Davide Iacovitti, product manager applications and content at NEC Australia, said, Telefonica decided to contract NEC as a supplier of Software as a Service (SaaS) platform.
"A number of factors were involved in Telefonica's selection of NEC," he said.
"From a technical and capability standpoint, Telefonica appreciated our time to deliver the platform (approximately 2 months) as well as NEC's roadmap that includes the use of a Virtual PC thin client environment to deliver both SaaS and managed IT services to Telefonica's customers in the near future."
Iacovitti said the deal will also allow NEC Australia to provide Telefonica access to NEC's already licensed independent software vendors that offer solutions across CRM, Contract Management, E-Learning and other genres.
"Globally the deal means that we will get the chance to use the experience acquired to assist other Service Providers and telcos with new forms of service delivery such as application delivery through SaaS," he said.
Through the SaaS platform, Telefónica will provide a variety of business application software, such as CRM and asset management tools, as SaaS business for small to mid-sized companies.
The range of business applications is scheduled to increase in the future, said Iacovitti.
NEC's SaaS platform Applications Net was developed in Australia at NEC's research and development facility in Melbourne.
Iacovitti said no reseller was involved and the sale was closed by NEC Iberica (NEC Spain) and NEC Australia directly.
Issue: 277 | March, 2010