Telefónica International Wholesale Services and Orange Business Services (News - Alert), both communications providers, have just signed a contract that will enable customers to hold telepresence sessions in different networks.

This agreement will be a giant push forward in allowing for an open environment that gives customers of multiple telepresence providers open access to connect across a dynamic business ecosystem, a press release stated.

The collaborative effort consists of an end-to-end solution that will start with a consulting phase and will allow customers to easily manage all of the various telepresence network service elements. Selecting a solution from a communications provider allows users to gain benefits from other telepresence providers and helps them to connect with customers, suppliers and partners that span the entire global telepresence community.

The release detailed that some of the key business benefits that can be attained through telepresence solutions including cost optimization as users will save a large amount of money that was previously spent on saving travel-related expenses and productivity improvement as telepresence allows for every project to become a joint effort through innovative visual and audio technologies that can create meeting environments with people who are located all around the world.

Orange Business Services and Telefónica International Wholesale Services have been working closely with Polycom (News - Alert) and other service providers around the world to design the Open Visual Communications Consortium (OVCC). The OVCC will ease the transition to visual communications by allowing for a simple way for global B2B connectivity for telepresence and video conferencing to take place across different service provider networks.

“Telepresence (News - Alert) helps us stay ahead in today's rapid business environment by streamlining business processes, improving productivity, and accelerating decision making and managing costs,” said Jonathan A. Zwang, senior director for global technology and infrastructure at Tyco International in a statement.