Akzo Nobel goes for Verizon for global communications

Verizon Outbound Voice and Verizon Global Inbound Services will deliver voice communications, while Verizon Audio and Net Conferencing will provide audio and net-based communication. Until recently, Akzo Nobel relied on local offices’ own telephony services, which had resulted in high costs and contractual complexity, as well as variable quality of service. But the company says that its shared services IT strategy led to a project, dubbed One Voice, to rationalise its supplier base all the way from data centres to telecommunication services providers. It also says it chose Verizon Business’ solutions due to the company’s ability to deliver and roll out voice and conferencing services on a global scal. Geert-Jan van Bommel, OneVoice manager at Akzo Nobel, explains: “With some 62,000 employees and a truly global business, maintaining streamlined, consistently high-quality and cost-effective fixed voice services to support daily business communication is absolutely critical, but also extremely tricky. “Having individual suppliers in each country simply wasn’t working for us – altogether, it was too expensive to use and to manage, and the quality of service was extremely variable. For us, Verizon Business was able to offer the global connectivity we needed, with solid local implementation and support – and at the right price.