Orange Business Services notes that with the arrival of 5G as a new mobile connectivity technology, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is really coming to fruition. The ‘Internet of Enterprises’ is very important for this, as was shown during a recent business event of parent company Orange where Techzine was present. Therefore, it is important that companies and operators now make joint preparations and immediately start working together to bring together real IT and industrial work processes.
As an ICT service provider, Orange Business Services is naturally very active in the field of cloud services, analytics and cybersecurity. We have been writing more about this recently. The ICT service provider will now support 5G and add services to be developed for that purpose.
During the business event in Paris, parent company Orange, through CEO Stéphane Richard, announced that it wants to play an important role in the roll-out of super-fast mobile technology in the French home market. So, this will be the top priority from now on.
The operator already has a very concrete plan in place for this, which will actually be implemented as soon as the available spectrum has been auctioned off. The most striking aspect of this plan is that the operator first focuses on the business community. The consumer market is of secondary importance for the time being.
5G is a game-changer
According to the operator’s top executive, 5G is a real game-changer for business, and the rollout should take place differently than with the previous mobile technologies 3G and 4G. For these mobile technologies, the networks were rolled out first and only then the use cases were devised. With 5G, this process has to be carried out the other way round. First, the use cases are defined, and then the rollout happens. The technology must be rolled out immediately, where the real business need is. True customization, in other words.
Orange sees – especially in its home market in France – the most important use cases now within the industrial and transport sector. The impact on these sectors results, for example, in faster processing of data for industrial processes, the control of self-propelled vehicles, network slicing for specific segments and greater stability. That is why it will initially focus the roll-out of 5G on these business sectors.
Collaboration is important
However, the CEO indicates that the French operator cannot do this alone. Therefore, working together with the (French) business community is the motto for making 5G a success. Co-innovation must be the motto here, whereby companies come up with the right goals or applications for themselves for which they want to use 5G. For the operator, this means that it has to develop precisely those solutions and applications in order to meet this demand. Collaboration with the business community around 5G is an absolute priority.
During the event, a number of interesting first real use cases of large French industrial and transport companies were presented. For example, applications from a supplier to the aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the car manufacturer Renault and the French railways SNCF were discussed.
The origins of the ‘Internet of Enterprises’
This focus on business is also the result of the rise of the so-called Internet of Enterprises (IoE), explains Orange Business Services CEO Helmut Reisinger. It is expected that in about five years’ time, around 60 percent of all global data will come from companies and organizations. This data mountain is generated because the IoE not only connects people with each other, but it also connects people with locations and with objects, such as sensors.
Of course, the companies and organisations want to do something with this enormous amount of data and, above all, create value from it. In addition, the intellectual property that this data represents must be well protected, for which, in turn, extensive security measures must be taken. The enormous amount of data generates a lot of innovation within companies and organisations.
With the arrival of 5G, companies and organizations will be able to manage this Internet of Enterprises much better. According to Orange Business Services, a new phase is dawning for them with this fast mobile technology. In this phase, the ‘real-time enterprise’ really comes to life, mainly due to the technological impact of the low latency that 5G brings with it. In addition to the real-time enterprise, the rise of the IoT will also be of great importance for companies.
IT and industry come together
Actually, with the IoE, the IT world and the industrial world, the work processes, come together. This leads to new business and innovation models. These models are then, of course, a stimulus for the economy in general. Therefore, co-innovation between ICT companies and industry is of vital importance. Not only in France, but throughout the world.
Interesting business for Orange Business Services
It is obvious that the French ICT service provider would like to take advantage of these new opportunities. For Orange Business Services, 5G and the associated use cases and business models will soon simply be a service that they will provide to their business customers, in addition to the aforementioned portfolio of cloud and security services. First on the French home market, but then perhaps also elsewhere, together with the end-users.
Collaboration with Dell Technologies is distinctive
The fact that the French operator and its ICT services arm 5G really see 5G as a game-changer for the business community is again evident from the recently announced intensive collaboration with tech giant Dell Technologies. The joint development of infrastructural, whether or not (multi)cloud-based and virtualized solutions and applications for 5G and edge computing, underlines this.
All the more so because both companies not only want to develop technology but also really want to invent use cases and create an ecosystem of partners. This is where co-innovation comes into play again. This is why we will be keeping an eye on the developments of Orange and of course also Orange Business Services around 5G in the near future.
3 hours ago
