France's Orange sets up solution center in Beijing

Orange Business Services, the France Telecom-Orange branch that provides integrated business communications, has set up a solution center in Beijing, in an important step towards expanding in the Asia Pacific regions, officials said.

The new center is its eighth to be set up around the world, and will hold interactive activities to measure local clients' specific needs and help them design customized solutions, according to Patrick Li, its chief executive officer in China.

Orange Business Services already has a Beijing R&D center with about 120 staff, but is exploring further business opportunities in emerging markets such as China and India.

Its global strategy, Conquests 2015, aims to generate 1 billion euros ($1.29 billion) in revenues in emerging countries by that year.

"We provide end-to-end support both to multinationals expanding within China and to the successful corporations who have begun to expand significantly out of the country," said Li.

Because of various restrictions such as cultural differences and legal issues, Chinese companies often find it is hard to build up hardware infrastructure in overseas countries on themselves.

Li said Orange Business Services has the world's largest, seamless network for voice and data, and a business operation reaching 220 countries. It has experienced double digit growth in recent years, he added, without disclosing exact figures.

In 2011, Orange Business Services invested about 750 million euros in Asia Pacific with a focus on network enhancements, cloud computing, partnerships and network-related IT services.

More than 800 enterprise customers in the region are using those initiatives, the company said.

shenjingting@chinadaily.com.cn