Shell Selects AT&T to Provide Global Unified Communications Solution

BEDMINSTER, N.J., May 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Shell has awarded AT&T* agreement to provide an enterprise-wide unified communications (UC) service to support Shell's 150,000 users in more than 90 countries.

The three-year, $90 million initiative for new UC services forms part of an estimated $1.6bn global multiyear strategic sourcing agreement signed in 2008, when Shell selected AT&T to manage a significant part of its IT infrastructure and telecommunications services.

The AT&T solution is the largest UC technology deployment to date by AT&T for a single business customer.  The service will provide Shell users with a suite of services to better enable inter-company and external collaboration, productivity and communications.

AT&T is providing a comprehensive, worldwide hosted and managed UC solution based upon Microsoft's Office Communications Server 2007 R2.  The initial roll-out to users started earlier this month.  AT&T is already managing Shell's global deployment of the previous version of Microsoft's software.

The UC solution covers a unified set of data, voice, and video capabilities and services to implement Shell's Digital Workplace vision.  It will enable Shell employees, contractors and partners to benefit from improved productivity and workplace efficiency via secure corporate instant messaging, enhanced "presence" information across various means of communication for information workers anywhere in the world, streamlined communications with Enterprise Voice calling features such as click to call, forward, transfer, single number reach, anywhere access to communications, and integration with the company's desktop applications.

AT&T is providing the full lifecycle management of the environment – from design and implementation, to ongoing monitoring, management, and support.  The deployment is being supported around the world at AT&T Internet Data Centers in the Netherlands, United States and Singapore.  It includes an integrated Disaster Recovery solution as well as "follow-the-sun" customer support so that Shell users have 24x7 access, no matter where they are located.

This deployment marks a significant milestone in the ongoing transformation of Shell's IT infrastructure that we are supporting," said Ron Spears, AT&T Business Solutions President and CEO.  "By building on the strategic global relationship with AT&T, Shell can reap the benefits of a common seamless IP backbone and leading technology platform to deliver to their employees new, real-time possibilities for internal collaboration and new levels of communications with key partners.

"Shell is setting the global benchmark, not just for companies in the energy sector, but for all multinationals, on how the very latest communications technology should be deployed to bring about real benefits to their operations," Spears added.

"Our Unified Communication solution provided by AT&T provides a step change in the way individuals working at Shell use technology.  The ability to improve productivity of individuals and teams at a lower cost is a key priority for our innovation roadmap," said Jay Crotts, Shell's Vice President IT Services.

* AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

About AT&T

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