Orange and Sorin Group awarded Best Change-Maker for innovations in remote health monitoring and telemedicine

Orange was awarded three of the telecom industry's highest accolades at the annual World Communication Awards (WCA), held in November in London. For the fourth consecutive year, Orange Business Services was awarded "Best Global Operator" and for the third time, Orange was awarded "Best Mobile Service Provider."

Orange Business Services and Sorin Group, a global medical device company and a leader in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, received the "Best Change-Maker" award for its work in applying M2M and e-health technologies to improve cardiac patients' quality of life.

David Molony, Principal Analyst at Ovum and WCA Chair of Judges said, "Orange Business Services and Orange produced a series of impressive entries this year, and they were worthy winners in the Best Global Operator and Best Mobile Service Provider categories. The judges praised the consistency of strategy, which has produced strong service offers in a well-managed commercial framework."

Celebrating 11 years of corporate and personal success in global communications, the World Communication Awards recognize significant achievements and developments in the global telecoms industry.

Top ratings earned from Telemark in latest Global Data VPN Executive Briefing and ICT Service Supremacy reports.

Orange Business Services received recognition from Telemark for its high customer satisfaction ratings as both a global data VPN service provider and an ICT service provider.

In the latest Telemark Global data VPN Executive Briefing, Orange Business Services is rated World Class and ranked first overall for customer satisfaction with global data VPN and received the Telemark Platinum Award which reflects user perceptions that Orange Business Services is regarded "Best in Class" for the customer service experience.

According to the report, a "Strong Positive" rating means that the vendor "is viewed as a provider of strategic products, services or solutions:  customers should continue with planned investments and potential customers should consider this vendor as a strong choice for strategic investments."

"We are very pleased that France Telecom received a 'Strong Positive,' the highest possible vendor rating, by Gartner," said Barbara Dalibard, President and CEO, Orange Business Services. "I believe this recognition highlights the Group's ongoing global commitment to innovation, outstanding customer service, and its resilience in a challenging environment. At Orange Business Services, we continue to challenge ourselves to stay focused on operational efficiency, to achieve continuous improvements and, at the same time, to become more agile, simple and sustainable in order to achieve our goal of being the leading global integrator of communications solutions."

The complete report is available, compliments of Orange Business Services, at http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/orangebusiness/vol4/article5/article5.html
The Vendor Rating is copyrighted 2009 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Vendor Rating is an evaluation of a vendor as a whole, not just on its position within a single market. It is based on Gartner's assessment of the vendor's vision and execution for a product or service, relative to Gartner's analysis of clients' requirements. It is not intended as a comparison relative to competitors in the market. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Vendor Rating, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Gartner report "Vendor Rating:  France Telecom Group," July 10, 2009, Jean-Claude Delcroix, ID Number G00168607.

Orange, through Orange Business Services -- its division for enterprise customers, leads the sustainable telecoms market, according to a ground-breaking report published recently by Verdantix, an independent analyst firm that provides commercial analysis of climate change, sustainability and energy issues.

"Among Europe's leading telecoms operators, only Orange stands out as a firm that has made deep and broad commitments to launch innovative sustainability offerings for their customers," said David Metcalfe, Verdantix Director and telecoms industry veteran.

Orange Business Services received the Telemark World Record Award for driving up customer satisfaction to new levels which exceeded the previous record, also set by Orange Business Services last year.

According to Janet Watkin, Director at Telemark, "We define the World Bar as the highest ever recorded Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) on each of the 41 events we measure in the customer data VPN service experience.

Orange Business Services has the world's largest Telepresence-enabled network, supporting customers with an innovative solution that reduces travel cost, increases productivity and contributes to reducing CO2 emissions.

To provide customers industry-leading solutions and enable future innovation, Orange Business Services is upgrading its network to support Telepresence, Multicast capabilities, IPV6, and expansion of carrier Ethernet services with VPLS capabilities. New generation routers support converged services, application acceleration and security services as well as development of Ethernet and Fiber access.

Orange Business Services has just been awarded three key ISO certificates, recognizing the quality of its management system and the efficiency of its processes.  Orange Business Services stands apart thanks to the following ISO Management Systems certifications:

• ISO 20000 for Service Management is based on our global processes and governance model. Its scope extends to Information and Communication Technology services for all international customers managed from our largest Major Service Center (MSC) in Cairo and to all French key accounts.

• ISO 9001 Quality Management (renewal and extension) applies to all French key accounts and is extended to all international large projects.

• ISO 27001 for Security Management System is applicable to all of our international customers managed by the Cairo MSC.

Orange Business Services has been placed in the leaders quadrant in Gartner Inc.'s  Magic Quadrant for Global Network Service Providers1.  The report defines "leaders" as vendors who "have a full portfolio of voice and data products, coupled with aboveaverage service and support, wide global coverage and competitive pricing. They have a strong vision that includes adopting more information and communication technology (ICT) capabilities, which they articulate clearly and openly."

1. Magic Quadrant for Global Network Service Providers, 2008, Neil Rickard, Eric Paulak, Jan 26, 2009.

Less than a week before Christmas 2008, three submarine telecommunications cables in the Mediterranean south of Sicily, Italy were cut. This fault had a dramatic impact on all traffic between Europe and the Middle East and Asia and required an immediate and wide-ranging response. Orange Business Services enacted its backup plan to re-route communications and resources and dispatched repair ships to help fix the damage. Within 17 days the cables were fixed and the crisis was over.

An integrated application performance management solution.

To help enterprises further optimize their business applications, Orange Business Services is launching Network Boost, a network-based application performance management solution, fully integrated with the Orange IP VPN.