Orange rolls out its 2nd generation internal social network worldwide

Paris, Thursday, October 1, 2015

Plazza is supported by the Business Together Sharespace , the new social network offer from Orange Business Services

As announced last March by Stéphane Richard during the presentation of the “Essentials 2020” strategic plan, Orange is launching the new version of its Plazza internal social network. Designed for the Group’s 154,000 employees, Plazza represents a world first at this scale.

The major innovation of this second generation of Plazza lies in its tenfold increase in accessibility. In fact, the new platform is now available to all Orange employees across the globe. It is also “multi-device”, i.e. available on any type of equipment, whether computer, smartphone or tablet, including personal devices.

With Plazza, the Group plans to offer a novel employee experience with a solution that integrates seamlessly with the user’s work environment, interacting with daily tools. Employees can now:

• respond to customers’ needs faster, for example, customer services can use real-time discussion to resolve the most difficult cases
• build work groups at the initiative of the disciplines for interactive exchanges on various projects and real-time information sharing with different people, including those outside the company.
• foster innovation and the emergence of new ideas through open discussions, polls, blogs and work streams
• gain easier access to pertinent content and contacts not followed previously, thanks to Machine Learning technology. The tool analyses parameters to suggest information pertinent to each user, in line with personal use and interests.
• supplement their profiles by adding their experience, centres of interest, projects and achievements

Bruno Mettling, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Orange in charge of human resources, indicates that “The Orange Group wants to set the standard for a people-oriented digital employer. By offering new, simple and collaborative solutions to our employees, we are fostering skills evolution and business horizontality while encouraging engagement within the Group. We hope to see 50% of our employees active in the social network and to train 80% of our managers in the new collaborative work methods by 2018.”

Plazza is supported by the Business Together Sharespace developed by Orange Business Services in partnership with Jive, a world leader in the corporate social network solutions market.

Business Together Sharespace has been marketed since July 1st to businesses in France with more than 500 employees. A veritable tool for collaboration and innovation, this new solution allows companies to change how they work.

Business Together Sharespace gives companies a simple, scalable project management tool which goes beyond the functionalities of a conventional social network. They get all the expertise of Orange Business Services as operator and integrator along with its know-how in security management for critical business applications.

Orange Business Services offers consulting services to each of its customers to define the functional requirements of the social network, the development and integration of suitable application solutions, and their implementation in integrated mode, managed by Orange Business Services. Companies also benefit from personalized steering tools to manage the social network’s evolution.

Thierry Bonhomme, Executive Vice President, Enterprise Communication Services, notes that “Plazza gave Orange Business Services the opportunity to put all our know-how in collaborative social networks to work for all of our employees. We are delighted to be able to offer our business customers an innovative and proven solution today to support their digital transformation.”