Seeking to consolidate and optimize its worldwide communications infrastructure, ArcelorMittal has chosen Siemens Enterprise Communications* to deliver a global Private Cloud Service for Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) based on a centralized OpenScape UCC Solution.

With this strategic initiative, known within ArcelorMittal as ‘Speak2Me’, the company will enhance its business processes with innovative services such as voice and UC soft clients with true One Number Service (ONS), with the user reached on his preferred device at any time, be it the soft client on his notebook, his office desk phone, mobile, or the phone in his hotel room or at a customer’s location.

The multi-year contract signed on September 12, 2012 covers the full spectrum of UCC, including presence management, and mobile clients for a wide range of devices such as smartphones and tablets as well as in-house audio-, web- and video-conferencing both for desktops in HD quality and integration with room-based systems. These Cloud-based UCC services will initially be available to about 8,000 ArcelorMittal users at numerous locations throughout Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa – other user groups will be added soon.

OpenScape solutions will be seamlessly integrated into ArcelorMittal’s existing Microsoft desktop such as Outlookand UC clients, and will be further integrated at the back-end into ArcelorMittal’s Global Wide Area Network provided by BT Global Services. This network integration and the OpenScape solution will be hosted in BT’s data centres. BT will further offer communication building blocks through its BT One portfolio and security through firewall and proxy services.

The company cited Siemens Enterprise Communications’ worldwide leadership and experience in serving the UCC needs of large multinationals, along with its strong global service and successful delivery of worldwide Private Cloud and Managed Services to widespread enterprises. The OpenScape solution’s proven efficiency of features like ONS and collaboration, as well as the ability to lower mobile communications and roaming expenses with intuitive mobile clients, were key decision criteria.

The Siemens Enterprise Communications and BT partnership was viewed as a strength due to both companies’ global execution capabilities and expertise in delivering complementary UCC and network services. "Our open communications design allows a smooth, transparent evolution to the latest UCC features that easily integrate with most legacy equipment," says Stefan Nuesch, Vice President Global Accounts EMEA and APAC, Siemens Enterprise Communications. "This helps ArcelorMittal to immediately facilitate advanced UCC capabilities at an affordable cost. Additionally, the Private Cloud approach allows the flexible offering of innovative and customized services without need for forklift investments."

"Seamless and intuitive communication and collaboration has become key in a global company like ArcelorMittal, and will enable us to substantially improve the exchange of knowledge and best practices, to speed up and ease decision making and to reduce our communication costs," says Patrick Vandenberghe, ArcelorMittal Group CIO. "And with Siemens Enterprise Communications we are confident we have the right partner to make this happen, bringing the technology in a cloud based service model."

ArcelorMittal is the leader in all major global carbon steel markets, including automotive, construction, household appliances and packaging, with leading R&D and technology. The Group also has a world class mining business with a global portfolio of over 20 mines in operation and development, and is the world’s 4th largest iron ore producer. With operations in over 22 countries spanning four continents, the Company covers all of the key industrial markets, from emerging to mature, and has outstanding distribution networks.

ArcelorMittal is the world’s leading steel and mining company, with a presence in more than 60 countries.

Siemens Enterprise Communications is a premier provider of end-to-end enterprise communications, including voice, network infrastructure and security solutions that use open, standards-based unified communications and business applications for a seamless collaboration experience. This award-winning "Open Communications" approach enables organizations to improve productivity and reduce costs through easy-to-deploy solutions that work within existing IT environments, delivering operational efficiencies. It is the foundation for the company's OpenPath® commitment that enables customers to mitigate risk and cost-effectively adopt unified communications. Jointly owned by The Gores Group and Siemens AG, Siemens Enterprise Communications includes Cycos and Enterasys Networks.