Metsäliitto Group heeft een driejarig contract gesloten met Equant voor een Business Everywhere-oplossing die 3500 thuiswerkers in dertig landen toegang op afstand biedt tot de IT-infrastructuur van de groep. Met Business Everywhere heeft de Metsäliitto Group één oplossing, met één contract, één factuur en gegarandeerd gemak voor de IT-manager.
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Metsäliitto Group Connects Globally with Business Everywhere, the World’s First Integrated Range of Mobility Solutions of the France Telecom Group
Finnish forestry giant Metsäliitto Group chooses Equant’s mobility solution to connect more than 3,500 mobile employees worldwide and increases profitability
PARIS and HELSINKI, Finland (Dec. 8, 2005) – Metsäliitto Group, the tenth largest forest industry group in the world, has signed a three-year, multimillion dollar deal with Equant to connect the Group’s mobile workers around the world to their corporate IT systems with Business Everywhere. The solution will increase the productivity of Metsäliitto Group’s mobile and home office workers, improve customer service, and reduce costs.
Metsäliitto Group, based in Finland, comprises five business areas: wood procurement, wood products industry, pulp production and producing fine papers and paperboard as well as tissue paper. Until now, each business area has had several individual mobile solutions.
Replacing the existing decentralized infrastructure based on multiple contracts with multiple vendors around the world is a new approach for Metsäliitto Group. Business Everywhere provides one contract, one bill, a single customer experience and a guarantee of simplicity for the IT manager, enabling better management of his fleet. This consolidation will deliver obvious TCO reductions to Metsäliitto Group as well as a high and consistent level of security via a simplified technical environment.
Business Everywhere is going to support more than 3,500 of Metsäliitto Group’s mobile and home office users in nearly 30 countries. Mobile and home office workers will be able to connect to Metsäliitto Group’s intranet site on the IP VPN network through multiple access methods including WiFi, xDSL, 3G, Edge, GPRS, ISDN and Private dial. Security of the connections will be ensured through an Equant built and managed strong authentication platform.
“With Business Everywhere we significantly reduce complexity and the administrative cost of managing multiple vendor relations around the world. Moreover, we will increase our operational efficiency through higher productivity of our mobile and home office workers,” said Olavi Maanavilja, chairman of Metsäliitto’s CIO Group.
Metsäliitto Group’s employees will be able to access their business applications such as Microsoft Exchange and SAP from a range of devices such as laptops, PDA’s, communicators and home PC’s with the same login procedure regardless of access technology and location. The contract also includes consultancy services, service and project management, use of a reporting tool, as well as a connection kit.
“Metsäliitto Group has been an Equant IP VPN customer for more than three years,” said John Conlan, general manager for Equant in the Nordics. “It is a great honor to facilitate their initiative to reduce costs of their mobile operations and increase overall profitability with our Business Everywhere solution. A holistic and efficient mobility solution where mobile workers can connect to corporate networks anywhere with any device and any access technology at international level has become imperative to stay competitive for global businesses today.”
Business Everywhere is the France Telecom Group worldwide portfolio of integrated mobility solutions available via a unique end user interface, accessible through any network (WiFi, ADSL, GPRS, Edge, 3G or PSTN ) on any device (PC, PDA) supporting any application (mail, voice, instant messaging and video). Business Everywhere is specially catered for all employees from SoHos to MNCs to access the Internet and their corporate applications wherever they are. Business Everywhere won the “Best New Service” award in October 2005 at the annual World Communication Awards. Available in France and Poland and soon in the United Kingdom, Business Everywhere is also proposed world wide to multinational corporations via Equant. Business Everywhere has already attracted more than 375,000 users in France.
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Metsäliitto
Metsäliitto is the tenth biggest forest industry group in the world. Its five business areas include wood procurement, wood products industry, pulp production and producing of fine papers and paperboard as well as tissue paper. Its sales are about 8.5 billion euro. With almost 30,000 employees, the Metsäliitto Group companies, Finnforest, Botnia, M-real and Metsä Tissue have presence in nearly 30 countries.
About Equant
Equant is a recognized industry leader in global communications services for multinational businesses. Equant combines its network expertise with its expanded services capabilities to provide global, integrated and customized communication services to enable its customers’ key business processes. Equant serves thousands of the world’s top companies, with the industry’s most extensive portfolio of communications services and network solutions, including the market-leading IP VPN used by more than 1,400 global businesses. Equant, a subsidiary of France Telecom, consistently leads industry surveys in corporate user satisfaction.
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