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France Telecom Wins €400M VPN Contract
AXA Group selects France Telecom and Equant to provide IP VPN connecting headquarters, regional offices, call centres, and branches
February 4, 2004
3 Min Read
PARIS -- France Télécom and its subsidiary Equant announce that the AXA Group, a worldwide leader in financial protection and wealth management, has signed a services solutions contract to optimise the performance and efficiency of its telecommunications infrastructure. Valued at nearly four hundred million euros over a six year period, the comprehensive agreement will provide an Equant IP VPN (virtual private network) to connect the headquarters, regional offices, call centres and branches of the AXA Group’s major operations in Western Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific. The agreement also provides a research and development partnership to ensure ongoing innovation. This will enable the AXA Group to achieve significant cost savings and respond more quickly to changing business needs.
“We have chosen France Telecom because of their expertise in information and telecommunications systems,” said Claude Brunet, member of the Management Board, AXA. “France Telecom will provide AXA with a global solution that allows us to manage our network efficiently and effectively. France Telecom and Equant are top-quality partners able to support us over the long term and help us enhance our operating performance to the benefit of our clients.”
Barbara Dalibard, France Telecom Executive Vice President, Corporate Solutions, said: “This contract is an excellent example of our commitment to partner with our major corporate customers in developing their telecommunications infrastructures. From the start of the project to the definition phase to deployment, France Telecom and our subsidiary Equant are intimately involved at every stage, and are also investing in specific R&D initiatives jointly with AXA. Under the contract terms, the France Telecom group will support AXA’s business development by building a unified, seamless and scalable IP network dedicated entirely to AXA’s needs. Enhanced by new services and featuring simplified management, this comprehensive solution covers all key telecoms components”
Data
Deployment of the Equant IP VPN solution, including a unified IP network dedicated to AXA. This solution delivers superior performance coupled with a high degree of management flexibility for Virtual Private Networks, including the ability to prioritise traffic. The network will be entirely supervised and managed by AXA with 24/7 support from France Telecom and Equant. This provides AXA with a secure Internet/Intranet access, enabling the easy development of Intranets for its different divisions and businesses.
Voice
Deployment of an Equant Switched Voice network, a private network that provides voice service in specific countries. Voice service in other countries will be based on management solutions from local operators.
Nomadism
Assist AXA in integrating and deploying nomadic access to the data network: all collaborators will have rapid access to the Information System as well as certain key applications of the AXA Group (Intranet/Internet/Messaging services), by using GSM/GPRS/WiFi/xDSL, with universal remote access solutions. An integrated connection kit dedicated to AXA will allow a high level of security and ease-of-use.
Value-added servicesDuring the execution phase of the contract, the France Télécom and Equant teams will be working hand in hand with AXA to support the deployment of new technologies:
Transfer of competencies in network management and engineering. In the long term, AXA will be able to directly manage equipment and bandwidth as well as adjust traffic on the network to meet its priorities.
Development of new technologies for the integration of voice/data/video services over IP, including collaborative working, videoconferencing and telephony.
Provision of an e-procurement application (a Supply Chain Management system) implemented in Extranet mode to enable the AXA Group and its subsidiaries to track information flows from ordering through billing. This application is based on rationalization of the operator services catalogue by service units, making it possible to manage telecom purchases via a one-stop shop.
Also within the scope of this contract, France Telecom will provide the AXA Group with R&D expertise for the development of services specific to AXA’s activities.
France Telecom SA
Equant
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