Paris, France and Stockholm, Sweden (Business Wire) – Orange Business Services and Ericsson have announced their strategic agreement to better serve the growing global M2M market and to respond to multi-domestic needs. International companies often need global operations while addressing local requirements of end-users, such as high broadband usage. These needs are mainly driven by vertical industries such as automotive and consumer electronics.
Orange chose Ericsson’s Device Connection Platform delivered as a service to enrich its existing M2M products and solutions portfolio to support in particular international customers. This advanced solution enables Orange Business Services’ customers to benefit from state-of-the-art functionalities to deploy, scale and operate millions of M2M connections. Through a service portal, available at anytime from anywhere, customers can access self-service functionality to manage and control their installed SIM base, including real-time access to monitor operational levels, support management, and access statistics.
Orange Business Services offers a full scope of M2M solutions, which can be combined to offer a flexible approach, ranging from pure M2M connectivity offers to one-stop-shop solutions, covering design, project management, consultancy services and end to end support. With more than 250 people dedicated to M2M, Orange Business Services offers expertise in innovation, integration and vertical solutions including: remote monitoring for connected health devices; diagnostics and maintenance; smart metering; fleet management and track and trace.
This agreement is another step forward in Orange’s ambition together with the Global M2M Association (GMA) to capitalise on existing assets and to drive market leadership in M2M. The GMA is a service cooperation agreement among leaders in the M2M sector with the main focus of delivering best-in-class, enhanced and seamless M2M services globally to customers.
Thierry Bonhomme, CEO, Orange Business Services, said: “Orange Business Services has been investing in the Internet of Things for many years with the ambition to be a key player in the global M2M market. We continue to enrich our M2M portfolio to provide market-leading services to international companies. This agreement with Ericsson is another step in our global approach to M2M offers and in building an ecosystem of selected partners to the benefit of our customers”.
Johan Wibergh, executive Vice President and Head of BU Networks Ericsson, says: “We are excited to partner with Orange and together with them execute our Networked Society vision and tap into the 50 billion connected devices potential in the coming years. Ericsson Device Connection Platform is a key element in achieving this vision, which benefits from our R&D capabilities and in which we heavily invest. Orange will also benefit from Ericsson’s strong local presence and ecosystem around the world to accelerate business momentum”.
“As operators remove barriers to deploying global solutions, it becomes more affordable for large enterprises and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to invest in connected devices. We expect this will lead to a new industry tipping point,” said Steve Hilton, Principal Analyst at Analysys Mason.
Orange’s international customers will benefit from continuous and sustainable long-term competitive solutions based on Ericsson’s R&D capabilities, ensuring low-cost and highly-reliable connectivity for their devices.
