CASE STUDY
O
range Business Services is a global
IT and communications services
provider, providing services in 220
countries. Its 20,000 employees support
organisations in every aspect of their
digital transformation, with services that
include cloud computing, customer contact
solutions, mobility management, Internet
of Things (IoT), security services, high-speed
broadband, conferencing and collaborative
workspaces. The heart of Orange Business
Services is its connectivity services, which
represent a third of its business.
As Pierre-Louis Biaggi, Head of the Network
Solutions Business Unit, explained: “The
mission of Orange Business Services is
to be the trusted partner of the digital
transformation of our customers, leveraging
IT to drive better, more competitive
businesses. We know the network can
deliver significant value to our customers,
but it’s the innovation in the network that
really makes exciting things possible, with
virtualisation and automation.”
Challenge:
Orange Business Services has always had
a close relationship with its customers
and in 2013, one of its in-depth surveys
found that many were looking for greater
agility from their network services. “Our
customers are asking for more. Their world
is changing and they want more flexibility
from their network and from their
services. Agility, speed and simplicity are
paramount. They want instant access to
new customised services and applications,”
Biaggi said.
Orange Business Services was serving
its customers with traditional MPLS
connectivity over a network architecture
IT IS THE FIRST
STEP TOWARDS
DEVELOPING A
PORTFOLIO OF
SERVICES THAT
ARE ALL DIGITISED,
ALL ONLINE, ALL
FLEXIBLE AND ALL
ACCESSIBLE AND
SELF-MANAGED BY
ITS CUSTOMERS.
that was static, so conventional services
took a long time to develop and deliver. The
company decided to create a new showcase
SDN/NFV-based network service, which it
called ‘Easy Go Network’.
It set itself ambitious objectives and
timelines to deliver service offerings from
inception to market in less than two years,
supporting real customers. Orange Business
Services challenged itself to create a network
that offered:
Improved agility – Enabling the dynamic
creation of new network services with
customers given control of their network
policies (quality of service, routing, security)
Rapid delivery – With automation of the
internal processes and a move towards digital
solutions, giving more control to the customer
New innovative network products –
Enabling customised ‘service chaining’ to
allow processing of traffic as it transits the
network infrastructure
The services would target SMBs with up
to 30 sites. “For me, really the most
important aspect is increased flexibility for
our customers. Customers want to be able
to choose in a very short time what type of
service and what type of functionality they
want in one of their sites and that’s what
we set out to give them,” said Biaggi.
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