In Q. You have announced a host of as a service offerings like UC, backup, etc. What are the USPs, and how will enterprises benefit from them?
A. Some of our solutions are packaged and based on a shared infrastructure to better address SMEs, while others can be highly customised and fully use dedicated infrastructure to suit large enterprises. But, for all our cloud computing solutions, we aim to provide two major benefits: performance and security. The USPs common to our entire cloud computing portfolio that enable us to provide these benefits are:
Our extensive private network coverage worldwide allows customers to access cloud computing services via their intranet from the highest number of locations;
Our ability to provide secure solutions and end-to-end performance SLAs when we provide both the private network and the cloud computing services;
Our strong and efficient operations. We have strong management processes and expertise, including the management of security solutions, and data centres worldwide. Our customers can be sure of dealing with a single point of contact, available 24x7, who will provide a consistent level of support globally. We also have years of expertise and the highest certifications testifying that our people, data centres and processes abide by the strictest standards. The France Telecom-Orange group is a serious and stable company that will partner its customers for the long-term.
Q. One innovation from Orange Business Services is the Business VPN Galerie. How does it actually work? How do you intend to get other service providers on board?
A. Each application supplier is connected via a dedicated line to Orange, which then distributes the applications on demand, making it a seamless part of the customers VPN.
With Galerie, cloud services providers can deliver their applications in a cloud mode to achieve an outstanding customer experience. This provides them the capability to focus on their core business, while Orange manages the connection complexity in totality. As a hub, Business VPN Galerie also provides a simpler and more cost-effective solution to deliver cloud services than dedicated lines. In a nutshell, Galerie allows cloud providers to deliver better customer experience to the customer base. Given our market share in the French business market, and among international large accounts, we are confident well convince them.
We are in negotiation with a top IT partner for the French and international markets for collaborative applications (email, doc sharing), business applications (CRM, finance, HR) and productivity applications.
Q. Can you describe your partnership with Microsoft and the service offering for unified communication? How does it solve the collaboration issues faced by companies?
A. For more than 15 years, Orange Business Services (OBS) and Microsoft have offered messaging and collaboration solutions to global enterprises. I would like to point one specific point that, by combining Orange consulting, integration and managed services with products from Microsoft, we implement messaging, unified communications and cloud solutions that enable better collaboration, security, operational efficiency and productivity through a single global point of contact. Together with Microsoft, we are committed to developing and delivering the next generation of unified communications and collaboration tools, accelerating the way companies conduct business.
Orange Business Services continues to enhance its unified communications and collaboration services based on the latest versions of Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint and Lync 2010, as well as Microsoft Online Services (now known as Office 365). Microsoft recognises Orange Business Services as a leader in providing enterprise-ready unified communications solutions based on global network reach, flexible hosting capabilities and a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status.
Our unified communications solution helps businesses work smarter across locations and time zones. An employee can seamlessly collaborate with another person on a project or sale, even if the two users are in separate locations. The user can quickly locate the right person based on skill or location through their UC client. Subsequently, through presence, determine the persons availability and the best way to reach them. Then, the user could engage in an instant messaging (IM) session, saving time and voice calling costs. The IM session can be escalated to a voice call or even a conference with a third personall within seconds. This solves the major collaboration issues facing companiesfinding the right person at the right time to avoid human delay in business processes.
By using this solution, an enterprise will find productivity increasing, improvement in business processes and saving on costs.
Q. One of the hardest tasks for an IT manager is to convince the boss about the ROI from moving to the cloud. Do you provide any tools to help them?
A. We have a well-practiced methodology for determining likely cloud ROI, but our experience has taught us several things:
Except for very simple situations, which there are very few, all clients are different. The existing IT portfolio and cost base tends to be unique. So, the solution will also be unique in terms of applications, users, geography, timing, etc.
Not everything can be clouded yet eitherits an extra tool but unlikely to be the sole basis for a future IT solution. Therefore the ROI case for any individual customer is also likely to be unique and require considerable effort to define. This is why we have defined several useful consulting modules: the Cloud-Ready Assessment and the Cloud Business Model and SLA.
Q. Considering your small footprint in India, how do you plan to reach enterprises with your offerings?
A. We have a significant focus, investment, and footprint in India. OBS currently employs over 2,000 people in India, across various functions. We are also uniquely positioned in the Indian enterprise marketplace: the ability to provide transport, access and connectivity solutions to Indian and global MNCs; as well as fulfil their needs in the areas of systems integration, unified communication solutions, and remote infrastructure management services. We are currently investing in building an integrated sales engine that is targeted to reach different verticals.
We are also strengthening our partnerships with OEMs, telco operators, and SI companies to effectively address joint GTM activities.
Q. Enterprises are still concerned about where their data is stored. How do you address that?
A. Sensitivity over data centre location stems from three main considerations:
Data placement, as you correctly point out. Country, regional (e.g. EU) and sector regulatory and data privacy requirements vary widely;
Application performancesome applications are very latency sensitive;
Culturalorganisations will often have strong preferences anyway, whether there are strong regulatory requirements or not.
First, our cloud strategy will be based on a small number of hubs, where we will invest in cloud platforms and infrastructure for scale. In the Asia-Pacific region, the first of these is likely to be Singapore, as we already have a regional operation there, and it is geographically positioned for the maximum coverage of markets. However, we often have to fulfil specific requirements, for which that hub will not be adequate. Our approach is to work with partners offering data centre accommodation. We can bring new facilities on stream rapidly by leveraging our existing relationships.
All our data centres are managed through three global support centres, using our management network infrastructure. So, it is easy to add another facility. Where local physical activities are required, we can use either the services of the partner or our field operations team.
Also, we can use our portfolio of business acceleration capabilities to deliver applications with minimum latency, using monitoring and analysis, compression and caching to the network edge, to minimise the situations in which local data centre capacity is needed for technical reasons.
Q. There are many companies offering cloud-based services. What distinguishes you from the rest?
A. We have tried to find a concise way of describing our value, and we favour the expression IT Operator. Our differentiation can be summarised in two points: cloud aggregator and end-to-end cloud service provider. Not everything can be clouded yet eitherits an extra tool but unlikely to be the sole basis for a future IT solution. Therefore the ROI case for any individual customer is also likely to be unique and require considerable effort to define. Our ambition is to make it easy for customers to access the IT resources they need, by providing a one-stop-shop to a range to our services and those from selected partners. By taking an integrated approach, we can deliver business applications and IT infrastructure-as-a-service with an end-to-end service level agreement consulting.
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