Orange Business boosts digital ambitions with Expertime acquisition

Just weeks after the company revealed its plans to transform from a business-to-business technology player to a network and digital integrator, and “shift the dial” on digital for businesses, Orange Business has announced the latest part of its Lead the Future strategic plan to accelerate its growth in digital services, both in France and across Europe, with the acquisition of Expertime.

The independent consulting company specialises in Microsoft technology solutions and is recognised for its expertise across applications, collaborative solutions and data. With a team of 165 employees – predominantly based in France – it has gained the highest certification levels on Microsoft technologies and solutions in public cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and data. All three areas are at the core of the Orange Business value proposition.

With this latest acquisition, Orange Business believes it will strengthen significantly its Microsoft dedicated practice, which supports businesses – notably small and medium-sized enterprises – in their transition to the public cloud, thanks to Expertime’s experts on Microsoft Azure. This move enables Orange Business to realise its ambition to become a network and digital integrator certified on the latest technologies to support businesses with their digital transformation in a positive, efficient and sustainable manner.  

“Aligning our visions on how to meet our customers’ specific business needs was a natural step in bringing us together,” remarked Expertime general manager Philippe Luzet. “We are delighted with this operation, which delivers a true synergy between our know-how and will result in a complete value proposition for our clients and partners.”

In November, recently installed Orange Business CEO Aliette Mousnier-Lompre noted that technology innovation was accelerating in its market, with cloud and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) creating new opportunities for customers, which came with a commensurate rise and change in expectations.

She said Orange Business customers now expect to turn services on and off at will and make changes on-demand across all their network services. They also expect close to automated remediation powered by AI in commercial models and to use network services on a pay-as-you-use basis with cloud-like models.

Mousnier-Lompre said the company saw five key trends affecting the new world of work, namely perma-disruption, new digital and AI, cloudification and virtualisation, trust and green initiatives. To achieve this, Mousnier-Lompre said the company had four strategic priorities – to focus on its portfolio, transform and leverage its core business, accelerate digital services and simplify its operating model and save costs. She added that the result was that Orange Business customers needed an integrator to manage complexity and disruptions while they manage their own digital transformations.

Commenting on the acquisition and what it could mean for his business, Orange Business France’s executive vice-president, François Fleutiaux, remarked: “In times where digital workforce resources are scarce, we are thrilled to welcome the team of Expertime to Orange Business. We are convinced that their skills and experience will be a major asset and enable us to continue helping businesses make the most of the current opportunities within cloud, AI and data, to roll out their digital transformation.”