Innovative Orange CSO SDx program wins WCA Best Digital Transformation Programme

For 22 years, the World Communication Awards (WCA) have recognized innovation and excellence for global telecoms, and it continues to be a significant mark of achievement in the telecom industry.

WCA 2020 Winner

The Orange Business efforts in transformation and business innovation were rewarded with a category win at the virtual awards ceremony on October 28, 2020.

The award was in recognition of our CSO SDx Program, a transformation program launched in 2018 within the Orange Business operational entity Customer Services & Operations (CSO). It supports the digital transformation of connectivity services delivered to customers to move to SDN-based architecture services, such as virtualized services. CSO works closely with our customers, covering the whole cycle from design to build to operate. They are there ensuring a smooth handover from build to run, and with an end-to-end service mindset with vendor and internal partners.

Key proof points of the CSO SDx Program achievements:

  • Upskilling: 3,000+ operational employees have been trained on SD-WAN technologies
  • Industrialization: 50+ SD-WAN signed customers with 3,000+ SD-WAN sites deployed
  • OpenLAB, the unique and compelling proposal in our SD-WAN pre-sales customer journey: 100+ customers have participated to this co-innovation process, where we co-build the solution with the customer and our technology partners. SD-WAN is one of the key levers of the Orange strategic plan “Engage 2025,” with the ambition target that 30% of Orange global WAN revenue will come from SD-WAN by 2025

Strong opposition for the award meant the Orange Business case had to be very convincing. Our CSO team put together a compelling submission featuring the words of our customers and the opinions of industry analysts, who have validated our expertise in real-world business transformation and co-innovation projects.

 

These included the words of Frederik Janssen, Head of Siemens IT Infrastructure Portfolio and Strategy, who said: “We chose Orange Business because we see it as a prime partner with the ability to deliver seamless, worldwide SD-WAN coverage with the highest degree of security standards – especially to protect against threats from the Internet, quality of service, local support and an attractive price-performance ratio. We were also impressed by the flexibility and the service level Orange Business has been providing as a trusted partner to Siemens over the past several years.”

 

“It is such an achievement to receive this prestigious award on this well-known platform. This success is YOUR success to all of you from the Orange operational/engineering/marketing and support teams who have been contributing to this strategic transformation program and have made it happen over the past three years.”

Sandra Charbonnier, Head of the CSO SDx Program, Orange Business

“I’m very proud of this recognition. The fantastic outcomes of this program are the proof of the Orange collective efficiency to quickly master new technologies, create new operational models and build a solid asset for our customers and the company, becoming a recognized worldwide leader in the SD-WAN and SD-LAN space.”

Aliette Mousnier-Lompré, Head of Customer Services & Operations, Orange Business

In addition to our Best Digital Transformation Programme category win, we were shortlisted for awards for Multisourcing Service Integration for Mobility and in the Cloud Native category. Meanwhile, Orange took the award for the Best Operator in an Emerging Market.

You can view all the results from the event here.

Glenn Le Santo
Glenn Le Santo

Editor in Chief, International, at Orange Business. I'm in charge of our International website and the English language blogs at Orange Business. In my spare time I'm literally captain of my own ship, spending my time on the wonderful rivers and canals of England.