MTN Nigeria launches e-presence in 3 locations

Leading Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications operator, MTN Nigeria, Tuesday in launched a new product tagged e-presence, simultaneously in three locations nationwide.

The first locations to benefit from this service are Southern Sun Ikoyi-Lagos, Sheraton Abuja Hotel and Le Meridien Port Harcourt, where MTN said, the services are available for those wanting to use it for easy communication.

The operator also said that the launch heralded another innovation, which the Managing Director of MTN Nigeria, Mr. Ahmed Farroukh, noted was being offered in partnership with Cisco Systems and Resourcery Limited.

He explained that MTN e-Presence is a new business solution that offers an ‘in-person’ video conferencing experience with life-sized images in full high definition video and crisp of Compact Disc-quality audio.

According to him, with MTN e-Presence, customers could hold meetings with counterparts in various locations and make or share presentation and documents as if you were all in the same room.

He pointed out that in MTN, they strive to do things differently, especially to change the life style of the customers, stressing that though it was not easy getting the infrastructure deployed in three locations in the country, hence MTN combined forces with Cisco and Resourcery to achieve that.

With this solution on offer, he noted that it would no longer be in best interest of companies to travel at all times, especially if the company has branches, adding that this facility helps customers t dial locally in order to engage other locations.

Farroukh said that the next step for this service would be Ghana, because he is aware some of the Nigerian firms have started to open branches in Ghana, just as MTN is discussing with some international entities to ensure that the service is linked up to the global range to further help its customers in doing business effectively without much travel.

Also speaking, Managing Director Cisco Nigeria, Mr. Richard Edet, said that the launch was the first Cisco is doing in the West Africa region and is expected to help corporate to share and collaborate information.

“It would reduce drastically your travel cost,” he declared.

The General Manager, Sales, Enterprise Solutions Division at MTN Nigeria, Mr. Evan Garricks, said that the solution was made possible due to large deployment of optic fibre cables by MTN across the country, noting that till date, MTN has deployed over 6,000 kilometers.

He also said that apart from the present locations which are precisely in some selected hotels, corporations could deploy this at their premises and plans are up to accommodate Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

He listed some of the benefits to include reduction in travel-related costs, recover time spent travelling to and from meetings, eliminate security risk associated with travelling increase productivity as time spent travelling could be channeled to more productive use.

Additionally, he said, the solution helps in making urgent important decisions faster, even as important project meetings, negotiations, executive interviews could be held as often as necessary among others.

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