<p>Orange Business Services is implementing the communications infrastructure underpinning a cloud-based ERP platform as part of a project to develop IT standards for the shipping industry</p><p>Orange Business Services on Thursday joined a European Union-sponsored initiative based in Germany focused on developing IT standards underpinning ship management tools for the shipping industry. The move will see Orange Business Services implement a communications infrastructure solution that will provide a platform for a vertically-specific, cloud-based ERP suite.</p><p>The "Exzellenzinitiative Schiffsmanagement" or EIS, a project backed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the City of Hamburg, Germany, a major European maritime centre, is focused on making it easier for vessels to access inventory, human resource and scheduling information, and develop IT standards around the application infrastructure to help facilitate that.</p><p>The move will see Orange Business Services partner with global ship management firm Columbia Ship Management and provide all of the communications hardware for the vessels, linking the vessels to one another and onshore datacentres via satellite. The company will also implement a fully-managed VPN service with private access to the web and an ERP platform hosted in a private cloud.</p><p><a href="http://www.businesscloudnews.com/2014/03/13/orange-to-develop-it-standards-in-shipping-with-cloud-platform/">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.heraldonline.com/2014/03/13/5765724/orange-business-services-joins.html">Orange Business Services Joins EU Initiative to Develop the First Cloud-Based ...</a> (The Herald | HeraldOnline.com (press release))</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=d9gc6lmp9cFLWPMd8Wt87pZK9RLOM&authuser=0&ned=us">5 additional articles.</a></p>