The collaboration is a significant industry advance towards establishing a smooth, end-to-end telepresence experience and has been successfully trialled with existing major global enterprise customers. The service is now available to all BT and Orange Telepresence Community customers, using Cisco TelePresenceTM equipment.
BT and Orange are committed to implementing inter-exchange services to make it easier for customers to communicate via video regardless of network or exchange. Today’s announcement strengthens this objective and sees both Orange and BT proactively expanding their exchange services to enlarge the global telepresence community.
The agreement between BT and Orange will facilitate real-time, virtual meetings around the world. A directory helps customers see which organisations are registered and what locations are available through the inter-provider connection. This allows any Cisco TelePresence customer of BT’s Global Video Exchange or Orange Business Services Telepresence Community to invite each other’s clients to join them in multipoint telepresence meetings.
Rich Lowe, CEO of BT Conferencing, said: “This agreement is the latest addition to the expansion of the video industry’s connectivity capabilities and is an important step forward. It demonstrates our commitment to increasing the network of accessible telepresence locations for our customers and increasing the return on their investments.”
Andrew McFadzen, head of International Network Solutions at Orange Business Services, said: “The broader the range of companies that customers can connect with through telepresence, the higher the return on investment in collaborative technology. Replacing face-to-face meetings with telepresence doesn’t only reduce travel time and the expense of face-to-face meetings, but also speeds up decision-making, increases productivity, and enhances cross-organisational collaboration that might not exist without virtual meetings.”
Customers can use the intercompany service by contacting their respective service provider. They will be given the necessary conferencing information to share with the other meeting participants so they too can join the meeting. Customers will maintain their existing commercial relationship with their service provider.