Orange Business Services, France Telecom Group’s division for worldwide enterprise communications services, reportedly has been granted "approved reseller" status to distribute and sell the Microsoft Online Services standard suite in 21 countries as part of a fully integrated package designed to meet the collaboration needs of businesses.
Orange Business Services (News - Alert) officials said that serving as a one-stop-shop, the company is initially offering the solution to major companies and large accounts, complete with end-to-end support, from integration advice to after-sales and user assistance.
Thanks to the agreement, Orange Business Services will now be able to expand its existing range of Business Together with Microsoft (News - Alert) solutions with a whole host of standard Microsoft Online Services: Exchange Online e-mail; Office Communications Online – which includes instant messaging and presence; SharePoint Online - a collaborative portal; and Office Live Meeting Online, or Web conferencing.
Officials with Orange also said that through this partnership, Microsoft will have access to the expertise of Orange Business Services, as well as the world’s largest voice/data network covering 220 countries and territories.
The deal, which comes six weeks after the announcement of the Group’s cloud computing strategy, provides an opportunity to strengthen the development of public cloud services for businesses through the integration of Microsoft’s solutions.
Anil Sharma is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anil’s articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi