Hydra
Johan Strauss, Director, IT Solutions, Enterprise Business for Western Europe, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd
Moderator: Tim Jennings, Research Fellow & Chief Analyst - Enterprise IT, Ovum

Take advantage of this event in support of your business goals! We look forward to sharing with you Orange Business Services recent initiatives, developments and insights.

Visit www.ovumindustrycongress.com/orange-business-services for more information and to register.
]]> Hitting the targets tag:realtimes.blogs.orange-business.com,2012://6.435 2012-03-16T15:26:03Z 2012-04-05T09:34:46Z Real Times http://www.orange-business.com Orange Business Services uses a Service Improvement Program to ensure that its access network carrier partners always meet their delivery and repair service levels 

One of the most important factors in ensuring a good customer experience is the prompt installation of the access network into the site and ensuring its availability. For this reason, Orange Business Services proactively monitors its carrier partners to ensure they are meeting their service level obligations. Those that fail to do so are placed into a Service Improvement Program (SIP) that aims to collaboratively turn this around.

Orange monitors its network access partners using a bespoke dashboard. It covers the top 75 operators in business importance and has been identified as market-leading by analysts. Orange looks at its carriers' service levels including meeting delivery targets better than 90% of the time, mean time-to-repair less than four hours and poor service availability. If they consistently miss their targets, they can be placed in a SIP.  

The SIP initiative forms part of Orange Business Services' Outstanding Customer Experience (OCE) program. A SIP typically lasts a minimum of six months and only in the worst case scenario of a carrier failing to address the underlying issues Orange Business Services will terminate the relationship. Since its launch, 20 SIPs have been implemented with 17 carriers.

John Halsey is Head of Carrier & Vendor management for Customer Services & Operations (CS&O) at Orange Business Services. He says the main goal of the service improvement plan is "to be the last stage in treating recalcitrant partners, who have not responded to routine supervision and pressure."

Senior-level representation
Each carrier is subject to monthly reviews, comparing Orange Business Services' data to their own data. These checks will help identify any problems and are held with senior representatives from both companies to ensure the issue receives the appropriate level of attention.

"The heat has been on delivery problems for the last three years and was on repairs before that," explains Halsey. "When we spot these errors occurring regularly, we present them directly to board level representatives, at least a regional director or a relevant VP... sometimes even the CEO. Having the key people together ensures the issues get unparalleled attention and avoids any potential miscommunication."

Four steps to success
There is a four-step process to placing carriers on the Service Improvement Program. First, the carrier is informed of problems by formal letter that KPIs are not being met. This must be acknowledged by carrier agreement. In the second step, the two parties will develop and initiate an action plan. This will identify how to resolve the issues, which could involve action steps for either party, and a methodology for measuring success. 

Third, both parties will monitor the plan and how it is delivering on the service levels. The final step is to ensure that the carrier consistently meets the targets for three months in a row; only then can it be taken off the program. 

Halsey says:  "Proactively sorting out problems is the idea. If the carrier doesn't deliver, we step in. We play a visible part of resolving common customer complaints, offering transparency and facts via our dashboard."

Once in the door, Orange and its partner work together under a structured process of establishing where the problems are, agreeing a hit-list of important targets and concluding an exit strategy. Halsey says the joint approach helps both parties work to a common goal of resolving issues without bias, before the ultimate end-customer is affected.

How the OCE came into being
In September 2010, Orange Business Services adopted the 'Conquests 2015' plan, which included a priority to ensure that customers choose Orange for its outstanding customer experience. 

Orange had already been making headway in this area with the launch of the Outstanding Customer Experience (OCE) program in 2006. The program gathers customer experience knowledge from meetings, surveys and employee feedback. This gathered knowledge is then converted into actionable improvement programs. 

Six years on and the OCE program now has ten global improvements projects, demonstrating how Orange Business Services is committed to care, co-creation, collaboration, team working, innovation and growing with its customers and partners.  The success has helped make Orange the Telemark global leader in customer experience for DataVPN services for six consecutive years.

Critically, it also addresses how the company simplifies the end-to-end customer journey to enhance customers' expectations and improves the value Orange brings to its customers' businesses. 

]]> eHealth: helping patients take control of their lives tag:realtimes.blogs.orange-business.com,2012://6.434 2012-03-12T13:23:18Z 2012-04-05T09:34:22Z Modern medicine is revolutionizing itself at a rapid pace, helping to accelerate average life expectancies worldwide. Can e-health be the answer to improving services at a lower cost?At the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2012, Qualcomm Life showcased how it will... Real Times http://www.orange-business.com Modern medicine is revolutionizing itself at a rapid pace, helping to accelerate average life expectancies worldwide. Can e-health be the answer to improving services at a lower cost?

At the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2012, Qualcomm Life showcased how it will use Orange Business Services' M2M connectivity services in Europe for its 2net Platform - see this video and this clip for an overview. The aim of the deal is to seamlessly connect health care providers and millions of patients and enable secure remote monitoring for various chronic diseases. 

The new deal, announced just before the event, by Rick Valencia, vice president and general manager of Qualcomm Life, intends to: "enable our support of 2net customers in their European businesses and the acceleration of wireless health services in Europe to help manage or prevent the chronic health conditions millions of people are suffering from in the region."

Why is e-health intervention necessary?
The need for such intervention is evident. Healthcare services are facing unprecedented demand from growing populations, increases in chronic conditions which require continuous monitoring and the rising costs of supporting them. According to the United Nations and The Economist Intelligence Unit, "the number of people aged 60 years and over will almost triple ...to reach 2 billion by 2050."

Data from the World Health Organization's project "The Global Burden of Disease", also found that the burden of chronic conditions and diseases in Europe is growing as the population ages. The proportion of those in European countries aged 65 years ad older is projected to grow from 15% in 2000 to 23.5% by 2030.

In order to manage the heavy demands that arise from such growth, technology has had to mature to be able to help patients monitor their own conditions remotely, where it is appropriate to do so. Investment in telemedicine (mHealth) devices and other e-health initiatives is helping to encourage this.

According to a GSMA report, 'Touching Lives through Mobile Health: Assessment of the Global Market Opportunity', conducted by PwC, the growth of the mHealth market will lead to a revenue opportunity worth US$23 billion by 2017, because it offers the ability to "deliver highly effective, scalable and affordable healthcare beyond the confines of a hospital or doctor's surgery."

Frost and Sullivan agrees. In a recent white paper, it predicted that mobile devices can transform the healthcare experience, but the sector has been slow to adopt the new technologies. If deployed, healthcare organizations can benefit from smoother optimization; greater reachability; the free flow of patient data; and optimization of daily work by reducing repetitive tasks.

How Orange has been playing its part in eHealth
Orange has been a player in the mHealth and eHealth marketplace since 2007, when it established its Orange Healthcare offering, centered around Connected Hospital and Orange Health Gateway, an integrated and interactive communication platform, dedicated to the healthcare establishments.
Working alongside Intel Corporation, the technology was first piloted in the Moulins-Yzeure Hospital in Auvergne - see here for a film of the solution taken by the BBC. 

Using devices such as geo-positioning bracelets or nurse calls, patients can alert staff when they are is in danger for any medical reason from any location.
Earlier this month, Orange announced a tie-up with Philips to create a new multimedia e-health terminal, CareServant, which uses Wi-Fi traceability to localize the medical equipment and control the biomedical products.

Other deals include an award-winning partnership with medical device company Sorin Group to develop remote monitoring for patients with implanted cardiac rhythm management (CRM) devices that sends data to a non-invasive monitoring system located at the patient's home.

eHealth is also proving its worth in developing nations
Outside of the Western economies, Orange Healthcare is also working to make a difference in less developed continents where healthcare faces numerous obstacles. In Africa, it is investing in e-health and mHealth initiatives in a bid to to improve healthcare and health systems across the continent. 

Last year, Orange Healthcare announced two important partnerships, aiming to revolutionize healthcare. The first is with Text to Change, which aims to use SMS-technology to raise awareness and provide an alert system on child exploitation in Cameroon, whilst the second is a partnership with mPedigree, developing an SMS-based system that enables people across Africa to verify the authenticity of their drugs, beginning with Kenya and Cameroon. 

The agreements signed in April, 2011 mark the first steps of Orange's healthcare division into Africa and the Middle East, where the Group is present in 20 countries and serves almost 60 million mobile customers. A significant proportion of Africans have limited access to television, radio or other media, but around 50% have access to a mobile phone. As a result mobile networks have huge potential for increasing education and awareness on health issues, as well as for providing efficient healthcare services through remote care or treatment support, and data collection.

In a press statement, Thierry Zylberberg, Executive Vice President, Orange Healthcare, summarises: "eHealth is a strategic growth area for Orange and we are very happy to contribute to eHealth solutions that are great examples of how mobile technology enables access to affordable, improved health care services for a wide population."

To find out more about the Orange Business Services approach to e-health, please go to: http://www.orange-business.com/en/mnc2/themes/health/ or view a presentation here: http://www.slideshare.net/orangebusiness/e-health-by-orange-business-services.

]]> security complexity threatens enterprises tag:realtimes.blogs.orange-business.com,2012://6.422 2012-02-29T10:34:32Z 2012-03-02T10:00:20Z Information security is tipped to be one of the biggest challenges facing enterprises this year. Getting hacked by criminals is becoming depressingly familiar for a wide range of businesses, and past years have seen a roll call of big brands... Real Times http://www.orange-business.com Information security is tipped to be one of the biggest challenges facing enterprises this year. Getting hacked by criminals is becoming depressingly familiar for a wide range of businesses, and past years have seen a roll call of big brands succumbing to unprecedented attacks. Anthony Plewes reports on why security continues to tax the minds of CIOs worldwide.

Increasing threats, regulations and complexity have catapulted security up the corporate agenda. In the UK, the average cost of a data breach is almost £2 million per incident, according to the Ponemon Institute, while in the U.S., the cost of a breaches is averaging $6.75 million. The Identity Theft Resource Center reported a total of 419 data breaches in 2011, where nearly 23 million confidential records were either stolen by criminals or exposed in error.

So why are businesses continuing to fall victim to these attacks despite businesses spending some $60 billion on cyber security in 2011, as reported recently by PriceWaterhouseCoopersPWC? Eric Domage, Director for Strategy & Market Insight, Security BU, Orange Business Services, argues that a number of related trends have conspired to increase the complexity of enterprise security, making it a formidable challenge for chief information security officers (CISO). 

employees are bringing their own devices to work
One of the most visible of these trends is the growing consumerization of technology. Consumerization has brought a whole new range of devices into the corporate environment, often as part of an officially sanctioned bring-your-own-device (BYOD) program. These additional devices can create a security and management headache for enterprises as they struggle to deal with the implications of securing corporate data. 

"The growth of BYOD is unstoppable," explains Domage. "It will continue because enterprises know that employees are more productive when using their own devices, both in the office and away from it. In security terms, however, BYOD is a significant challenge for enterprise IT, because users are taking away some of their control of these devices and connections."

In addition to dealing with more devices, enterprise IT also needs to deal with many more access points into the organization. "Ten years ago, the average enterprise network was much smaller with a limited number of terminals connected," says Domage. "Now one user can have two or three different terminals of their own and use multiple networks, which has massively increased the points of connection." As a consequence, there are many more points of attack for cyber criminals and much more potential for data leakage. 

data growth is rocketings
Exacerbating the impact of proliferating devices and attack points is an explosion of data. Over the last five years, data on the Internet has already increased five-fold to 1.8 zettabytes (billion terabytes)., and IDC believes that it will increase by 50x by 2020. Video plays a big role in this: YouTube reported in January 2012 that 60 hours of video were being uploaded every minute to the popular site. This represents over 300,000 full-length feature films uploaded every week.

Within all this data, there is confidential information, such as legal documents, state secrets, company IP and healthcare data. The challenge for enterprises is to identify the data for which they are responsible for in this rapidly growing mass of information. The IDC report reckons estimates that "enterprises have some liability for 80% of the information in the digital universe at some point in its digital life."

compliance demands data protection
It isn't just to protect their own assets that companies need to identify and protect confidential information. An increasing raft of international regulation and legislation is demanding that enterprises show due care and diligence in protecting confidential information. PCI DSS compliance (in order to handle credit card data) can cost organizations €300,000, and they will often have to meet similar regulations across many different industries and applications.

Take healthcare for example. It is a strongly information-dependent industry, which is moving increasingly digital. In the U.S., healthcare providers have to comply with the strict HIPAA regulations. According to the PriceWaterhouseCoopers' Top Health Industry Issues Of 2012 , more than half of healthcare providers in the U.S. had a security- related issue over the last two years, and even this might be a conservative figure. More than 70% of healthcare executives said that recent breaches were forcing them to take a more rigorous approach to security. 

new threats occur every day
There is also a proliferation of threats: currently 45 million different viruses are in circulation, with over 2,000 new ones appearing every day. Analyst Gartner has predicted that the financial cost of cybercrime will grow 10% annually all the way through to 2016, driven by the continuing discovery of new vulnerabilities. With the increase in vulnerabilities and threats, it seems almost inevitable that all enterprise defenses will be overcome at some point. Even Symantec, one of the largest security software vendors, was compromised recently when hackers stole the source code for one of its legacy products. 

solutions abound
In this whirl of security threats, changing employee behavior and increased red -tape, further complications are added to the war on cybercrime. Ironically, there may actually be too many software security vendors. 

 "There are thousands of solutions out there, and all of them are very good at doing certain things, but none of them are good at doing everything required," says Domage. The fragmentation of the market was demonstrated in a recent Gartner report that found that just 44% of the $16.5 billion worldwide security software market in 2010 belonged to the five biggest vendors:, Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro, IBM and EMC. In 2006, the top five vendors controlled 60% of the market.  

"The information security market is in a continuous state of consolidation, but even fairly intense merger and acquisition (M&A) activity has not stopped the market from being very fragmented," says Ruggero Contu, Pprincipal Rresearch Aanalyst at Gartner. 

cost pressures are rising
Unfortunately for enterprise security, there is a growing disconnect between the budget available for security and the wide responsibility of the chief information security officer (CISO).  "Security just used to cover connecting securely to the network," says Domage. "But it's no longer enough to be a good engineer, ; the CISO needs to be a business leader and, manage security policy, compliance, access and application security."

Finding the right staff to help them has also become much more difficult for the CISO. Recruitment company Robert Half has identified data security analysts as one of their its seven most in-demand occupations, with salaries expected to rise 6% even in this depressed economy. Because they are in demand, many are going to work for systems integrators, service providers and consultants rather than enterprises.

increase in security services spending is increasing
This shortage in skills is driving the uptake of outsourced security services. Worldwide security services spending hit $35 billion in 2011, according to a November 2011 report from Gartner, up $4 billion on the previous year despite harsh economic conditions. 

 "This is largely driven by organizations looking at managed security services (MSS) providers as a way to maximize resources and lower ongoing operating expenditures on security," says Lawrence Pingree, Rresearch Ddirector at Gartner. He adds that businesses are looking to third parties to give them the security expertise and resources that they lack internally, so that they can make the right strategic decisions. 
 
simplifying security
Managed security services can handle the complexities posed by increasing threats, regulation and costs and free up internal resources. Managed security can also help simplify the business's security controls, audit and reports, which is particularly important to comply efficiently with the multiple regulations that they it faces.

By doing this, the CISO will be freed up to directly support the needs of the business. "Many senior business and IT leaders are asking CISOs to better support and align with the business and IT objectives," explains Thierry Evangelista, Marketing Director of Security Services, Orange Business Services. "Areas such as business continuity, vendor assessments, physical security, regulatory compliance, and IT projects around mobility, cloud, and application development all require input and feedback from the security team." 

He adds that Forrester has observed more Bboards of Ddirectors asking for regular interactions and updates from their security teams. This is hardly surprising now that security has even become a business differentiator. 

By taking complexity out of the equation, businesses will be able to focus on developing their responses to security incidents, ensuring that their reputations doesn't suffer and establishing themselves as a leaders in securely doing business.
]]> analyst insight - March 2012 tag:realtimes.blogs.orange-business.com,2012://6.432 2012-02-27T09:06:14Z 2012-03-02T10:01:21Z Gartner warns that many enterprises are not PCI-compliantA recent survey from analyst Gartner suggests that a significant proportion of enterprises may only be playing lip service to Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance. Gartner conducted a series of kiosk-based surveys at... Real Times http://www.orange-business.com Gartner warns that many enterprises are not PCI-compliant
A recent survey from analyst Gartner suggests that a significant proportion of enterprises may only be playing lip service to Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance. Gartner conducted a series of kiosk-based surveys at its security events in the summer of 2011 and found that 18% of respondents admitted they were not PCI-compliant. "It came as something of a surprise that such a high percentage of survey respondents said that they were not PCI-compliant," said Lawrence Pingree, Research Director at Gartner. He suggested that vendors and service providers have a key role to play in helping enterprises comply with this important standard, which affects all organizations that that deal with payment card information.

IT spending on the rise amid economic turmoil in retail banking
Analyst Ovum predicts that spending on retail banking technology will increase by 2.3% worldwide in 2012, despite the ongoing economic turmoil. It says that spending will hit $135 billion by the end of 2017. "Returning revenues to pre-recession levels will be a priority for a number of institutions, as too will be the focus on improving customer trust and increasing sales and servicing effectiveness," says Jaroslaw Knapik, Ovum Financial Services Analyst. Top spending areas are expected to be online banking, multichannel information systems, and technologies that enable smarter selling and servicing. Predictably, banks in the Asia Pacific will see the biggest increases in spending with Western Europe seeing the smallest.

Strong growth predicted for insurance telematics market
Telematics for insurance will grow strongly over the next five years, according to a new study from ABI Research. The analyst predicts that the number of global insurance telematics users will swell to 89 million by 2017, up from just 1.85 million in 2010. "While insurance telematics or usage-based insurance (UBI) is far from a recent phenomenon, a renewed interest in this market has occurred over the past two years," says Dominique Bonte, Group Director, Telematics and Navigation at ABI Research. "[There has also been] a dramatic change in the very nature of UBI, migrating from pay as you drive (PAYD) to pay how you drive (PHYD) based on continuous driver behavior monitoring and analysis."


]]> taking the lead on ethical business tag:realtimes.blogs.orange-business.com,2012://6.431 2012-02-27T09:03:44Z 2012-03-02T10:02:34Z Real Times http://www.orange-business.com The ethical behavior of a company is in sharp focus in the global business environment. It reflects the way we work with our customers and suppliers and is something in which we take pride, explains Alexander Lunshof. 

Regarding essential business practices, Ernst and Young conducted the European Fraud Survey 2011, with responses from over 2,300 people across 25 countries. The thrust of the survey was to understand employee views on ethics and compliance, particularly with regard to fraud and corruption, the related risks and overall tolerance thresholds. 

It very clearly indicates the direct relationship between a company's strong ethics and compliance program, employee satisfaction and how a reputation for integrity results in winning business, especially in developing markets. And the survey clearly reflects economic benefits in return for promoting and delivering high ethical standards. 

UK Bribery Act
Recent legislation, the UK Bribery Act 2010, is causing companies in all industries to revisit whether they have ethical business practices. Historically, the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) dominated the scene, and there have been many successful prosecutions since it was enacted in the 1970s. The UK Bribery Act takes the FCPA several steps further, in response to pressure from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to tighten up how the UK deals with fraud and bribery. 

The Bribery Act does not just cover active bribery of public officials like the FCPA did. It covers active or passive bribery involving anyone, anywhere, as long as there is a close connection with the UK. 

Meeting customer demand
Increasing numbers of enterprises are focusing on their service providers' compliance and ethics commitments, and especially their suppliers' ability to provide support and evidence when they are audited. This is important because audit requirements are more prevalent due to the Bribery Act and other similar regulatory and legislative changes touching all industries. 

Orange recognizes that enterprises are looking at imposing new standards of ethics and compliance on all suppliers. As such, they are increasingly asking comprehensive questions about how we manage our own compliance obligations. More importantly, we also want to demonstrate how we help support the customer's industry-imposed or country-specific requirements wherever possible. 

In the past, our ethics strategy has come in the form of training, awareness raising and promotion of uniform policy across regions and domains along with regular communications updates on applicable laws and regulations from country managers. In the UK for example, training on the Bribery Act was rolled out and reached an extremely high attendance rate of 99% for UK permanent employees. We plan to roll out similar training globally with the support of country managers and regional legal and regulatory teams. 

Zero tolerance
Orange also promotes zero tolerance policies to issues such as corruption and bribery, with several key teams liaising with each other to develop and maintain a compliance and ethics task force. Examples of our work, past, present and future, provide a critical basis for the value we wish to bring to our customers and positions Orange and FT Group to be a leader in ethics and compliance excellence. 

Our commitment to ethics and compliance is not just about going through the motions and ticking boxes. It is about living and promoting the essential business and ethical practices that will give our customers the edge they are looking for in a supplier. 

Alexander Lunshof is General Counsel at Orange Business Services. 
]]> Russia looks to technology to support growth tag:realtimes.blogs.orange-business.com,2012://6.429 2012-02-27T08:59:59Z 2012-03-02T10:03:49Z In the years since the break-up of the Soviet Union, Russia has emerged from a period of uncertainty into an era of growth and possibility. Technology is playing a key part in this transformation, as the massive country looks to... Real Times http://www.orange-business.com In the years since the break-up of the Soviet Union, Russia has emerged from a period of uncertainty into an era of growth and possibility. Technology is playing a key part in this transformation, as the massive country looks to modernize its telecoms infrastructure and corporate IT capability. 

With the availability of natural gas, metal and coal resources offering a strong economic platform from which to grow, Russia has embarked on a mission to embrace market forces, global trade and the technology that powers them. Inward investment in Russia has boomed, with ventures more than doubling in number over the past five years. In 2010, Russia leapfrogged Spain to become the fourth ranked European foreign direct investment destination.

Changing attitudes
Hand in hand with its economic evolution, Russia has experienced a substantial cultural shift. It recognized the need to evolve and to reinvent itself, changes that required a different attitude towards democracy than in the past. The need to work with global multinational corporations prompted a different mindset to the traditional, more insular approach, and partnerships have been encouraged. Where previously Russia relied on gas and oil for prosperity, today's Russia is looking longer term - with technology as the enabler.

However, there are still significant challenges to commercial growth in Russia, such as its inadequate infrastructure and challenging geography. The bulk of Russia's most successful businesses are in oil and gas, and consequently operate in the country's most remote regions. This has created a demand for technology solutions that address mission-critical communications needs in unforgiving locations. Many mining and engineering companies have been at the forefront of technology adoption.

In recent years, Russia has seen much consolidation within its industries, with many of the largest energy companies taking the lead. However, a lack of global commercial know-how, married to an aging workforce of engineers schooled in the gas and oil sector, has meant that additional skills are required. This has helped drive increased outsourcing and, therefore, opportunities for global specialists.

"The market for ICT solutions and services in Russia has evolved rapidly, and the country has played catch up with the rest of Europe with a vengeance," comments Pawel Paplinski, Strategy and Marketing Director at Orange Business Services Russia and CIS. "Smart City projects in Moscow and Saint Petersburg are seeing multinational corporations pour money in - and the challenge of delivering high-speed connectivity to the many remote areas of the country offers great opportunities to Orange Business Services in Russia today."

Modernizing infrastructure and users
The past couple of years have seen Russia take major steps in its drive toward modernization and competitiveness. Infrastructure remains Russia's biggest headache, with many of the country's largest companies operating in the remote north still reliant on limited-bandwidth satellite broadband. Change is taking place, however, with Russia committed to being the first country in the world to offer comprehensive 4G connectivity, covering 180 cities, by the year 2014. 
User demand has helped drive this commitment to change in Russia, with the country's citizens now embracing social media and mobile broadband every bit as much as their peers in western Europe. Eighty percent of Russians now own a mobile device, and homegrown, Russian-language social network Vkontakte has more than 100 million users.

The commitment to rapid change is also evident in the drive toward offering cloud-computing solutions to citizens throughout the country. Incumbent telecoms operator Rostelecom is developing a $350 million nationwide cloud network that will be complete in 2015 - by which time Russia's cloud-services market will have grown from 2010's $35 million to a staggering $1.2 billion. 

All of this development relies on infrastructure. A pragmatic approach has seen Russia seek to circumvent the need for massive fiber optic cable installation by concentrating on rolling out high-quality mobile broadband connectivity in both urban and remote areas.

"Russia's legacy systems and technologically unskilled workforce has meant that there is a real demand for companies like Orange Business Services. We are able to offer a full suite of global solutions and services, backed by local support, and both parties are presently reaping the benefit of that," explains Pawel Paplinski. "We are among the first operators to offer cloud solutions, and we deliver over 10 percent of Russia's corporate VPN market. Our customers are enjoying the advantages that come from partnering with a truly global leader."

Orange Business Services in Russia
Orange Business Services is the sole international supplier of telecommunications and integration services in Russia with its own developed infrastructure and range of licenses. The company employs over 1,000 employees in 76 locations and delivers IP transformation, convergence services, voice and data and integration solutions across IT and telecommunications. 

Orange Business Services has 4,500 business customers in Russia. These include Coca-Cola, Danone, DHL, Ernst & Young, Nestlé, Mary Kay, Rosbank (part of Société Générale group), Raiffeisen Bank, VTB, MDM Bank, Sberbank of Russia, Federal Customs Authority and Aeroflot.
]]> new technology promises to increase battery life ten-fold tag:realtimes.blogs.orange-business.com,2012://6.428 2012-02-27T08:59:01Z 2012-03-02T10:08:44Z One of the biggest bugbears for smartphone users the world over may be closer to being solved. Researchers at Northwestern University in the U.S. have reportedly found a way to extend the charge life of lithium-ion batteries by a factor... Real Times http://www.orange-business.com One of the biggest bugbears for smartphone users the world over may be closer to being solved. Researchers at Northwestern University in the U.S. have reportedly found a way to extend the charge life of lithium-ion batteries by a factor of 10. The technology breakthrough also promises to slash charging time by 10 and could be on the market in as little as three years. It could also pave the way for electric cars with a much greater range.

"Even after 150 charges, which would be one year or more of operation, the battery is still five times more effective than lithium-ion batteries on the market today," says Harold Kung, Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Northwestern University. His team changed the structure of Li-Ion batteries by incorporating silicon between graphene sheets, in which they have created tiny holes. 

At the other end of the battery scale, a graduate student at Stanford University has developed a battery electrode that survived a staggering 40,000 cycles of charging and discharging. Even after this, it still held more than 80% of its original charge capacity. Compare this to a Li-Ion battery, which typically lasts not much longer than 400 charge cycles. The technology development could play an important role in creating economical energy storage for the electricity grid that can support the dramatic variability of power produced by renewable energy.

]]> super-fast networks in action tag:realtimes.blogs.orange-business.com,2012://6.427 2012-02-27T08:58:10Z 2012-03-02T10:10:16Z The next generation of super-fast networks was demonstrated at the SuperComputing (SC11) conference in Seattle at the end of 2011. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of Victoria Computing Centre set up the high-speed broadband... Real Times http://www.orange-business.com The next generation of super-fast networks was demonstrated at the SuperComputing (SC11) conference in Seattle at the end of 2011. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of Victoria Computing Centre set up the high-speed broadband link between the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle and the University of Victoria in Canada. The international team managed to record a sustained two-way data rate of 186 Gbps between the two data centers separated by some 100 miles.

"Our group and its partners are showing how massive amounts of data will be handled and transported in the future," says Harvey Newman, Professor of Physics at Caltech and head of the High-Energy Physics (HEP) team. "Having these tools in our hands allows us to engage in realizable visions others do not have. We can see a clear path to a future others cannot yet imagine with any confidence."

High-speed networks are increasingly in demand for academic institutions, which need to deal with moving vast amounts of data around quickly. Most famously, this includes the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in CERN, Switzerland, which was involved in this project. The particle accelerator has already generated some 100 million petabytes of data that has been processed on a global grid of more than 300 data centers worldwide.

"Enabling scientists anywhere in the world to work on the LHC data is a key objective, bringing the best minds together to work on the mysteries of the universe," says David Foster, the Deputy IT Department Head at CERN.
]]> market-leading IaaS now available worldwide tag:realtimes.blogs.orange-business.com,2012://6.426 2012-02-27T08:56:39Z 2012-03-02T10:11:08Z The Orange Business Services cloud-computing offer Flexible Computing Express has now been launched worldwide. Part of the Orange infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) range, Flexible Computing Express is designed for medium to large enterprises that want to benefit from very flexible and scalable... Real Times http://www.orange-business.com The Orange Business Services cloud-computing offer Flexible Computing Express has now been launched worldwide. Part of the Orange infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) range, Flexible Computing Express is designed for medium to large enterprises that want to benefit from very flexible and scalable infrastructure, without investing in equipment or the expert resources to maintain it.

Offering more than just virtual machines (VMs), Flexible Computing Express provides a complete virtual data center (VDC). This is a pool of resources that enterprises can assemble to create an infrastructure for their applications, including CPU, RAM, storage, firewall and load balancing. 

Flexible Computing Express includes an administration portal that allows users to allocate resources and create or delete VMs in just a few minutes. Users are charged for all elements of the infrastructure by usage and can burst up to twice the amount of allocated resources to support unexpected or temporary peaks of activity. The service has an availability service level agreement (SLA) of 99.5%.

Established solution
First launched in October 2011 in France, Orange has signed up over 110 customers to Flexible Computing Express, helping propel it the top of the French cloud-computing market. Customers include French research center CIRAD, which has 1,800 workers spread across 12 centers, and works with developing countries to tackle international agricultural and development issues. 

"When one of our research teams needs IT resources to host its applications, we can immediately meet their need," says Joël SOR, CIO, CIRAD. "This flexibility is a major benefit in the research world where it's difficult to anticipate projects."

Cloud computing is key part of the Orange Business Services strategy. Other cloud services include Flexible Computing Premium and Business Together as a service. Orange believes that to truly tap the power of the cloud, businesses need a high-performance, reliable network. "The quality of the network is what really makes the difference in the quality of cloud services," says Vivek Badrinath, CEO of Orange Business Services. 

"Without a completely reliable, high-performance infrastructure, the cloud can't live up to its promises. We're capable of delivering this end-to-end quality of service," explains Badrinath. "As the convergence of IT and telecoms continues to deepen, our collaboration with over 100 technology partners further enriches our ability to offer integrated cloud services with powerful performance."
]]>