Telecom Lead Britain: A global energy company has tied up with BT for BT One Cloud.
BT will design, install, and integrate the service for 10,000 Microsoft Lync seats globally. Besides incorporating instant messaging, audio, video, and web conferencing, the service will deliver full Enterprise Voice functionality to the entire user population, initially in the US and then globally, providing a full PBX replacement service for the customer.
BT did not disclose the name of the energy company.
On Wednesday, BT announced the launch of BT One Cloud for Microsoft Lync, a cloud service based on Microsoft Lync 2010.
The cloud service provides instant messaging, presence, audio, video and web conferencing, and Enterprise Voice.
BT One Cloud will be available firstly to customers in the US, and then rolling out globally.
“BT is among the very first on the global market to provide Lync as a cloud offering. Earlier this year, we started a pilot program with Microsoft in the US for Lync cloud which gained a lot of customer interest,” said Neil Sutton, vice president, Global Portfolio at BT Global Services.
“Based on our track record of global service provision, we are uniquely positioned to meet key requirements in delivering the full Enterprise Voice features of Microsoft Lync from the cloud. We are also using Lync in-house as a productivity tool for our own employees, and BT is part of the first wave of Windows 8 with 3000 seats already deployed,” Sutton added.
BT’s cloud service is available on a monthly pay-per-user basis.
The telecom major said the new service provides high performance unified communications without significant capital investment.
A BT survey said that 62 percent of global executives want integrated instant messaging and email and that 68 percent want cloud-based file services to be able to collaborate more easily internally and externally.
The new BT cloud offering provides full functionality of a premises-based Microsoft Lync deployment.
BT has partnered with audio, video, and gateway device vendors supporting an end-to-end solution approach.
BT offers Hybrid Architecture Services consulting engagements to develop the appropriate roadmap for Microsoft Lync migrations and deployments. Customers can also elect to attach BT’s enterprise grade voice and reap maximum Microsoft Lync functionality or start more simply and hold Enterprise Voice within their roadmap.
“BT’s credentials and expertise have made them one of the leading Lync partners. We are particularly excited to have BT’s pedigree as a global telecommunications and Enterprise Voice provider behind the delivery of its cloud-based Lync service,” said Giovanni Mezgec, general manager of Lync at Microsoft.
